Robertine bučke - TUTORIAL - Pumpkin beads

Že nekaj časa nazaj sem obljubila, da bom pripravila navodila za izdelavo bučk. Tudi vsem, ki ste me spraševali po mejlu glede nasvetov za izdelavo sem odpisala, da so navodila v delu. Bil je skrajni čas, da sem se tega tudi zares lotila, preden se naveličate čakanja :).

Now available on Etsy - English version.

New Cane

Another quite hot day, although temperatures were supposed to drop a bit. I haven't noticed that; only one afternoon was better as far as temperatures are concerned, but we had hailstorm with strong wind which broke up few trees in front of our building and made a lot more damage all over - in some places hailstones were as big as tennis balls! I was at work at that time and luckily I've missed hailstorm for few minutes... it would be bad to be in the car with huge ice balls falling from the sky! I experienced that once, few years ago when Nina and I were going from our vacation at the seaside. It caught as on the highway, and although hailstones were smaller, as big as marbles, sound was horrible! Nina was crying and I hardly calmed her down. The traffic stopped and what surprised me most was that I saw few people going out of their cars, holding blankets and sleeping bags over cars! How stupid is that??? Ice falling on their heads and they were protecting their cars. I rather pay full insurance and keep myself in safe place when something like that happens!

Anyway, new cane. As I said, it was rather hot, clay really gets sticky and it's really hard to keep a nice form. Some of the pieces were little distorted, but I think the final cane looks prety well. I was not in the mood to make a new cane for central part, so I used the cane I made the other day. I think I have enough of flower canes for now, it's time to figure out something else. And make beads from all the canes I have at the moment, I plan to put them together to make final pieces when I am on vacation. 3 more weeks to go... I can't wait!

Making Canes

I am often asked how polymer canes are made. There are many useful sites on internet with very detailed instructions. You can find many instructions, tips and tricks at Polymer Clay Central. Some time ago I made some instructions for my friends as well. It's not in English, but pictures might be helpful - flower cane, my mokume gane pot (which was partly presented here few posts back) and natasha bead.

Here are the latest canes I made - I made few pics while making each one to show how they were put together. There is also a shot of few pendants I made of scrap clay. We have terribly hot weather these days and it's not really appropriate time to work with clay... clay is too sticky, although I have it in fridge, and patterns can very easily deform. Not to mention that it is almost impossible to make nice cuts of canes for making beads. I guess I will have to find something else to do now... maybe posting here more often!

Mokume Gane - My Way

Mokume Gane is a technique of working with polymer clay. Here you can see how it is done - and the result is great. I specially like the effect of golden leaves and that holes always look great. But I also like to do it in another way, with holes filled with scrap clay. Ann, maybe you like this result too and try it some day. Here's my version of this technique (I made this last year, those who know about my album, have probably already seen these pics with shots of complete procedure of making a small pot):

1. Stack clay sheets together.
2. Cut.
3. Stack.
4-5. Make holes, can be different sizes.
6-7. Fill holes with scrap clay.
8. Repeat the same on the bottom side.
9. Start reducing, make sure to distort the layers of clay while you do that. On the contrary from usual cane work, where we tend to keep the pattern inside the cane not distorted.
10. Arrows show where the scrap clay was inserted earlier... be sure to reduce cane in the right direction!
11. It's easy to cut such cane, much easier than with the originial Mokume Game technique.
12. A pot made of that cane.