Testing Color Combinations

Do you find it hard to choose the right colors to go together for a project?  --- or find yourself using the same colors all the time?

Have you ever gone through a lot of work of making a cane or other technique to discover the color combination you used was too dark or not exactly right?

In my new color tutorial, (available very soon),  I will share with you a fun way to create color combinations without wasting a lot of time or clay.  I call this technique my color-testing "mini-mokume".

I will then demonstrate how to make some beads with your new "mokume".

And most of all, this tutorial will help you step out of your "comfort zone" and discover new colors and combinations.

Creating Your Own Custom Color Wheels

Do you find color theory complicated?  Do you have a difficult time finding the right color combinations?   I love mixing up new colors and below is a sample of one of my own rainbow-type blends.  I like to call them my own "Custom Color Wheels".  They are fun to make and and open up so many possibilities for mixing and combining colors.

Here are some pieces I made with the colors from the above chart:

In my color tutorial I will show you how to create your own Custom Color Wheels where you will find mixing up new colors and creating color blends not only fun but inspiring.

I will also teach you how to create a step blend -- like this:

And turn it into canes like so:

Then record it for later reference

These color charts take very little clay and are so quick and easy to make, you will have more time to get right into your projects.

All this (and more) will be available very soon!

Color Blending

Last week I showed you how I mix my colors.  Now I will show you how I take several colors and gradually blend them into one another like a rainbow.

I first make sheets of each clay color with my pasta machine so they all come out the exact same thickness.  I cut them so the colors match up at an angle.  This is so the red and blue will each blend into the white.  I then take my clay and run it through my pasta machine so it comes out as a solid piece.

I take that sheet of clay and fold it in half, keeping the lines all going the same direction, and then I put the fold sheet of clay through the pasta machine again.

I do this many times -- fold in half and run through the pasta machine until the colors start to run together and create a gradual blend.  Here is the sheet that is blended.  But I want to stretch the colors out more so I fold the sheet in half but this time the opposite direction.

I then run that clay again through my pasta machine so it comes out in a long strip.

Next time I will show you how I turned this blended piece of clay into these flowers: