Polymer Clay - making simple canes (part 2)

The slices of cane are now placed on a piece of black clay (rolled out on the thickest setting of the clay roller), as closely as possible.

 Cling film is put over the top and the clay is smoothed out using the acrylic roller.  Putting cling film over it stops the patterns from distorting while being smoothed and joined.

 Here it is after rolling and smoothing.  Hopefully, no gaps left!

 Then it can be cut to shape using a cutter or the blades and is ready to bake.

 The next simple cane is a spiral cane.  I conditioned and rolled out a piece of black and a piece of gold on the thickest setting of the clay roller.

I cut the two piece to the same size, cutting the top and bottom edges with a bevel, so that the clay joins together smoothly.

Just roll it up!

Keep rolling!  You can see there are gaps at this stage.

 Once it is all rolled and the join is smooth, the gaps have all gone and here is the spiral cane.

 It gets rolled and reduced too.  You can make spirals with lots of different layers and colours.

 To create a pendant, I placed slices of both the canes onto a piece of black clay rolled on the thickest setting, covered it with cling film and smoothed the surface, as before.  I then used a cutter (going through the cling film as well), which pushed the pattern down the sides of the pendant.

 Here are the two pendants ready for baking.  They are on a piece of card, on a bead baking rack and then on an old baking tray.  The card stops the backs of the pieces from being shiny where they are in contact with the metal.  I bake them for 30 minutes on gas mark half - the coolest setting on my oven - but different clays will vary so check the instructions on the packet.

Polymer clay will keep for ages, providing it is kept in a plastic (Grade 5) box.  Some other grades of plastic will be melted by the clay.  Just check there is a number 5 in the triangle underneath the box and it'll be fine. Canes that have been made previously can also be stored and used in other projects - you can see some of mine above.  Scrap clay is kept to be used in other designs or as the bases of other beads - there is very little waste.  If this post has whetted your appetite for more, do go and have an internet search for polymer clay artists, as there are some amazing makers out there.  I love using polymer clay as it is very forgiving and can be used in so many different ways - the only limit seems to be the maker's imagination!