Tuesday, December 8, 2009

poinsettia part 5















































































OK so now you have your completed cane. Now what? Well I will now show you how I finished off some pendants. First I made a Skinner blend that went from dark blue to light blue. I kept the blend thin (3 - 4 inches from darkest to lightest) I cut off a portion of the blend and wrapped gold foil around both sides. I then ran this thru the past machine several times to work the foil into the clay. (remember to maintain the skinner blend) The first ones I made taught me a few things not to do on the next ones.
First I made my slices too thick. Polymer clay artist Lynne Ann Swartzenberg says she can get a ridiculous amount to slices off an inch cane. I can see now why that is important. My first slices were too thick and they kinda got smooshy when I applied them to the background. Thinner also keeps you from getting bumps where the canes are applied.
Second The first ones I surrounded with scrap clay before rolling in. Later I decided this wasn't necessary.
You can see that I added some poinsettia leaves and holly leaves and berries. I didn't go over how to make them but if you search the net you can find many tutorials on making leaves. One thing I did try with the holly leaves was reducing them with play dough. This worked well for maintaining their shape. I didn't slice them until they were reduced and I didn't take the time to soak off the play dough which I should have done. Oh well it's all about learning.
I used the completed sheets to make pendants/pins.

TRICK - since I didn't soak off the play dough and some slices were too thick I was having a little problem getting the slices completely integrated into the background. There was a persistent groove around some of the slices. I discovered that if I put a thin coating of liquid polymer it filled in these grooves and made the sanding go much smoother. For some reason I couldn't quite get a super shine on them but I was happy with the look (and the less sanding).

I have also posted some photos of some dimensional pendants that I made with the canes too. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that you all have a very Merry Christmas.

17 comments:

  1. Je suis Une fervente admiratrice! bravo pour votre talent!

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  2. Beautiful. Well done! Cane work fancinates me.

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  3. What a wonderful gift this Tuesday morning...Thank you Julie, your poinsettia cane is beautiful.

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  4. What a great idea using the leaf canes as petals - they are beautiful and I love the blue background. Thank you for sharing!!!

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  5. You diffinately have WOW POWER. Great flower and the back ground really sets off the floewer perfectly. Merry Christmas to all. Dyan

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  6. Well I wonder where you were inspired to create this poinsettia! Very very nice my goddess of clay.

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  7. this would be a wonderful gift I have many friends who wear pins espcially around the holidays one friend loves Halloween she loves pumkins and scarecrows. your work is wonderufl

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  8. I can't wait to get home and try this! Your techniques and use of color are truly amazing and inspirational.

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  9. It was SO generous of you to share technique information - so often ass we get is a wonderful picture of the finished item, and it's up to us to figure out how the heck it came to be. Tya'!!hat works only if you have lots of experience and not everyone has.
    Merry Christmas back at ya'!!
    Cay of clay

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  10. PLEASE pardon my typing error above: "ass" should have been "all".

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  11. Thanks for all (or should that ass) of your nice comments. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year full of claying!

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  12. Merry Christmas to ass and to ass a goodnight!

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  13. What a wonderful Poinsettia cane and Tutorial! Can't wait to see them in person at the Queen City Clay guild meeting tomorrow!

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  14. Another beautiful creation! Your talent never ceases to amaze me.

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