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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Polymer Clay Veneer



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A reclaimed table finds new life in my house. It started out as a wobbly table made from solid oak but with a few years and coats of red paint under in it’s history. I brought it home and almost ave up on fixing the wobble, but fortunately my husband, who is not a wood guy, saved the day and came to the rescue for both me and the table. 

I spray painted teal over the red and then sanded a bit here and there. Let her dry and then I was ready to start. I’ve been doing large pieces to frame and hang on the wall and thought why not give furniture a try.

This is the same technique I use for my smaller pieces of wall art too, I call it cane mapping. Laying out a map and filling it with clay.

I started with a smaller table and it worked pretty well so I decided to give this larger one a go. It’s 28″ H 29″ L 18″W.

I start out by making a paper pattern of the top and draw my design on the paper. Then I place the pattern under a large piece of glass and just start laying clay.

Alice Stroppel teal table polymer clay veneerOnce I have a good deal completed I bake it and then move on to the next part of the pattern. I end up with several large puzzle pieces that I then glue onto the table top. If I work on too large a piece I tend to rest my hand on on drop something on the part that was finished and have to redo parts of it, Baking in pieces helps to preserve the work I’ve already completed.

Alice Stroppel teal table polymer clay

I use Liquid Fusion clear urethane adhesive. It dries fairly quickly, but takes 24 hours to completely dry. When I was finish with all the pieces for the top, I glued them together right on the wood.

Then I exuded a matching teal round snake from the edge. I baked it in four sections in roughly the same shape as the edge of the table. I use Premo because it’s flexible and it was easy to apply. However, to make sure it stayed in place, I taped it all around and left it until morning.

Alice Stroppel teal table edge

I don’t add a finish to the top, if I could stand to do it, I might sand and buff it. But until I get myself a do-boy…well…it will just get pretty with age and develop it’s own patina. I feel this way… it’s plastic…water won’t hurt it…you can wash it with a damp rag. The only thing I will do it make sure to use a coaster for hot beverages.  I know the bracelets that I made years ago and wear often have this wonderful feel to them. So I say use it what’s the worse that can happen?

Thanks for all the wonderful words of encouragement, the likes, the shares, on Facebook and thank you in advance for any comments left here.  On to the next project!!!

Follow me on Facebook if you want. https://www.facebook.com/alice.stroppel

Alice  Stroppel polymer clay veneer.

 

Mystery Project


I’ve been having so much fun on Facebook with this project. I posted pictures of the first part of the project featuring six of my girls with the tag line, “Bet you can’t figure out what this is going to be”. So many of you had great guesses and wonderful compliments, I thank you so much for playing along because it made it that much easier for me to continue working on it until it was finished.

Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table

As I continued to work and post pictures you continued to guess.

Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table

It kept getting taller and taller. ……..

Alice Stroppel polymer clay table Alice Stroppel polymer clay table

……until I finally finished it and here is the big reveal…TADA…It’s a table.

Alice Stroppel polymer clay table

I found two base metal lamps at my local thrift  store and combined pieces from each to create this crazy table. It’s very sturdy and well weighted.  You might even classify this project a found object project.

I have a couple more lamps that I bought but they don’t come apart so I’ll see how they work out in the oven.

By the way, I bake in a full size oven that I have in my studio and it was easy to bake this table because is was in pieces. The next ones will be a challenge I think.

I cover a bit of each piece with clay and then bake it so I won’t mess up what I’ve just done. when it’s cool, I add more clay and bake again. I can do this as many times as I want and bake for as long as I want because I have calibrated my oven and I know that it is always on the correct temperature.

So what’s your next big project?

Alice Stroppel polymer clay table

Disaster Averted – Mixed Media – Polymer Clay Table

polymer clay table top - Alice Stroppel

 

I’ve been working on the polymer clay cane mapped top of my little table off and on for days. Right now I’m not able to work days in a row, but can only get to my studio 3 or 4 days a week. So getting this piece finish it taking awhile.

I thought I might not share with you what happened, you know, admitting to a huge mistake and all, but then I decided that you might benefit from my lesson learned. Besides, (laughing) I was able to save it so I don’t look to stupid.

