Pantone Fashion Colors Greenery, Kale and Primrose Yellow

What better way to start out the new year and distract us from the cold weather outside than to mix up some gorgeous spring colors.   Greenery was chosen as the color of the year which is a yellow green found in nature.  It was only natural to create some leaves by combining it with two other colors, Kale and Primrose Yellow.

All three colors were combined by making a skinner (ombre) blend and then formed to create the leaf 'cane'.  We had to add one of our signature lady bugs to finish them off.

So here are the recipes for these three Pantone Spring Fashion Colors using Kato clay.

Greenery

10 parts Kato Yellow

1-1/2 parts Kato Green

1/2 part Kato Gold

Kale

10 parts Kato Yellow

4 parts Kato Green

1/2 part Kato Gold

2 parts Kato Black

Primrose Yellow

12 parts Kato Yellow

1/4 part Kato Gold

2 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

* Note:  These clay color recipes are created using Kato Polyclay.  Any of the base color "mixes" used are from my Clay Color System.

Pantone Fashion Colors for Spring 2013

Here are the new Pantone Fashion colors for Spring 2013.

I know Christmas isn't even here yet but for some of you who want to think on warmer things in this cold winter season, I will share with you some new color recipes using Kato clay over the next few weeks.  It will be part of our Christmas gift to all of our followers. (The other part is a surprise.)

Many of these clay color recipes I share use "base mixes" that are included in my Clay Color System.  For those of you who are not familiar with my Color System, it is more than just clay color recipes but a tutorial using my own method of mixing and combining color.  You can read more about it here.

So I will be mixing up some new colors this week and will share them with you starting tomorrow.

Coffee Liqueur and Nougat - Pantone Fall 2011 Colors

The Pantone fall color Coffee Liqueur is a rich brown that is very similar to Chocolate Truffle, another one of the Pantone fall 2010 colors.  Follow the same recipe for Chocolate Truffle (see recipe # 3-5 in my Clay Color System) except increase the amount of gold to 4 parts and that is all there is to it.

Nougat is a lighter shade of Coffee Liqueur and makes a great compliment when combining colors.  When mixing up this color I seemed to be missing some sort of ingredient and just couldn't put my finger on it.  I then noticed that other colors on the same Pantone color card palette were a peach tone so when I added a bit of the Emberglow (another Pantone fall 2011 color), it came out a perfect mix.

So the recipe for Nougat is as follows:


8 parts Ecru base mix # 2-8 (see Carolyn's Clay Color System)
1/2 part Emberglow (click here to see the recipe)
1/2 part Coffee Liqueur (see recipe above)


TIP:   When measuring clay for recipes I have discovered I prefer to use a square shaped cutter rather than round.  This makes it much easier for measuring 1/4 or 1/2 parts as you can cut your square from corner to corner and get a much more accurate amount.

Cedar - Pantone Fall 2011 Color

Cedar is a sort of olive green which is an excellent fall color.  It is pretty much exactly the same as the Woodbine recipe # 7-4 in my Clay Color System tutorial.  Woodbine was one of the Pantone colors for fall of last year and it combines very nicely with some of the new colors for this season.

You will notice how the color appears to be more muted and lighter on the Pantone site (above photo) than what is actually shown on my Pantone color chip (shown below).  This is why I do not rely on color matching using a computer screen but rather a set of Pantone color cards I purchased a few years ago that gives me a more accurate color sample.

Phlox - Pantone Fall 2011 Color

I love this deep rich shade of purple.  To mix up this color, I started with a purple base that was equal to the Premo purple (recipe # 10-2).  This recipe originally came from the list of recipes provided by Donna Kato on the Shades of Clay site.  It is basically Kato violet with a bit of red added.  When you mix up this clay color you will discover that it does darken a bit after baking.  It is the small amount of red added that causes this.  While Kato clay colors do not generally darken after baking like other clay brands do, I have found the red and magenta will both darken so I have learned to adjust my measurements to allow for this.

So here is my recipe for the Pantone color Phlox.

2 parts of recipe mixture # 10-2  (= to Premo Purple)

1 part Kato magenta

If you add 1/2 part pearl to the above recipe, you will end up with just a touch lighter shade but with a bit of shimmer.

