A 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!
send email to: Sarajane@polyclay.com
