My latest spliced flower set

I made these beads ages ago but hasn't quite found time to string them. Finally now the kids are back at school I got a chance. They are sold already to a friend who came over looking for a present, I hastily grabbed a photo. I am pleased with the bright colours. I am looking forward to having time to play with clay and to sharing it with you. thanks for reading
Cara

Autumn flowers

I had a custom order of a crochet hook in autumn colours. I decided to use my now firm favourite spliced flower cane. I started making this cane thanks to a video from Cindy Leitz

I decided to use the flower cane to make a few other bits...

Autumn colours cabochon pendant - super shiny!

Autumn owl (with glow in the dark eyes) - flew straight off my sale table!

One of my custom orders

At the 2 sales I have had I have taken quite a few orders. I am finding it quite tricky to be confident the customer will like what I've made so I have given them some options. This order was for a friend who lived locally so I made the beads and then took them to show her before I strung them.

She requested a spliced flower cane necklace on a cord with no metal clasps etc. in similar colours to this bracelet

There are about 12 different shades of browns and oranges and pinks and white and black in this bracelet  so it was going to be tricky picking up on that in a spliced flower where I normally use 4 sometime 6 colours.

These are the beads I made. I realise I forgot to take a picture of the finished necklace so will have to pop over for a cup of tea soon to do so. In the end it was strung with 5 flowers and some pink beads between the flowers as she wanted it to look lighter in colour. I finished it off with sliding knots, it took me about 5 attempts to get it the right length for her. I am looking forward to seeing her wear it!

Made a bracelet with the pearl spliced flower beads

Finished bracelet
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

So they have been growing on me and now I love this little bracelet! I hope my friend does too.

I started making spliced flower canes when I watched Cindy Leitz's tutorial

Spliced Flower Cane with pearl and round Natasha bead

I am going out for afternoon tea to a posh hotel in Bath on Saturday for one of my friends birthdays so I thought I would make her some jewellery as a gift (I don't think I have told her about this blog yet so it should remain a surprise!). I haven't made a spliced flower cane for a week or so now so thought I would make some spliced flower beads, funny how I didn't think I liked them till I made one and now I love them.

I always seem to make small spliced flower canes and then wish I had made them bigger so this time I started bigger.  I decided to use my favourite green and my new favourite red (it's a 1:3 red:magenta mix with Kato clay) as they seemed like good colours for my friend. Funny how you see people all the time but it can be hard to remember what colours they wear. I was a bit concerned they might seem a little 'Christmas' or 'apple' like together but after putting scraps together thought it would be OK.

I decided I would try  using pearl instead of white thinking it would give the beads a bit of a shimmer.This was a mistake however. There is less definition in the flower. Typical that I make a big one I don't like so much.

 Oh well it is still pretty and I think the colours work quite well and aren't too 'Christmas' or 'apple' (let me know if I am deluded ). Going to have to make another cane with these colours and white now I think but must get some beads made from this one first.

I picked up the scraps from the cane and made a Natasha bead (see a lesson from PCC if you aren't familiar with Natasha beads - a neat way to use up scraps) . I always have trouble with the joins with these as I don't want to smooth too much as I want to keep the pattern crisp where the joins are in the centre of the bead and unless you cut very accurately there can be some uneven parts (you can control it for the first 3 parts but the last one has to match the other 2 pieces already there). Tonight I just rolled it and made it round. There was something about the colours and the patterns that was too organic for a square shaped bead. I put a skewer in the middle whilst rolling it to keep a hole  and when I took it off the skewer it told me it wanted to be curved - so it is. More and more the clay is talking to me, I shall take that as a good sign of creativity and not a sign of madness (or more likely sleep deprivation from staying up late playing with clay!)

New set

 I made myself a new necklace to go with some new clothes my mum kindly bought me. I have another one planned with a series of different beads but need to make some more green flower canes first. I was having trouble getting texture on my beads but with help from some friends on Poymer Clay Central and Flickr I am now happy with them. I used my nutmeg grater in the end to get the texture (need to get a new one now before I need nutmeg again but clay is more important ;)

Necklace and bracelet set

Close up of spliced flower cane bead and the textured beads.

I am going away for a girly weekend and have my lovely new outfit on and feel very smart with my coordinating jewellery! Have a good weekend all.

