New polymer clay product on the way?

I just read something interesting in a PCC thread about Donna Kato's newest book. (You can find the thread here.) I haven't found anything official about this subject, but as Donna Kato herself was in on the discussion, I guess that's official enough. ;o) Apparently, the book mentions a new product that will soon be released to the public--

What is it?
It's something called "Kato Color Concentrate Clay" (which may or may not be the name it's eventually marketed under-- I don't know), and from what I understand it's basically polymer clay with a very high concentration of pigments. There's something like six times as much color in this new product compared to what goes into regular polymer clay.

What do you do with it?
From what I gather, some of the projects in the new Kato book use it, so you can probably refer to that for some examples. Based on the same PCC thread, it sounds like it probably has a variety of uses. For example, it's ideal for making rich shades of pearlized/mica-infused clay without losing the mica shift (chatoyant) effect. It's also suppsed to be great for mixing dark colors without the muddying you often get when mixing regular clay. Because the colors are so rich, you can use just a little bit of the color concentrate, compared to the amount of regular clay you'd have to add to mix the desired color.

What colors does it come in?
The only colors it will initially come in are red, yellow, and blue. But these can be mixed, of course. (Mixing is really their whole reason for existence.) There may eventually be new olors added to the line. (It looks promising, based on the discussion in the PCC thread!) Another color-related tidbit for those of us dying for more info: The three existing colors, mixed in equal parts, make black-- apparently a very fantabulous black. (No, I'm not sure what makes it better than regular black. (g)) ...And the greys are pretty great, too, according to Lynn Ann Schwarzenberg, who was the impetus behind the prototype for the product.

How is it packaged?
I don't know. (I'm not even sure if it's been packaged yet!) Donna Kato describes it as polymer clay consistency-- not liquid-- so I imagine it's packaged similarly to regular polymer clay. Because it is so potent, it may come in smaller packages than regular clay. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Where can you get some?
To start with, it will only be available at select on-line distributors, according to Ms. Kato. And it's not available even there, yet... This first batch is relatively small-- 300 lbs. I hope that once that flies off the shelves (as it's sure to do, I'd say), they'll manufacture more. If it's successful enough, maybe it will eventually be available wherever Kato Polyclay is sold. (However, the only local stores that stock solid Kato clay don't even have the liquid Kato, so I'm not holding my breath. (g))

And in less exciting news. . .

While checking out Donna Kato's blog on the off chance that she'd mentioned this new product (not that I've seen so far, but I'm still reading), I saw this entry-- and this one, too. Evidently, the folks at Epson have changed the formula on some of their papers. One of their papers was discovered to be excellent for image transfers with polymer clay, but that has changed.

Don't despair! There's still hope. ;o) There are other papers that work, including the one Katherine Dewey suggested in the second link-- JetPrint Imaging & Photo Matte Paper, medium weight. (Actually, I think that's the one I've used before. I'll have to go check...)