Cara Jane Hayman

Empiece con arcilla de polímero: cañas de Bullseye

Thank you so much for sharing your photos! Such lovely bright colours! Glad to see you've been able to use the cane in different ways.What brand of clay did you use? And what sort of knife/blade did you cut it with? (Trying to work out what caused the smooshing).I love covering crochet handles it makes them much more comfortable. If you give it a sand with some wet and dry sand paper it will feel lovely and smooth too. Let me know if you want some more advice about that.

Thanks Cara! I used Sculpey III and a wide flat blade that I got in a Sculpey bead making starter kit. The blade looks like a longer version of an old razor blade. I still have about half my original rainbow cane left. I'm going to let it sit before cutting through it again. The cane was pretty soft and warm from my hands, I've since realised. Thanks for the tip about the crochet handle! I'll look into sanding. Would love any additional tips. I just attached slices of the cane directly to the handle -- would it have been better to make a slab first?

Ahh it will be squishy because it is Sculpey III which is a very soft clay. You will get less smooshing with firmer clays. Also as you say letting the cane rest before cutting it. If the clay is very soft you can even cool it in the fridge a bit to help it firm up. It's hard to wait when you have made a cane - you want to see what it looks like inside! I often just cut it in half to see what it will be like then let it rest before taking slices.

Sculpey III also isn't a very strong clay - it will be fine for the crochet hooks and the beads but larger pieces would be a little fragile. Sculpey Premo is a firmer and stronger clay if you are planning on doing more. Cernit is another good brand that is widely available and I prefer the Kato Polyclay because it is much firmer which means it doesn't distort so much.

The blade sounds like a proper polymer clay blade so that should be good.

With regards to covering the handle, you can do it either way - just adding the slices or making a sheet (or thin slab) to wrap around. For me it would depend a bit on the pattern. For round canes I would probably add them as they don't join together well to make a sheet. If I had a square cane I would probably make a sheet and wrap it round. 

If I was making a sheet I would take some scrap clay (or a bit of plain coloured clay as you are just using it to measure so can use it again) and roll it out to the thickness I will cut my slices and then cover the handle - I then cut it off again and I can see what size my sheet needs to be. I would probably draw round it on a piece of paper and then make my sheet that size.

I will try and get my follow up class together with some more tips but do ask if you have any questions in the meantime. Thanks Cara

Made a rainbow cane! It got sort of smooshed when I cut into it, so I decided to combine it in different ways to make beads and to cover the handle of one of my plain crochet hooks.
<img width="299" height="300" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/e272f1a8.jpg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/e272f1a8.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/e272f1a8.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Rainbow beads and crochet hook - image 1 - student project"> <img width="300" height="300" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/d6ffef4a.jpg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/d6ffef4a.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/d6ffef4a.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Rainbow beads and crochet hook - image 2 - student project">
<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/76b0d910.jpg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/76b0d910.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/37005b7bf1cff8ca72968a1b68e8c574/76b0d910.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Rainbow beads and crochet hook - image 3 - student project">

Rainbow beads and crochet hook

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