Thursday, August 27, 2009

My Interpretation of the Exotic Flower Kaleidoscope cane



Those of you who have been following along with me on my polymer clay journey already know that my first love with all things polymer clay was caning. It just totally amazed me that a series of very simple steps could come together and make a beautiful cane that could be reduced to any number of sizes and used until the last smidgen is gone. That is a very cool concept!

But I've had two stumbling blocks. There are two kinds of canes that I want to make but for one reason or the other (fear of failure being right up there on the list!!!) I haven't attempted – a rose cane and a kaleidoscope cane. I still have a mental block on the rose cane but I did finally give a kaleidoscope cane a try. It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

In my wandering around the internet, I ran across the blog of a lovely young woman named Rebekah who does polymer clay pictures. She has some very detailed tutorials on her site, Tree Wings Studio, and one was for an exotic flower which she used on a vase. I followed her instructions and here you see the results. Thank you Rebekah for a great tutorial and an inspiring blog.

I used mine for three different kinds of beads. The largest piece, a focal bead, is a slice from the cane at the point that I cut the first piece off. It measures about 1 inch square and is pierced on the diagonal. I used gold leaf around the outside edge to give it a more "finished" look. I set the 1 inch square section to the side and reduced the remaining cane down to about half of that, or 1/2 inch and come some more slices off. I used a piercing pen to pierce the square beads across the middle. I also finished the edges of these with gold leaf. Then I used a scrap clay core and covered them with thin slices and rolled then into round beads. I have a selection of these available at JustBeads.com. Just click on the JustBeads.com banner in the upper right hand corner.

Now if I can just wrap my mind around that rose cane….

4 comments:

Unknown said...

i understand. go to youtube.com and type in polymer clay canes. there are several kaliedoscope cane tutes and its so much easier when you see it done! tee

Rebekah said...

Beautiful work Arlene! You really made my day! I'm so glad you enjoy reading my blog - it makes writing so much fun.

I just posted photos from Lazy Daze on my blog - now you can finally see my clay pictures painted. And I'll be writing more tutorials on all my finished pieces very soon.

Have a wonderful day and good luck with those canes!

Rebekah

Alice Stroppel said...

The colors are wonderful together and I think you did a fabulous job. Now, on to the rose.

The Beading Gem said...

You do lovely work! Loved your pen. Would you consider doing a giveaway too on my blog?