by Barbara Fajardo
F
or years, I’ve admired the work of Sarah Nelson Shriver and Gail Froula McIntyre. Their kaleidoscope cane beads mesmerized me. This year, I was lucky enough to be able to take a workshop with Sarah and I was instantly enlightened and inspired! I’m now happily obsessed with kaleidoscope caning. Here is my simple take on the technique. These reversible pendant beads remind me of fancy tiles imported from Spain and Italy. — Barbara Fajardo
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PolymerCAFÉ PolymerCAFÉFall Fall2004 2004
FOR USE AND DISTRIBUTION BY THE AUTHOR TOOLS Stiff sharp tissue blade Straight edge or ruler 2 unlined index cards Ceramic tile (optional)
Acrylic brayer Pasta machine
MATERIALS
Figure 1. Skinner Blends, white to blue, and yellow to violet.
Polymer clay in the following colors: 2 oz. ea. Premo Black, and Yellow or White 1 oz. ea. (½ pkg.) Premo Blue or Green, and Purple or Violet Translucent Liquid Sculpey (optional) Scrap clay (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS Have fun with pattern variations, we’ll show you how to make the one pictured below. You’ll have enough clay from this cane to make several pendants. Step 1. Start by making two Skinner Blends, using 1 oz. of a light color and 1 oz. of a dark color. I blended yellow to violet and white to blue. Run each of your blends through your pasta machine on the thickest setting, folding from bottom to top each time. About 20 passes should do it (Fig. 1). Step 2. Take one blend, fold it in half lengthwise, run through your pasta machine (lengthwise) on the thickest setting. Trim the excess from the sides and fold it up accordion style. Square up the cane. Step 3. Now, with the second blend, slice it in half lengthwise and trim the excess. Roll one half of the blend from light to dark and the other from dark to light (Fig. 2). Roll tightly to avoid trapping any air bubbles. Make the rolls as close to the same height (when standing on end) as possible. Start at the center of the cane squeezing gently from the center out to the ends, and rolling on work surface to even it out. Wrap each of these with black and/or white sheets rolled out very thin (setting #5 or #6). I wrapped one piece with white only, the other with black and white (Fig. 3) Be sure to push out air bubbles as you wrap.
Let your canes rest for about 15 to 20 minutes or refrigerate for about 10 minutes. They will slice much more cleanly this way, and with less distortion. Step 4. Take your squared up accordion cane and slice on a diagonal down across the blends, cutting from corner to corner (Fig. 4). Lay one piece on very thin black (or white) clay rolled to the #5 or #6 setting on your pasta machine. Trim the sheet to fit your cane piece (you can do this by laying the accordion cane cut side down on the black or white clay, then trim the bottom sheet edges with your blade to match up the edges of the canes). Before you put the cut blend back on, flip it over so that your blend runs in the opposite direction. Now cut the corners off, line with black (or blue) and flip those, too (Fig. 5). Assemble the 4 pieces back into a square (Fig. 6). Don’t worry if the block’s not perfect; even it up as much as possible.
Figure 2. Fold one of the blends accordion style (blue one). Cut the other in half lengthwise, and roll up, one from light to dark, the other from dark to light. Figure 3. Wrap one blend in white, and one in white.
Figure 4. Slice the accordion fold as shown. Pink lines denote the corner slices marks. Figure 5. After slicing the accordion fold cane, flip half and line with the black sheet in the middle, trim it to fit.
Figure 6. Detail of fold with lining sheets added.
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Figure 7. Various components, before assembling into the kaleidoscope cane.
Figure 8. Build the cane by placing pieces into a pleasing combination.
Step 5. Okay, now comes the fun part! Use your imagination here—be brave, it’ll look great, I promise! The most important part of kaleidoscope caning is making sure that whatever you do to your cane, you do the same thing all the way from one end to the other. Your design must go all the way through the cane. Gather all your cane pieces and make them into different sizes and shapes, reducing them some more if you wish, and slicing down through them to get different shapes (Fig. 7). Begin building your kaleidoscope cane by placing all of these different components together (Fig. 8).
Figure 9. Press into a triangular shape.
Stretch and twist some parts as you go, always making sure that you are doing the same thing to both ends of the cane. Look at the cane closely and carefully as you build it. Step 6. Push your cane into a triangle shape. You will reduce this to approximately ¾" by 8". Reduce the cane by pushing against your work surface and stretching. Run your fingers along the sides to smooth any lumps, flipping your cane from side to side and end to end, keeping the same diameter (or as close as possible) on each end (Figs. 9 & 10). Let your cane rest again. It will be much easier to work with.
Figure 10. Continue to reduce until the cane is about 8" long and ¾" in diameter, let rest.
