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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.  Member IPCA |
 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.
 Two Girls Salt and Pepper Shakers A Beautiful day. Only finished two girls for one sale item. Lots of canes used on these girls. Also worked on the face cane tutorial and enjoyed the lake and the day late this afternoon.  Two Girls Salt and Pepper Shakers Back  Blonde Profile Cuff Bracelet  Blonde Profile Cuff Bracelet Side View Why don’t we say “blonde headed girl” ? We say Red headed girl..so why not brunette headed? I swear I really don’t have too much time on my hands. I am just surrounded by these girls and now writing the directions, they are all I think about. I’m trying to make at least 4 girls a day, plus work on the instructions and video script. It’s working, but the problem is the weather has changed. Oh it’s still hot, but a cool front came through last night with a cooler one coming in a day or two. They say “cold front” I laugh and say “cool” It’s like when the stores start putting out sweaters in August to get ready for fall. I want to yell, “we are in Florida, it will be in the 80s until after Christmas.” and besides that, they take way all the shorts then too. Crazy. Okay off topic. The point is I want to just go sit by the lake and read…….  Polymer Clay Face Cane Bracelets I made another profile face cane this week. I am working on a tutorial to sell in my Etsy Shop. It’s coming along and I hope to have it ready soon. In the meantime, I’ve made some bracelets with it and another mermaid with the older cane. This mermaid is going to one of my galleries and the other bracelets are going to be sold on AliceStroppel.Etsy.com To photograph these ladies, I used the background in the pdf that I gave you in the last post. These girls are truly crazy and funky, but I have to tell you, they do get attention. One of my customers emailed me to tell me her sister was forever borrowing hers. I love that!  Polymer Clay Mermaid Cuff Bracelet Okay I’ve figured my time and materials and have listed my mermaid bracelet in my Etsy store, I’ve listed her for a price of $60.00. She is all clay, no other materials were used. I don’t have a metal base on the bracelet like I do on most of my other ones. However, there is much more clay used. The clay itself wouldn’t amount to very much money, maybe $4.00 or so, but the time that has been spent on the canes amounts to about 4 hours total. Plus the baking cost and spending time on the photos. Yes, I have some canes left over, but the point is, without spending that time in the first place, I wouldn’t have the canes to make my mermaid, so I’m generous in figuring the time spent. Then I add the time spent on the mermaid bracelet, about 2 hours and I come up with about 6 hours to get this bracelet to my Etsy shop. So, at the price of $60.00 minus $4.00 for the clay and $4.00 for the oven, that leaves me $52.00 for labor. Divide $52.oo by 6 hours and I will make 8.66 per hour. Hmmm. Oh I forgot, I still have to list it for $.20, then I have to package the bracelet nicely to send to my customer if it sells and drive to the post office. Then I have to pay a commission to Etsy, and one to PayPal. Plus I have to spend time on my blog, Twitter, and Facebook to make sure everyone knows I’ve posted a new item. But I still don’t have the “right ” customers linking to my blog, Twitter and Facebook. By that I mean, unfortunately, other polymerclay artists aren’t really interested in buying my polymer clay creations, they have their own. If the item doesn’t sell right away on Etsy, people suggest that you re-list your items over and over. Just figure out the right time to re-list when the most people are on the front page of Etsy and there you go. What??? I know it probably works, but I’d rather spend time making something. But I do like Etsy, I’ve had a few good sales and I’m happy. But I want to branch out further and continue to find galleries and shops to take my work. Back to the money…..So now that $8.66 per hour isn’t looking very fat. (Not that it was a ton of money anyway) But that’s okay. I enjoy making my items and I really like it when other people buy them and I know they are enjoying them too. If I sell it wholesale, because I could by the way I priced it, I would divide the 8.66 in half. Leaving me with $4.33 per hour. Not even minimum wage. But I don’t have to do anything but get it to my retailer. With my items I can send them by mail and send several at a time. I’ve made the seconded mermaid bracelet, using the same canes. this bracelet took less time because I already had the canes, increasing my profit somewhat. Providing they both sell. I’m going to send this one to a gallery and see which one sells first. I’ll let you know. Part 1 Selling Your Polymer Clay Artwork  Polymer Clay Mermaid See what happens when I start thinking about merchandise for galleries on the beach. I was mixing colors and making canes for leaves and plants for my flamingos and started thinking about my fish mosaic. I ended up with a mermaid…………….. When I mix my colors, I try to mix them with the same amount of grey to get my base color and then add white and skinner blends. I am looking at the book Color Inspirations and am interested in play with the “mud” idea too. But for now I’m mixing grays with my color blends to get a muted result. Then I make different canes using the mixes and Skinner blends. When I’m ready to work on a project, I have canes that blend and go together nicely.  Polymer Clay Mermaid Close Up
I used the coral Skinner blend in each of the canes. Sometimes as the main body of the cane and sometimes as accents. Her hat was leftover bits of mixed color and Skinner blend. It didn’t make a very big cane and I only got six slices off of it, but I only needed four to make her a smashing hat. I used the other two slices on a fish bracelet I’ll show you in the next post. Watch my video Don’t Waste That Little Bit of Skinner Blend to learn how I use even scraps of Skinner blends to make usable canes. I used the same method to build this mermaid as I do for my fish mosaic except I’m layering the canes instead of butting them up next to each other. It’s less labor intensive, but doesn’t create the same level of sophistication as the mosaic work. It just depends on what effect you are trying to achieve and how much time you want to spend. To see how I do my mosaics, just sign up for my newsletter and watch a video for free. I love these blue bottles and I’m quickly running out of them. Here’s one I did for a fund raiser at Highlands Art League. It made $135 for the league. I was delighted as there was some incredible art work auctioned off that evening from some very talented artists.  Polymer Clay Wine Bottle  Project Idea How funny is this? I haven’t had much time to work on this new project. The Fish Mosaic Contest entries were coming in and I was having fun and other life stuff got in the way. But part of “in the way” was having to clean off some shelves in my studio. I save everything, much to my husband’s dismay. The box in the picture is “the box” that I think everyone that shops at Sam’s club here in the states bought as a Christmas gift “for that person that you have no idea what to buy” It’s a funny gift full of little candies that look like little bottles of liquor. When I saw the box, I was going to throw it away, but I thought maybe it might make an interesting addition to my “project”. I need to cover up the liquor logos, add some back ground or something else to the clay. But maybe this could turn into something fun! OR maybe not. (This may just turn into one of those projects that goes on for years.) Tell me what you think. Should I continue, or forget about it? Fish Mosaic Contest Winner to be announced on Friday. You’re gonna love it. If you are new here, don’t forget to look at my videos. Just click on the link on the left hand side of the page or at the top. Or for the Fish Mosaic tutorial, just join my email list at the top right hand side of the page.
Yesterday I made a face cane in profile. I’ve made canes like these before and made several vases, postcards, canisters, and oh I don’t know what else. I either gave them away, donated them or sold them. And I didn’t take pictures of them. I regret not taking picture of things in the beginning. If only just to see how far I’ve come. Anyway, I’m play around with the profile here. Same cane different hair styles. I have some other ideas that I’m going to work on today. If you haven’t already, be sure and check out the Fish Mosaic contest in the last post. |
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