Planning Your Colors
January 19, 2014
Tips and Tricks
So with this talk of color palettes all week, I thought I ought to stop and add that you don’t need to follow Pantone’s colors for the season. Get to know your market, as well as the colors you prefer to work with, and build your own signature palette for the season.
I know for some people, how to put together a color scheme is a bit of a mystery. But there is help out there! Several sites online have tools that allow you to make your own palettes. This one here is a new favorite of mine because of its relative simplicity and the fact that you can save your color exploration in your own account.
To create a color palette, you choose a color on the wheel in the bottom right then use the sliders on the upper right to adjust hue, tint (addition of white) and/or shade (addition of black). The boxes below the color wheel give you 5 options for types of color schemes that can be created off that first color.
Join the ColourLovers community on this site to save palettes, swatches and images in your account. I haven’t explored everything this site has to offer yet but I sure am having fun checking it all out. Try this palette maker for yourself!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Greens for Spring
January 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
The one thing I find missing in this year’s Pantone palette is a real green. There’s a pale blue-green they are calling Hemlock but when I think of Spring I think of naturally derived greens–fresh new grass, the first leaves on a tree, and sprouting plants pushing up through the earth. So I thought I’d look for something that added that back into this palette.
This necklace by Kseniya Dolgopolova includes a few shades like Pantone’s Hemlock as well as rich natural greens.
I would have questioned putting these colors because although somewhat analaguous, the hemlock is a pastel while leaf green is muted but with more saturation. However, with this limited palette, it does work decently and the difference adds some significant contrast to a green based palette.
Take a moment or two and wander through the charming imagination of Kseniya’s work in her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The Pantone Spring Range
January 14, 2014
Inspirational Art
Carina of Austria designed these colorful beaded necklaces and bracelets made from polymer clay. Although produced lat year, they range this year’s Spring Pantone palette. The latest Pantone palatte and these pieces give a modern twist to the classic spring palette by pairing soft pastels with more saturated colors to create a colorful contrast. These pieces bring to mind a mixture of blooming wild flowers with colors that refresh and defy conventional ideas of Spring.
For artist inspiration, take a look at some of the polymer clay images on Carina’s Flickr pages. Try some of these less conventional springtime colors in your own work. Have fun!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Moving Beyond Imagination
September 1, 2013
Ponderings
In other words, imagination is the source of creativity, but creativity doesn’t exist until you act upon the fruit of your imagination. We’ve looked at color ideas for the coming season this week; did they get you thinking? Did they bring up any ideas for new pieces to include in upcoming shows and in your online shop, or maybe gifts to make for friends and family? If they did, great. But now it’s time to make those ideas a reality. Create, bring more beauty into the world, and make yourself a happier person for having done so.
Pantone Color Everywhere
August 31, 2013
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
So apparently, this has been quite the week for Pantone in the craft blogs.
Besides the posts here, Art Bead Scene chatted about the new Fall colors, showing off some lovely bracelets in the palette colors and throwing in a nice little tutorial for a hidden clasp beaded bracelet.
Then over at the 2 Good Claymates’ blog, Carolyn and Dave spent the last week breaking down the Pantone colors and giving away polymer clay color recipes for the majority of the Fall 2013 palette. Here is a collection of their trademark flowers, using their recipe for the rich orange that Pantone calls “Koi“.
The Goods also have recipes for Samba, Mykonos Blue, Deep Lichen Green, Linden Green, Turbulence and Carafe as well. (click on the color name to get to their post on each of the colors.) If you like the Good’s recipes, you might want to get Carolyn’s Color System tutorial for some more color exploration.
Thank you to Francie Owens, who sent me the Art Bead Scene link, and to Jamie Hibbs, who clued me into what the Goods were up to this week. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, ladies!
Outside Inspiration: Bead Embroidery in this Fall’s Colors
August 30, 2013
Inspirational Art
I am off a tad from Pantone’s palette on the colors of this piece, but of all the pieces I looked at, I kept coming back to this. Maybe it’s because I could see this being done in polymer (by a very patient and dedicated artist). The bib style necklace, not to mention the overall texture and stones, could be translated into an incredibly beautiful polymer piece.
Bead embroidery is a type of bead art that uses a needle and thread to stitch beads to an underlying surface, usually fabric or leather. It requires a tremendous amount of planning, precision, and, of course, time.
