Shaded Leaf Cane
My favourite leaf is one that has a subtle Skinner Blend type shading that makes it look 3D-ish. If you’re careful to make the grading in the blend smoooooth and subtle you get a lovely, sophisticated leaf cane.
The colour I like to use is Fimo Classic’s leaf green blended to almost white. It makes a nice neutral green leaf that works well with many shades of flower canes.
Materials
You will need:
- A 2 or 3 oz Skinner blend plug
- 1 to 1.5oz of a darker shade of your blends dark value
- A sharp blade, a ruler, a pasta machine, a work surface
Steps
Take your blend and slice from a point slightly offset from the edge to the diagonal slightly offset from the edge(fig. 1).
Flip one of the parts of the blend over (fig. 2). Gently round the two blend parts into half oval shapes (fig. 3)
Slice each side into piece at an angle. Make 3 cuts in each. Into each cut, insert a slice of your darker shade for your leaf veins(fig. 4). Compress to heal the slices and neaten the parts up so they’re equal sizes.
Next, made a thin wedge shape of your darker shade and insert it between your two half leaves. Insert the wedge, compress the parts to make a neat leaf shape. (fig. 5)
Finally, if you like, outline your leaf with a sheet of your darker shade. Smooth it out and trim any loose edges(fig. 6). Voila! a shaded leaf cane(fig. 7).
Some Examples
A few of the leaves I’ve done with this sort of shading can be seen here:
