Building a Cane from Start to Finish

One of the main reasons I started a blog was to chronicle through words and photos ‘how I make stuff’.  Besides experimenting with form, pattern and color, I am strongly drawn to teaching and to demonstrating polymer clay techniques, specifically caning.  I’ve thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to publish a how-to article in a magazine?”, “I would love to hold classes to teach canework.”, “Imagine actually making money from my art !”, and on and on.  What stopped me, of course, was ME !  Every time I thought I came up with a new technique or idea, someone else had already beat me to it.  I didn’t have a decent camera to photograph my work, and besides, my photography sucked.  I didn’t have the cash to start any kind of ‘business’, and didn’t have the stomach for financial risk-taking.  I could devote an entire post (no, an entire BLOG !) to all my insecurities and fears, but it wouldn’t make for very interesting reading.

      Well, now I have a decent camera, I know how to post pictures of my work on-line, and I’ve even figured out how to start a blog.  No more excuses!   Yesterday I decided to make a cane, and take photos of the process.  I cleared off a space on my dining room table to use as my film studio.  Here’s the result, enjoy !  The photos are a bit small, double click to enlarge. 

Here are my tools, just the basics, and the clay colors I plan to use in my cane.

I can never have too much white clay when I make a cane ! The two small canes are leftovers from another project.

I start out by making Skinner blends with the colors I’ve chosen.

These are all the components I will use to assemble the cane. They are all slightly different sizes/heights, but I will trim and reduce the pieces as needed.

Here I’ve reduced some of the components, cut some in half, etc. No particular ‘plan’ in mind, I just want a variety of shapes before I bring them together.

I assemble the various pieces to form a 1 1/2″ square about 2″ high. I filled in some spaces with snakes and sheets of solid colored clay.

I make a diagonal cut in the cane. Now I have 2 right triangle pieces. These I will each cut in half again, and put the two halves together to make mirror images.

I guess I forgot to photograph the part where I cut the two triangles in half to make these mirror images, sorry ! These two pieces will be used to make two kaleidoscope canes.

Here I am reducing one of the mirror image pieces. I usually start by standing the cane face up and pushing against the sides. I frequently turn the cane, and flip it over so it will reduce evenly, and I don’t end up with too much waste on the ends.

When the cane is about 2″ long, I put it on its side and use my roller to reduce it further, making sure to turn it frequently so all the sides get evenly reduced.

When I’m done reducing the cane to about 4″ in length, I cut off two slices on the ends, and stand them up on a mirror to see what the cane will look like. Hmmm, not bad..

The reduced ‘mirror image cane’ is cut into four pieces and assembled to make this kaleidoscope cane. It is a 3/4″ square, and is about 3 3/4″ in length.

Ooops, I think I forgot to photograph another step…I took the second ‘mirror image’ square and turned it into an equilateral triangle. Once again, I took pieces off the ends and put them on the mirror to get a preview of how the cane will look.

Here’s the six-sided cane before being reduced. At this point, I could eliminate the sides and reduce it as a circle, but decided to keep it a hexagon, so the slices will fit nicely together like a honeycomb.

Here are the two completed canes. The square reduced better than the hexagon, so it’s almost 40% longer. Turning the mirrored square into a triangle caused waste at the ends. Oh well…

The canes are done..wow, that hexagon one is even shorter than I thought, LOL!!! Time to put everything away. I HATE this part !