Retro Pixelated Cane - Bettina Welker

http://www.beadworx.de

Mix at least 5 different shades of a color.
I used light green and blue with 3 mixes  of both in between.

Roll the sheets out on the thickest setting (#1) of your PM and
punch out 4 circles of each color with a cookie cutter that matches
the diameter of the extruder barrel.

Roll out black and white (#1) clay and punch out
6 circles of white and 5 circles of black

Arrange the circles like shown, compress it a little and
feed it (dark side first) into the barrel of your extruder.

Insert the small circle die (2.5mm) and extrude a long snake.

Then lay out the snake like shown in the picture, starting with the light color

Using this amount of clay my snake was around 5 meters long.
With the diameter of the snake being 2.5 mm I now can calculate
the number and the length of the lines I need to build a sheet for the cane.

I needed a cane height of 60 mm for my bracelet tiles.
Again, with the snake being 2.5 mm thick my calculation is:
60mm : 2.5 = 24 lines.  …..  Well I made 25 ;)

To determine the required length of the lines I divided the
5 meters (5000mm) by 25 lines which gave me a length of 20 cm (200mm) for each line.

Makes sense? Are you still with me?

When the clay sheet is done, roll over it with a brayer or
an acrylic roller to adhere the lines to each other.

Then use the blade to lift the sheet up, cut the sheet in half and stack.
Do that at least 2 more times – the resulting cane should be at least 6  sheets high.

I needed to repeat the whole process (cutting out circles, extruding,
laying out, cut, stack) to have a cane big enough to cover my bracelet tiles.

Now reduce the cane a bit, cut it in slices and arrange them on a thin sheet of clay
(I rolled mine out on a #4 stetting on my atlas).

Lay the decorated sheet between two sheets of deli or baking paper
and rub over it with your acrylic roller to close all the seams.
DON’T ROLL but RUB, in order to not stretch out the clay.

Your veneer is done. Now you can decorate whatever piece you like with it.

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