A while back (oops!) I mentioned I have a secret weapon for mixing colours and it is… grid lined paper. By looking directly down and lining up a rigid blade with the lines on the paper and I can get accurately sized pieces. I use this both for colour mixing and for getting evenly sized beads.
To cut 1/2 a square, I line the blade up diagonally with the corners of the grid (see image above where I’m cutting 5 squares into 2x 2.5 square pieces).
The other thing I do is record my colour recipes in percentages rather than the usual parts ratios. I find this makes it easy to size up (or down) a batch of colour.
For example the colours above are the following mixes of Fimo Classic:
- Brick = 25% bordeaux, 25% yellow, 50% white
- Mustard = 2.5% bordeaux, 47.5% yellow, 50% white
in the usual ratios this would be:
- Brick = 1 bordeaux, 1 yellow, 2 white
- Mustard = 1 bordeaux, 19 yellow, 20 white
- OR Mustard = 1 (1 bordeaux, 19 yellow pre-mixed), 1 white
So if I wished to make 100 spacer beads (each using 1 square of clay) in each colour, I would simply use 1 square of clay for each percent and mix up the perfect quantity of clay. If I were working in the parts method I’d get 4 parts of brick and 40 parts of mustard (or to get equal quantities I’d have to mix up 1 part bordeaux + 19 parts yellow and then use 2 parts of that with 2 parts white and mix a second time). Or I could multiply each part in the brick recipe by 10, and then that’s 80 shapes to cut out.
I don’t know about you, but I find mixing colours a bit of a chore when I’m impatient to make beads so the single mix option appeals to me! There is a further perk to the percentage recipes when mixing gradients which I’ll explain in another post.
Once my colour is mixed I use the grid paper to cut the polymer clay sheet into equal sized squares.
That way I end up with nicely regular sized beads. And providing I write down what I did, if I come back another day, I can make more beads of the same size (e.g. in another colour).
Fulgorine 
Gee, that’s very clever.
In the past I’ve used a self-healing cutting mat (which is ruled precisely) under glass, but I think I’ll try your method next time, Cate 🙂
Not sure if l’ve quite grasped it…..but l’m going to have a go and hopefully it will become clear! It certainly looks easier – thanks 🙂
Good luck. I wasn’t sure if I managed to explain clearly.
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I am confused, how did you get 1 bordeaux from 25% bordeaux? Math is not my strength.
I am looking at your gorgeous color palettes, however, I don’t get the percentages 😦
Did you ever rewrite them in parts instead of percentages? Would certainly love the link to it.
I love the painting you did!!!
25% is 1/4 of the total. So if you have a 4 parts total it’s 1 part. I don’t have the recipes in parts since I work using percentages. If you want, you can use the percentages as parts and you’ll allways end up with a quantity of 100 i.e. 25% cut 25 parts etc. Usually it’s better to mix too much of a colour rather than not enough. Hope this helps.
Very interesting and clever Idea! Good luck! Very creativ- Top! Thx- Best wishes from Austria – Herta
I’m aware I’m writing this in 2020 but thank you so much. I’ve just been blending some colours with the fimo professionals and found using the same size cutter so time consuming and ended up with masses of one shade and barely any of another. This is much more precise and stops me wasting so much clay making my colour recipe tiles 😍 thank you
Great, I’m glad it helps. 🙂