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[Update 11/22/10: See Polyform Responds for their updated plans.]

Polyform announced the new Premo! and Sculpey III colors today. You can read the full announcement on their Facebook page, but here are the highlights:

  • Shades of Clay to Come?There are 9 new Premo colors, including several that sound like they came straight from the discontinued Studio by Sculpey line. I'm most excited about Denim, Spanish Olive, Pomegranate (all Studio colors I found useful), and the long-overdue Navy Blue. The Rhino Gray might also come in handy.
  • They're announcing a new line called Premo! Accents with 19 translucent, metallic, glitter, and granite clays. This is where the big changes are.
    • I'm most excited about the granite colors (Blue Granite, White Granite, and Gray Granite). I'm guessing these are based on some of the more popular Granitex colors, which have recently only been available in multi-color sampler packs.
    • The metallic colors might be interesting — they're adding 18K Gold, Antique Gold, and Bronze. They're also changing the Copper — a color I happened to like (but I may like the new one just as well).
    • I'm sure there will be lots of folks who are excited about the glitter colors, but regular readers probably know by now that glitter's not my thing. So you'll have to go read about that yourselves. ;-)
    • The new colored translucents (Translucent Blue, Translucent Red, etc.) seem an odd choice to me, since it's extremely easy to tint your own translucents.
  • Discontinued Premo ColorsWhat they didn't tell us before is that they're also discontinuing 11 Premo colors. Here's that list:
    • Red Pearl
    • Green Pearl
    • Cobalt Blue
    • Sea Green
    • Copper (but they're adding an "updated" copper)
    • Zinc Yellow
    • Frost (but they're adding a "White Translucent" that they say replaces Frost. I hope it's just as clear!)
    • Fluorescent Green
    • Fluorescent Yellow
    • Fluorescent Red
    • Glow-In-The-Dark (I'll miss this one!)
  • There are 11 new and 11 discontinued Sculpey III colors. Since I'm not a Sculpey III user, I'll only highlight these 3 additions: Copper, Glow-In-The-Dark, and Deep Red Pearl.

My take? They're spinning this as an addition of exciting new colors, but it's more like a color re-organization. They've integrated some of the more useful (and presumably better-selling) colors from the Studio and Granitex lines into the Premo line. They're tweaking other colors slightly — i.e., replacing Red Pearl with Magneta Pearl, Green Pearl with Bright Green Pearl. And they're moving a few Premo colors — like the Glow-in-the-Dark — off to the Sculpey III line.

As for the discontinued colors, I personally think Zinc Yellow and Cobalt Blue are poor choices. You need blues and yellows for color-mixing, and I can't be the only one who will now have to re-do a bunch of my color recipes. At least they plan to put color recipes for most of the discontinued colors on their site...

And the colors that are actually new? I think that by adding a wider variety of metallics and glittery clays, they're trying to keep pace with Fimo Effects and Pardo.

There are a few things in here I'm excited about, but about as many that disappoint me. I'm sure I'll adjust, though. What about you? Are you losing any favorite colors? Excited about some of the new ones? I would love to hear your comments!

Comments

I hate hate hate to hear that they're doing away with cobalt and zinc yellow - they are the backbone of my personal palette. Hundreds of hours, trashed. I feel a rant to Sculpey coming on....

Edie - Judging from the responses I've seen on Flickr, Facebook & Twitter, you and I aren't alone in feeling strongly about Cobalt & Zinc Yellow. I've started encouraging folks who are frustrated about the change to leave comments on Polyform's Facebook announcement. For folks who aren't on Facebook, Cindy Lietz has started a virtual petition on her site.

I have a line of switchplates with petroglyphs in copper that sell very well. So I hope the new copper meets my expectations. I'm very disappointed about the cobalt blue and zinc yellow. I do a lot of color recipes (mixing)and these are essential. Hopefully they put them back. Let's see what happens.

I'm so glad I stumbled on this post, because I had no clue about the color changes! I almost exclusively work with metallics, so I'm going to have to stock up on Green Pearl and Red Pearl. Hopefully the new colors of Pearl will be useful...

Discontinuing Premo GitD? How bizarre. I guess one can always use the GitD Sculpey III. I wish you could get the colored GitD colors without buying the multipack.


Glad I stumbled upon this info. While they're at it, maybe they should dsiscontinue cadmium red and ultramarine. Nobody uses those, right?

Gahh I was afraid of this. When I couldn't find any copper or Glow at the Michael's here in Ontario I tried looking online and got nowhere til I found this info. Has anyone tried mixing Sculpey and Premo together? I'm afraid to because of the difference in curing temps but I can't live without Glow in the Dark!

Melissa, While I haven't personally done much mixing with Sculpey & Premo (I don't keep Sculpey around), I don't believe there should be a problem. Current packages of both brands both say 130C/275F. The only difference I see is that Sculpey recommends 15 minutes per 1/4" thickness, while Premo recommends 30 minutes per. Since clay can generally be baked *longer* than the specified time without any harm (as long as it's at the correct temperature), I'd try mixing Sculpey Glow in the Dark with Premo's White Translucent, then bake it according to the Premo instructions. Or, depending on your intended use, Sculpey Glow in the Dark might work by itself for you. I keep hearing that the strength/quality's gotten better -- though I haven't had a chance to test that out myself. Good luck!

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