ARTICLE COURTESY OF POLYMERCAFE MAGAZINE FOR USE AND DISTRIBUTION BY THE AUTHOR About the Artist: Barbara Fajardo Barb has been working passionately with polymer clay since 2000. She began selling her polymer beads on JustBeads.com under the seller name “rubarb” and was Featured Artist at the site in January 2003. She currently sells her beads and jewelry from her website www.rubarbdesertdesigns.com and occasionally lists
on eBay under the seller name “rubarbbeads.” She is a member of the New Mexico Polymer Clay Guild and the National Polymer Clay Guild. Barb is a native New Mexican and lives in Albuquerque with her husband, two teenage sons, and three dogs.
* Editor’s Note: In honor of this year’s summer games in Athens, and the Greek father from that movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” I’ve included here the etymology of the word Kaleidoscope: Kalos=Beautiful, Eidos=Form, Skopos=Watching (just in case you wanted to know!) —j.c. -Source, Webster’s New World Dictionary 20
PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004
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Figure 11. Cut the cane in half and set one half aside. Cut the other half in half again. Try different arrangements until you get the most pleasing pattern.
Figure 12. Carefully line up the colors and patterns, and press gently together. Press down on work surface to flatten into a larger triangle shape.
Step 7. Cut your cane in half lengthwise; set one half aside. Cut your other piece in half again. Look at your two triangles, rotating to see what pattern looks most pleasing to you. Line up your two triangles in the desired pattern by looking down at the lines of color, and match them up. Press these gently together (Fig. 11). Now hold one of the top corners and push down the other corner against your work surface to flatten (Fig. 12). Now you should have one larger triangle.
Figure 13. Slice the cane into four ¼" thick pieces.
Figure 13A. Form your tile from the two or four slice configuration..
Step 8. At this point, one option is to reduce this larger triangle a bit more and slice in half again, or if you prefer, cut four nice even slices about ¼" thick (Fig. 13). If you make your tile using two slices instead of four, it is much easier to line up (Fig. 13A) . Line the slices up next to each other on your work surface. As you put these together, you will see the kaleidoscope pattern emerge (Fig. 14). Before you do too much smoothing, make sure your cane slices are as even as possible. To do this, take your tissue blade and slice across the surface of your tile to even out any high points (Fig. 15). Be sure not to take too much off or you will end up slicing all the way down to your work surface! (If you cut too deep, slide the blade back out without lifting it and press the cut piece back down.) Now push gently on the surface towards the center and out to the sides. Use your straight edge or blade to hold the shape as you push out (Fig. 16). Continue squaring up and slicing across the top if needed, then gently brayer the surface of your tile in all directions to further even out the top. Step 9. Pick up the tile with your blade and lay it on some scrap or black clay rolled out to the thickest setting on your pasta machine. Brayer gently and cut off excess (Fig. 17). Look at your tile and decide; does it look better as a square or diamond shape? Which sides should be the top and bottom?
Figure 14. Kaleidoscope pattern.
Figure 15. Trim the tile to even it out.
BLADE
Figure 16. Use the blade to keep edges straight, press to smooth the surface.
Figure 17. Lay the tile on the backing clay, smooth with your brayer, trim. PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004
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Figure 20. Two sides of the pendant.
Figure 18. Square cane for reverse side.
Figure 19. Cut four slices.
Step 10. For the reverse side of your tile, use the other triangle cane that you set aside. Cut this in half and put these together to make a square cane (Fig. 18). Reduce until it is one quarter the size of your tile. You will need 4 slices of this for the reverse side (Fig. 19). Repeat the squaring up and evening out process. Place it on the reverse side of the scrap clay backing and brayer gently. Figure 20 shows both tiles, configured differently for opposite sides of the pendant. Another option is to make the reverse tile from a cane with another color scheme entirely. Step 11. Put your tile between two index cards with a ceramic tile on top (tile is not necessary, but it will ensure that your piece bakes flat.) Bake in a preheated 275° oven (use an oven thermometer) for 30 minutes. Let cool. Sand and buff if desired.
Figure 21. Bake 20 minutes, sand, and buff (optional) and apply the frame. Figure 22. Finished pendant.
Step 12. Finally, time to make the frame. Use black clay to roll out very thin long snakes, and gently twist two together (Fig. 21). If you like, apply a thin bead of Translucent Liquid Sculpey to the sides of your tile to help the braided frame adhere to pendant. Start at the bottom of your tile, take the two ends of your snake and gently press it around the tile. Bring your clay up around the sides, pressing as you go. At the top, twist the clay snake into a bail. Bake again for at least 20 minutes. Add a cord, and voila! I hope you create lots of different, colorful tiles!
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PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004