Guzel Bakeeva is a rather prolific Russian bead artist with some of the most amazing compositions in this type of work that I’ve seen. Mind you, I’m sure I need to investigate even further into this kind of work (what a horrible task to look forward to!), but her work is quite varied and always mouth-droppingly gorgeous. I can’t even say that this is one of her most stunning pieces. Yes, she has much more to rival this piece, but it stuck with me and the colors could work with this Fall’s palette.
Put some time aside today to look at her website. Just remember to occasionally pick your jaw up off the ground. As my dad used to say, “You don’t want to catch flies!”
Floral in Fall
August 28, 2013
Inspirational Art
Working up a Fall product line doesn’t mean leaving your floral tendencies behind; the fashion designers certainly aren’t this coming year. From all I’ve read about upcoming trends, pattern in general will be a big focus and flowers, especially wispy wildflowers, daisies, and even dandelions, look to be the “in”thing. So how would you change things up from your Spring or Summer collection of blossoms?
Color will be primary in changing up for a Fall look. Although the Pantone palette for Fall has some rather bright colors, they are not pure colors or pastel. The Samba red and the Koi orange are both deeper and a step or two off their color origin, and the lighter colors are neutral more than anything; the Linden Green comes awfully close to being a kahki, and the Deep Lichen Green is more a cool gray than a green. So, can your flowers still be beautifully ornamental if toned down from their summer brilliance or if created in neutral colors? Of course!
Eva Thissen does neutral floral with a very delicate and controlled application of lines, small shapes, and contrast in color. In this case, we have a rich red heavily contrasting a neutral green (pretty much that Samba red and Linden green in the Pantone palette) with subdued blue, cream, pink, and brown flowers accenting the scene. Feminine, fetching, and definitely floral, there is the reserve and the richness associated with Fall, although I would be putting this in my jewelry rotation year round.
Part of Eva’s distinction as a polymer artist is in her color choices. Although she is far from the only one to work heavily in the polymer embroidery technique, I find I easily recognize her work due to her color choices, not to mention the precision of application with those tiny bits of polymer and her penchant for story-like scenes. Enjoy perusing her Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for a bit today.
A Bright, Mature Fall
August 27, 2013
Inspirational Art
Have you found some color combinations in the Pantone Fall palette posted yesterday? I did quite a bit of searching looking for pieces that fit this palette. Searching by color palette is no easy task, let me tell you! But I did find these lovely beads by Claire Wallis that use two of the brighter colors in the Pantone palette.
Although we don’t think of Fall as a bright season, people don’t stop wearing rich, saturated colors simply because the air is cooler outside. We don’t match our outfits to the changing color of the trees outside (although I have seen people change their home decor to match it). If we are to follow the Pantone Fall palette, there is going to be some brightness in our creations this coming season. Great news for polymer!
The Pantone Acai is a more blue-leaning purple. Purple is associate with royalty and extravagance due to its rarity in centuries past as it was simply a difficult and expensive dye to produce. Because this purple has more blue in it, the calm associated with blue makes this feel more reserved than extravagant. The magenta, which appears a bit richer than the actual Vivacious Pantone color, is also leaning a bit more towards a sense of maturity with its deeper tone, rather than going towards the bright and girlish pink end of the magenta spectrum. And what is Fall but the richer and more mature end of our cycle of seasons?
I will continue my search for more polymer work associated with Pantone’s color palette for this week’s posts, and we’ll certainly talk more about color choices, color mood, and creating palettes; but if any of you find a well-done piece you think I need to share, please give me a head’s up: sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com.
In the meantime, take a closer look at Claire’s work on Flickr. Her pieces are excellently finished and her variety of forms she creates is quite interesting and are also very well done.
Pantone’s Fall Colors
August 26, 2013
Tips and Tricks
I’m sorry I don’t have an actual polymer piece here today, but I’ve had this on my block to blog about since it came out. Pantone distills the color trends and comes up with color palettes for the coming season for designers and artists to use as a guide when developing their product line. With Fall just around the corner, I thought we ought to take a look at what fashion and home decor will be trending color-wise. And beside, they are really beautiful colors this year!
This palette is Pantone’s, but I pulled this particular image from “Brandi Girl Blog” because it’s a great image to print out and keep in your studio if you want to follow the color trends, but also because she’s provided a whole slew of color combinations that you could use to help map out your pieces.
