Color Recipes in Polymer Clay

All recipes use Premo Polymer Clay.

1 part Alizarin Crimson to 1 part Cadmium Red makes a lovely red.
1 Part Orange to 1 part Gold is a gorgeous metallic Burnt Orange.

2 parts Ultramarine Blue to 1 part Zinc Yellow to 1 part Cadmium Yellow is very close to the old Sap Green.
1 part Cobalt Blue to 1 part Ecru is a nice Denim color.
1 part Purple to 1 Part Gold is a beautiful purplish Burgundy.

A part is a piece of clay. It can be any size/amount. A block of clay can be a part. So can 1/2 a block. For our purposes, a part is a piece cut from a sheet of clay (largest setting on the pasta machine or 1/4 inch thick). I prefer to use a small cookie cutter or canapé cutter but you can cut yours by hand. Be sure to get each piece as close to the same size as possible.

That you can add inks, paints and powders to glow in the dark clay to get pretty colors that still glow?

The blue bleeds immediately - to hands, blade, pasta machine and work surface. Clean your hands immediately after working with it to avoid contaminating other colors.

(Sorry for the cruddy pics at times. I had great difficulties photographing some of these)

Mixing Kato Concentrates with themselves (no Premo)

1. 1 Red to 1 Yellow = Lighter Red
2. 1 Red to 1 Blue = Dark Purple, almost black
3. 1 Blue to 1 Yellow = Dark Blue-green
4. 1 Blue to 1 Yellow to 1 Red = Black
(looks like Premo black - is actually a dark purple while Premo black is a dark brown)

Mixing Kato Concentrates with Premo clay.

5. 4 Pearl to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red
6. 4 Pearl to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue
7. 4 Pearl to 1 Yellow
8. 4 Pearl to 1 Black (color 4)

At 4-1 ratio all colors Mica shift well.

9. 2 Pearl to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red
10. 2 Pearl to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue
11. 2 Pearl to 1 Yellow
12. 2 Pearl to 1 Black (color 4)

At 2-1 ratio all colors Mica shift well.

13. 1 Pearl to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red
14. 1 Pearl to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue
15. 1 Pearl to 1 Yellow
16. 1 Pearl to 1 Black (color 4)

At 1-1 ratio all colors Mica shift well.

29. 2 Blue to 1 Pearl
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue
30. 2 Red to 1 Pearl
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red
31. 2 Yellow to 1 Pearl

At 2-1 ratio all colors Mica shift well.

17. 4 Pearl to 1 Red to 1 Blue
18. 4 Pearl to 1 Yellow to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red
19. 4 Pearl to 1 Blue to 1 Yellow
For comparison, Premo Pearl Green

These 3 mixes Mica Shift well.

Polymer Clay Color Inspirations by Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio is a must have book.

First of all the eye candy is magnificent. There are artist spotlights with breathtaking photos of work by different artists and some info about how that artist thinks about and works with color. And there are plenty of project examples that are also quite breathtaking and inspiring.

This book takes you through color theory from the basic to the complicated in easy to understand terms with plenty of photos and diagrams. There are many exercises to help you build a color chip library and to better understand the theory. Scattered through the book are actual projects using the theory you've just learned to make a finished piece.

In the end you take samples from all you've learned to cover a box to keep your color chips and other materials in.

I consider myself fairly knowledgable about color and I still learned tons from this book. It's the only polymer clay book that I've gotten that I've started at the beginning and worked my way to the end. I usually skip around and just do certain things that interest me the most. This whole book interests me and I'm still not finished working through it.

The next 6 colors were rolled to the thinnest setting (#9) on my pasta machine and then placed on a slice of quickie black and white checkerboard cane. This was then run through the pasta machine to setting #4 (medium).

20. 16 Translucent to 1 Yellow
21. 16 Translucent to 1 Red
22. 16 Translucent to 1 Blue

40. 4 Translucent to 1 Yellow
41. 4 Translucent to 1 Red
42. 4 Translucent to 1 Blue

Small amounts of Kato Concentrates mixed with translucent produces darker colors that are still translucent.

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23. 16 Pearl to 3 Yellow to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red

24. 16 Pearl to 2 Red to 1 Blue
25. 16 Pearl to 3 Yellow to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Green

26. 16 Pearl to 8 Yellow to 1 Red
27. 16 Pearl to 2 Blue to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue

28. 16 Pearl to 8 Yellow to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Green

32. 4 Gold to 1 Yellow
33. 4 Gold to 1 Red
This one looks coppery. For comparison here's a sample of Premo Copper

34. 4 Gold to 1 Blue
35. 4 Silver to 1 Yellow
36. 4 Silver to 1 Red
37. 4 Silver to 1 Blue

38. 1 Pearl Blue to 1 Blue
For comparison, Premo Pearl Blue

39. 1 Pearl Red to 1 Red
For comparison, Premo Pearl Red

That tinted glow in the dark clay does skinner blend properly, with the glow colors changing from one color to the next.

I only use Premo so I don't have recipes for other brands. If you'd like to send me your recipes (with pic) I'd be happy to add them here.