This is the first of two Studio Tool exercises in the book. We originally had more of them, including a fan deck of Skinner blends, but due to space limitations we had to cut them out. I will try to add instructions for the missing tools at the point in the book where we wanted them to […]
Smashing Color
with Maggie Maggio
Page 11 of 15
I live in the Pacific Northwest. We don’t have the same kind of fall leaf season that I grew up with in the Northeast. I remember as a kid coming up over a hill and seeing a panoramic view of mountains lush with color. The colors were so bright I remember thinking, “The leaves are all the colors of Fruit Loops!” […]
Middle Value Muddle To make this project, we ask you to pick a light value clay and a dark value clay based on colors from your collage. If you are having trouble seeing the values, try making a black and white copy of your collage using a color copier. […]
I began making color collages when I moved into my first out-of-the-house studio in 1996. I finally had lots of wall space and decided to pull out the basket with postcards, greeting cards, clippings, art catalogs, and memorabilia that I had saved over the years and get them up on the wall. At first they went up willy-nilly, but when […]
I am having trouble with my camera but here’s a quick and dirty tutorial on using the watercolor technique to make “torn paper” beads similar to the bead on the lower left. 1. Mix a palette. I always start a project by mixing a set of colors that “hang together.” Make at least one color in each hue […]
This pivot bead strand is up on tricksy_gnome’s Flickr site. A beautiful combination of colors! The idea for the pivot beads came when I started using canes as the underlayer for my watercolor technique. The original watercolor beads were made for the silent auction at the second Ravensdale conference in 1998. Lindly and I were teaching […]
The concept of saturation is a tough one. The terms tinting and shading usually have to do with changing the value of a color but they also have to do with changing the saturation. Tinting is mixing a color with white, shading is mixing a color with black (or mud, or the complement.) The term “tone” […]
Five Step Value Scale Value is defined as the amount of light reflected by a color. If a color reflects more light than it absorbs it has a high value. If it absorbs more than it reflects, it has a low value. In the book we recommend sorting colors into just five values – colors […]
“Namaste” from Kumari, Ambikha, Sharmila and Kopila. Color is connecting us all over the world! Wendy Moore, an Australian rehab therapist and artist, is working with the non-profit group Summanat Nepal to help women who have experienced domestic violence. Cynthia Tinapple is generously building their website and through PolymerClayDaily we are now linked to this new sisterhood of polymer […]
A New Color Diagram After playing with many versions of triangular and circular color diagrams, I decided to design a hybrid Color Sorter specifically for the book. I called the primaries Yellow, Blue and Magenta and divided them each into two variations. I have argued […]
It looks as if the big box craft stores are having sales just in time to stock up for all the color exercises. My local Jo-Ann’s is having a “buy one get one free” sale on all brands of polymer clay starting today through Monday, and Michael’s has polymer clay on sale at 4 for […]
Lindly Haunani and I are happy to announce that our book, Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, is now available at your local bookstore and that Amazon is shipping them out to everyone who placed a pre-order. Check out my big smile and the beautiful rainbow that appeared the same day the book was officially on the […]
Carol Simmons, one of the original Color Explorers, displays her metallic clay color samples on a magnetic white board. What a great way to see all the color combination possibilities! Carol labels her color samples and then glues magnets to the back to make it easy for her students to pick colors for her new Jeweled Egg […]
Here are the answers to the Blue in the Face Matching Game in the form of color chips for each of the skin colors. The colors range from the warmest blues such as Meanie Blue to the coolest blues such as Beauregard Blue; from the most saturated, Blue Man Blue to the least saturated, Walters […]
I read recently that our different races are all the colors of the earth – the dirt, the soil, the clay, the sand. Since there is no blue earth, characters with blue skin seem unnatural and other worldly. Here’s a fun matching game on blue skinned folks seen in shows, movies, TV, artwork, and comic books. Note that I […]
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