My First Polymer Clay Cane and Pen

[vtgaryw]

Was fairly pleased. Distorted the flower pattern a bit much when rolling the final cane, probably could have worked some of the clay a bit more first to make it more malleable. And then distorted some of the cane slices when pressing them onto the tube.

2nd picture is the cane not fully rolled out, and another tube baked and ready to turn. I had a couple of blanks where the clay section didn't seem to seamlessly blend together. Not sure how to describe it, but if you're familiar with injection molding they're like "flow lines."

Overall, successful enough to try some more.

Gary

 

[Jim15]

They may not be perfect but they look awesome to me. I sure can't do it.

 

[OZturner]

Well Done on your First Attempts with Polymer Clay, Gary.
As you mentioned, you are aware that for your next ones, you will do somethings differently.
You are ahead of me, I have only thought about it, and it is still on my Bucket list.
Brian.

 

[bobjackson]

Great job.

 

[vtgaryw]

It's actually not that complicated to start (but it will take forever to master.) You don't need much equipment or special tools. I did buy a clay roller (pasta maker) but you can roll the clay out by hand as well. And there's lots of YouTube videos.

Gary

 

[edstreet]

There is some evidence of over working the clay, so what brand of clay did you use in this?

 

[vtgaryw]

This was Sculpey. I have some Primo I'm going to try on my next go around. I was worried about overworking, but the clay seemed really stiff compared to how it looked in some of the videos I watched.

On another note, I have a polyclay blank that I tore a chunk out of while turning down. Is it possible to repair the missing chunk? I'm assuming not, that it will overbake the clay that's already there?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[edstreet]

Yes it's possible to repair the chunk. You can't over bake clay time wise but you can get clay to hot and burn it.

 

[vtgaryw]

Thanks, Ed, wasn't sure what the effect of time was.

Gary