Life Is Like A Bowl Of Polymer

When I made the last face mosaic canes, I would cut the ends off and save them.  I was then left with a full size "slice" of the cane.  I always thought these were cool looking.  I liked that the ends were not even with each other.  I had ideas going through my head of ways of adding depth and making it more like a sculpture.  So when did I finally come up with my next idea?  Right in the middle of my last project.  I was working on the next project in my fairy tale line, beauty and the beast, when I came up with this idea to create a curved surface.  Not only do you have to step back from the piece but you have to be looking straight on to see the whole picture. This was even a larger leap of faith.  I was probably 1/3 to 1/2 done before I had convinced myself that the layout was working.  When I built my previous mosaic canes it was unbaked and I could replace some of the canes later (although it was not easy to do) if a section didn't look right.  I couldn't do that this time.  It was also harder to step back from it and see the face.  The curve was hard to prop up.  But I pressed onward and finished it with faith.   Of course since it is made of extruded canes the picture is the same on both sides.  It brought some new challenges in coming up with building the piece.  I think I still have to work on some issues for the next one.  I also think I will be going bigger next time.  This one is 9 inches round by 3.25 in depth.  The one drawback is that there is no cane to reduce to use for other items.  It is a one of a kind.  But I like it and hope you do to.

What to do? What to do?

Here are some pictures of my latest face cane. As you can imagine it was quite tedious to make but I am really happy with the way it turned out. It only took about three weeks to finish. It took quite a lot of planning. As you may have guessed I used an extruder. Over and over and over and over...... The finished cane is 5.5 X 8 X 2 and weighs just under 4 pounds. Now I have to decide what to do next. I really want to take a slice off of it at its current size. Not an easy thing to do. Plus the more I take off of its height the less I have to work with and the harder it will be to reduce. So then I have to ask what I want the end result to be. I could reduce it and make jewelry out of it or leave it large, see how many slices I can get out of it and make wall art. Maybe both? Decision! Decisions! Of course there is no greater fear than to put that much work into a cane and either screw up the reduction or take the reduction too far and lose the effect or the details. I am also worried about the gaps between the mosaics. Of course I tried to eliminate them as much as possible but I know that there are gaps. Stay tuned to find out what I end up doing next.