I really enjoy making canes. If you want to know what a cane is, pop over to my other blog where I wrote a post explaining them. Knowing how amazing some caners are I know that I’m not brilliant at it but I do get a buzz out of slicing off the end and seeing what I’ve got. I also like to make random canes using up scrap clay.

Yesterday I lined them all up to see what I’ve got and here’s the photos:

Can you tell what this is? Its my 1950’s clay collection building up. I keep the finished canes in the freezer, especially considering the temperatures we’ve had here lately. So far I’ve done a dress, roller-skate, TV, caravan and last night I made a good start on a record player. In fact I made the cane a bit too big and now I have both a single record and a record player. I’m thinking I may stop at this. I’m not sure whether a set of 5 magnets or 6 would be better. Sometimes odd numbers sit better. The one I’m the least happy with is the roller-skate. It seems to resemble a pointy boot on wheels but I might just pretend its stylized and go with it anyway.

What do you think, do one more so there are six in the set?

Today I’m tired. I had a great day with a friend though so I’m in one of those tired but relaxed moods. The photo of the day is of the latest bangles I’ve produced for the Red Feather’s shop in Melville. Today I sanded and buffed these so they are ready to go. I think thats going to be the extent of the creativity for today, unless the berocca kicks in.

Close up to see the pattern.

One of me for a change. I am ‘modeling’ my newest necklace here. I have just finished a whole lot of these and might blog about them a bit later. In the meantime, ‘hello!’.

I am slowly adding to my cane collection along my 1950’s line of work. After making a list of possible images I want to turn into canes I thought that this one looked like it would be the easiest one to do. WRONG. Actually, once I thought about how to make it properly it was easy but my first attempt was an embarrassing disaster! This was attempt one, I did not use the right method and the lines ended up jagged and amateurish.

As soon as I cut the first slice I knew I couldn’t use it so I popped it in the freezer (where I sometimes store canes during our hot summer) to think about later. Last night I pulled the cane out again and decided that instead of trying to turn this cane into anything good I would just mix and mix until I got a different brown and use that for a new TV cane. I used much more sensible and methodical techniques and this is the end result:

Much more satisfying. I just need to wrap the whole thing in black to keep it in line with the other two canes I’ve done so far and this one will be finished. Then on to my next challenge…..cat’s eye glasses!!

With the small amount that was left over I created this random cane. I quite like it.

Today’s photo of the day shows the custom order I did over the weekend. These earrings are 1″ x 1″ so really huge! They came out pretty well and according to the customer’s specifications.

Early on as I learnt to work with polymer clay I learnt to never throw away any clay, no matter how muddy it got after too much mixing. It can be used for a number of things including the inside of beads or the like. Recently I ended up with a large pile of scrap clay and learnt a lesson in the process.

You see I have my items listed in various places and sometimes sell them in person. When this happens I have to remember to remove them from my on-line stores as most things cannot be repeated. Late last year I sold this necklace:

This wasn’t what I would class as a difficult pendant to create but it is what you would call difficult to ‘recreate’. Well, what did I do….forgot to remove it from my Etsy store and of course, after it sitting in my store for a very long time, it sold….for the second time. Big boo boo there.

I wrote to the buyer and explained what had happened and she asked if I could make her another one as it matched her dress perfectly and silly me said ‘yes, no problem’. I’m not sure what compelled me to say yes, maybe the madness of the moment with getting a sale. The technique to get the graduation of colour involved putting two different coloured clays through a pasta machine many many times and to match the exact green and blue was going to be a challenge. After three goes at this I ended up with these options for my buyer:

As you can see they are not really like the original but she was quite happy with one of them and I completed the order. This left me with a lot of scrap clay and so I needed to make something sell-able out of it. Here’s some of what I came up with:

Hopefully these colours will suit someone and they will snatch them up when I eventually get around to listing them. The rolls will become earrings and the squares will become pendants.

So, lesson learnt. ALWAYS remember to remove sold items from on-line stores and be prepared to say NO when you should. Hopefully I’ll remember this.

I have finally been able to move forward with my 1950s line of work. This week I have completed one cane and started a second, the first being a retro caravan in apple green and cream and the second being a coral and black dress. Its quite challenging getting the shape right for these but so far I’m fairly happy with the results. Lots more on their way, yay for the Aussie Open Tennis, something to watch on the teli while claying in the heat!

As you can see the door and window on the caravan look a bit wonky, I like to think they look hand drawn (thats my reasoning!). The tire looks a little flat but I think thats ok too. The dress needs to be packed with white and black around it yet. Then I’ll move on to a retro tv, record player, cats eye glasses, rolling pin and whatever else I can think of! Phew!

Before Christmas I made these earrings for my sister in law. She wears only rose gold so I sourced some findings in that metal and created some to match her wardrobe. I was quite pleased with the findings, I like the way they sit and the more professional finish. I’m thinking of buying a few more to create a special line in my online store. Before that though I’d better get on with creating my 1950s line. The plan was to spend each night this week working on it but that went out the window with getting sick. I’m hoping to pick it up again next week once my full energy returns.

Here’s the selection I made for my sister in law;

I have been planning for some time now to create a line of clay work with 1950’s and 1980’s themes and this week I finally started mixing colours. When I first thought of this I had simply pink and black in my head but after researching for a while I discovered that the main colours include variations of lilac, aqua, turquoise, golden yellow, soft apple green, French blue and coral as well as red, navy and black and white.

At this point I’m skipping red, navy and black and white and will mix French blue, hot pink and baby pink alongside the colours shown in the photo to team with black.

Why the 50’s? I wrote previously why I’m attracted to that era here.

So here’s the mix so far;