A long while back, my
husband Bryan and I got the O.K. from a catalog company for an order of
polymer clay buttons, needle cases, and thimbles. We had been working on
interesting the company in our items for over a year (these things take time
!) and now it was time for the actual labor-- thus begins The Saga Of Our 13
Pound Cane. Having agreed to make 150 cards of six buttons each, all EXACTLY
alike I was committed to making a much larger cane than I was used to doing.
My former canes were
usually four or perhaps five lbs. each, for the really detailed faces. They
are the diameter of a dinner plate, and a depth of about five inches. Less
massive canes were started around the size of a soft drink can, though not
as tall.
For this one, I knew I
had to make the cane for all three items all at once, as the chances of
being able to repeat it perfectly were not good. I had recently started
working with Premo Polymer Clay, (made by Polyform Products) and we decided
to use it for this mammoth project. Just the thought of kneading up
the clays made us cringe, and the Premo was a very pleasant surprise. All
the colors had to custom blended, and done in one day, to keep the texture
of the various colors from becoming too different from each other.
So Bryan, who has big
warm hands, kneaded them up. He didn't even need to use the food processor!
He just cut slabs (like cheese) straight from the block, and ran them
through the pasta roller. It took far less time then FIMO or even
Cernit.
As
he did this, I laid the cane components out, putting them together a bit
differently than usual. Normally, I look straight down on the cane as it
grows, putting the bits together like pieces of a child's puzzle, then flip
it to its side for reduction. This time, the cane would be taller than I am,
so it was built on its side, laying out
L O N G snakes, triangles, etc...then building the flower and leaves...it
was as thick as my arm!
I whacked it in half,
lengthwise, then put one half aside. The other half then was cut down the
center, making two half circular canes. These I then layered onto the uncut
piece of cane, to build a bouquet, adding more clay to bring it all back to
round cane shape.
This was wrapped in a
sheet of clay (#1 on a pasta roller) the same color as the background (and
yes, we had run out and needed to prep MORE!) We now had a four ft. length
of cane, with a diameter of about 8 inches. ..that we had to reduce before
it got too hard!
We let it (and us)
rest for an hour or two, then began reducing,
using all four of our hands, going up and down the length of this huge
thing. It was rather like doing Very Rude Things to an elephant's trunk.
When we got it to
about 6ft. long, we whacked it in half again, and worked on each section one
at a time.... repeating this as it got longer...and longer....until we had
it reduced to a 1 inch diameter!
We alternated between
the slow squeeze-y-pull-y business, and rolling the cane carefully on a
conference table---never too long or too hard in one direction....and
eventually....there it was. With my heart in my mouth, I looked at all the
cut ends, and it had reduced beautifully, with a very minimum of distortion.
In fact, we started out with 15 lbs of clay, and when I had chopped off the
less desirable ends, there was thirteen lbs. of usable cane.
We had two lbs.of
leftover "schmutz" clay, which is still perfectly good for
something else, and four hands worth of very rubbery fingers. I wrapped all
the cane lengths in Handi-Wrap (now sold as Saran With Cling) and set
them aside for another day's work.
Later, when I cut the
canes, I found that I had enough for the needle case and thimble sets, 1000
buttons....and enough left over for doing it all again, should they need
more!
