INITIAL CANE AND A HARNESS

I'm sure that title sounds funny to you but you'll see why I put that there.

My last blog was about my friend Michele coming over and showing us how to do an initial cane.  I've decided I don't really like mine and I think it's because it was black and white.  It's too stark.  I should have gone with Evelyn and Carol's idea to do an ecru and black one.

This is a pendant I made that I really like even though the picture isn't so great.  It's a triple layer pendant and has buildings on it.  It was a new  Mayco stamp that I got.  I did some little additions to it like the cross hatch on the top.  It's been sanded 4 times.  I antiqued it with burnt umber and it didn't pop so I used gold and I like it a lot.  I made the pendant baked and sanded it.  Put the paint on it, baked and sanded it again.  And then,

I did the back with my initial cane and a bail.  See, you are saying the initial cane stinks.  Well, I should have made the initials thicker too.  I must not have been listening.  But, I baked and sanded and buffed it again.  It's solid.

This is an owl pendant that I did that I really like and it's going to get crystal eyes very soon.  Again, the initial cane is not to my liking but I was planning on keeping this for me anyway.  This one has been baked, sanded and buffed 3 times also.  The bails on these are something I learned from Michele and she is going to be putting out an incredible tutorial on Etsy.  I'll let you know when it's ready.

You know I walk my friends dogs everyday.  This is Beau.  He is 10 years old and he's an incredible dog.  We always put a harness on the two little ones when I walk them and I mentioned that I thought Beau should have one too.  I thought it would be easier on his neck.  He's had this for two days and now he struts like a king and his neck doesn't pull.  Both of us are happy campers.  You know I'm a cat person but I've been walking these 3 dogs for 8 weeks and I'm learning a lot about dogs and dog people.  If you have a dog, put a harness on them when you go walking.  Don't attach the leash right to their collar.  Isn't he handsome?

These are Kumihimo bracelets I made to take home for the family.  I'm going to Chicago for two weeks so I won't be blogging for a while.  I'm looking forward to the cool weather.  I've had enough summer.

POLYMER CLAY INITIAL CANE

Thursday we had a clay day at my house and we made initial canes.  I don't know why I thought it would be a piece of cake.  Then I sat down and started doing it.  First it looked like a cat that who's dad drank too much vodka.  Good thing Michele was here and she is very methodical in her work with polymer clay.  Our friend Carol just had hand surgery so Michele helped her with her cane.

They did a little off-set thing and it really turned out great.

This is a picture of the final cane after they put it in the extruder.  Sorry I was little shaky and blurry with this picture but I think this is awesome.

This is the start of my cane.  The black on all three initials should have been heavier.

This is my finished cane and it's been reduced so it's about 1/2 inch wide.  

This was Evelyn's cane.   I really like the ecru and black together.

This is her finished cane.

And of course, Evelyn took her end pieces and some of mine and made beautiful Natasha pieces with them.

Well, we had fun and now I have two feet of initial cane that will probably take me 3 years to use.  But, I want to make another one with ecru and black and thicker initials.  This really works well.  I'll take some pictures of some of the pieces that I put this on.