Polymer Clay Canes for Beginners 27 videos, step by step, beginner cane workshop
What people are saying about this tutorial.
jennifer rose
Just finished this first workshop on how to make canes, and I must say I learned so much. This is exactly what I have been looking for, someone who could explain cane making in a step by step that process that I could replicate. I watched the videos, went into my studio and began to create all of the canes Alice showed. I finally have results I can be proud of, and I say thank you so much for doing this workshop. My only question now is when do we get more workshops. If you are only going to take one online class let it be this workshop. Thank you Alice for your hard work, and your dedication to helping others learn the joys of polymer clay.
Online Workshops with Alice Stroppel
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 Florida Gulf Coast Polymer Clay Guild Once again I had the pleasure of showing this great group of women some of what I’ve learned about polymer clay. This is the Florida Gulf Coast Polymer Clay Guild in Palmetto with some attendees from other guilds around the state.
Thank you Sydney Carter for all your planning and thank you to everyone for the delicious potluck and continuing to want me back.
Everyone got right into my cane mapping technique and I think they all really enjoyed what they made. I know I was delighted by the work, it really makes my day to see the level of work and the fun that’s happening.
I taught this group about 6 months ago. We had a cane class and I showed everyone my crazy ways of making canes. I sent everyone home with homework. “Go and make Canes!!!” They did with great results.
This is the follow up class that shows just one of the many things you can do with the canes you made recently, little bits of left over canes and the canes you might have had in your stash for years.
The Premo clay for this class was donated by Polyform and we were all thrilled. Now we will reveal how grateful we are for the clay and what we’ve made with it all. Many thanks to Iris Weiss and Polyform. You can also visit Polyform on Facebook
Here’s the results, I know you’ll agree that this is one talented group. ( I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of Geri Costello’s, I’m hoping she’ll send one)
 Sue Garland  Sandy Grace  Judy Northrup  Carol Knapik  Christine Keyworth  Bonnie Anderson  Annette Cannariato
WIP – almost finished
 Sydney Carter  Starr Payne  Jill Hennessy  Patsy Monk  Christine Kacmarek
 I’m working on another large flower polymer clay cane mapped painting. 21″ x 27″! Having fun as always.
This is my newest adventure, I pushed myself to create something large and more complicated than in the past. I used my Cane Mapping technique with an added twist.
It’s a large piece, 19″ x 27″, framed it’s 20 1/2″ x 28 1/2″. I bake my polymer clay in a regular kitchen oven, but even so I had to construct it in pieces like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
After baking a pieces, I constructed the next piece on a piece of glass and by fitting it to the last piece. I placed a roughly drawn pattern behind the glass, but as you can see by this picture, I didn’t follow it exactly.
I continued this way until all were pieces were baked and then glued them to a back board. Actually this board came with a frame I bought. Here’s a look at each step as it was completed.
After completing and taking a picture of this step, I realized how disjointed some of the yellow flower petals looked. So before I baked it, I made some corrections.
Not completely satisfied, but knowing this was as good as it was going to get, I baked it and moved to the next section. Once again I used my and for size reference.
And once again the finished piece. I certainly learned a lot and look forward to making many more.
I just have to tell you …. I love teaching …. and …….. I love teaching new caners. The smiles and looks on the faces of the ladies in my class this weekend at Beads F.O.B. in Sarasota just put me in a good mood for the next month at least.
Thanks to Karen at Beads F. O. B. for keeping all the paperwork straight and Marty for all her work and for letting me come join the fun. Looks like I’ll be going back to teach again soon so check back to see when you might be able to come join us.
We made so many canes and turned some of them into beads and some into pendants, I’m only showing the pendants here.
Joan was having a great time and already had plans for a volunteer project and began working on it before class was over.
 Marlene I heard this high little yell from Marlene and wondered what was wrong. It was all excitement at her table, she had just successfully reduced that little leaf cane and was tickled with herself. It reminded me of the first time I reduced a cane and all the possibilities that were running through my head.
 Marty Marty made earrings and enjoyed the whole creative process. She is one fun polymer clayer.
 Lois I looked up one time to see the biggest grin on Lois’ face. She had just made several successful canes in a great combo of colors and I could see the wheels turning behind those smiling bright eyes.
 Christine Christine said she couldn’t go to sleep the first night and couldn’t wait to get back to work on her canes on Sunday. Her enthusiasm shows in her work.
 Cathe Cathe’s work is big and bold. Her color combinations are bright and work so well together.
I’m so sorry that Marina had to leave early and I didn’t get a picture of her work.
(two days later, update) Marina sent me a picture of her work, I’m so happy to be able to include it. I just didn’t feel right for her pieces to be missing. Thanks Marina!
 Marina Montagut I love how everyone created their own colors and Marina loves to do mini piece. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.
