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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 Marilyn Majorette Okay, you caught me. Today, I’m sitting there, working with clay and here comes Marilyn. While I was making this pin, I couldn’t stop laughing, she’s so funny. I was friends with a Marilyn in high school and she was a majorette, in fact the Drum Majorette. She was funny and we had lot of fun doing crazy things. This girl pin reminded me of her.
Okay she could be a ring master for a crazy circus act too. But it made me think of Marilyn, so drum majorette it is. I just listed her in my Etsy shop for only 15.00. What a deal, a pin that you can wear for years to come and I promise you, you will always think of my friend Marilyn everytime you wear it.
P.S. the cane I used for her hat is a cane I featured in my video, “What is a Polymer Clay Cane“. So see, you can make all kinds of crazy things with your canes.
 Girlfriends I listed this bracelet in my Etsy Shop today. A funny little bracelet that would make a great gift for a good friend.
I also listed in my Etsy Shop, the girl pin I posted here the other day.
These aren’t the only thing I’ve been doing. I’ve been making beads from the canes that I listed yesterday and I’m truly excited, I really like them. So stop back tomorrow, I hope to have them finished and ready to show.
 Friday Girl - Laquita Carter Here’s Laquita’s Friday Girl from our Friday clay play day. She had to scan her, I think she’s fabulous and am glad to be able to show you Laquita’s pin.
It really is fun to get together with other clayers and be able to create and share. I don’t have many people here that even know what polymer clay is let alone actually work with it. So it was nice to have Laquita make the long trip to spend the day.
Today was full of yard work and swimming in the lake. Our dog loves to fetch in the lake. Wears us all out but good fun. So, sun and work and some hamburger on the grill, that was today.
Tomorrow is a special day!
My friend Laquita Carter came to visit yesterday and we had another fun clay day.
I had an old small face pin sitting on the table and Laquita said she wished I had some of those for sale on my Etsy site. She wanted to buy that one, but I said, “why not make one”. So that’s what we did.
We both used the same face and came up with completely different characters. Mine is the one shown here and I know you will find this hard to believe, but yet another clay day went by and I didn’t take a picture of us, what we worked on or anything. As soon as Laquita left, I did the slap up side of my head move and almost ran down the road to get her back.
I’m going to email her and ask her to send a picture. The most important thing was that we had a great day and enjoyed and learned from each other.
She even brought me some of two really cool canes she made and some color recipes with chips. That was great, thanks Laquita
I have to put the pin back on this girl and then she’ll go in my Etsy shop. I think I’m gonna make some more. This one is 1 1/2″X 1 1/2″. Little but really catches your eye.
This week has been fabulous and frustrating. So humid all my canes just stuck together like they were magnets and now it’s cool and breezy outside. I like that, the cool part that is.
Good news, I finished my order. Bad news, something was wrong with my oven and several of them had spots on their faces when I took them out. The spots were all the way through and I couldn’t sand them away.
I had quite a bit of time invested in these girls and used lots of canes in the process. In the middle of the night I thought, okay, what can I do with these girls? Freckles are okay on the cheeks, but not down by the chin. I took my Pigma Micron pen and gave a couple of them mask with a bit of hanging fringe. I liked them.
If you want to use the Pigma Micron pens, just be sure to heat set them. The ink will rub right off if you don’t. Either use a heat gun, or pop them back into the oven for a few minutes.
I cleaned the pan I’ve used for years to bake my clay and I hope that that was the problem with the spotting. I also checked the temperature with a gauge, just to be sure.
I have an order in for blue and orange wine stoppers for a University of Florida fan in the oven now and should find out how all my cleaning and checking worked. I’ll let you know.
I still have a several more girls with spots but I’ll have to figure something else out for them as they are the full face girls and I’m not sure the hanging fringe will work. After Christmas maybe I’ll think of something.
