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

Workshops Online with Alice Stroppel

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Old Polymer Clay Canes

I was working on my tutorial, filming, and the lawn man came, too much noise. the phone kept ringing, too much noise. My husband, well his TV just came back from the repair man…..so I just gave up and decided to use up some old canes and make a new mosaic.

I haven’t gotten very far but I wanted to play with colors. Orange and pink? Oh my, but don’t give up on me yet, it is an experiment after all. You never know until you try, and what is the worst that can happen? Nature doesn’t let a little color difference stop her.

Most of these canes are really old and large. And regardless of the fact that they are still usable, they are not as easy to work with the older they get. Yes you can mess around with them and reduce them some to get everything moving again, but it’s more work than I want to expend for these older canes.

They don’t reflect what I’m doing now and I have learned that no matter how much I think I will go backward and use those canes on new work, well it’s just not going to happen. So using them this way, making a large graphic piece to possibly hang on the wall, is an experiment and could let me know if I want to spend time producing canes today to use in this way.

This piece is already 5″ x 7″. I am trying to figure out how to continue to add to it, maybe make it very large, and still be able to bake it in the oven. I am guessing in sections, I’ll keep playing and let you know.

By the way, I’m using the same technique that I use in my video on how to make the fish mosaic that you can see at the top right of this page. You can watch it free by signing up for my newsletter.

It’s funny but I’ve always wanted to make large things from polymer. I think I’m a frustrated clay person with no kiln. But I love the colors with pc and not having to paint later and the instant gratification of pc. But I still can’t get large out of my head.

I made the largest mermaid, seriously, crazy big, baking her in sections and putting her together with bolts and nuts and threaded hardware. She’s 40 pounds if she’s an ounce and over 3 feet tall. I’m looking at her hanging under my stairs and laughing. You can see her on my flickr site if you want.

What wasn’t funny, and this is a word to the wise for those of you who are doing a lot of pasta machine work, I have forever damaged my shoulder from all the “turning of the crank”. Sounds like a  Shakespeare play huh? A tragedy. Do yourself a favor and purchase a motor ………. you’ll be forever grateful.

I guess I will continue to want to do something large with pc, it’s just because I can…….if I just try.

July 11th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: mosaic | 2 comments

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.

August 11th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Canes, Contests, Cuff Bracelets, Lapel Pins, salt and pepper shakers, Vases | Leave a comment