Polymer clay - making simple canes

A while ago, I said I would post about making simple canes with polymer clay and I thought I had better get on with it!  (It is quite a long post, due to the number of photos, but I'll split it into hopefully manageable chunks).  Firstly, polymer clay is a non-toxic material, made of tiny particles of PVC, pigment and a plasticizer.  It needs to be baked at a cool temperature to harden.  You can use a domestic oven to bake it in, but use a baking tray just for your clay and cover it with foil when baking to ensure the material doesn't get onto the oven.  Although it is non-toxic, you need to have tools that you keep just for clay work - don't use the same tools for cooking and clay.  Above is a basic selection of useful/essential tools.  From the top left: a clay roller (for getting lovely thin sheets of clay), an acrylic sheet (for rolling/flattening), a cutter, an acrylic roller, cutting blades (extremely sharp), and some polymer clay.  The materials are sitting on a ceramic tile which is an ideal surface to work on.

 There are lots of brands of clay out there, but I use Premo by Sculpey (ranging from around £1.95 to £2.50 for a block like the one above (about 57g).  This brand is marked into four pieces, which is helpful when you only need some of the block.

 The first thing to do is to condition the clay by rolling it in your hands and warming it up.  It will become more malleable and easier to work with. 

 How do you know when it is conditioned?  The piece above has broken into two when folded over, so is not ready yet.

 Now it's ready - it is smooth and folds nicely.

 (I changed to black clay here, so that you can see it against the background.) It is being rolled out before being put through the clay roller.

 Here it is on the thickest setting, on my roller, number 1.

 Here it is after being rolled on number 5.

When you put the clay into the roller, make sure any fold is put in first, otherwise  air bubbles could be trapped in the clay.

 A sausage of pearl clay is wrapped in a thin layer of black clay.

 It just gets rolled up and the clay is cut with a bevelled edge to join together.

 The bulls-eye cane (that's the official name of this type of cane) is rolled to reduce the size and then cut into small lengths.

 I made another cane with gold in the middle and this has the black and white canes placed around it.

 It is rolled to smooth the surface and make sure the clay is all stuck together.

 It is then reduced by rolling it with a piece of acrylic.

Then slices are cut from it and can be used to make a pendant...

My 400th blog post - Polymer Clay: I'm hooked

 My polymer clay journey has been progressing very happily and I can now say that I am hooked on it.  I have used my clay rolling machine which makes blending colours and rolling nice thin backgrounds a doddle.  Above is my other new piece of equipment which is my absolute favourite - an extruder.  You cut out little circles of clay in whatever colours you would like, place them into the extruder tube, choose a shape, in this case, square, which goes onto the front and then turn the handle.  The clay is magically turned into a long cane which, when cut, reveals the most gorgeous patterns which alter all along the cane.

 Here are the lovely purple patterns made by the extruder, placed on a base and ready to be made into jewellery.

 More patterns, including fuchsia pink shades.

Here are a few of the finished pendants which just need attaching together, and putting onto a necklace.  I am so pleased with the lovely patterns and what is even more lovely is that they are all original because I don't think I could mix exactly the same colours, or put them into the extruder in the same pattern again.  I can see this turning into a bit of an obsession...

My first polymer clay pendants

Well, here they are - my first ever attempt at polymer clay pendants.  I am really quite pleased with the way they have turned out.  I used bulls-eye canes, spiral canes and foil.  The cooking went well too and I didn't burn them, which was something I was a little concerned about.  I am sure that as I get more used to working with the clay and adept at making, I shall improve.  I really enjoyed the whole experience.  I am now waiting for my clay roller to arrive, which will make rolling out lovely thin pieces of clay a doddle to do.

I thought I should include the aftermath of my creativity - the remains of various canes, bits cut off, bits with foil, mixes of colours and three half-used blocks of clay (I haven't used the blue yet).  I'll post other photos of other projects as I embark on them.