Fave Crafts Blog Hop- Black and White Canes #2 Atomic age influence part 4, and Happy Monday!!

It is time again for the Fave Crafts Blog hop- finished on the 15th.

 You can click on the link/logo to take to you to a Fave Crafts page with all of the other artists participating in this.

Welcome to my site.
I am in the midst of a tutorial on Black and White canes with Cernit polymer clay.
A cane is a method of making images in rods of clay by layering different colors of clay together to form that image.
Then cross sections are cut of those rods and used in many applications like jewelry, and application to many different things like light switch plates, silver ware, glass, and ceramics just to name a few. The possibilities are endless.

It is an adapted technique from ceramic and glass, in ceramics it is called neriagi and in glass it is called millefiori.

You can see a wonderful example of neriagi here by Ito Sekisui V, make sure you scroll down to see the flowered vessel:
http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/ito-sekisui-v.html

Here is Wiki's definition with pictures of Millefiori in glass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millefiori


And now for the tutorial...

Continued from Part 1: http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age.html

and Part 2:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_09.html
and Part 3:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_14.html

You will need:
2 blocks of Opaque White Cernit
1 block of Black Cernit
Porcelain White Cernit big block
Clay machine
Clay Slicing blade
ruler

Links lead to my husband's store http://www.clayfactory.net/.
Thank you for looking or buying, we appreciate it very much. It helps us eat and pay the bills.


Mix the small blocks of Opaque white with equal amounts of the porcelain white.
Then mix the black block with an equal amount of the porcelain white. It will look slightly lighter, but bakes up a beautiful black color.

1. Trim off the ends of your cane (so far).

2. Stand the cane on one end.

3. Add the round cane rods that you cut in part 3 to the block you have standing on end.
They go at the four points of the diamond image.
Trim off the excess from the four round rods.

4. Like so.

5. Roll a small coil of white clay about 3/16" and using your thumb and forefinger press in to a triangle shape.

6. You will need 8 of these as long as your image block is high to go around the small rods in white wrapped in black.

7. Tuck one of the points of the triangle in to the space under the coil, just enough to fill that space, not enough to move it.

8. Press them in like this. I have this turned on its side so I can show you how it is done. You do not want to lay this on the round cane and press it in, it has to be standing so you do not flatten the round rods.

9. Fill all of those spaces on the image block.

10. Roll a coil of white clay that is about 3/4" in diameter and a little bit longer than the length of the image block. Trim off one end so it has a flat edge.

11. Cut the coil in half through the length.

12. Add one half flat side in, to the top right side of the image and add the other one to the bottom left hand side of the image flat side against the image.

13. Roll another coil that is the length of the image block's height.

14. Now cut that one in half through the length. Add those to the other diagonal spaces. The top left and the right bottom of the image block.

15. Roll out a coil of white that is about 3/8" in diameter. Press it into a triangle shape.

16. Add those triangles to the left and right side of the image right in the middle of the two half coil on each side.

17. Roll out another small coil of white about 3/16" and press into a triangle.
This you will use to fill in the two spaces on the top and the bottom of the image block where there is a dip on the top and one the bottom.
You will need four of these triangle pieces.

18. Here the image block is filled in all the spaces with one left to trim off. It is basically in a rectangle shape.

19. Pinch the block in the top corners and in the bottom corners to make them more defined and more like a rectangle. Pinch them all the way down the image block side in all 4 corners.

20. Roll out a sheet of white on the thickest setting in the clay machine. Trim off the leading edge for the straight edge. Lay the rectangle image block on that edge.
Trim off the right and the left side of the block to make the sheet that width.
Wrap the sheet around the rectangle image black sides.

21. Wrap it up and trim the other end of the sheet to match the beginning of the sheet. Smooth the seam with your finger.

22. Press on the side of the image block to compress together and reduce. Go slow and use the flat part of your palm (or the flattest part) usually the heel of your palm. That heel of your palm is the strongest too. Press down as evenly as you can.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
You have now done all four sides.
Flip the cane(image block) from end to end and proceed to do all 4 sides again. then repeat, doing this over and over until you have reduced the cane down to about half the size.

23. When I have reduced the cane down far enough I then I hold the cane with one hand and use my upper palm and slide my hand down the cane to lengthen it.
Always turning it one-quarter turn now and again and then I flip it from end to end and do the same thing from the other side of the cane. This makes it smooth and stretches it out. I am gliding the top of my palm over the clay.

24. When you have reduced it down to about 1" by 3/4" cut it in half.
Tah dah!
Come back for the next one we are going to cover a votive in all the black and white canes we have made so far.