The colors this year are saturated and rather bright, but I think it’s fantastic–perfect for polymer! I have my eye on this particular blue-green-purple combination. Yum.
Do check out Brandi’s page of color combinations, and if you want to keep a close eye on color trends, sign up for Pantone’s newsletter on their website.
So with this talk of color palettes all week, I thought I ought to stop and add that you don’t need to follow Pantone’s colors for the season. Get to know your market, as well as the colors you prefer to work with, and build your own signature palette for the season.
I know for some people, how to put together a color scheme is a bit of a mystery. But there is help out there! Several sites online have tools that allow you to make your own palettes. This one here is a new favorite of mine because of its relative simplicity and the fact that you can save your color exploration in your own account.
To create a color palette, you choose a color on the wheel in the bottom right then use the sliders on the upper right to adjust hue, tint (addition of white) and/or shade (addition of black). The boxes below the color wheel give you 5 options for types of color schemes that can be created off that first color.
Join the ColourLovers community on this site to save palettes, swatches and images in your account. I haven’t explored everything this site has to offer yet but I sure am having fun checking it all out. Try this palette maker for yourself!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The one thing I find missing in this year’s Pantone palette is a real green. There’s a pale blue-green they are calling Hemlock but when I think of Spring I think of naturally derived greens–fresh new grass, the first leaves on a tree, and sprouting plants pushing up through the earth. So I thought I’d look for something that added that back into this palette.
This necklace by Kseniya Dolgopolova includes a few shades like Pantone’s Hemlock as well as rich natural greens.
I would have questioned putting these colors because although somewhat analaguous, the hemlock is a pastel while leaf green is muted but with more saturation. However, with this limited palette, it does work decently and the difference adds some significant contrast to a green based palette.
Take a moment or two and wander through the charming imagination of Kseniya’s work in her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Carina of Austria designed these colorful beaded necklaces and bracelets made from polymer clay. Although produced lat year, they range this year’s Spring Pantone palette. The latest Pantone palatte and these pieces give a modern twist to the classic spring palette by pairing soft pastels with more saturated colors to create a colorful contrast. These pieces bring to mind a mixture of blooming wild flowers with colors that refresh and defy conventional ideas of Spring.
For artist inspiration, take a look at some of the polymer clay images on Carina’s Flickr pages. Try some of these less conventional springtime colors in your own work. Have fun!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
In other words, imagination is the source of creativity, but creativity doesn’t exist until you act upon the fruit of your imagination. We’ve looked at color ideas for the coming season this week; did they get you thinking? Did they bring up any ideas for new pieces to include in upcoming shows and in your online shop, or maybe gifts to make for friends and family? If they did, great. But now it’s time to make those ideas a reality. Create, bring more beauty into the world, and make yourself a happier person for having done so.
So apparently, this has been quite the week for Pantone in the craft blogs.
Besides the posts here, Art Bead Scene chatted about the new Fall colors, showing off some lovely bracelets in the palette colors and throwing in a nice little tutorial for a hidden clasp beaded bracelet.
Then over at the 2 Good Claymates’ blog, Carolyn and Dave spent the last week breaking down the Pantone colors and giving away polymer clay color recipes for the majority of the Fall 2013 palette. Here is a collection of their trademark flowers, using their recipe for the rich orange that Pantone calls “Koi“.
The Goods also have recipes for Samba, Mykonos Blue, Deep Lichen Green, Linden Green, Turbulence and Carafe as well. (click on the color name to get to their post on each of the colors.) If you like the Good’s recipes, you might want to get Carolyn’s Color System tutorial for some more color exploration.
Thank you to Francie Owens, who sent me the Art Bead Scene link, and to Jamie Hibbs, who clued me into what the Goods were up to this week. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, ladies!
I am off a tad from Pantone’s palette on the colors of this piece, but of all the pieces I looked at, I kept coming back to this. Maybe it’s because I could see this being done in polymer (by a very patient and dedicated artist). The bib style necklace, not to mention the overall texture and stones, could be translated into an incredibly beautiful polymer piece.
Bead embroidery is a type of bead art that uses a needle and thread to stitch beads to an underlying surface, usually fabric or leather. It requires a tremendous amount of planning, precision, and, of course, time.
