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.
I didn’t get the video uploaded, but I still have hopes that my connectivity problems will be solved soon. I’m happy to be able to upload a couple of pictures of another finished bracelet.
Actually, I’ve finished all 13 bracelet made from this face cane. I like this one because of the blue flower. It really stands out when you wear it. I always give my bracelets a test wear, I wore this one yesterday to the bank, grocery store and a neighborhood party.
The woman at the bank noticed it right away and told me how much she liked it. A woman in the grocery store made a comment and several people at the party couldn’t get over the fact that it was all clay and no paint. We all run into that I know.
I’ll be listing several more in my Etsy shop this afternoon. Next week, it’s on to another face cane like this one only better. (saying that with my fingers crossed) I learn from each try and hopefully get better as I go.
I spent hours messing around with this face cane. I finally decided I wanted to move on and start all over again. So I quickly added lips and called it a day. It not exactly what I had in mind. But I learned a lot and will begin experiment #2 on Monday. This is the first slice.
But as usual with my face canes, she has grown on me. So I added hair, a neck and some old pc butterfly wing. Nothing is baked and her shirt is just a piece of skinner blend I threw on there for the picture. With this cane I was trying to get a folk art angel look, it’s almost there, but I’m not finished yet. (that’s funny, I probably will never be finished, what a silly thing to say. )
Face Cane with Hair - Alice Stroppel
Even though I wanted to move on and start another face cane, I couldn’t resist playing around by adding the wings. And possibly tomorrow, a halo. Anyway, I’m good with her, I learned…so on to the next step. Oh by the way, part of the reason what I wanted to achieve didn’t quite happen is she’s just too big. with hair and neck she’s about 7″ long, now that’s big. The next one will start smaller.
Okay guys, here’s a peek at what’s on my work table. A new face cane with a new look. I don’t want to show you everything I’ve done yet because I’m still working out colors. I think it looks kind of painterly don’t you?
That’s it for today and I’m going to try to stay away from the net so I can get those colors mixed.
This is one of the masks that I made for the mini mask pin swap at this year’s Orlando Clay Fandango in Florida. The Orlando Area Polymer Clay Guild had lots of fun things planned for us to share with each other plus several competitions. I ran out of time and only participated in the mini mask swap and the brown bag swap.
Mini Masks by Karen Hampton, Pat Ghadbane, Kathryn Peters
I received these three fabulous mini mask in exchange for three of mine. I saved all the names, but somehow lost the name of the woman who made the mask on the bottom. If anyone from Fandango know who made this mask, I’d love to list her name, so let me know.
Update…. Mystery solved, Katy commented on this post to let me know it was her mask. Whew, I’m glad that’s taken care of. I didn’t like losing her name. Thanks Katy.
Brown Bag Swap - Bracelet by Pat Ghadbane
I was lucky to win two beautiful items from Pat Ghadbane. Isn’t this bracelet lovely? I love the beads on the end and the button closure. I’d say I was lucky all the way around and came home with some fabulous artwork from some talented women.
I’ve been playing around with this technique and I’d like to share with you. The picture above is the bracelet from yesterday’s post. I’ve fixed her face.
The picture below is my daddy’s prototype for a hair color box. I didn’t realize until this morning that I was copying my father. It’s signed on the bottom of the box, E. Lamar Simpson, 1950, the year I was born.
E. Lamar Simpson. 1950 prototype Hair coloring box
It sits on one of my book shelves in my studio. I love it when it draws my attention like it did this morning. People always ask an artist where they get their inspiration. I’d have to say, everything I have ever seen. I think it is all stored and show itself when you are ready.
My Dad did a weekly cartoon for our local paper and I’d spend time watching him as he drew.
I wasn’t thinking of this box when I drew my girls. I wasn’t looking at it, but the technique is amazingly the same.
I began covering my bracelet with black clay. I layered the black with three rectangles of white equal distances apart. On the first bracelet I made, ( Can You Guess?) that was all I did. This one I added pieces of my zentangle canes.
Next step is to bake them. When they were completely cooled, I drew on the white clay. I used a black Micron Pigma pen. Size 01. For the lips I used red.
I always use this pen to sign my work and heat set it with a heat gun, being careful not to burn the clay. There was too much surface to cover with the heat gun (or maybe the truth is I just don’t have the patience) and when I wore it for a test run, the girl in the picture above had her lips smear. I sanded the bottom half of her face and redrew it with the pen.
This time I preheated the oven and put it back in for 5 or 6 minutes. That should take care of heat setting it evenly.
However, I would suggest, if you are happy with a part of a drawing, go ahead and heat set it with your heat gun. If you don’t, you run the risk of smearing it as you move on the the next section.
That’s it. It you use this technique, I’d love to see what you come up with. Leave me link in the comments.
This is my second polymer clay with pen and ink. The first was the other day in this post, Can You Guess? This one I combined some of my Zentangle canes with my drawings.
I finished it last night and wore it all day today. My husband and I went to visit our son in Orlando, so it was in and out of the car, out to lunch and etc. By the end of the day all was well except with the lips of one of the side girls, they had smeared. I should have taken a picture of her before I sanded her mouth off.
That sounds pretty funny actually, looks pretty funny too.
Correction
I sanded way the ink and I’ll start again. I think I simply didn’t heat it enough with my heat gun. I think the answer is to pop it back into the oven for a few minutes. That way I will be sure that everything gets heated. Then I’m going to test wear it again.
I have some other things I want to try too. Some layering techniques. I’ll post more later.
I’m happy to be working with clay again today. I have so many face canes in so many sizes, I wanted to continue to use all of them. So today I went from the very large pins I was doing to these small girls on one bracelet.
I also baked another bracelet with white space waiting for pen and ink. Fun for tonight. Plus an experiment with glitter that I’ll share with you next week.
“and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations”. ( Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll )
Metamorphosis - Meta for short
That’s how I feel about a blog about polymer clay! What good is it without pictures?
I haven’t been working too much with clay over Christmas and didn’t have any pictures to show you. I still don’t. But I wanted to post something, to let you know I’m thinking of lots of things to do and share. So I’m posting something I did 5 or 6 years ago, maybe more (another one of those that I didn’t date).
She was an accident of sorts. The front of her body came about when I ran the clay through the pasta machine. It just accordioned itself to look like a caterpillar to me. Made me think of Alice in Wonderland. So I had no choice but to use it in some way in honor of Alice. Thus Meta was born.
I have never been able to duplicate the way that clay came out of the pasta machine. I wish I could. But I’m happy I made something out of it instead of mushing it up and running it through again.
Sometimes life hands you something that you may think you didn’t want, but if you can look at it from another angle, chances are it’s something you could use after all.
Thank you all for visiting, for commenting and for linking my blog to yours. It’s been so much fun getting to know some of you. I hope to meet more of you through this blog in the coming year.
Have a Happy New Year everyone! It’s going to be a wonderful year!
Actually, I’ve finished all 13 bracelet made from this face cane. I like this one because of the blue flower. It really stands out when you wear it. I always give my bracelets a test wear, I wore this one yesterday to the bank, grocery store and a neighborhood party.
I’ll be listing several more in my Etsy shop this afternoon. Next week, it’s on to another face cane like this one only better. (saying that with my fingers crossed) I learn from each try and hopefully get better as I go.
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