Kaleidoscope fun...

Hello lovelies. 

Again I want to apologize for taking so long between posts, but, like I said before, I have suddenly become a lot busier (and not in a artistic/ crafting way, unfortunately), but never mind that. 

Let's get right into the little bit (actually its more like a lot bit...) of fun that I have managed to squeeze in in my last few clay-play sessions.

So, as those of you who keep track know, I had put the clay away for a minute and worked on a new cross stitch. That has now, in turn, also been put away, and I am back to my clay. 

Now, as per usual, I have about a million different ideas in my head of what I want to do and what I should do etc, but the one idea that I ended up working on was something that I had not done before, and the results where AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Here's what I made:

Cool right. Thankfully I have also encountered some new victims, I mean: made some new friends, so not all of these creations will go to the museum of Mom (like just about every other project does)...

Here's what I did:

 I started by making 6 different Skinner blends. Now if you aren't sure what that is, it refers to a technique of blending the clay so that the colours fade into one another, and it can be used with any colours, but works best when you have a light and a dark colour so that the contrast can be more easily seen. (It was devised by a lovely and super talented lady J. Skinner, hence the name.)

So starting off with two colours, in this case pink and white. First and most importantly, the clay needs to be really REALLY well conditioned. 

I usually do this by running it through my pasta machine/maker a whole bunch of times... When you feel you are done with the conditioning (basically warming the clay up and making pliable as well as making sure that the plasticizes (the polymers) are evenly distributed reducing the likelihood of cracks etc. when baking), make two squares, one out of each colour. 

(They don't have to be exact, but as close to the same size as you can get). Cut through both squares diagonally, it doesn't really matter if you go from top left to bottom right or vice versa.

 Stack the like colours together, and combine with the opposite colour to reform the square sheets.

Like this...

(sorry; no photo for this part, but:)

Place the squares on top of each other, like colours on top of one another, and run that through the pasta machine.

If you don't have a pasta machine, don't worry, it is possible to do this without one, it is just a whole lot harder! Use a rolling pin instead, but make sure that you always roll it out to the same thickness every time.

After running it through the pasta maker, fold the bottom edge to the top and run through the pasta machine again, in the same direction as before.

And again, always inserting the clay into the pasta machine in the same direction.

A good rule of thumb here is to feed the folded part into the rollers first.

After about 20-25 passes through the pasta machine, you will have something that looks like this. 

Just so you know, the more times you fold and run the clay through, the better the 'fading' effect will be and so long as you keep doing it in the same direction (folding and feeding/rolling out), it will only get better, and in my experience you cannot over do it, well not the SB (skinner blend) anyway...

 Here was one of the others...

 ... and its result.

The next thing that I did was to cut and stack them. Other artists simply fold into what is called an accordion fold, but I find that this ways is less prone to errors (for me).

This is what I mean with "stack". I keep the sequence of the segments, and in this way I now have a block instead of a sheet of clay.

I keep the two halves separate (for now) for a reason, but I'll get into that later!

This is a different colour scheme.

Here's where the fun starts...

I'll use this colour as the example. 

 First I took this stack and manipulated it into a roll...

 Like this.

Then I took the pink and white one... This one I left in a sheet as it was when I finished the SB, and rolled out my log a little thinner and wrapped the log in the pink/white sheet.

I did the same thing with the rest of them, but there s where keeping those two stacks separate comes in handy:

 If you put them together like this and slowly and gently roll them out together you get a lovely wrapping sheet that starts and ends with the same colour rather than the contrasting colours suddenly meeting in the wrap.

 Like this...

 See?...

Here is where we enter the point of no return. Yes, it is scary, but it is also amazingly, awesomely fun...

 Take these three rolls and stack them ontop of each other. the order doesn't really matter, which ever way you want.

Now flatten them a bit. 

Like in the photo...

 Here is where those lovely lines come from!

Use a tool like a paint brush end (so o long as it is the same thickness throughout) or a needle tool (I found mine was a little short and difficult to handle easily) or you can use, as I did, a knitting needle. Whatever it is or however thick it is, is up to you, but this will determine the waves/spikes in the end product, so the thinner you go, the harsher the lines at the end will be.

 Pick it up, carefully, and reshape t back into a rectangular shape (like it was when you started), flip it over and do it again. This time however, avoid making an indent right onto/into one of the first ones. Trust me, it is not a good look...

 Just a little side note here, I like symmetry and try and avoid chaos; generally (no laughing please), and that is the only reason that my indents are spaced more or less evenly apart.

 Here is a side view of what I ended up with...

(Again, not pic, sorry, but...)

What I did next was to reform the rectangle again, and then I actually cut the whole thing in half. The reason I did that is because depending on which side you pinch up to form the triangle when turning this into your cane, will determine the center of your cane.

 Here's what I mean. So the one on the left had the lighter (or the top of the above pic) pinched in from the square shape to form the top of my triangle, the right one was done in the exact opposite. 

This is what I mean by fun. I literally used the exact same process and indeed the SAME clay, but the results where really awesome and vastly different.

 So if we call the left one cane number 1 and the right one cane number 2, this is what I mean with awesome and different:

 Cutting 6 slices off of cane number 1 and making a hexagon produces this pattern...

 ... and cutting 6 slices off of cane number 2 and arranging them in the same manner, I got this pattern instead...

 I made pendants (one of which has found a new home...)

 And a candle holder (for Mom, I have the excuse of mother's day presents, so she can't say "Please, no more!")

 This is the other side of the same holder, with the 2nd design...

 Here are some different colour combinations that yielded different results...

 This one has tiny garnets embedded in it and is most likely my favorite one of all...

Now you may have noticed that these ones have the same colour scheme and you are correct. 

The one thing I hate about canning is that there is so much "waste". All of those bulge-y bits that you constantly have to cut off etc, or even slices that are just not right.

Of course you can turn this into 'scrap clay' which also has its uses, but in this case I just couldn't bare to waste all of those lovely colour blends and combinations! So I made these lovely swirls...

Some of them I'll turn into pendants, some into broaches or pins, and some will just be worry stones, you know, something pretty to play with... Most will be gifts...

Here are some close ups:

Honestly, I cannot pick a favorite either. I love all of them and love different things about just about every one of them...

If you are interested in knowing how I did them, let me know and I'll do a post about that some other time...

That's all I have for you tonight, so...

Until next time...

ACL

PS!! Please don't try and recreate exactly what I have done, because it might be close to impossible. I doubt even I could do it and I know exactly what I did...

PPS I have been using a new communications platform, and if you are interested in contacting me with questions and/ or comments, find me instantly (messages are sent to my phone) here:

https://reaches.me:8443/urlchat.html?guestid=6aa28459a91aad02692a9334f633919a

Its a fairly unique platform with a huge range of uses, but I like the chat. Alternatively, download it form the PlayStore. Search for chatWORLD or follow this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.world.chatworld&hl=en