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.

Thinking About Glaze Application

My latest "Third Friday Cone 6 Glaze Post" on the Beads-of-Clay Blog was asking fellow earth clay beadmakers what their thoughts are on applying their glaze.

Not necessarily on if you brush, dip, spray, but more along the lines of how do you think about color application? So you think about it when you are applying the glaze or is it just something random that you do?

When I first started making tiles - which in turn became pendants, I found out that by applying glazes with a brush I could get really cool shadowing effects with translucent glazes (see the clouds in the pieces above). I also figured out that certain glazes, when applied with a tiny brush over top of another glaze created a stable outline and color changed area (see bottom right spiral wave textured piece). 

I am such a control freak when it comes to glazing. I want a part of me to be able to be a bit more like Kylie Parry in just cracking a pint of glaze and going for it… This science part of my brain just does not want it to be though - a constant battle to loosen up!

I am participating in Drawing Lab 2011 - 52 drawing lessons in the year. The first assignment was to draw a cat. After a page full of drawings, I found that this sleeping kitty was really pleasing to look at. So of course I had to put her (my cats are girls, so it's a she to me…) onto some beads… I had these already glazed pieces laying around, so I put some decals on them. 

Now to me, the little green tube beads with white on the bottom is much more appealing to just plain white. And the line placement - just at the level where the cat is resting, makes my brain happy. I find that I am turning a page in my glazing techniques - thinking about colors and color lines. What works and what does not...

And how I can apply that to my designs I am going to be printing as decals and firing them into the glazes…

Darn I am such a control freak… 

My brain just wants flow and symmetry and happiness for my eyes.

Maybe I'll just see how Kylie loosens up (Kylie - any advice?)

Seems like maybe she just puts on some good music and gets to having fun making a mess (a very cool kind of mess!)

Glaze Test Picture and Link Help...

Ok, I need some input if you have the time…

I want to make a picture for the side bar that can be used to link to the Beads-of-Clay blog posts that I do with the Cone 6 commercial glazes.

Thinking about using this one…

Not sure if the blue type is good though…

Maybe White will stand out better against the black…

And the white type will go with the white lines on the tile (my Lick texture…)

***I updated it with the white lettering… See below***

Then the next thing I want to do with it is figure out the html that goes with it so if someone else wants to use the image, they can copy and paste the html and the picture appears then links to the BOC blog…

Advice? I am sure I can get it figured at some point…

But time to go feed Riley and get off this computer for a bit of one on one time with him...