Brand Comparison (sorry if you have seen this already)

For years I used Fimo polymer clay which is readily available here in the UK. Recently I found Cindy Leitz and having read a lot on her blog and seeing her beautiful colour mixing recipes I decided I ought to try Premo clay. There are some discussions about brands on Cindy's blog here. Being a fan of Donna Kato's work and having her excellent book I decided to try Kato polymer clay at the same time.

Here are some photos and notes about the different brands of polymer clay I tried;Kato, Premo, Fimo Soft and Fimo Classic.


First findings:
Kato - Very crumbly as it came out of the packet. Had to work it to warm it up before I was able to run it through the pasta machine. Firm, more difficult to shape. This polymer clay has quite a strong smell.

Premo - Very soft from the packet and was able to put it straight through the pasta machine. Soft to work with.

Fimo Soft (my normal brand) - Soft from the packet was able to put straight through the pasta machine. Very soft to work with.

Fimo Classic - I found this much the same as Fimo soft which surprised me. It wasn't quite as soft when first out of the packet but after being passed through the pasta machine a few times is was just as soft as the Fimo soft.

Flower Cane
First of all I made a Spliced Flower Cane in Blue, White and Green. I tried to keep the colours  the same as possible but didn't go to great extremes of colour mixing (I'm not that good at it - yet!)

 

Kato, Premo, Fimo soft and Fimo Classic (from left to right)

The top row was a slice cut with a tissue blade just after the cane was finished and the bottom row is the same brands cut after a rest (overnight).

I realised that my blade wasn't as sharp as it used to be but this didn't seem to matter for the firmer Kato clay. I am sure I can improve my cane slicing technique (and I have also since bought a new blade).

I can see very clearly that it pays to leave your clay to cool down before slicing what ever brand you use. I know many people recommend putting it in the fridge for a while - I must try that.

Wow the difference shocked me - the Kato one (made in exactly the same way) looks very different. I accept there may have been a slightly larger area of white in the middle but even so the definition that the cane retained is far superior.

A closer view of the Premo and the Kato flower cane slices

Geometric Cane

I realised that the spliced flower cane wasn't a completely 'repeatable' cane so decided to make a simple geometric cane to see how that turned out.

 

From left to right Kato, Premo, Fimo Soft and Fimo Classic

Again top row was cut straight away and the bottom row was cut the next day.

As I was making them I thought the fimo looked different but couldn't work out why - hmm I realise now I only did half the job. Not sure what happened to the next day kato sample but needless to say it looked much the same, insignificant deformation.

Although the difference wasn't as marked as the spliced flower cane - I still much prefer the results of the kato. I like the feel of the baked kato too.  The Kato white is more white and I think part of this is being firmer it stays cleaner.

 A close up of the Kato and Premo canes

Conclusions

As I was working the  spliced flower canes I thought I would prefer the Premo. I didn't like the work needed to condition the Kato clay and it was much firmer to work with even when thoroughly conditioned. The firmness is sometimes a disadvantage and sometimes an advantage. It was a disadvantage making the splice flower cane in the pinching the sides down. Also squashing the cane stacked quarters into a flat piece was quite physically demanding with the kato clay. At other times the firmness was an asset, cutting the bullseye canes into quarters was easier, less deformation. Things held their shape better and weren't floppy as they were with all the other brands at times. There was much less waste with the Kato et every stage. Even making skinner blends there was less waste from the Kato as it distorted less.

It is very much a personal preference and all sorts of things will effect your choice from where you live (temperature and also I gather some of the brands have slightly different formations in the states to UK), how you buy your clay (I have to buy Kato online can't get it in any local shops in the UK), the strength of your hands, what you like to make, how you work etc. Also if you don't want to mix colours the Kato range is rather limited.

However after I had seen the sliced and baked canes my mind was set - I'll give this Kato clay a go. I will probably invest in a little chopper to aid conditioning it isn't something I enjoy but I would say the results make that extra effort worthwhile. 

I am currently wriritng an article on conditioning Kato clay having tried out several different ways - coming soon.....

(when I first set up this blog I didn't understand how it worked and made this as a separate page. I have decided to post it here too in case people missed it on the other page - there are some comments on the separate page version which I can't or at least don't know how to copy over)