Why should the kids have all the fun?
Following Bob Wiley’s tutorial from Polymer Cafe, I made a few Jacob’s Ladders. I concentrated on the mechanics this time but will work on a cleaner finish for the next batch. The toys were a big hit at Christmas.
My daughter selected the bunny theme on the above one. The black edged one has floral canes on one side and a 4-colour MG pattern on the other.
In the interests of full disclosure – I make and sell canes. I also use other peoples canes in my work even though I make quite good canes.
I think a lot people don’t realize just how much you can get out of one small sample of cane – I’ve picked one ounce or 30ish grams.
I mostly make two types of canes – canes with translucent backgrounds, used to layer over a base, often on beads and canes that are meant to be sliced like cookies and used as slices, for buttons, beads or scrapbook parts.
Here is a photograph of 1 ounce of translucent canes(that’s one half pack of clay):
The first half of February has me with hearts on the brain. See, Valentines is not only a super-hyped holiday but my birthday. So I indulge a bit.
That and swirlies can easily be squished a little into a shape other than lentils -
The heart on the right has a little metal leaf swirled in to it. The scanner didn’t capture the subtle (I sanded most of it off, oops) flecks well but it would seem surface inclusions swirl right along with everything else!
Stay tuned over the next week or so – I have more heart related goodness coming up!