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While doing a project for my new book “Polymer Clay Bracelets” I was doing an extruded veneer for a bracelet. I had some leftovers with which I just played around a little bit – I stacked it, compressed it etc. Then, when I cut it open I suddenly had this beautiful blended rainbow cane in front of me. The original veneer was a spiral and so the cane I had now was not a rectangle – it was more shaped like a piece of cake. I definitely had to try and figure out what had happened inside this extrusion and translate the whole process into a rectangular shaped cane. I called the cane “Pixelated Retro Blend Cane” – maybe you guys come up with a better name for it:)
So, here is how it’s done:
Mix at least 5 different shades of a color.
I used light green and blue with 3 mixes of both in between.
Roll the sheets out on the thickest setting (#1) of your PM and
punch out 4 circles of each color with a cookie cutter that matches
the diameter of the extruder barrel.
Roll out black and white (#1) clay and punch out
6 circles of white and 5 circles of black
Arrange the circles like shown, compress it a little and
feed it (dark side first) into the barrel of your extruder.
Insert the small circle die (2.5mm) and extrude a long snake.
Then lay out the snake like shown in the picture, starting with the light color
Using this amount of clay my snake was around 5 meters long.
With the diameter of the snake being 2.5 mm I now can calculate
the number and the length of the lines I need to build a sheet for the cane.
I needed a cane height of 60 mm for my bracelet tiles.
Again, with the snake being 2.5 mm thick my calculation is:
60mm : 2.5 = 24 lines. ….. Well I made 25 ;)
To determine the required length of the lines I divided the
5 meters (5000mm) by 25 lines which gave me a length of 20 cm (200mm) for each line.
Makes sense? Are you still with me?
When the clay sheet is done, roll over it with a brayer or
an acrylic roller to adhere the lines to each other.
Then use the blade to lift the sheet up, cut the sheet in half and stack.
Do that at least 2 more times – the resulting cane should be at least 6 sheets high.
I needed to repeat the whole process (cutting out circles, extruding,
laying out, cut, stack) to have a cane big enough to cover my bracelet tiles.
Now reduce the cane a bit, cut it in slices and arrange them on a thin sheet of clay
(I rolled mine out on a #4 stetting on my atlas).
Lay the decorated sheet between two sheets of deli or baking paper
and rub over it with your acrylic roller to close all the seams.
DON’T ROLL but RUB, in order to not stretch out the clay.
Your veneer is done. Now you can decorate whatever piece you like with it.
Have fun and happy claying!
© Bettina Welker, 2012
great pattern, Bettina. Thanks for sharing :) i´ll definitely try it :) By the way, I´m waiting for your book to come out. It will be full of interesting projects, I know.
Love this, Bettina! Thank you! I’ve been doing extrusions for awhile… always random. This will be fun to experiment with!
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial!!!
thank you Bettina
i love this pattern !!!
Vielen Dank Bettina für dieses Tutos; ich probiere sicher einmal, das gefällt mir sehr.
Schöne Ferien und…. bis bald, ich hoffe
Bizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You are the bombdiggity Bettina, even if you HAD to math in there hugs gf
Thanks so much for your great tutorial!
Its lovely.
Hugs!
Thank you for this great tutorial.
waaaaaaa Bettina!!!! ist wunderbar !!!! merci merci pour ton partage c’est trop top !!!!!!
chmoutchSSS
Merci Bettina pour ce tuto très sympa.
Bises.
Dein Gartenzwerg
Thanks a lot everybody! I’m glad you like it. Please go ahead and share pictures of what you make with it:)
Merçi beaucoup à tous!
Gorgeous and so kind of you to share this will the polymer addicts of the world!
Thank you for being SO generous including the instructions on how to make this awesome pattern. I have been following your work for a while now, it just “caught my EYES” Pauline
Amazing !!!! Thank you for shearing.
you are so generous, talented….you must have a flaw somewhere!!
Brilliant tutorial and such a fab result…
thank you for sharing
xxx
thanks Kerrie, and yes – there are flaws
hugs
B
I love your cane’s design. Thanks you for sharing.
Bises
Fabulous!! Thank you :-)
Beautiful cane Bettina. Your work is awesome!
You’re all sooo sweet – thank you!
You define
the word genius! Merci.
Many thanks – it looks great!
This is gorgeous, and I want to make it, but I don’t really get how the pattern and little white circles show up inside..we don’t wrap the snake it anything? I seriously love this!
Beautiful…thanx so much for sharing! :)
It happens with the extrusion. The barrel is thick and the die hole is small – so all the clay is pushed through this tiny hole. The first color in the front will first wrap most of the snake…well it’s really hard to describe. Just imagine, what happens inside with the clay when pushed through this tiny hole;)
This is an awesome look!! I love it and can’t wait to try it. I keep thinking of all the color combinations to try. Wow! Thank you so much, Bettina!
I was sold on this technique from the first time that Nan Roche demonstrated it (many, many years ago). She was actually more interested in the pattern that you get when you remove uneven layers lengthwise but I was fascinated by the concentric circles of the cross sections.
Thanks Bettina for showing how to control the appearance of cross sections.
Varda
I loved, loved, loved your pixelated retro cane tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing your clay discovery.
Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing this technique! Lately I’ve been doing more cane work & extruding, so I’ll definitely give this a try.
Liebe Bettina, ich möchte mich bedanken für dieses schöne Tutorial.
Es ist sehr großzügig von Dir.
Veronique
What a fantastic effect – thank you, Bettina :-)
Amazing!! thank you very much Bettina
You are SO smart! This is genius!
merci pour ce partage, et quelle superbe réalisation, le choix des couleurs est aussi judicieux
Vielen Dank, Bettina. Sieht suuper aus!!!
I love this, thanks so much for sharing, i can’t wait to try it!
Instead of an acrylic brayer for smoothing seams, I’ve found that a fondant smoother does wonders! It helps avoid stretching the clay. Love your project, I may have to try this one.
a fondant smoother is a great idea Rhonda!!!
Oh cool!!! Pattern across shading! Love it. Thanks for sharing an excellent tutorial, Bettina.
I think it’s important to note that the extruded “Retro Cane” technique was originated by Esther Anderson of Chicago. She is rarely credited for it, but it was her original discovery. (If you need corroboration of this, ask Donna Kato.)
oh, thank you for pointing that out. I never heard of her but I always wondered who came up with extruding colors that way. Thanks again
Bettina
thanks a lot for sharing. It is so clever in this way, I will try in summer shades
What a wonderful gift for all of us. Thank you so much for sharing this great artistic creation you have made.
grand merci pour ce tuto si astucieux.
Je viens de l’essayer et c’est très facile et agréable à faire ( photo sur mon blog)
amitiés
marie-france
thank you very muc – your rainbow blend is beautiful;)
Thank you for sharing this with us…the result is so nice. I wonder how the idea came up to you!
I just tried this technique. It’s awesome!!! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome and thank you Bettina
This is beyond wonderful. I will definitely buy the book. I did have a question. My little extruder could never produce 5 meters of anything. What sort of extruder do you use to get such a long tube? I would love to do more extruder work but it is so hard on the hands.
Thanks so much,
Deborah Groom
Deborah,
I use the green extruder from Makin’s