Guzel Bakeeva is a rather prolific Russian bead artist with some of the most amazing compositions in this type of work that I’ve seen. Mind you, I’m sure I need to investigate even further into this kind of work (what a horrible task to look forward to!), but her work is quite varied and always mouth-droppingly gorgeous. I can’t even say that this is one of her most stunning pieces. Yes, she has much more to rival this piece, but it stuck with me and the colors could work with this Fall’s palette.
Put some time aside today to look at her website. Just remember to occasionally pick your jaw up off the ground. As my dad used to say, “You don’t want to catch flies!”
Working up a Fall product line doesn’t mean leaving your floral tendencies behind; the fashion designers certainly aren’t this coming year. From all I’ve read about upcoming trends, pattern in general will be a big focus and flowers, especially wispy wildflowers, daisies, and even dandelions, look to be the “in”thing. So how would you change things up from your Spring or Summer collection of blossoms?
Color will be primary in changing up for a Fall look. Although the Pantone palette for Fall has some rather bright colors, they are not pure colors or pastel. The Samba red and the Koi orange are both deeper and a step or two off their color origin, and the lighter colors are neutral more than anything; the Linden Green comes awfully close to being a kahki, and the Deep Lichen Green is more a cool gray than a green. So, can your flowers still be beautifully ornamental if toned down from their summer brilliance or if created in neutral colors? Of course!
Eva Thissen does neutral floral with a very delicate and controlled application of lines, small shapes, and contrast in color. In this case, we have a rich red heavily contrasting a neutral green (pretty much that Samba red and Linden green in the Pantone palette) with subdued blue, cream, pink, and brown flowers accenting the scene. Feminine, fetching, and definitely floral, there is the reserve and the richness associated with Fall, although I would be putting this in my jewelry rotation year round.
Part of Eva’s distinction as a polymer artist is in her color choices. Although she is far from the only one to work heavily in the polymer embroidery technique, I find I easily recognize her work due to her color choices, not to mention the precision of application with those tiny bits of polymer and her penchant for story-like scenes. Enjoy perusing her Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for a bit today.
Have you found some color combinations in the Pantone Fall palette posted yesterday? I did quite a bit of searching looking for pieces that fit this palette. Searching by color palette is no easy task, let me tell you! But I did find these lovely beads by Claire Wallis that use two of the brighter colors in the Pantone palette.
Although we don’t think of Fall as a bright season, people don’t stop wearing rich, saturated colors simply because the air is cooler outside. We don’t match our outfits to the changing color of the trees outside (although I have seen people change their home decor to match it). If we are to follow the Pantone Fall palette, there is going to be some brightness in our creations this coming season. Great news for polymer!
The Pantone Acai is a more blue-leaning purple. Purple is associate with royalty and extravagance due to its rarity in centuries past as it was simply a difficult and expensive dye to produce. Because this purple has more blue in it, the calm associated with blue makes this feel more reserved than extravagant. The magenta, which appears a bit richer than the actual Vivacious Pantone color, is also leaning a bit more towards a sense of maturity with its deeper tone, rather than going towards the bright and girlish pink end of the magenta spectrum. And what is Fall but the richer and more mature end of our cycle of seasons?
I will continue my search for more polymer work associated with Pantone’s color palette for this week’s posts, and we’ll certainly talk more about color choices, color mood, and creating palettes; but if any of you find a well-done piece you think I need to share, please give me a head’s up: sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com.
In the meantime, take a closer look at Claire’s work on Flickr. Her pieces are excellently finished and her variety of forms she creates is quite interesting and are also very well done.
I’m sorry I don’t have an actual polymer piece here today, but I’ve had this on my block to blog about since it came out. Pantone distills the color trends and comes up with color palettes for the coming season for designers and artists to use as a guide when developing their product line. With Fall just around the corner, I thought we ought to take a look at what fashion and home decor will be trending color-wise. And beside, they are really beautiful colors this year!
This palette is Pantone’s, but I pulled this particular image from “Brandi Girl Blog” because it’s a great image to print out and keep in your studio if you want to follow the color trends, but also because she’s provided a whole slew of color combinations that you could use to help map out your pieces.
The colors this year are saturated and rather bright, but I think it’s fantastic–perfect for polymer! I have my eye on this particular blue-green-purple combination. Yum.
Do check out Brandi’s page of color combinations, and if you want to keep a close eye on color trends, sign up for Pantone’s newsletter on their website.
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