Kaleidoscope and Flower Canes

 Here, as promised are some more experiments with kaleidoscope canes. I've also made more flower canes, and made some beads I'm rather pleased with - and some I'm not so pleased with!

I thought I'd start with one I think came out rather well.  A few tiny air holes but I should be able to deal with them when I use the cane though I'm not sure yet what I'll use it for - it's quite small and I don't want to reduce it much or all the detail will go.

Ok, you can laugh - I did.  I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong here but kaleidoscope it ain't!!  That one went into the scrap clay bag.  Scrap clay is useful,  I've made a lot of lentil swirl beads from bits of scrap, and it makes a good base for the pillow beads I've made using various cane slices.

These haven't been varnished or polished yet and I'm not sure of the quality.  I've sanded them lots but they just aren't very smooth so I've yet to decide what to do with them.
The first beads I made with this method were better but I messed up drilling holes and some of them cracked - so I'm keeping this necklace:

The previous beads were a larger version of these and the small beads I made to go with them are fine so they can be used with something else.

 Flower canes, here is one before reduction, with its various components,

and here it is reduced to several different sizes, I'm pleased with this one.

This one seemed really promising, but went a bit  wonkely when I reduced it!

I think It is worth keeping though. I may reduce some of it even more and use it in a kaleidoscope cane.
I'm really enjoying myself trying out all these new skills and techniques.  I'm finding inspiration in books and tutorials and hope over time to produce better and better work.  I hope soon I'll get some jewellery into my Folksy shop.  So far most of the jewellery I have produced has gone into the Arteria exhibition but when that closes what hasn't sold can go into the Folksy shop. 

Family Departure - and Claying Again

Well I've had a wonderful time with my family.  My daughter, son-in-law and 2 gorgeous grandchildren were here for too short a time.  My son-in-law was only here a few days but we packed them with outings! The children slept here,  parents at a local B&B.  We saw family and friends and did a little sightseeing too. A wonderful day out with family in Hebden Bridge included a lovely fire in the garden.

The children had a blast running round finding twigs and dead leaves to throw on the fire!
They left on Monday and the house feels very empty now.  
I'll be staying home for a while recovering my energy, and plan to get some more polymer clay beads done.  
I managed to do a little before the family arrived, so here's a little preview of some of my experiments.

A few canes used towards a kaleidoscope cane,

Not too bad for a first attempt I think!

I used this for some beads that didn't turn out too well.  Once reduced the colour difference wasn't very clear unfortunately.  I think I baked them too long and they went rather dark.

These were more successful.  I'm quite pleased with the flower cane I made.  I did a purple flower cane too, but didn't outline the petals so it wasn't so good.

I'm quite pleased with these, made up from various leftovers.  I plan to do a pair of earrings and a necklace of some sort to match.  Note the cat hairs in the photo - Monty, my neighbour's cat, insisted on 'helping' me.  (I use my neighbour's garden table to take photos).

I used some of the previous cane to make this brooch but I'm not too happy with it - too much glitter! I'm pleased with the leaf cane though.   I did make a brooch I like and that will go into my Folksy shop soon.

And here's Monty.  He gave up helping and decided to have a snooze.