Blast from the past- 1st installment BPCanes

It is way too hot to take pictures. I was thinking that some of my content in the beginning of my blogging adventure was pretty cool, so sort of like summer re-runs on TV, I am going to re-post some of these babies that I really like.
Silence on a radio, no picture and sound on a TV, and no words on a blog are always a little disconcerting.
May your summer be cool.
May your drinks be cooler,
and may your heart be content.
Blessings all over all ya all!!

Just a note: Bead Space is no longer a viable link, but bead patterns are readily available all over the web!
Click on the title header below to take you to the full blog post!!

Extruder Canes with Bead Patterns as a guide

I put up the color mixing chart yesterday for this project!

Millefiori is the glass technique of bundling or layering colored rods of glass together to form images and then cutting the cross section of the bundled or layered glass to get a little tile of an image. These colored rods of glass are called canes. I have seen this technique duplicated in many mediums, ceramic, candy, food, and polymer clay, and it can sometimes seem almost impossible to achieve, but if you start with basic design, bulls eye canes, open spirals and checkerboards just to name a few, you can combine those to make more intricate pictures or images, called advanced caning. Anytime two or more simple patterns are combined it becomes advanced. I have found a way to make intricate canes that is so easy to do, yet gives the impression of intricacy and complication. Bead patterns and a Makin’s Clay extruder are great for attempting this.

Playing with my food again-episode 5, part 2

This is a continuing saga you can see the first installment here.
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/10/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-5.html


We frosted a 6"  double layer cake with chocolate frosting.

We extruded black fondant with the stainless steel Clay Extruder. I use the large trapezoid comes with disk set 1- M35155.

We extruded the full barrel of fondant and left them on the wax paper.

We cut 3 short ones (about 2")  and then a long one (about 3") sections. We used 4 long ones and placed them on the north, south, east and west section of the cake on the sides.
We placed the 3 short sections in each of the areas left. We spread them evenly apart.

Then I extruded a cord of black fondant and draped it between each of the black posts.

We cut out four of the heart looking flower petals in the Flower/Leaves cutter set and placed those a top each long post, points up. I used the petal in this clay project if you would like to see the shape of it

We brushed the wrought iron fence with silver pearl powder on one side of each post. Also a little of it on the cord.
You can see our tree in the foreground, with it's pink marshmallows inside.

We placed the tree trunk on the cake and press the skewer down through the marshmallows and in to the cake.

Stay tuned for part 3...

I have been playing with my food for a while and you can see the others...

Here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/04/playing-with-my-food.html

Here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-2.html

Here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-3.html

Here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-4.html

Extruder Beads- Spiral metallic Tubes

Spiral metallic Tubes

I love this one. These beads look so good and they are so easy.

All links below will lead to my husband's store, if you are looking for these products. Thank you so much for looking.

Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.

Makin's professional Extruder-M35055

Makin's Clay Core Extruder Adapter-M35098 1mm,2mm, and 3mm size (these will put holes in the tube as you extrude to make beads)

Black Cernit-900-100

Kemper clay slicing blade

Pearl-ex Pigments- I used reflex violet-644-3, aztec gold-658 -3, spring green-685-3, sky blue-647-3

Paper plate

make- up applicator(I use my finger)


Use the square disk that comes with the extruder set. It is also the same disk that we used with the checkerboard cane.

1. Condition the black clay until it is smooth and warm.

2. Roll a coil that is just slightly smaller than the barrel of the extruder.
Load up the barrel.

3. Put the square disk in to the end where the disks go, then add the 1mm or smallest core adaptor, the little peg will go through the square disk and will stick out of the disk when you screw the disk cap on the end of extruder barrel.

Put the cap with the adaptor and the disk on the end of the extruder barrel.

Turn the handle down and extrude the clay. This will be just a but harder with the core adaptor.

Go slowly and consistently.

4. Using the clay blade cut the clay off around the little peg of the adaptor. Cut near the barrel end and turn the barrel as you hold the blade against the peg. Do not press against the peg hard.
Look at this amazing adapter the hole is in the tube YAY!!!
This makes it so easy.
Cut the square bead tube in half.






5. Lay one half of the square tube on your paper plate. Add a tiny bit of Pearl-ex to the plate and rub your finger tip in it to spread out the clumps and cover the end of your finger tip.
Rub on to one side of the outside of the square tube. Rub a little at a time until the one side is covered and then do the other half. Do not put on too heavy of coat of pearl-ex and make sure you gently rub in to the clay when you apply it. By rubbing the powder into the clay you lodge the little particles of powder into the clay, it makes it less likely to rub off.

