Mixing up the fall Pantone fashion colors for this year wasn't on my agenda, however, as I was looking for some color inspiration, I eventually found myself looking up the new color palette and decided it was worth more exploration. Before I knew it, I found myself mixing up these new colors so I thought I may as well share the recipes with you!
I am very disappointed that Van Aken decided to quit making the Kato clay, however, I am also not surprised. While I loved the Kato clay color palate, which was based on the true artist colors, I know a lot of people found it to be a real challenge to work with due to it's "hardness". In fact, I believe even Donna Kato (the originator of such clay) herself, explained how she would even resort to driving over it with her car several times in order to make it a bit more pliable. I never did try that trick but did have to pull out my rubber mallet on several occasions to play "Whack-a-mole" with my clay. Anyhow, I am not too sure about the new clay that Van Aken is now producing. It is far from the true artist colors and seems to be more of a child's craft supply instead. According to their announcement, the owner was retiring and passing his company down to his daughter who apparently made the changes.
So, what type of clay am I working with now? Well that is a good question! At the moment it all depends on the art I am creating. For many of my items that I create in the jewel-tone colors (with mica powders) I use a black clay for my base so I use whatever high quality clay I can find at the most affordable price.
For my Pantone color recipes, I still use the Kato clay, at least for now as I still have quite a large supply on hand. I was in the process of switching to the Cernit brand, but things changed when Shades of Clay decided to discontinue selling polymer clay in her online store (she still sells some of her specialty items such as her Cabezel jewelry molds which are worth checking out). Below are the Bezels I made with a snap base for interchanging, ready to add the Cabochon later. You can find the free tutorial here.
