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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 This pendant was made by combining a black polymer clay base and black and white canes together, then drawing the split face onto white polymer clay squares.
The combo has proven to be well received and I’ll be teaching the pen and ink technique along with cane mapping mosaic class at Barbara McGuire and Ellen Prophater’s Woman Creative Art and Jewelry Center in Buford, GA.
For more information and to sign up visit BarbaraMcguire.com . If you aren’t able to attend one of my classes, you might be interested in the other classes offered by some very exciting instructors.
I’ve been working on several pieces to send to Woman Creative. These are a few face Pendants that use Barbara McGuire’s Vintage Hardware door plates Shapes rubber stamp (boy that’s a mouth full), polymer clay and my Pen and Ink technique.
You can order the rubber stamps from Barbara online, or better yet come and join me at Woman Creative on Saturday June 4th from, 11:00 to 5:00 and make one with me. I promise you, we’ll have fun.
I was checking my clipart disks for butterflies to do using my mosaic technique and ran into the moth section and I realized that moths are pretty spectacular. The guy above is a moth, fantasy colors of course. I still have a butterfly on my table and there are some fabulous butterflies as well. I’m going to make a necklace out of this one.
You can learn this technique by signing up for my newsletter (in the upper right hand side of this page) and watching the free 20 minute video tutorial.
Stay tuned, because I’m going to be teaching a full day of this technique very soon. It’s lots of fun and the applications are limitless.
When I came home from Woman Creative – Art and Jewelry Design Center just outside Atlanta, I came loaded down with rubber stamp shapes from Barbara McGuire’s collection. I started playing around with them and because I am so involved with my pen and ink technique I decided to marry the two elements. I, as always have created something I think if incredibly fun and a bit off beat, but I’m diggin’ ’em.
I have tons of old jewelry and buttons and well just stuff (cool stuff mind you) that I’ve be gathering over the years and have decided to continue to use those bits and pieces to accent my work. I’ve added a cool button to the top of the face pendant above.
The pen technique is the one I demonstrate in my video for sale in my Etsy Shop and the shapes are rubber stamps from Barbara McGuire’s collection. The ways you can use the pen and ink technique are endless. Use some of these ideas of mine or dream up some of your own. The sky is the limit and the only thing keeping you from floating away is you thinking you can’t fly.
Okay, okay, you can’t REALLY fly, but you can feel that way sometimes if you lose yourself in your creativity. Stop judging yourself and you will be more than surprised at what you can create. I’m talking to myself as much as to you, I produce things I’m proud of when I make them for the joy of it, not for the dollars I might gain.
Learning to let them go to someone else is the next big stumbling block for me, but I’m doing much better at that too. I can’t wear, look at or hang all the things I make, so I find it much easier to let them go than I did in the beginning.
I’ve also been playing around with whole shapes. I like this girl and really wanted to keep her, but I’m putting her in my Etsy shop. I have ideas for oh so many more. Here I am again, too many ideas and not enough time. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. Maybe I’ll see you then too.
After I posted my girl yesterday, I saw what I couldn’t see while I was working on her. Her jaw was way wrong. I had corrected it a bit while working on her, but not enough. It’s funny how you don’t really see something until you back away from it. In this case taking the photo and posting it, then looking at it later online made me see what I could before.
I think I was excited by how the coloring was coming out and the use of the canes in combo with the drawing and didn’t really want to look at the face.
So last night I operated and she looks a bit better. Thanks for sticking we me through all this experimentation. For all those out there that say you can’t draw…..sure you can, you just have to look harder at what you’re putting on the canvas. We all know when something looks wrongand we can fix it.
Now to fix her nose……:)
P.S. I first was introduced to some of the colored pens I use by Kathleen Dustin. She is the master and a wonderful instructor. If you should ever have an opportunity to take a class with her, you should run, not walk to do it.
I just have been having a fabulous time yesterday and today. Had a dental appointment but there was a terrible storm and I have to drive over an hour to get there, so I didn’t go.
That meant I got to stay and continue experimenting with different shapes to hold my pen and ink and polymer clay.
This was great fun, but it’s still a WIP. Needs beads and a chain. The pen technique is the one I demonstrate in my video for sale in my Etsy Shop and the shape was a rubber stamp from Barbara McGuire’s collection.
I’ll post it when I have it finished. I have several more pieces that I really am excited about and I’ll be sharing those with you too.
On this piece I drew the woman and then layered slices of canes off to one side. I like the way it came out.
I can’t stand to throw anything away, even when things go a bit wrong. I was working on two pen and ink bracelets (using the techniques shown in my video tutorial for sale in my Etsy shop) for Woman Creative – Art and Jewelry Design Center when somehow my oven when crazy and I had a couple of scorched bracelets on my hands. Not totally black, but not fit for sending to Ellen at the Center.
But today as I was taking them off the blanks, I just couldn’t throw them away. So I began to play around with them and I cut them apart and repositioned them on other pieces of clay and I began to really like the antique look of the pieces.
What didn’t work as one of my usual bracelets really did work in a different setting. In the beginning I thought I might want to add some more antiquing to them, but I really like them just the way they are.
I’m thrilled to have saved them and I think I might be on to something else. But that’s the way it is, too many things I want to do and too little time.
I guess what I really wanted to share with you was that sometimes what you think as failure might just turn into success, never give up!
 I started another necklace with fishing Swivels. I had a hard time finding them in my local stores. They were all out of stock. There must be some serious fishin’ going on in this little town.
This is a cane I made several months ago. It was like the cane I made in burgundies and olive greens for my bud or pod necklace. I wasn’t crazy about the orange for another buds necklace, so it has just been sitting waiting to become something.
I decided to use it for another cluster necklace, I think the color will be just right for a dark blouse. Black maybe or brown.
So this is the first step, slicing the cane and baking. I hoped to get more done today, but it was one of those days. But I did make some pretty great southwest chicken in my crockpot. So it was a good day.
If you want to make this perfect for a cold day crock pot dish here’s what you do.
Throw in
one can of Rotel’s (diced tomatoes and chili peppers)
one can of black beans
8 oz frozen corn
chopped green onions
add some to taste
cilantro
cumin
salt
garlic
cayenne pepper
Lay some chicken on top and cook on high for 6 or 7 hours.
Bone the chicken and shred.
Serve in a beautiful bowl over yellow rice. Yum!
Necklace to be continued, supper all gone.
 Fishing Swivel Necklace I bought some three way fishing swivels a long time ago while I was searching a local store for things to use with my clay work. I thought maybe some day I could use these swivels and today was the day.
I can’t show you a picture of the swivel because everything is already attached. I want to buy more and when I do I’ll take pictures before I use them. But they’re cool because they have three loops and by attaching polymer clay to each loop, then to a cord, you end up with an easy to do cluster of color. I can’t wait to try some other designs this way.
 Swivel Necklace More work to be done on this technique, but I’m wearing this necklace tonight to the 3rd annual Wine Tasting. I have sausage and mushrooms on the stove now, my donation to the Italy table. I also donated some of my work and hope they bring a nice price in the silent auction.
It was a busy day yesterday as I uploaded item after item to my Etsy Shop. This Flame Necklace is an interesting piece with large unusual beads.
It will prove to be the same tomorrow I believe. Most of the items I’ve made in the last few months and just haven’t taken the time to do all the legwork needed to get them ready for Etsy.
 Another crazy girlfriend bracelet. She’s a single lady.
 This is one bracelet in a series of 13. I really want to make more of these interesting face canes. Maybe after Christmas.
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