Polymer Clay Canes for Beginners

27 videos, step by step, beginner cane workshop beginner Cane Tutorial 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

Catagories

[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="Member IPCA"]Member IPCA[/caption]

Birds Everywhere

I’ve been obsessed with birds over the last few months. (I’m blaming Laura Prohater and Barb Harper, you two know why *g*) It’s all ending with this crazy bird, or maybe its just the tip of the iceberg, maybe there are more of these guys in my future.

Alice Stroppel's Crazy Bird

He’s 18″ tall and I’m either going to frame him or free hang him. I’m working on a hanging solution that will allow me to hang my characters without a frame.

Now the real reason birds have haunted my dreams. I’ve been working on these bird  bowls for an exchange I’ll be taking part in. In the beginning I thought I must have lost my mind to think I would ever finish 26 bird bowls. especially since several broke apart in the oven until I figured out you can’t take the bowl out and add more things and then bake again. I think it was late one night and I was oh so tired. But lesson learned. Alice Stroppel's bird bowls  I really have learned so much about making bird bowls so there might be more on my table soon, or maybe even a workshop at Studio 215.

I used quite a bit of extruded canes with these birds and with my Charming Canes. Looks like I’m on an extruder kick. It fun, effective, and attractive. so what’s not to love?

 

 

 

Charms for an Exchange

Alice Stroppel charm exchange

Some of these charms are made with my Stroppel 2 cane. Here’s the how to! 

Just like the white rabbit, Oh dear, Oh dear, I’m late, I’m late. And like Alice, I don’t quite know which door to open first.

Alice and the White Rabbit

 

I’m going on retreat and just finished the charms for the charm exchange, finishing up the brown bag exchange gift, figuring out what to donate for the auction and washing clothes. Whew!

The stressful part is trying to stay under the 50lb bag limit. Packing, weighing, taking important stuff out and then putting it back in again and leaving out some clothes. I figure I’ll just wear the same thing over and over. Better that than leaving out important polymer clay stuff…..

I was very happy to see that my rabbit and I were featured on Polymer Clay Daily today. Cynthia is spot on today, I feel just like the other Alice running around in wonderland. But I actually feel like Alice more often than not, after all I am Alice. *Grin*

I hope today finds everyone having a Wonderland kind of day. Just stay off the roads if you are. hehe

 

Polymer Clay Cane Mapped Fish Slides

Fish Slides

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on these fish slides for an exchange I will be taking part in. They really have been so much fun and each one is different than the next so I can’t say I was the least bit bored by the number. I still have more to go and hope to finish up in the next few days.

Even though you can’t see it, there is metal leaf on each one of these fish. I’ve recently begun to use the metal leaf with my cane mapping and have some other ideas that don’t involve fish, so stay tuned. By the way you can learn how to map out the use of your old canes by signing up for my newsletter if you haven’t already. Just fill in your name and email address in the spaces on the upper right hand side of this page. I send out a newsletter about once a month and a class up date from time to time.

Okay so I’m not telling the exact true about being bored with these fish. I can say that bored is probably not the right word anyway, I think I get tired of doing the same type of item for a long period of time and have to break it up with other projects or activities along the way. But I’m always excited to come back and make more because they make me smile. Okay so they don’t make me laugh out loud like my girls do, but they do make me smile a lot.

I usually sit down and make five in a row, get them baked and the holes drilled, then I do something else for awhile. Today I am playing around with how to package them. Most of the time in an exchange just including your card  is enough, but I wanted to do mine a bit different this time.

I’ve used cards like this before to display my pins and I think I just might use them this time as well. These are smaller than the ones I’ve used before and I like them better for these smaller pieces.

I have soft wire that I’ve run through the slide and out the back of the card, twisting it together to hold the fish in place. I use a very small hole punch to make the holes so everything looks nice and neat.

The next thing I’m going to play with today is the design of the card. I think it might need some updating, I just signed my name on the top but I don’t think I like that. You never know until you try…words I live by.