Thursday 11 March 2010

The tutorial is here!

The Surfing Cat Graduated Pointy Stripe Extruder Technique - Polymer Clay Tutorial

13 comments:

  1. If this format doesn't work for you let me know and I will post it another way. Enjoy!
    Cara
    PS Please send me any images of beads you make and I will post them on my blog

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  2. Wow, Cara! I like this! So, if I understand what you are saying, this was supposed to come out like a flower. Since the Kato clay didn't stick together, you got the other design??? I like it both ways...with the flower and with the crumbles. Thank you for posting!!

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  3. yes you understand correctly, it was supposed to be a flower but after my initial disappointment I got a nice surprise. Glad I had a closer look and didn't just squish it up! Glad to see the embeded document works.

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  4. Awesome! Are these rolled flat? I'm totally going to try this.

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  5. They are rolled gently to round them so do flatten and loose some of their texture a bit, the less you can roll them the better I guess. The ones I made first are wrapped round a scrap clay ball and just needed a very light roll to smooth them out. Is that what you meant Silverleaf?

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  6. Yes - when I tried this yesterday my strips came out triangular in cross-section, so when I laid them on the crap clay the result was all "ridged". It took me a while to get it smoothed out, so I wondered if you meant to leave it with the texture still on it.

    And typically, for the first time EVER, when I made the extruder cane the whole thing came out perfect so I had to dissect it. :/

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  7. I would say my strips of stripes are semi-circular in cross section. I think I prefer it with the texture myself but it's up to you.

    Typical isn't it that when you want it to fall apart it comes out perfect - what brand of clay were you using? Just wondering if anyone has perfected the flower technique with Kato - I really can't do it. Mod canes work fine and some others I have been playing about with but not the 2 extruder disc ones.

    I came across some tips on Cindy Leitz's blog today about getting the extruder flower cane to work better - I guess you could do the oppostie of those so don't condition clay, hold the extruder pointing up and stop and start often (one smooth push being the best way to keep it from splitting).

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  8. Cara, you must have some pretty crumbly Kato clay. I tried doing this today with Kato clay and I had just a little tiny bit of crumble going on. I even tried using leached Kato, but didn't really get a crumbly look. I'll keep working at it though.

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  9. Wierd I can't get it to not happen. Even if I condition it for ages and ages I still get it splitting when I try to extrude it with the 2 discs in. It might not have much on the way of crumbles but it still splits and there is a rough edge. Have you tried not conditioning it?

    Typical isn't it if you wanted it to not crumble it would no doubt!

    Maybe this technique won't work with new formula Kato but I don't have any yet.

    Good luck with finding crumbles!

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  10. thank you Cara for this great tute. Don't you just love it when things happen "accidentally"

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  11. do you condition the Old formula Kato? I keep trying this but never get the crackly effect that I love so much!! HOW DO THEY DO IT???
    thanks for your help!
    amy

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  12. yes I do condition the old formula Kato. I have to confess I haven't tried it with the new formula. I guess leaching the clay would make it more prone to give the crumbly bits.

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  13. Thanks Cara, this is brilliant.

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