Do you know what canes are?

You might think of a walking stick when you think of canes, but if you are into polymer clay, you'll know canes are something else!

Canes are a way of creating patterns and designs in polymer clay. The idea is that you pile up the colors in a pattern, then stretch out the resulting pile into a cane, compressing it until it gets longer and thinner, melding the sections together. The cane can then be sliced and the pattern used repeatedly. The results are amazing.

 Look at these earrings by Marie Segal. Marie created these patterns by making canes and sliced them to reveal the design. Then the slices were used to construct the earrings.

 

Now take a look at this guy:

His clothing and feathers are made from patterned polymer. Cool, right? The bird was created by Dawn Schiller.

Here's a detail of the patterns. Dawn and Marie got together with this character and made a whole class out of it! One artists teaches you how to sculpt the head and legs, the other, how to make the patterned canes, which are used to finish Thomas T Bird!

You can learn these techniques by clicking REGISTER!