Tutorial: Clay Rose with Color Gradient

Hi, Sorry I haven't been posting every day like I used to.  I got involved in some local projects around town which have been taking a lot of my time.  More than I expected...you know how that goes!   Because I missed featuring a tutorial on Tuesday... let's have one today!

In this video, the well-known South American clay artist Jorge Rubicce shows us his methods for creating realistic roses using cold porcelain. If you don't understand the language, just mute the video and follow along visually as he demonstrates each step for building the flowers and creating his gradient color effect.  Any of the soft air-dry clays would work as well for this project.

Color Mixing Guide

Some brands of air-dry clay can be purchased pre-colored, but many are available as white (or off-white) only.  These can be pre-tinted or painted after curing.  Just about anything that has pigment in it can be used to pre-tint air-dry clays.  That includes acrylic paints, oil paints, pigment powders, pastel chalks, food coloring pastes and similar products.  Just add a little color into some clay and knead until mixed in.  It may sound like extra work, but it's actually quite handy to be able to mix your own colors as needed.  

Meet a New Clay: Crafter's Clay

Those of us who have been aware of the pleasures of working with air-dry clay may soon by joined by the uninitiated due to Martha Stewart's new line of Crafter's Clay, molds and tools.   Believe it or not, many people are still under the impression that ALL air-dry clays are a kid's product. *sigh*  We know that is not so, don't we!  Just one look at the professional work of air-dry clay artists like Hannie Sarris, Guilherme

Make Some Clay for the Kids

This homemade play dough "clay" recipe from The Wyrd Sisters is super easy and includes a special twist....it's scented dough. Take a break from your usual routine and make some with the kids/grandkids. 

 See the recipe and instructions for "Smelly Rainbow Dough" here.

Experiments with Coloring Air-Dry Clay

There are 2 main types of air-dry clays....those that are pre-colored and those that are not.  Most of the clays that are not pre-colored are white or off-white in color. (A few are terra cotta or gray.)   The question of what to use to pre-tint the "white-only" clays comes up quite often (the alternative is to paint after cured).  

The answer is:  Just about anything soluble!

Color Mixing Exercises

Clay Art by Maggie Maggio (Smashing Color)

On Saturday we posted a little Introduction to the Color Wheel which just covered the basics for all types of artists.   Today we talk about clay in particular.    Many pre-colored air-dry clays may be mixed as shown in the following exercises or you can use what your learn from them to create your own recipes for pre-tinting non-colored clays and cold porcelain.

Detailed information about color and the color wheel is offered by Maggie Maggio at Smashing Color.    Maggie's tutorials and exercises are designed for polymer clay but are useful to air-dry clay artists also. 

Her Clay Color Scales are shown in the 3 videos below.

Introducing the Color Wheel

Learning how to use a color wheel is one of the basic tools for knowing how to mix your colors and how to get the same color repeatedly.   The color wheel shown above is from Maureen Carlson's book "Imagine Your World in Clay"  Although Maureen Carlson primarily works with polymer clay, mixing colors is essentially the same with air-dry clay and all other clays. 

Let's  start with Maureen's introduction to the color wheel.  In her book she says:

"In this color chart, the dragonflies in the middle represent the primary colors, which are red, yellow and blue.  This chart shows how all other colors are made by mixing different amounts of these 3 colors.   Flying out between the red and yellow dragonfly is one with an orange body.  Orange is made by mixing together red and yellow.   Look at the other 2 dragonflies. Mixing yellow and blue makes the dragonfly with the green body.   Mixing red and blue makes the purple dragonfly.  The circles on the outside show what happens when you mix different amounts of the 3 primary colors.   You get different shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple."

Are you ready for some more in-depth lessons on using the color wheel?   Empty Easel has a more detailed explanation for Artists and Painters.  Using the Color Wheel  

Learn the color wheel and you'll be able to mix whatever color you want with the pre-colored air-dry clays or know exactly how to tint your non-colored clays and cold porcelain. You'll also know which colors will best  compliment the colors you're using and how to soften a color without ending up with a muddy drab color.   Within the next day or two, we'll post some color mixing exercises for clay artists.   

Video: How to Knead Clay

This may seem like a silly question to most experienced clay hobbiests....but there are people who wonder how to properly knead clay dough (especially those guys who never made any bread from scratch ..LOL..just teasing!).

Although most air-dry clays don't require kneading to condition clay before using like polymer clay does, kneading is required to mix-in colorants or to smooth and condition clay (maybe because it's been stored for a while).  The action demonstrated in this video works for homemade clay, cold porcelain and any air-dry clay.

Mixing colors into air-dry clay

The majority of air-dry clays are available in white only and must be pre-tinted before modeling or painted when cured.  Sometimes a combination of both!  We've talked about many different things you can use to pre-tint your air-dry clay:  Acrylic paints, pastel chalks,  cake colorant and colors especially made for using with cold porcelain.   Guess what?   You can also use colored markers, as shown in this video from SmallEffort.