The most important part of successful
reduction is correct building BEFORE reduction!
It is absolutely vital that all the clays in a
cane be of similar consistency...if one color is hard, and one is
soft, they will reduce unevenly, with the soft color moving very
quickly, and the hard moving little at all!
Also, packing around the various bits and pieces must be done so
that there are no holes showing--the clay will move around to fill
any spaces, and not in ways that you plan! The clay on the outside
of your cane gets the most pressure applied, so you must protect
your design elements---I usually wrap clay around my canes so that
there is at least a 1/4 inch layer between design parts like
flower petals) and the edge.
This is particularly important for face
canes--otherwise the central parts (like the nose ) reduce very
little compared to the outer parts (such as eyes and mouth) then
you get little squinty eyes and lips, and a huge honker! (which can
still be fun...however....)
So for face canes, I usually wrap a lot (as much as a whole
brick ) of black or flesh around the face cane before reducing.
Much (even dare I say, most) of this layer gets pulled out to the
very ends of the cane by the time reduction is done, so that what
started out as a 1/2 in. layer of black looks like a fine black
outline by the time I'm done.
And, since most of the ends of the cane
are solid black, (instead if being most of the eyes and mouth), it
can be salvaged back into use easily, and my cane looks more as I
intended it to look!
Another very important thing to do before
reduction is to rest the cane...the bigger the cane, the longer it
needs to rest.
I always try to impress this on my students, and I have learned
the hard way not to ignore my own advice. I would go home, curious
as could be, and think "Well, I'm the TEACHER, I'll just reduce
this now because I WANT TO SEE HOW IT TURNED OUT!!!! Then it would
not reduce well at all, reducing ME to tears on the last
occasion...now I know better.
If your cane is bigger around than your wrist, let it sit for at
least an hour or two, and if it is bigger than 6 inches in
diameter, let it sit overnight.
This allows the outside of the cane to become the same
temperature as the inside---you've been working the outside the
most recently, so it is warmer and more pliable, plus the outer
layer gets the most pressure---so it moves much faster and easier
than the inside.
This is particularly
important for faces.
Our brains do not like to perceive eyes below noses, etc. The
brain says wrong! ugly!, whereas a flower moved around a bit is
OK!(Sometimes even better!) In fact, you can manipulate the image
to deliberately distort it. You can also cut and add or change
things--a kind of "plastic surgery"!
I start the reduction of large canes while they are still
standing upright, like a soft drink can. I use both hands (on
opposite sides of the circle) to press towards the middle,
condensing it inwards and moving my hands and the cane as I go. I
do this until it is at least taller than my hands.
Sometimes, especially with whopper canes, I use my roller--a
piece of acrylic pipe, like a rolling pin, or a piece of pvc pipe
will do. I put the bottom of the pipe on my work surface,
perpendicular (standing upright, like the cane) and use my hand to
roll it around the circle, pressing again towards the center of it
all, and using my other hand to hold the cane in place, and for
resistance. I do this to smooth out the ridges before they become
pronounced--you want to keep things moving smoothly.
When my cane pillar has become tall enough, I flop it
over, laying it on my clean work surface (otherwise all those
little bits you didn't notice before get embedded) so that it is a
"snake" in front of me. If it is particularly thick (more than 2-3
inches) I pick it up, and SMACK it down onto
the table, then roll it a quarter turn-- so a different part of the
surface hits the table--and do it again.
This jolts the clay all the way through to the center of the
cane " waking it up" as Z Kripke put it (she taught me this part.)
This is a very useful technique to try when your cane is refusing
to reduce, as well.