Later …I just checked the wine stoppers and they are just fine, no spots. So I guess the lesson for me today is to clean your pan. Don’t know what was on it that could have made spots, but whatever it was, it’s gone now.
I know, you might be saying enough already. Well I think I might just be getting started. Okay, as soon as this order is finished, I think I’ll find some places to go teach. Anyone up for a class in face canes? Leave a comment. Really, I mean it.
Seriously, I’ve been having more fun than I thought I would making these girls. I really don’t like to do the same thing over and over again. Done too much in that in my life. But with the girls each one takes special consideration.
I have to decide what hair color, what color will look right on her and whether she is sweet sassy or showy.
Another wonderful thing that is happening is I’m using up lots of canes and I’ll have to make more. Some of these cane are my favorites and I might make another just like it, and others I’ll be happy to not see them again. Not that they are bad canes, it’s just that I’ve made so many things out of them, I’m ready to move on.
 A few more days to go and I’ll be finished and ready to get to my Christmas doings. After Christmas I’ll start on my next face cane tutorial. Can’t wait.
 But in the mean time, if you want to try your hand at one of these girls, go to my Etsy shop and try my Profile Face Cane Tutorial.
If you haven’t been here before there is a link at the very top of the page that says “Video Tutorials” or just click here.
I’ll be adding more free videos after the holidays.
Let me know what you want to learn, maybe I can help. Leave a comment.
 Polymer Clay Redheaded Girl Pin I’ve been really busy making bracelets and pins like this one. enjoying myself. My mother has been here this week and I’ve enjoyed spending time with her. Worked on more black and white bracelets and pins. Just having a good time. The weather has turned and it’s cool today. What a relief.
I sent out Octobers newsletter today. I know I said I wasn’t doing any pc for Halloween. I know I did…but as soon as I sent it, I was sitting in front on my black and white and gray canes and decided to make a face cane. I need the practice….
This witch was born! I had fun and that’s the point. Probably too late to sell on Etsy, but I’ll put her up anyway.
 Ancient Mystery I Here’s how this started! I was going to shoot a video to share about all the items I found while cleaning that I can use with my clay work.
But as always, I had to clean up my clay space before I could begin. There sat slices of canes that I used in my (not finished yet) Polymer Clay Collage Project…. you’ll see a line of red squares across the bottom. Some were slices that I messed up and then there was this small little piece of cane left.
If you have been following this blog at all, you know me well enough to know that I do not like to make scrap clay. So, I layered the messed up slices with a layer of black #7 on the pasta machine. Then I sliced the remaining cane and added those slices with the black layers in between. Ending up with a new cane.
Why I didn’t start filming this for you, I don’t know, except that I didn’t know that it was going to come out this cool.
I sliced this cane into thin slices and added them to a sheet of black. Then placed the whole thing on my bracelet. It looks pretty good, I liked it anyway.
Then I had just a couple of slices left of this scrap cane (and I’m laughing here)! I didn’t want to scrap the rest of the cane I didn’t use because I liked it.
So I decide to play with what I had left. this next bracelet was the result and I like it way better than the first one.
 Ancient Mystery II I laid the left over slices out on a skinny strip of black and ran it through the pasta machine. It was ragged along the edges and I kind of liked that, so I put it on a layer of ecru clay and covered the bracelet form, added dots and there it was.
It was interesting and fun to experiment and the best part is I made something out of clay that was going to become a gray blob.
But..I still haven’t made the video with the found objects to use with clay. It will have to wait now, I have a special request for more girl bracelets in my Etsy shop, so I better get moving.
I’ve listed the other two bracelets there, so cross your fingers that summer sales will happen.
I made this crazy woman pin with slices of one of my face canes and pieces of my Skinner Blend canes and scrap canes. See the Video in the last post to see how I use even the scraps of my skinner blends to make canes.
I made two sets of canes for the video. I only used one set in the video, but I’m showing both here. I used some of each group to complete my lady pin.
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