potential problem avoided

As I was reducing this heart cane the other day I was a bit worried wondering if maybe I should have over exaggerated the arrow. It's a given that larger round canes reduce a little disproportionately. In the end the core always manages to shrink about a third less than the perimeter. But you can compensate for this by pumping up the volume on the outer walls. I actually like the way this came out in the long run. The plumpness of the heart image – and it's cartoon style – complements the petite little arrow. Lucky break! Maybe that had something to do with the shamrock!

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.