6. Now do the next color of pearl-ex on both square tube halves. Do not put a lot of powder out on the plate and try to keep it all in one area so you have room to cover all four sides on one plate. Remember to rub your finger on the plate in the powder so you do not have big chunks dropping on the square tube. Oh and do not have a fan blowing on the plate while doing this either. LOL!! Oh and try not to sneeze in the plate. If you get a very small spoon it is nice for putting a small amount of powder on the plate.

7. Do the next side of the tube and the next color of powder.

8. And finally the next color of powder. Sometimes I only use two colors of powder to cover the square tubes. Like gold and the copper. I cover two opposite sides of the square tube with one color (North and south) and then the other opposite sides (East and West) with the other color.

9. Once the tube is covered we are going to twist the tube. Hold one end of the tube with your left hand and roll the other end forward with your right hand, it will twist the square tube. Do not press hard just roll. Remember there is a hole inside the tube. You can also make the twist tight and more twisted or loose and less twisted.

10. Once the tube is twisted, bake on a piece of cardboard in a 275 degree F. pre-heated oven for 30 minutes shut off the oven and let cool a little. Pull out of the oven and while the beads are still warm cut sections with your clay slicing blade. This is easier when the are warm than when completely cool.
If you let the cool completely, heat the oven again and warm up the bead for bit and then cut them when warm. This is also perfect for making the beads ahead of time, storing beads in the long tubes and then cutting them in the sizes you need them for the project you are working on at the time when you work on the project.

Extruder Checkerboard

The clay Extruder is one of my favorite tools.
So many things are possible with this tool.
Lots of people tell me all of the time "I can not cane".
You can, you just didn't have the right tool.
First step, stop telling yourself you can't.
Step two, find the right teacher.
Step three, find the right tool.
Step four, OPEN YOUR MIND!
Step five, have fun.

This is a way to fool everyone, even yourself.

All links below will lead to my husband's store, if you are looking for these products. Thank you so much for looking.
Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.

Cernit polymer clay- black and white
Makin's professional clay extruder
Kemper Slicing Blades
1. Condition the white first , a half of package is enough. Get it nice and pliable.
2. Unscrew the handle until it is all the way out.
3. Roll a little log that is small enough in diameter to fit in the extruder barrel and fill it up. Place the square disk that comes with the extruder into the other end.
It is best to roll a log long enough to fill the barrel than to put in small logs to fill the barrel. The little logs will create air pockets.

4. Screw the handle back down slowly and at an even pace. Going slow helps the harder clays not shred on the edges of the square and other disk patterns. Extrude out all the white and then do the same thing with a half of package of black.

5. Press the two square coils together side by side. If using a smooshy clay do not smash together. Gently now.

6. Hold the ends of the square lengths and cut in the middle.

7. Lay one half right by the other half so it goes black, white, black, and then white.

8. Hold each of the ends again and fold gently in half so you can cut in equal halves again.

9. Flip one of the halves over so the pattern on one half is the opposite of the other.

10. Stack one half on the top of the other half.
Match up the lines of the squares as much as you can here.

11. Cut that stacked set in half.

12. Turn one half around 180 degrees horizontally and place on top of the other half. You can click on all the pictures to make them larger.

13. To make the checkerboard smaller press gently on each side of the 4 sides with your finger, one at a time.

Flip the cane from end to end and press on the 4 sides one at a time again.

Continue flip, press 4 sides, flip, press 4 sides, flip, press 4 sides... until it is smaller in size.

14. Ta-dah!!

15. You can also take one of the halves at this point and flip it end to end and place next to the other one.
This will multiply the pattern in one cane which makes it easier to apply to things in a row or border.










Slice off thin slices from the single checkerboard or the double with the clay slicing blade and add to your clay work. Or cut off slices and make beads out of them by piercing them with a needle or needle tool (bug sticker). Or cut off thin slices and bake and use in Encaustic painting, scrapbooking and collage.
OR??????

Cloisonne Jewelry

These necklaces are what came from the Cloisonne beads and the extruder beads I made. Notice that I didn't cut the extruder beads in small sections I made these an inch or longer and because the clay is flexible, I can make large hoop earrings like these shown on the top left. The necklace here is strung on 20 gauge Non Tarnish Brass wire and I make a hook on one end and an eye on the other.

