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Building the 13 Lb. Cane

Building the 13 lb. Cane required making a center, a petal, and a  leaf, and  then cutting and placing those components, and packing it all securely with the background color. We used gold, black, 3 shades of red, two shades of green, and blue for the background--a half and half mixture of blue and white. We made a huge batch, but it is an easy floral pattern to do in a much smaller size, and in any colors you might choose. It looks great in pinks with a black background, too!

Start with a long snake of the center color (black). Wrap with a layer of  contrasting clay. We used gold, on a #3 Atlas Pasta Roller setting. Roll it a bit to affix, removing any bubbles. Reduce and cut into 3 pieces, and put them together as shown.  Make sure your pieces are at least four inches in length or more. (ours was more than 6 foot long!) Trim the ends, and put it aside for later.

To build the petal, start with a fat snake of clay twice as long as your center component. We used dark red for this layer. Flatten it down toward the work surface on either side, making a hump in the middle. With the medium red, make a tongue of clay and lay it on top of the dark red. Again flatten the edges down somewhat. Repeat with an even thicker layer of the light red. Pat all layers firmly into place. Then indent the top layer down the length of the cane, using a paintbrush handle, or skewer, or similar tool--even the back of a knife blade can work.

Roll out snakes of the background color, and use to fill in the grooves. We used blue for the background. Lay strips of the background color in between the snakes, and down towards the dark red, but do NOT wrap around completely. Pinch and squeeze along the length of the cane to meld everything together, making sure there is no air trapped between layers. Pinch the dark part to form a wedge shape as shown. Reduce the petal cane to a little more than 3 times the length of the center component. Trim the ends of the petal component, cut into 3 lengths and place around the center component as shown. Add wedges (snakes pinched into shape) of the background color to fill all the spaces between. Again, be careful to avoid shifting and air pockets.Squeeze lightly down the length of it, and meld all parts together.

Then wrap the entire cane in a layer of the background color. We used a #1 setting on the pasta machine. Roll carefully to blend any seams and to form a circular cane. This is a single flower cane. Reduce a bit, until you have at least 18 inches of cane. Trim off the ends, and put aside the bits for other things.

Cut off a piece of cane a few inches in length, and wrap it in a piece of Handi-Wrap (this plastic cling wrap does no interact with the clay even after long periods of time--NOTE this product is now called Saran with Cling). Cut what is left into 2 equal pieces. Lay one aside, and slice DOWN THE LENGTH of the other section, thus cutting the picture in half. Place the cut pieces around the whole section, running down the length of the cane, bending the cut pieces as needed. (in sewing, they call this "ease to fit"). Then add segments of leaf cane, and pack in more background.

To build the leaf cane, stack layers of dark and light green, and pinch to form a leaf shape. Reduce the leaf cane somewhat. Trim the ends, and cut and place the leaf components. You can add reduced lengths of the original flower cane, or other floral canes, and you can play with the placement of blooms and leaves. You can cut down the center of the leaf cane and "sandwich" in a vein of the lighter green, or vary the size of the leaves by reducing some lengths. Play with the placement until you find it pleasing. Pack the entire cane as needed with more background color. If  your background color is a special mix, make a LOT of it, as it is difficult to repeat them exactly!

Squeeze and roll carefully to reduce and smooth the cane, forming a longer round cane. (Read the 13 Lb. Cane Saga or Cane Reduction for more on this) Cut off and wrap several inches, and save. This is a large bouquet cane. Continue reducing the cane, then cut into several pieces (if you have a lot) and wrap what you are not going to be using in the next 24 hours. This keeps it fresh for a long time.

Segments of the bouquet cane may be cut and re-combined with other canes as seen here.

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