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Tuesday, January 3, 2017

No Loss While Caning - Clean Perfect Cane Ends


Photo courtesy of Desiree McCrorey of Desiree's Desired Creations


The next post is going to be a lot of fun... a New intricate caning technique. But we do have an important issue to address 1st... cane end losses. We reviewed clean angles & seams in the last post, and will now take a peak at how to avoid losing a lot of our beautiful new cane while reducing. With the aide of my favorite tool 'Sculpey White Original' & another (sometimes overlooked) PVA product... good ol' Saran Wrap, you will Always have a clean & perfect cane end with No Loss - WooHoo. IF you haven't read the article on my all-time favorite tool 'White Sculpey Original', you may want to give it a quick read when you have a few minutes. It is important for this technique as well as other new techniques we'll be looking at in upcoming posts.

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Ok, here is a wonderful easy cheesy trick to avoid cane loss while reducing. Although I mentioned Sculpey Original above,,, any clay can be used. The reason I prefer Sculpey Original is because it is relatively soft so it is Very easy to condition so I can keep creating.

The 1st step is to create your cane. This cane can be any size or shape, it can be big & fat as well as square, round, a triangle, etc. Once your cane is created, create a matching cane of JUST waste clay that matches the shape of your cane. In other words, IF your cane is square, create a 2nd white square cane. This isn't fine art, we are simply creating a clay 'plug', so you don't have to fuss much. We want this new cane to match the shape of our original cane and should be approximately 6" (six inches) long.  Cut this 'waste' cane in half so you now have 2.

Once your 'plugs' are created... you will place Saran Wrap over one end of your plug as well as down the sides, covering about 1/2 of the plug and then repeat the process to cover 1/2 of your second plug also.

Now, simply place the plugs you made on each end of your beautiful cane, making sure the Saran Wrap edges are butted up too your nice cane. As you do your cane reduction, treat it as you would if it were a single cane with no additions. Reduce the scrap clay along with your original & when reduction is complete, your original cane will have a nice, clean flush end with no loss. Plus, your scrap clay is still intact, pull off the Saran Wrap & tuck that clay away to reuse late.

Enjoy your clay play today!
ClayPlay Liz

                                     

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