Check out this week’s free clay color recipes! This is collection 003, called “Gloriously Green”.
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I love working with polymer clay.
For the longest time, I stuck to working with the colors that I could pick up at the local craft store. I didn’t comprehend just how much more choice I’d have if I started to mix my own colors.
There are tons of polymer clay recipes available online, but they average about $1.00 per color. And while I’m all for people finding innovative ways to make money, I just couldn’t justify spending that for my own hobby crafting purposes.
So I decided to learn a bit about color mixing and start making my own colors and palettes. And instead of creating yet another Etsy shop in which to sell them, I thought… why not share them with my lovely readers for free?
So, I’ll be uploading a new palette of five colors with the color recipes every week. (I may stop at some point, but for now, that’s the long-term plan!)
To see all the free clay color recipes I’ve posted so far, click here.
To jump to this week’s recipe, click here.
How to Mix Clay Colors
If you’re new to color mixing, you might wonder how to actually use a clay recipe like this:
- 38 Sculpey White (76%)
- 4 Cadmium Yellow (8%)
- 8 Cobalt Blue (16%)
But it’s really quite easy! Because you have the percentages along with the amounts, you can tackle this in one of two ways.
Measuring by quantity
Roll out the color you need. Make sure you roll it out to a consistent thickness – but you can do any thickness you want. The thicker the clay, the more you’ll have of the finished product. Take a circle cutter and start cutting. If the recipe calls for 38 white, you will cut out 38 white circles. Once you’ve got enough of your first color, roll out your next color to the exact same thickness. Use the exact same circle cutter to cut out your next batch of pieces. In this case, 4 yellow circles. Keep doing this until the number of circles in front of you matches the number on the recipe. Mix!
Measuring by weight
Because I’ve provided the percentages, you can easily mix your clay by weight. Suppose you want two ounces/114 grams of the final color. (The equivalent of one new Sculpey clay package.) All you need to do is do some simple math! Back to the earlier example, we know that our recipe is made up of 76% white, 8% yellow, and 16% blue.
- Sculpey White (76%)
- Cadmium Yellow (8%)
- Cobalt Blue (16%)
76% of 114 grams is 86.64 grams, so we need 86.64 grams of white. 8% of 114 grams is 9.12 grams, so we need 9.12 grams of cadmium yellow. And 16% of 114 grams is 18.24 grams, so we need 18.24 grams of cobalt blue. Double-check your math by making sure 86.64 + 9.12 + 18.24 = 114.
Other notes
You can make more or less of a given recipe by dividing the numbers or multiplying them. Just make sure that whatever you do to one number, you do to all of them. If we wanted to make less of our original recipe, we could cut all the numbers in half:
- 38 Sculpey White (76%) –> 19 Sculpey White
- 4 Cadmium Yellow (8%) –> 2 Cadmium Yellow
- 8 Cobalt Blue (16%) –> 4 Cobalt Blue
If you want even less, you can cut it in half again. What this means is that you’ll need 9.5 of the Sculpey white. How does that work? Easy! Just cut one of your circles in half. Or in quarters or thirds, whatever you need based on how you divide or multiply the recipe.
And now, without further ado, this week’s free clay color palette recipe!
Gloriously Green
To make these colors, you’ll need the following Sculpey Premo clays:
- Sculpey Premo White (Get it on Amazon here)
- Sculpey Premo Black (Get it on Amazon here)
- Sculpey Premo Cadmium Red (Get it on Amazon here)
- Sculpey Premo Cadmium Yellow (Get it on Amazon here)
- Sculpey Premo Cobalt Blue (Get it on Amazon here)
Color One
- 9.5 Cadmium Yellow (38%)
- 4.25 Cobalt Blue (17%)
- 11.25 Black (45%)
Color Two
- 12.25 Cadmium Yellow (49%)
- 6.5 Cobalt Blue (26%)
- 6.25 Black (25%)
Color Three
- 4.5 Black (18%)
- 14.25 White (57%)
- 3.25 Cadmium Yellow (13%)
- 3 Cobalt Blue (12%)
Color Four
- 16 White (64%)
- 4.75 Cadmium Yellow (19%)
- 4.25 Cobalt Blue (17%)
Color Five
- 19.75 White (79%)
- 2.75 Cadmium Yellow (11%)
- 2.5 Cobalt Blue (10%)
Printable PDF Recipes
Want the instructions in a printable PDF format? I’ve got you!
Will you mix up any of these colors for your polymer clay projects?
I’ll be adding some new free clay color recipes every week, so make sure to follow the blog and check back every Friday! To see all the recipes I’ve posted so far, click here.
I’d love to see what you make with these colors! Tag me on Instagram (@theserialcreativeblog) or use the hashtags #theserialcreative #claycolorrecipes
Happy making!
