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

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

Lots of Polymer Clay Profile Faces

I’ve been working hard on an order for my face canes. It was rainy this weekend. Perfect for clay and creating, I really enjoyed it. Still have more to go. I just thought I’d share some here.

featherPolymer Clay Profile Face Canepurple-girlbwcollarblue

Etsy Bound Bracelets, Card Cases and Bottle Stoppers

Polymer Clay bangle braceletA funny thing happened. I was so happy that the shop I stopped in while I was in Tampa wanted to buy some of my pieces. So happy I shared it with you. Now I have to tell you that I emailed the shop and haven’t heard a word since.

Polymer Clay bottle stopper front

polymer clay bottle stopper  back

Because of that shop, I realized that there were so many other possibilities out there that I wasn’t looking at. So It’s okay!

I began to look at dress boutiques and other speciality shops. I found quite a few and have emailed several. I’ve heard back from one, but she only carries local artists. she still was a bit interested and asked for some time to think about it.

As you can see, I am still stuck on Zentangle canes. I really have had fun with them.

Polymer Clay business card holder

I did my emailing on Friday and this week end was Halloween, so I’m not discouraged yet. Besides, I still have the whole United States and Canada left….and I’ve started receiving commission checks from Julia’s Art Gallery on Pine Island.  I told you about that trip in September.

Blue Skinner Blend polymer Clay braceletSo all of these items are now listed in my Etsy Shop with more to come. Life is sweet.

New Polymer Clay Face Bracelets

Polymer Clay Face Bracelets

Polymer Clay Face Bracelets

Getting ready to take tons of artwork to a gallery. Been working to get my stock up. I’m taking bracelets and bottle stoppers, perfume pens and face pins. Salt and pepper shakers, letter openers, and card cases. I am trying some different things, I show you when I get them finished.

I also made smaller tags for my items. 1″ x 1  1/2″, half the size of the ones I use for direct sales to customers.  They really look better on most items for galleries. I can’t use my information anyway, so I don’t need as much room.

Talk to you soon.

Polymer Clay Skinner Blend Cuff Bracelet

Skinner Blend Cuff Bracelet

Skinner Blend Cuff Bracelet

Still having fun after all these years! I’m still amazed that there are so many people that don’t know anything about polymer clay. Have never even heard of it. But I guess there are hundreds of things I know nothing about. Okay thousands……Millions? But polymer clay is such apart of my life and has been for the last 15 years, with it the main focus for at least 10, that it’s hard to imagine that there are people that haven’t heard of it.

Even when I wasn’t “into” pc, I had tried my hand at it. In the ’80 I made  fruit ring candle holders. I know I have them somewhere and I’m going to look for them and see if they are anything like I remember them.

Anyway, I’m always so happy to hear from people who have found my blog and say they want to find out more about pc. The more interest we have the more related product there will be. Besides, it’s such a satisfying art form. Anyone can do just about anything with pc. So if  you’re new to pc, go get yourself a few ounces and just play. Find a class near you or online. Do a search online and you’ll find hundreds of free tutorials for you to try.

The bracelet in the photo is a Skinner blend, roller into a plug flatten out and cut into two equal parts and formed into a cane. I cut this cane into four equal part to form the final cane (shown below). I covered a bracelet with a thin layer of black clay, then cut and place slices of the finished cane on top of the black, covering the whole bracelet.

Skinner Blend Cane

Skinner Blend Cane

Okay, cheerleading over. Go forth and have fun! Christmas is coming, gifts to be made. But if you want, I have bracelets for sale on my Etsy site. Just in case you run out of time…….

Blonde Headed Girl 1 – Polymer Clay Cuff Bracelet

Blonde Profile Cuff Bracelet

Blonde Profile Cuff Bracelet

Blonde Profile Cuff Bracelet Side View

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…….

The Case of The Flamingo and The Turquoise Bathroom

Polymer Clay Flamingo Top

Polymer Clay Flamingo Top

I started mixing some truly wonderful greens to make some items for a shop in South Florida. I thought I would try some flamingo things. A bracelet might be good and naturally salt and pepper shakers.

I don’t know why, but flamingos have always sold well for me no matter what medium I was working in. I haven’t ever figured it out. They are so wonderfully tacky, you would think people would avoid them like a bad hair day.

But I have them in my 1970 big, turquoise bathroom along with a really funky painting of mermaids my father did in the sixties, not cute but with that sixties “look”. The flamingos make me laugh, and maybe that’s the answer, they make people happy.

When I say turquoise bathroom, I really mean turquoise. all the walls but one are turquoise, the whole shower, the floor, the toilet,  and the sinks are turquoise, amazing. But there just isn’t anything to be done about it, so we decided to like it.

That leads me to what I did today instead of making fabulous canes out of my fabulous new colors. I painted the one wall and the ceiling of my funky turquoise bathroom. and what color did I paint it you ask? I am ashamed to admit….white. ugh…..Can you believe it. My husband and I don’t seems to agree and so we don’t decide. I believe painting the wall white was not deciding.

But now that it’s painted, I think just maybe, with all that turquoise, maybe white will help the mermaids from trying to leave the painting and run away from home.

The good news is that it is finished and tomorrow I can work on my clay projects.

Flamingo

Flamingo

This is a container I covered several years ago to hold cotton balls. Not a very pretty container, but as I said, the flamingo makes me laugh and it’s functional.

Dora’s Explorations in Polymer Clay Puts a Hex on Us!

Dora's Joy of Hex Cane

Dora's Joy of Hex Cane

Lately, I’ve been following Dora’s Explorations Blog and her polymer clay cane experiments. She seems to enjoy the complicated canes and I understand the challenge.

Her plaid canes are fabulous and there are many more just waiting for you give them a try. She is generous to share these tutorials on her website.

If you want to challenge yourself, take a look at her newest cane tutorial, “Joy of Hex“. It free and the pattern possibilities are endless. Thanks Dora for sharing your talent with us.

New Redheads – Polymer Clay Face Cane Bracelets

Redheads - Cuff Bracelets

Redheads - Cuff Bracelets

I was busy last night with these cuff bracelets. I really had fun! Seriously, I was smiling the whole time. When I took them out of the oven, I laughed out loud. They are are listed in my Etsy Shop. I’m working on a tutorial for the face canes to sell in my etsy shop. This is just too much fun.

I  wasn’t sure if I could use the profile face cane successfully on a bracelet, but I like her, she is really 3d.

I was stuck on redheads, now to move on and do some more blonde and burnettes.

Using Old Polymer Clay Canes

Ancient Mystery I

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

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.

Prizes for Adrienne and a Service Added to my Esty Shop

Adrienne' s Prizes

Adrienne' s Prizes

As winner of the Fish Mosaic Contest, Adrienne Lindsey will be receiving the perfume pen with one of my girls on it and as a bonus, (she doesn’t know this yet) I’ve sent her a note card with her fish on the front. I’m sending her a pdf by email with a layout for two note cards that she will be able to print over and over again. She can sell them, give away sets to friends or just use them herself for thank you notes etc. All she has to add is the envelopes.
(I also did a pdf for Laura Lang’s fish too.)

I’ve added this service to my Etsy shop, for those who don’t have the software to do it themselves. If you do have the software, you should consider using your artwork in this way. It really makes sense, you can sell the original and still continue to make money from the item. That’s what other artists do with prints of their originals. Why not Polymer Clayers? Gotta think outside the box.

I just looked at Naama Zamir’s two fish that she made after viewing the video. They are so cute, they would make darling cards or prints for that matter.