Another extruder trick- making rope

As long as I am on the extruder thing, I thought I would post this. You can use this for twisted beads using the bead corers if you want, but I am just going to show how to make a rope the easy way.

Mix up and condition your color choice of clay. I am using the violet Cernit mixed 1:1 with the

porcelain white Cernit, 1. because I had it left over from the cloisonne beads I made before and 2. because the violet color of Cernit is so wonderfully beautiful.

Roll out a little coil or plug of clay that is about 2 1/2" long and slightly smaller in diameter than the inside diameter of the Makin's Clay Extruder barrel. You will also need the cloverleaf disk that comes with the Clay Extruder.

Put the disk in to the end cap and the clay in to the barrel, put the end cap and disk on the end of the clay extruder and screw it on.

Screw down the handle of the extruder until the clay starts coming out the end of the extruder, continue until you have extruded all of the clay out of the gun. It does about 12". Cut in to 4" pieces for easier control and to practice with. Hold one end of the extruded cloverleaf and with your other hand and roll the other end gently away from you. This will twist up the cloverleaf and you will have a rope just like that.

You can use these for all kinds of things, beads, like I said before or making into shapes. I am sure there are tons of other things you can come up with using this rope.

Here is a heart I made out of this rope.

Also you can use it to wrap around cut out shapes. When I used to make custom wedding couples many years ago they would stand on a large cut out heart and I would wrap this rope coil around the heart to camouflage the cut edges...and besides that it looked very cool. I love those 2 birds, one stone things.

So if you condition your clay and roll it out on the thickest setting in your pasta machine or about an 1/8" thick and fold the clay in half to double the thickness, then you can cut out a shape with a cutter. The cutter I am using here is a 1" round Kemper cutter, yes, you heard me right they make them now. Sometimes Howard needs to be booted in the pants to get him load things up on the website, so you just write him at order(at)clayfactory.net and tell him you would love to have one of those 1" round kemper cutters. Substitute that word (at) for the sign. Tell him Marie sent you.

Once you have the shape, then you take the rope and place it around the shape. Cut the leading edge of the rope with your clay blade for straight edge first.

Wrap completely around the shape and the end of the coil will overlap the beginning end of the coil. Cut off the outside one there and butt the edges together, I used to do this on the hearts and begin and end the rope in between the lobes of the heart.

I hope you all are have a GREAT weekend.

Extruder beads

I am going to use this ochre color Cernit formulation again, I have some left over from making the beads and it will match the beads that I have already made. Yes, I do have a plan for these. Stay tuned.

You will need a Makin's professional extruder and the Bead core adapters in the small set and one of the small round dies that come with the clay gun set. There are also two sets of 10 different dies that can be purchased extra. I am going to use the smallest bead core adapter 1mm to make these beads.

This is what that looks like with some of the disks that are available, the bead corers, and the Makin's clay extruder. You see that small arrow in the bottom left corner of the picture pointing to the bead corer disk and the disk that is in the extruder end cap, those are the ones I used for these beads. The long extruded coils in the top of the picture are the bead coils with a hole inside them baked and waiting to be sliced with the clay blade that you see right next to the green extruder. Those little beads that you see under the coils waiting to be cut are the cut beads ready to be used in a design. I can not even begin to convey how much I love this tool. With all of the disks that are available with the clay extruder, I can make all kinds of beads myself that match my clay beads and focal pieces exactly and I can also extrude clay rods to build canes with too (more on this later).

Place the disk you want to use in the fitting on the end of the gun and then put the core adapter into the hole of the disk with the rod of the adapter coming out the center of the disk as shown. Condition and soften some of the ochre clay (or clay color of your choice) until it is soft and smooth, roll into a coil about two inches long and slightly smaller than the diameter of the barrel of the clay extruder. Place the clay in to the barrel and screw on the end fitting with the disk and the core adapter in it on to the end of the barrel of the clay extruder. Now screw the handle down until the clay starts to come out the hole of the disk.

Here you can see the clay starting to come out of the hole in the disk. Continue to screw down the handle and the clay will keep coming out. Do this until all the clay is out of the gun and you can not move the handle anymore.

Here is what the end of the coil looks like with the hole in it and a coil of the bead. These can be baked now in strips as long as your baking tray or cut in to sections maybe 5" long. After they are baked and cooled you cut them into any size you want.