I’d already baked the top once with only the girls on the glass. See last post. I finished the background and cane slices and places it on the table top to see how it looked. I added some more cane circles and then baked it again.

top in progress - Alice Stroppel

 

I added my dot, dot, dot cane around two edges of the baked piece and then a row of black and white check. The reason I only did two ends was because my glass wasn’t big enough to do the other two sides.

I baked it again and I was very happy with the way it was coming along. Then…..DISASTER….I can’t show you pictures, because I had to work quickly to try and save the piece and all my work.

Here’s what happened. I removed the baked top from the glass and put it on a large ceramic tile that I work on. I thought, great, this is just the right size to finish the edges. I added more dot, dot, dot cane and checkered canes to the remaining two edges. I finished off with a larger dot, dot, dot cane.

Fabulous, now to bake it and see how it fits the top. I had planned to figure out the very edges once I could really see how much room I had left.

I considered using an extruded piece that I could bake and then glue in place. I received a new CZeXtruder from Kimberly Idalski and want to try it out on the edge. I’ll be posting more about using the new extruder in another post.

Well………..I put it in the oven, baked it the normal time, the buzzer went off, I opened the oven and the piece was a total mess! YIKES!

Buckling in the center and a couple of other places and so drastically the blonde girl had cracked right in two across the middle of her face and neck.  Circled in white in the picture below, this is after the fix and I’m still amazed a how well it turned out.

Alice Stroppel table close up

I won’t repeat what I thought and said in the minutes that followed……. but I was able to save the entire piece and honestly I still can’t believe it. I wish I had pictures of the before.

Here’s what I did to save the piece. At first I just used a towel to press the bulging clay gently back down. It seemed to help but it wasn’t enough and the pressure wasn’t even. The tile was still extremely hot. I used another tile the same size to place on top of the piece to apply even pressure. I first placed a piece of paper on top of the design, I didn’t want the second tile to create a shine.

I remove the tiles from the oven tray and onto a cooler surface, not a cold one, just cooler. When I had completely cooled I removed the top tile and paper and it had pretty much gone back into the original shape. You can imagine how relieved I was. I’ve ruined many things in my day, but this was the biggest, most time invested piece that I “almost” lost.

I glued it down quickly to my table top. The blonde girl was actually in three pieces, but I put her back together like a puzzle and glued all the pieces in place. You can barely see hair  line cracks and that my friends is the ONLY way you can tell the was a near disaster.

Now, there are two things that may have cause the buckling. At first I thought it might have been because I moved the rack up one level, I wanted to bake another piece at the same time and that put the whole thing closer to the top of the oven, you know, heat rises. And that may well have contributed, but this morning I really think the main problem is that it was on the large tile. I actually had the tile at an angle in a broiler pan and air could get underneath it. But the tile was very hot and I think the glass must not get as hot or maybe not hold the heat as well.

Alicestroppeltabletop1w

I bake in a regular home oven, by the way.

Whatever the reason, I will stick to baking my cane mapped pieces on glass and I won’t move away from the center of my oven.

Here’s the finished top, whew is all I can say. I’m still not sure about the very edges and I want to add more slices to the leg etc. More when I can….

Working on the Top

Table top Alice Stroppel

Step one on the table top is finished. I’m going to love having this table around with samples of my faces. Lots of fun here, great therapy for sure.

I’m constructing and  baking everything right on the glass. When it’s cool I’ll pop it off and glue it to the table top. I think I might have a piece of glass cut to fit to protect it.

See ya’ back here soon.

 

Old Things New Again – WIP

Table with polymerThis is a silly little table that my husband and I used as a telephone table when we were first married. Most of you can relate to a telephone table, but some of you may not remember a time when you had an actual phone connected to the wall.

We had a cord that could reach all the way into the living room. That was the only way you could talk for more than 5 minutes, I could cook, fold clothes, and watch the kids playing.

When we moved to our new house we didn’t need the table anymore. My Mother, Father, sister and brother-in-law bought a three story victorian house together and they had tons of room. The table went to stay with them and now it’s come back to live with me.

I’ve painted it lots of fun colors and have covered the bottom shelf in polymer clay with one of my faces and some of my colorful canes.  I’m starting to work on the top when I have time and I’ll also be adding bits of PC on the legs.

Table with polymer - Alice Stroppel

It’s a piece that has been touched by every member of my family at one time or the other. No hurry on this piece it’s just something that will capture a lovely memory in time and link it to the present.