how to blend colors with polymer clay?

Question

I'm a novice with polymer clay. I saw a pretty leaf made out of it on TV and would like to try it. Also does it shrink a lot?

Answer 1

First, polymer clay (as opposed to "air-dry" clays) shrinks very little. You'd never even notice it unless you were making a thin sheet that was very large (say, over 12-13" or so).

As for blending colors, with polymer clay that could actually mean a few different things.

To completely mix two (or more) colors together, roll and twist two colors of clay together till you see no more streaks (or if you have a pasta machine as mentioned, just keep putting the colors through, folding over each time (folded edge to the side), till they're completely blended --about 12 times or so).

It's also possible to "tint" polymer clay (usually white or translucent clay) with other substances to color it... things like oil paints, alcohol inks, or small amounts of acyrlic paints, as well as "inclusions" of things like colored powders, ground spices, etc.

You can also "marble" the clay colors by doing one of the above, but stopping short of mixing them completely.

There is also something called a "blend" in polymer clay.
In a blend, the clay will *graduate* from one color to another (or from a lighter to darker version of itself).

The most common way these days is to do what's called a "Skinner blend," which is a *continuous* blend, from one color to another, where the changes happen between the colors almost obliterating the original colors. Skinner blends can composed of be one color changing to another, or multiple colors changing into each other. These are created as sheets of blended clay, but can then be shaped into "bullseye" logs or "plugs" which are rectangular solid shapes... then all kinds of other things can be done with them.
(Before the Skinner blend, there was the "discrete" blend which is not used as often anymore at least partly because it's more work... in a discrete blend, "steps" of a color are laid next to each other, but the color change is *not continuous*).

There is loads of information, lessons, etc. on my website about making new colors of clay (in various ways), or making blends, or "marbling" colors, as well as "recipes" for many individual colors or whole palettes of color on these pages:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/color.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/blends.htm

Since you're a newbie, you might also want to check out the Table of Contents page at my website (which is a polymer clay "encyclopedia") for info about almost everything having to do with polymer clay:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/contents.htm

HTH, and welcome to polymer clay!

Diane B.


P.S. The "Sculpey" colors are not based on oil paint names... it's the Premo brand that is.
Sculpey is usually considered to be "Sculpey III" (which is colored... there's also Sculpey and SuperSculpey which are white, terracotta or flesh-colored) The same company manufactures both Sculpey III and Premo (Polyform), but the person who decided the characteristics of Premo was Marie Segal who created a very different clay than Sculpey (she wanted to avoid most of its disadvantages, as well as use the names of oil paint colors).

P.P.S. There are also many online groups for learning about polymer clay, and also local "guilds" (clubs) in many places in the US and even outside the U.S. If you're interested in finding out more about those, click on the category pages called Groups--Online and Groups-Guilds from the alphabetical navigation bar of any page of my site.

Answer 2

Polymer Clay Colors

Answer 3

Work both colors of clay until they are soft and pliable. Then place both colors through a pasta
machine or use a roller to roll the colors together.
Don't over do it or you will lose the two colors.
No, polymer clay doesn't shrink when baked.
Try this web site: www.duncancrafts.com
They have great craft ideas.

Answer 4

If you know how to mix paint, you can mix polymer clays to create an infinite range of colors. Sculpey colors, for example, are based on the Grumbacher color line, so mix Sculpey the same way you mix Grumbacher acrylic paints. A Grumabacher color chart used to be available at http://www.grumbacherart.com. However this site now appears to be down.

As far as shrinkage goes, polymer clay shrinks about 2%.

Answer 5

The colors on it probably were dusted on with pastel chalks if it blended well and polymer clay barely shrinks when it is baked.

Answer 6

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It would be better to blend two colors of clay together and then create your project and bake it.