luck o' the irish

I'm up early on this Saturday morning. My house is nice and quiet...for the  moment. I think I'll savor it for awhile. Yesterday I received a nice mention from Cynthia Tinapple on Polymer Clay Daily regarding my scalloped heart cane - thank you! I missed it entirely when I perused over the post in the morning. What a nice surprise to find it! When I'm making these simple/complex canes I'm trying to think two steps ahead of myself. (I'll tell you about a problem I hadn't considered when I post a shot of the reduced heart cane on Monday.) I reworked the outer edge on this shamrock cane to separate the yellow from the purple. If I didn't add a thin white strip between the two colors I would probably get an undesired brown. Of course I didn't think of this until I had completed the work. So I undid and reworked but I'm glad I took the time instead of getting some disappointing results.

working with canes in polymer clay

So I made some beads with the new cane. I first tried kaleidoscope beads because that's the most fun for me - seeing what the three unique designs will be when I fit the pieces together. I traditionally make triangle canes - especially if I plan on making kaleidoscope beads. Well...I didn't even bother taking photos - they just looked all murky with weird pops of reds and pinks out of nowhere. They looked overly toasted because of that forest green I chose to use. You really have to work on the contrast when building canes because if you don't when you shrink them you lose all definition. And this is why I need to start being more patient - allowing myself several days on a cane instead of trying to squeeze it into one. Carol Simmons is the most amazing kaleidoscope cane artist - I'll bet she's extremely patient and takes the time to work the colors properly. Her site's been under construction for quite a while now. You can learn more about her on Polymer Clay Daily. Anyway, just for the fun of it I added some little pops of color that I felt needed a little help. These beads are kinda cute - not my usual work. But not a total loss. 

I will build a new cane and I will be patient...next week.

cane trouble

I truly enjoy making canes. I'm a little immature though when it comes to building them properly. I get so excited at the prospect and am just dying to see the outcome that I rush them...and maybe I don't make the wisest color choices. When working with polymer clay, sometimes the colors change when the clay is cured. I know this - and I know the particular dark green I was using cures to the color of a deep forest green. This is why I like many other artists like to mix my own colors and rarely use the clay right out of the package. But I was just back from vacation and thought I could outsmart the clay - I only altered the color a bit - softening it up with a bright citrusy yellow. Looks great as a cane, huh? 

new cane

This weekend I worked on a new cane. I just wanted to do something bright and fun. I needed a quick jump start to get me going again. What I really need is to spend about three hours cleaning off my clay table...but this is more fun.