Bamboo - Pantone Fall 2011 Color

Bamboo is a soft golden yellow and similar to last season's yellow, Beeswax.  Before that, Golden Glow was the fall 2010 color and very similar except a richer shade of gold.  If you have my Clay Color System tutorial, you already have the recipes for these shades of yellow plus the new Pantone color, Bamboo.  It is almost identical to recipe # 6-4 titled "Lemon Curry".

Lemon Curry was a Pantone fall color from several years back but just a shade darker than this years color, Bamboo.  Adding more pearl or white mix (recipe #1-2) can lighten it up or use it straight for a richer tone.   If you prefer a lighter shade, I would suggest to create a six step color blend with the #6-4 Lemon Curry and White Mix #1-2 to create several lighter shades to choose from.

When matching with my Pantone color chart cards, I found that the 5 to 1 mix was a perfect match.

I like using this shade of yellow when working with Mokume Gane as well as cane work.  It  combines beautifully with autumn colors such as rusty type reds, browns and especially greens.  Here is a sample of some bangles I made a few years ago using the Lemon Curry with a Moss green which is very similar to the Cedar green for this fall.

  

I will continue on in order and tomorrow I will share with you my recipe for the color Emberglow....

NOTE:

Now I do have a confession to make.  If you have my Clay Color System I discovered a slight error when mixing up the Lemon Curry (recipe # 6-4).  I discovered that it should read 1/4 instead of 1/2 of mix 7-8.  It is surprising what a difference of that extra 1/4 can make in the final color turnout even though it is still a nice shade but perhaps a bit greener than intended.  Please accept my apology for this error and make a note of it in your album.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Blog Debris - Color Scheme Designer

Here is a fun site that you can play with and explore the color wheel and color combining.  It is called the Color Scheme Designer and you can drag your mouse to select the colors in the wheel as well as all other kinds of settings.

If you are really into Pantone colors like I am, check the tab at the top that says "color space" and click on "Pantone colors".  The colors adjust to the pantone shades and when you hover your mouse over all the colors it will give the Pantone color swatch numbers that match. 

Pantone Spring 2011 Colors

With our Christmas shows now over, we have been catching up on our own Christmas here at home.  Between all the baking and other preparations my husband (claymate), Dave, went through another surgery last week.  We are happy to say that things went very well and he is recovering nicely.  Thanks to all for your prayers and well wishes.

I'm getting back into the swing of things with lots of new and fun ideas in store.  I find mixing colors is a great springboard for inspiration and just finished mixing up the new Pantone Spring 2011 colors.

This new color collection is called "An Exotic Journey" citing exotic destinations like Africa, India, Peru and Turkey as it's inspiration and a way to escape everyday challenges with intriguing color combinations that transport one to foreign lands.  Honeysuckle is one of the most vibrant colors in the this collection and has been declared as the color of the year and I'm already seeing it popping up just about everywhere.

I have a special Christmas gift to all our clayers who follow us, that I will share with you soon.  I will give you a hint.  It involves the color Honeysuckle....  Look for it on this Christmas eve....

And for everyone, we have some great give-a-ways coming up in the new year....

New Look

Last weekend our followers reached 300!  I wanted to do the happy dance and celebrate!

We hope you have been enjoying our blog so far and we will try to continue to share with you more of our latest work and some fresh and new ideas.

I decided that since our home studio now has a new look that our internet studio (blog) needed one as well.  Other than the new color you will notice the sidebar has changed.  We didn't get rid of our favorite links but just moved them into a better place.  They now have their own page in one of the tabs at the top.  I categorized them in different interest groups so they are easier to find.  There is room to add a whole lot more which we will be doing over the next while.

I have enjoyed working in our new finished studio this past week.  At the moment I'm writing several new tutorials that should be published shortly.  I've been also working on some new color palettes for our beads and jewelry.  We have the small rondelle spacers in our basic color palette available for sale but we will soon have them available in a larger size as well as in more color choices.

This palette is in the Pantone Fall 2010 colors of Purple Orchid, Lagoon (turquoise), Woodbine, Endive, Golden Glow, Living Coral, Lipstick Red, Chocolate Truffle and Rose Dust.  I am in the process of mixing up some of these gorgeous fall color combinations into some of our new bead and jewelry designs.

