PC Color Mixer
How to Use PC Color Mixer
Sculpey Premo® polymer clay in these 5 colors (See FAQ for clay seller recommendations)
- Cobalt Blue
- Fuchsia
- Zinc Yellow (available online only, not sold in stores)
- White
- Black
A Scale. ​​
What you'll need:
We recommend using a scale that will weigh fractions of grams. This scale from Amazon is inexpensive and works well for this purpose. *
How to Use the App
On the Home page of the app, you have 3 options:
1 - Choose Color from an Image - New Feature!
2 - Use Color Code - There are now 3 options - Hex, RGB, or CMYK.
3 - Use the Color Picker on the home screen to choose from a spectrum of colors.
Option 1
Tap the Choose Color from an Image button, then the Choose an Image button. Choose an image from your device. The image will load. Touch the image and a magnifier ring will appear. The color of the ring will be the color of the pixel in the very center of the ring. The hex code shown below the image and the color box beside it will be the chosen color.
Moving the ring with your finger will change the chosen color. The + and - buttons will magnify the area of the image that is under the magnifier to help with finding the exact color you are trying to extract from the image. When you have found the color you want, tap the Implement button to go to the Clay Color page.
Option 2
Tap the Use Color Code button. Your options are then:
Tap the button for the type of code you would like to use to get your color. The 3 options are provided because different sources for color codes (websites, books, etc) use different types of codes.
On the resulting screen, enter the necessary codes paying attention to the values that are valid for each. After entering the values, tap the Enter button and check the color rectangle to see if it is the color you are looking for. If not, values can be adjusted to find your color. Then tap Enter again.
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A hex code is 6 digits. Valid digits are 0-9, a-z, and A-Z. Don't type the #.
RGB values must be between 0 and 255.
CMYK values must be between 0 and 100.
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Tap the Implement button when you are satisfied with your selection. This will take you to the Clay Color Results Page described below.
​​Option 3
To use the Color Picker on the home page, slide the dial on the color spectrum to the color that you like. The color will change in the bar below so you can see what color it is.
​When you have the color the way you want it, tap the Implement button at the bottom.
Clay Color Results page
Each of the options above will bring you to the Clay Color Results page. The color and hex code you have chosen are shown. Be sure to make note of the hex code as you will need it later if you want to make the same color again.
The next step is to enter the total amount of the color you wish to mix in ounces. 2 ounces is the amount in 1 block. To test the color before you make a lot of it, you can use .1 or even .05 as the number of ounces.
Tap the Enter button and the magic happens! The app will display the amount (in grams) of each of the 5 Sculpey colors you will need to mix together to get your desired result. Carefully weigh the clay, then mix!
Use the back button or the Menu icon to get back to the initial screen.
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Where to find colors for your project
​​There are many online and physical tools to help. The #1 tool that I recommend are the Sarah Renae Clark Color Cube cards.
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These come in 2 cube-shaped boxes with 250 palette cards in each box. Each color in the palette includes a hex code that can be entered into the PC Color Mixer app to find the polymer clay recipe for that color. The cards are professionally printed and the colors are very accurate and a great way to match up your mixed clay created using the PC Color Mixer app. Sarah's website
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Some online color palette websites:
Other Color Apps
Clay Box
Color & Font
Color Picker
Hex Color Codes
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FAQ
Can I use other colors or brands of polymer clay?
Eventually, the app may be updated to work for other primaries, but for now, these are the only ones that will work.
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Where can I find Sculpey Premo® clay online?
Some suggestions for purchasing clay online include:
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Why are Ounces Needed in ounces and clay amount in grams?
Most clay artists know how many ounces are in a small pack of clay (2 oz), but most don't know how many grams (56), so determining how much clay you want to mix makes more sense in ounces. But, for small amounts of clay, using grams for weighing seems easier.
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Will the app work for me without the Color Cube cards?
Absolutely! There are many free or low cost online resources for finding great color palettes or you can create your own. The cards are now one of my most loved art tools and have been invaluable to me and my testing team in developing and testing PC Color Mixer.
Disclaimers
PC Color Mixer works great for most colors. The value of the color (whiteness or blackness) might be off some. And there may be a few colors that aren't right. Also, the colors that are printed on different printers may be different for the same code and the colors may appear different on different screens. Colors recipes created by the app are an attempt at correctness.
Note that the only primary colors that will work are exactly those specified. You might accidentally get similar results using other brands or colors.
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