Cane Slicing

I'm pretty good at "eye-balling" measurements, but I wanted to be even more exact for slicing canes.  Anything to lessen sanding requirements, right?  I've tried different cane slicers, but none have given me the precision and uniformity I desire.  The Precise-a-Slice from ValKat Designs worked the best for me, but I was still having problems.  The stiffer blades are thicker and had a tendency to mash down the cane and make marks on the slices, while tissue blades are so flexible, I kept getting curved slices of varying thickness.   My hands couldn't hold the tissue blade rigidly enough.  Then this morning I had a brain storm - my jewelry saw might hold the blade!  Sure enough, it did, and it worked especially well when I cut the blade to the shortest length possible.  For paper thin slices of canes with translucent sections, I'll probably still hold the cane and blade in my hands, but so far, this method is working very well.  (The Precise-a-Slice is available at Polymer Clay Express.  Scroll down the equipment page to find it.)

Here's how I did it.  I used tin shears to cut a tissue blade to a length of 3 1/4 inches.  It was very easy to cut, but be sure to wear eye protection!  Then I put the blade in my adjustable jewelry saw, making it as taut as possible.  Again, be careful doing this because the cutting edge of the blade will be up while you are pushing against the saw to tighten it.

I centered the cane in the Precise-a-Slice and stabilized it with some Super Sculpey (putting some on top of the cane, at the back, keeps it from rising when you slice), and then I sliced by holding the saw so that the blade was against the guides and angled slightly.  So far, I've had good luck slicing at the thinnest increments marked on the device.

More on BOH stoppers

I received a nice note from Louise who linked me to her blog where she shows another method of improving Bottle of Hope stoppers. Scroll way down to see her method.

I forgot to say "Thanks" to Georgia (aka iggy) for her suggestion about the tiny rubber bands.

Improved Bottle of Hope Stopper

The problem with stoppers like these is that clay does not stick to them well. Also, they tend to fall out if a heavy top is placed on them. Here is a method to make them work a little better. It sounds complicated, but it really is quite fast.

Get a leather punch, a hammer and a small block of wood. My “Maxi” leather punch set came from Michaels and I use the largest tip with it. (You will punch a hole in the stopper and you want it to be as large as possible. The Mini punch set is too small.)

Place the piece of wood on the floor or a very sturdy table; place the stopper on the wood with the top of the stopper down; center the punch in the inner ring of the stopper and whack it a couple of times with the hammer.

Roll out a snake of clay about the diameter of the inner ring of the stopper. Taper one end so that it is small enough to fit through the hole in the stopper. Insert the narrow end of the clay through the stopper from bottom to top.

While holding the clay firmly in the stopper, mash down the narrow part on top. You can spread it out as wide as you want. Just don’t disturb the core of clay going through the hole. Trim the bottom part of the clay to about 1/4 inch. Make sure the bottom part of the clay is the same diameter as the inner ring of the stopper. Insert it into the bottle to make sure it will fit, but DO NOT put the stopper all the way in. If you do, you will tear the inner clay core when you try to take it out for baking.

You can stop here, but you can make one additional enhancement if you wish. Use a needle tool to make a channel around the bottom part of the clay. After the stopper is baked, place a tiny rubber band in the channel so it will act as an O-ring. You will have to wrap the rubber band twice to make it tight. The tiny rubber bands can be found in a dollar store in the hair accessory section. You will have to experiment a bit to find the proper size for the channel.

You can bake before decorating the top or after. The clay you put on top will now be anchored to the stopper by the core of clay going through the center. If you bake before decorating, use liquid clay to make the new clay stick to the button on top.

Let the stopper cool thoroughly before trying to insert it into a bottle. If the clay is warm, you can tear the inner core by trying to pull it out.

Skinny Skinner Blends

I was prompted to post this entry after reading a discussion on Polymer Clay Central where Desiree showed how she makes narrow skinner blends using little magnets.  I solved the same problem slightly differently.

I like to make narrow Skinner blends too so I recently bought a curved magnet from Sue Kelsey and covered it in clay.  The magnet is great but it won't stay in place when I'm trying to make a very narrow blend, perhaps because I covered it too thickly.  Anyway, to keep it where I want it, I made some spacers out of clay.  With the one inch, half inch and quarter inch spacers, I can make any width strip in quarter-inch increments, with or without using the magnet.

Here's how to make them:

At the thickest setting, roll out some scrap clay the full width of the pasta machine and about 5 1/2 inches long.  Trim ends and roll into a snake which will be the width of the pasta machine.  On one side of the snake, pinch a ridge as if you were making a tear drop shape.  Cut squares of plastic wrap the width of the rollers and wrap both rollers so the clay will not stick.  You don't want to distort the clay when removing it.  With the machine set to #4 (a middle thickness), put the ridge between the rollers of the machine and press the clay down firmly.  You want to shape it to the rollers.  Remove the clay carefully and put it into the freezer to firm it up.  Trim one end as straight as possible and then cut the clay into 4 one-inch-long segments, one half-inch segment, and one quarter-inch segment.  Make the sides as straight as possible.  I cut through the narrow ridge first and then down through the rest of the piece.  Bake with the pieces lying on their sides.

After reading Desiree's tutorial, I decided to make a long guide piece to use on my machine that does not have fenders.  It ain't purty, but it works.

Who knew???

It never occurred to me to look on YouTube for information about polymer clay until I saw a link to Maggie Maggio's wonderful color scale tutorials.  After viewing her three tutorials, I searched YouTube for "polymer clay" and found 236 videos on all aspects of clay - sculpting, covering pens, making beads, mica shift, and making dollhouse miniatures, to name a few.  I also got a lot of matches for "wire jewelry how to" and "silver metal clay".  Not every match was what I wanted - I got a Clay Aiken song called Silver Bells, for example, and some of the videos were nothing more than sales pitches for jewelry.  The quality varies enormously, but still, there is a lot of good information out there.

Go to  http://www.youtube.com/  and then search.  Searching for Maggie Maggio will take you to her tutorials.  Happy hunting.