I also didn’t take a class picture. We ran over time, we were having so much fun, and people started to leave before I remembered the group photo. Thanks to all my student, I really appreciate how easy you made it to show you what I know, it was great fun.
I had this portrait idea in my head for awhile now and thanks to an idea nudge from a flickr friend I finished this girl last night. It’s a portrait mirror, I just covered the mirror part because of the reflection.
I’ve been having fun trading with new friends on ficker. I traded with Doreen Bell, an amazing Mosaic Artist, you can see her work here on Flickr. I traded several of my girls for a project she wanted to work on involving a mirror and the Seven Dwarfs of menopause. Here’s the crazy funky wonderful “Libby the Librarian” a hand held mirror Doreen created to make me laugh.
And you just gotta laugh at this girl. She’s even reading Alice in Wonderland.
Anyway, my girls on a mirror, I thought hmmmm sounds interesting, so I borrowed her mirror idea, thanks Doreen, and created the girl above. We Never Stop Blooming.
The other fabulous mosaic artist that I traded with is Laura Pattison in Spain. She wanted a crazy business card holder and I wanted one of her famous rainbow mosaics. I think we are both happy, I know I’m more than thrilled. You need to check out Laura’s work here on flickr
So that’s what I’ve been up to, plus a hundred other things, *g*. Have a great week-end.
I started out yesterday to continue to list more items in my Etsy Shop, but ended up here instead. I had this idea…..I know, so what else is new? I’ve been wanting to make larger items to hang on the wall for quite some time. The clay part of this one is 8″x 10″
It was another one of my wild ideas that turned into The Most Fun. I find that when I let go of the goal of making something to sell, I enjoy myself so much it makes me laugh out loud and realize that I should Never, Ever, Worry about sales. There are many things that I would do differently, but I learned alot and had a ball.
But taking sales out of the equation is a hard thing to do since it’s what I’ve done all my life. And now is really no different, I have to sell things, it’s just the way it is.
I’ve always known that letting go is the best way to create, I just have to keep remembering it. This one was for me…..however, I was thinking about turning this into a greeting card…….(grinning here) ……….. what do ya’ think?
 Tropical Leaves I’ve been creating tropical canes. I’m going to do several color combos but I made one skinner blend and it resulted in these canes. I went ahead and made these different canes with the same colors just to record what I did. When Laquita Cater was here, we were looking through my canes and she asked how I made some of my tropical canes and to tell you the truth, some were so old (or maybe it’s me that so old) that I couldn’t remember exactly what I’d done and certainly not how I reached my mixed colors. So I’m kind of on a mission at Laquita’s request, to create a tutorial of tropical leaves and plants.
I do want to show how to use one skinner blend to end up with all these diverse canes. I’ll be choosing the different color combos and maybe listing several of them in the tutorial.
Just looking out my window gives me lots of inspiration, plus there is always the internet with tons of pictures of tropical plants. So I’m off to create.
 Leaf Cane- four ways Yesterday I worked on colors, today I blended and cut and shaped polymer clay into one main cane. I cut the large cane in half and then cut that half into three pieces.
The first piece I shaped it into the first leaf and you can see how I shaped the other two pieces. I now have three different leaf shapes to use and all from the same cane.
Then I cut another piece from the original cane and cut and formed the bud/pod thingy. Not happy with the white part, but I’ll fix it later.
I love the way the colors make me feel. As I blend, I can feel myself getting excited about the way things are beginning to look. That’s what keeps me coming back for more, the excitement of what’s just around the crank of the pasta machine.
Now on to making more leaves and things to go with these so I can get excited about putting them all together to create something else. Sweet!!
I am so happy to have figured out my new phone that is now my hotspot for connecting to the internet. Actually it wasn’t the phone that I had to figure out, it was the adapter for my Mac. Three weeks of round and round until I found the right tech guy that knew that all I had to do was change one little setting. Man, sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it all. Then right away, I decide it is. So Yea, back to normal maybe.
Here is the newest listing to my Etsy Shop.
 Sonia I’ve been making some different flowers and leaves lately and you can see some of them on this bracelet.
 Sonia side 2 This Bracelet and the ones from the last month or so are more dimensional than my other bracelets. I kind of like them chunkier. They are interesting to wear.
 Sonia side1 I like the soft colors for a change too. I like how Barbara McGuire creates that soft look. However I don’t use as much translucent as she does. I used her newest stamp sheet on this, it looks so good and adds just the right touch. Of course, this is the face cane I made in Barbara’s class.
 Experimental Flowers I love the way these flowers and leaves turned out. I had this idea while making the face cane. I can’t wait to use them on something else.
 Flowers and Leaves I made some canes that look like caladium leaves and want to make something for the Caladium Festival Poster contest in Lake Placid. Lake Placid is just south of us and is the caladium capital of the world. They are truly a colorful beautiful plant. Let’s hope I get around to it.
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