I have (easily) 200 different canes in my stash, of various size, design and colour. Sometimes, I dig out a bunch and make clay fabric. The clay fabric gets used on any sort of item that has flat surfaces like pillow beads, cutter beads and pendants or pens.
When I’m dreaming this stuff up I usually work from one of two directions. I either unify a sheet by colour or by pattern. I use the term ‘unify’ loosely here, the idea is to use canes that may not otherwise get out to play much!
First, here is an example of by pattern. One section is of my current stock of mums and the other of roses, sliced and placed on a black base. Though the colours vary greatly, the pattern still ties the sheet together. The shapes are similar and the eye appreciates that.
Second we have a few of my by colour pieces. Black and white, coffee tones and accents and blue-greens. The colours are picked from a variety of sizes and designs but limited colour ways.
To see some more of the clay fabrics I did with this run take a look at my flickr. Next up, a lot of items! These pieces look small but after the slices get smoothed in and the sheets flattened on the pasta machine, I imagine there will be enough to make many dozens of items just from these few sheets.