If your craft supply store is a Provo Craft dealer, then you’ve probably noticed a bright green display near the polymer clay section of a new line of no bake clay and a vast array of tools to work with it. You’ve probably also noticed that these attractively packaged tools are perfect for polymer clay. There are cutters and rollers and shapers and texture sheets and my favorite tool, the Color Mixing Ruler. This wonderful tool allows even the most color-challenged to mix clay with confidence.

The Color Mixing Ruler is designed for measuring and mixing two or more clay colors to accurately achieve a desired color. The acrylic tool combines with a formula chart to assure easy, consistent reproduction of color mixes. I tried the Color Mixing Ruler with three colors of polymer clay – Sculpey III Red Hot Red, Premo Cadmium Yellow Hue, and Premo Ultramarine Blue – each of them a standard 2 oz. package.

The Color Mixing Tool has nine graduated openings identified alphabetically from smallest to largest (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I). To determine the closest equivalent measurement to my usual system of “a half block of clay” or “an eighth of a block of clay,” I cut each block of clay into a series of nine gradually smaller sections. I randomly filled each opening in the tool, and made a note of how much clay corresponds to the Makin’s Clay lettering system. Here are the measurements:

• A – 1/1024 block

• B – 1/512 block

• C – 1/256 block

• D – 1/128 block

• E – 1/64 block

• F – 1/32 block

• G – 1/16 block

• H – 1/8 block

• I –   1/4 block

I made up some of my own color formulas, but if you use the Clay Mixing Chart you can produce a palette of 42 new colors. It is relatively easy to match Makin’s Clay colors with the colors of clay in your favorite brand. (Makin’s Clay comes in 13 colors - 8 basic, 4 neon and 1 glow in the dark).

This tool is well worth the retail price I paid of $5.99. It comes with two small, acrylic rods for pushing the clay out of the measuring ruler. A wise clayer will dust the ruler with cornstarch or spray a small amount of Armor-All unless they want to spend a long time cleaning the ruler openings (can you say “clay gun”?).

For more information on the Color Mixing Ruler and the entire line of Makin’s Clay products, visit http://www.makinsclay.com.