Bits of Clay

Kaleidoscope Canes Can Be Fun and Fantastic

Have you ever been in the middle of  a project and started another.  I have and do often.  Bad habit, or am I very versatile, or maybe a little ADHD?    I needed to create a project for a class at White Fox Beads and settled on a kaleidoscope cane in polymer clay.  The cane needed to interesting but not intricate for beginners as well as students who had already worked with polymer clay.  Out comes the drawing pad and start drawing shapes and thinking  how they relate and color choices.  I choice rose and turquoise and created Skinner Blends and wrapped  it w #4  (on your pasta machine)  sheet of turquoise and then in a thin sheet of black clay, lengthened to 8", then cut into two logs each of 4". I wrapped a turquoise log in sheet of  black clay,#5 on your pasta machine.  A simple cane for beginners and interesting enough for students who were already clayers. 

Begin by placing  the two rose colored logs together and pinching the tops into soft edge, then add turquoise log on the bottom and shape into triangle. Lengthen your triangle to 8", cut in the center and reassemble.

Place the two canes like this.

                                                                                                                            

Lengthen cane to 8", cut in center and reassemble.  Now you can put your cane together as I have in the next photo.

    

                                                       

.

Two more canes using these Skinner blends with other configurations.

 Here are the three canes I constructed from the Skinner blends.

                                                          

                                                    

                                       A photo of the finished jewelry I created from two of the canes.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial.  If you have questions, email me : marilyn@bitsofclay.com