Queen City Clayers

Well we had our Queen City Clayers meeting here in Charlotte last Sat and I taught my poinsettia cane. I believe a good time was had by all. We had hoped for a contingent from Asheville to come to our meeting but unfortunately they had about a foot of snow dumped on them and they couldn't make it. Here in Charlotte the roads were clear so we pressed on without them. I promise to teach them at a later time if they want me to. Now even though I approached the cane as a tutorial and took pictures I had never really "taught" it before and I learned some things along the way. Since many have read the tutorial (and I thank all of those who took the time to leave such nice comments!) I thought I'd pass on a few more tips.

1) OK I know we all have our clay preferences. But really if you are going to cane I would have to suggest that you use Kato clay. Or a least combine Kato with Premo. I know Premo is easier to get at Michael's and A. C. Moore but several brought Premo and to be honest I just don't see how you use it for caning. I think they all get sick of hearing me call it MOOSH! (a new claying technical term) Yes it easier to condition (that's because it's moosh!) Yes it comes in more colors. But really if you are conditioning the clay anyway how much harder is it to add colors together. And trust me the time you spend conditioning is worth it if you canes maintain their shape after all the work you have done! Now to those Premo lovers out there I must confess that I am using Premo more and more. I use it often to back my pieces or when making beads and other stuff. I know there are people who cane with Premo. Kathleen Dustin (who I consider one of the greates polymer clay artists out there) canes with Premo. I would have to bet she leeches tfirst and this takes time when teaching and trying to get something finished in 3-4 hours. CLUMP!!! What's that you ask? That's the sound of me getting off my soapbox!

2) There seemed to be some confusion when it came to assembling the half petal shape. I have a posted a picture which I hope helps explain the process. Cut all of the reduced cane into about nine segments. Start with the smallest piece. put the next largest segment next to it with the flattened side facing the same way. Stack the remaining segments in the same way. I hope this helps.

Well that's enough on the poinsettia cane. You can see pictures from our meeting if you visit our blog QueenCityClayers.blogspot.com. I hope you all enjoyed the tutorial and I'd love to see pictures if any of you made your own canes.I am going back to work on my latest project. I have already worked on it for a week and I'd guess I am about one third of the way finished.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

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.

Poinsettia tutorial part 1

So it's the day before Thanksgiving and the house is a wreck. What do I do? Clean you say? Hell no! I decide to make a poinsettia cane. Well actually five. Then I decide I'd post it as a tutorial to share. Now you certainly don't have to make all of the shade variations but why make it easy when complicated keeps you away from the housework longer.

So to start with you will need 4 skinner blends that are in four shades of red. (dark, med dark, med light and light) Have each blend go from dark to a lighter shade. To make the different shades start with your basic red. To this add small amounts of black and green to make the darker shades or add white to make lighter shades. Experiment. Don't be afraid of mixing colors. Just add in small increments. Make a bulls eye cane with the lighter in the middle. Roll out a thin sheet of clay in a shade darker than the cane.

poinsettia part 2

Take each cane and reduce and stretch it out until it measures around 9 inches long tapering down on one end. Flatten on side so that a cross section has a tear drop shape. Cut into nine segments that are approximately 1 inch long. Combine to make a half petal shape.

poinsettia part 3

At this point you should have four canes in varying shades of red. Dark, Medium Dark, Medium Light and Light. Reduce each cane to double it's length and cut in half. From these you will combine two halves to make the following combinations.

light/med light

med light/med dark

med dark/ dark

dark/dark (you will have to reduce and cut in half again to make this cane)

light/light (you will have to reduce and cut in half again to make this cane)

On the first three canes which I will call "combo canes" I added a tapered stem matching the color of the veins.

poinsettia part 4

Combine equal amounts of gold and translucent clay. Roll this out on the thinnest setting of your pasta machine. Stretch the sheet out to make it as thin as you can. Wrap each cane with this thin sheet. You can see all the canes that will go into making my Christmas poinsettia pins/pendants. My next post will explain how I used these slices.