This is our new jewel-tone color palette of lime green, teal, blue, grape, magenta, orange crush, melon, sunshine yellow and almond.

And here is a sample of some new lentil swirl beads in a combination of the magenta, melon, sunshine yellow and lime green now available for sale in our Etsy shop and ArtFire studio.

Pantone Fall 2010 Colors

After a long winter, I hate to think of fall already, but I'm getting a jump on things and mixing up my Pantone colors for Fall 2010.  Some of the colors are very close or a shade or two darker than the spring colors of this year like Lagoon (Turquoise), Living Coral (Fusion Coral) and Woodbine (Dried Herb).  I love how the spring colors can mix and match with the fall ones making them more versatile.

We've had many requests for custom order earrings in solid colors so we created an earring collection in five different styles and a variety of colors that coordinate with our other pieces.  Of course we also do custom color matching for weddings, etc. which can be a lot of fun.

  

  

I'm almost all packed and ready for the Creative Chaos show in Vernon, B.C.   I'm joining up with my clay artist friend, Joan Tayler so I'm sure it will be a full but fun weekend.

New Designs in Tomato Puree

I've been busy catching up with some custom orders to fill from our last show as well as finishing off and  listing some new pieces on Etsy and Art Fire.  My favorite color is the yellow-greens and when I'm working with my clay I have to occasionally remind myself that there are other colors in the rainbow.

I noticed we didn't have very much in red and so created some new pieces in the Pantone Spring 2010 color of Tomato Puree.  I combined it with  Fusion Coral and Pink Champagne which really softened the red for a nice romantic spring and summer combination.

Both of the pendants are on the ruby red softglass cords with Czech Fire-polished crystals.

   

I like to make all our own sterling and gold-filled earwires as I can create the earwire to suit the actual earring for the overall design.  I have much more control in the finished product this way.

I really like the new Pantone Spring colors this year and have had a lot of fun in combining them in many ways and have been happy with the results.

Amparo Blue, Violet and Aurora

We are still recovering from our show we did at the World Masters last week.  We had no idea how much a 72 hour (8 days) long show can take out of you and we are feeling quite drained right now.

I thought I would show you some more of our new jewelry pieces.  The colors I used here are the Pantone Spring colors of Amparo Blue, Violet and Aurora (yellow).

Last week we had the opportunity to sell to such a cross section of people, we were keen to see how well our new spring collection would be accepted.  Needless to say, we are going to start making a lot more pieces right away.  I found these designs to be a lot of fun to make and I have many more color combinations I can't wait to try out.

Turquoise, Fusion Coral & Aurora

Here are some more pieces from our spring jewelry collection.  These ones are in a combination of the Pantone Spring colors of Turquoise, Fusion Coral, and Aurora (yellow).  These colors to me scream summer and they remind me of a breezy and warm sunshiny day.

In case you are wondering, the piece on the far left is a hair barrette and the piece below it, is a brooch.
The remainder pieces are pendants and earrings which I haven't put together yet but will get around to over the next couple of days.  The technique used for these pieces (other than the lentil swirl at the top centre) are adapted from the mokume gane workshop I took last November from Julie Picarello.  I've been having so much fun with this technique and adapting it to my own colors and jewelry styles.  I love the "lizard tails" she taught us and have adapted that to create my new "focal bead pendants" (centre).

I will try and show you at least one more color combination of our spring collection before we get busy with our big show coming up . . .  Have a sunny day!

Pantone Spring 2010 Colors

We finally have all our displays in order and ready for the show coming up next week.  I've been also mixing up some new colors for our new spring and summer jewelry collection.  I have my favorite color combinations I like to use but for more inspiration, I follow the Pantone Fashion Color Report.

I love the colors for this spring -- they are really alive and vibrant.  And of course the color turquoise is chosen as the color of the year which is a favorite for many people.

Some time ago I invested in a Pantone Color Guide.  They look the same as the color chips you can pick up in your local paint store, however, the colors are all coded and match the Pantone Fashion Colors.  These are great when mixing my clay colors for a close match.

I look up the color codes, mix my clays to match the colors, and then make a new color sheet with my clay chip samples and clay recipes on them.

I was hoping to have some finished pieces in these new colors to show you but will have to post them tomorrow.  In the meantime, wishing you colorful dreams.