Pantone Summer 2012 Color Matching

Every month I write a post for the Beads of Clay Blog for Cone 6 Glazes.

I go into my studio and pull out my glaze notebook, grab some colors (sometimes planned, sometimes on a whim), and get to work...

Working in a home based studio, I don't have a lot of room for dry material storage (I would rather have a jewelry making area, and not have so much dust in my house from working with bulk dry materials) so I made the decision when setting up shop, that I would use commercial glazes.

Something that I find much pleasure in now that Commercial Cone 6 Glazes are so readily available and have many, many different colors and effects (and safety when properly fired).

The scientific side of my brain loves to try out various color combinations, layering and mixing different glazes to get different effects on various textured surfaces (my pieces).

And watching my little one with these Velvet underglazes - the experimentation of mixing colors is something that is a natural human instinct.

Being part of the bead and fashion industry, it is not only fun to take a look around and see what some of the "trends" are, but it is a little necessary to keep your line of work fresh. 

In this world of bead making - which relates to jewelry making - which relates to fashion...

There is the "Pantone Spring and Fall color palettes" that come out twice a year.

And for someone like me that tends to lean towards earthy tones - having a direction to work in that is outside of my "comfort zone" of colors that I would normally pick is a great way to create work in palettes that other people might be interested in. At the minimum, thinking about something like this is a stepping stone for a lot of potential creativity...

Here is a selection of glaze colors that I quick put into the kiln to see if I could get a decent match (not exact - because every kiln firing can have different results).

Marsha Neal Studio Glaze tests for Pantone Fashion Colors.

A lot of these glazes are glazes I have had for years.

And I have a lot of beads to be glazed in these colors (I keep making earthy, rustic, blue and patina ones because they are my favorite to wear) and will be updating my website with sets that customers can pick out and buy by whatever glaze colors I pick to offer.

So this month, for the Beads of Clay blog, I decided to show some of my glaze tests that work on my clay body that are close - or what I feel "work" for creating in a similar palette of the Spring season's trending color palette.

Hop on over and check it out!

And don't forget about my
TWO $37 GIFT CERTIFICATE DRAWINGS AND SALE
Celebrating my birthday (which happens to be today!)
Sale and giveaway end 5/20/12.

And sign up for my email newsletter if you want a heads up for my progress with these new beads in different colors. Also, my Marsha Neal Studio Face Book page, twitter, and Flickr also get photo insights on what is going on with Marsha Neal Studio usually daily.