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
[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="Member IPCA"]  [/caption]
|
I haven’t been claying, I’ve been beaching…………
I went away for a four day week-end with 6 of my girl friends and we stayed on a fabulous island off the coast of Florida. You can only get there by boat and once there travel around on foot or by golf cart.
The house belongs to a very good friend and I love going there, it is the most relaxing place to be that I can think of. We are all praying that it will stay free of oil from the spill. Both on the inlet side and the ocean side, the water was unbelievably beautiful and clear. We all were so appreciative of everything on this trip, we don’t want to lose it.
Glorious! I got up very early one morning to catch the sunrise. It was beautiful as you can see by the photo and I just had to share it.
I do want everyone to know that the coastline of most of Florida is still oil free and you should come and enjoy it. Tourism has practically stopped here, and we need you to come if you were planning on it. Please don’t stay away because of what you think might be happening.
I also remembered this time to take a picture of the mermaid we made for the our friend that owns the house. On one of the trips a couple of years ago, I brought some fabric and some paint and gave everyone a piece of fabric and asked them to paint something. I didn’t tell them what I was going to do with it until later.
I took all the pieces home with me and made them into the body of this mermaid. I did her face and hair, added a few things of my own and then sent her off to one of my friends with instructions to add whatever they wanted to and then pass her on.
That Christmas, we presented our friend with the finished mermaid. She has lived at the beach house ever since. I didn’t take pictures then, so I was happy I remembered to take some this trip. I thought it was fun and I’d really like to do it again.
 Bracelet
![]( "Bracelet")
Bracelet
I’m so easily distracted. I needed something to go with an outfit and had some cut slices of canes from other projects that I didn’t use and put them together like my fish mosaic (sign up for my newsletter if you want to see how to) and made this bracelet. Baked it and wore it that night. I love that part of polymer clay, the instant gratification.
 Face Cane Focal Bead I was making tropical canes and had a couple of slices cut and couldn’t resist making this focal bead. Just fun and funny.
 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.
Here’s the necklace I made with the focal bead from last week. Fun to make but the other beads aren’t as large as I think I would like. I like big and bold, giant statements to make people take notice.
Tomorrow another experimental day, it’s so hot here in the daytime that I can spend all day claying most days. Too hot to work in the yard or do much of anything outside, so clay wins again.
 Bud Pin I forgot to post this yesterday. I made this lapel pin out of the same canes that I used to make the necklace in the last post. Just messing around and experimenting.
 Pod Necklace I’ve been having the best time over the last few days. I have decided that I am going to do all those things that I have been wanting to do. Okay maybe not all of them. Not enough hours in the day for that.
I’ve wanted to make pod necklaces ever since Kathleen Dustin did her first ones. So this pod necklace, nothing like nor near Kathleen’s fabulous work, never will be, don’t want it to be, but I enjoyed it so much and in the end, that is what matters.
Actually this is more of a bud necklace I guess. Remember, I don’t do jewelry really. At least I didn’t, so I need to work on design, but I smell challenge ahead. Watch out.
 Pod Necklace I’ll tell you what was funny, cropping the picture. I don’t have any clothes for my mannequin and I had to be very careful how I cropped it. Okay, I know I could have used something of mine, but I was lazy and just wanted to take the picture. Besides, she is the size I dream of being and all my clothes would swim on her. That would mean pinning and tucking and well….no.
I have another necklace that I made today using the focal bead from the other day and I’ll post that tomorrow.
 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.
 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!!
 Focal Bead Okay, time to add new things to my polymer clay adventures. I am venturing into the land of beads. Didn’t think I really ever wanted to do jewelry, because everyone does jewelry. Then I found that the cuff bracelet were a great canvas for my face canes and didn’t require a lot of finishing. Which by the way is the most important reason why I didn’t want to do jewelry. I didn’t have the equipment, didn’t really know how to put things together professionally and wanted to spend all my design time claying, not jewelry making.
But the more time I have to clay, the more canes I make and have to use up. I love making canes, they really can be satisfyingly creative. Using them to make focal beads maybe something that maybe able to help me continue to experiment with color and design.
I’m learning about finishing and my friend Laquita said she’d help me with any questions I might have. So nothing ventured nothing gained.
I have this quote on my wall from Shel Siverstien. (Where The Side Walk Ends). I live by it. The only thing is the line that says, “she ate from the plate called TASTE ME and down she shrank so small” is not true in my case! Wouldn’t it be lovely if it worked that way? I taste…right to my waste.
ALICE
She drank from a bottle called DRINK ME
And up she grew so tall,
She ate from a plate called TASTE ME
And down she shrank so small
And so she changed, while other folks
Never tried nothin’ at all
|
|
Comments