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18 PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004 18 PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004 F or years, I’ve admired the work of Sarah Nelson Shriver and Gail Froula McIntyre. Their kaleidoscope cane beads mesmerized me. This year, I was lucky enough to be able to take a workshop with Sarah and I was instantly enlightened and inspired! I’m now happily obsessed with kaleidoscope caning. Here is my simple take on the technique. These reversible pendant beads remind me of fancy tiles imported from Spain and Italy. — Barbara Fajardo by Barbara Fajardo

Barb Fajardo Kaleidoscope Article

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My polymer clay Kaleidoscope Tile Pendant tutorial published in PolymerCafe Magazine, November 2004. Copyright Barb Fajardo, All Rights Reserved.

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18 PolymerCAFÉ Fall 200418 PolymerCAFÉ Fall 2004

For years, I’ve admired the work ofSarah Nelson Shriver and Gail Froula

McIntyre. Their kaleidoscope cane beadsmesmerized me. This year, I was luckyenough to be able to take a workshop withSarah and I was instantly enlightened andinspired! I’m now happily obsessed withkaleidoscope caning. Here is my simple take on the technique.These reversible pendant beads remind meof fancy tiles imported from Spain and Italy.

— Barbara Fajardo

byBarbaraFajardo

INSTRUCTIONSHave fun with pattern variations,we’ll show you how to make theone pictured below. You’ll haveenough clay from this cane to makeseveral pendants. Step 1. Start by making two SkinnerBlends, using 1 oz. of a light colorand 1 oz. of a dark color. I blendedyellow to violet and white to blue.Run each of your blends throughyour pasta machine on the thickestsetting, folding from bottom to topeach time. About 20 passes shoulddo it (Fig. 1).Step 2. Take one blend, fold it inhalf lengthwise, run through yourpasta machine (lengthwise) on thethickest setting. Trim the excessfrom the sides and fold it up accor-dion style. Square up the cane.Step 3. Now, with the second blend,slice it in half lengthwise and trimthe excess. Roll one half of the blendfrom light to dark and the other fromdark to light (Fig. 2). Roll tightly toavoid trapping any air bubbles. Makethe rolls as close to the same height(when standing on end) as possible.Start at the center of thecane squeezing gentlyfrom the center out to theends, and rolling onwork surface to even itout. Wrap each of thesewith black and/orwhite sheets rolledout very thin (setting#5 or #6). I wrappedone piece with whiteonly, the other withblack and white(Fig. 3) Be sure topush out air bub-bles as you wrap.

Let your canes rest for about 15 to20 minutes or refrigerate for about10 minutes. They will slice muchmore cleanly this way, and with lessdistortion.Step 4. Take your squared upaccordion cane and slice on a diago-nal down across the blends, cuttingfrom corner to corner (Fig. 4). Layone piece on very thin black (orwhite) clay rolled to the #5 or #6 set-ting on your pasta machine. Trim thesheet to fit your cane piece (you cando this by laying the accordion canecut side down on the black or whiteclay, then trim the bottom sheetedges with your blade to match upthe edges of the canes). Before youput the cut blend back on, flip it overso that your blend runs in the oppo-site direction. Now cut the cornersoff, line with black (or blue) and flipthose, too (Fig. 5). Assemble the 4pieces back into a square (Fig. 6).Don’t worry if the block’s not per-fect; even it up as much as possible.

Figure 1. SkinnerBlends, white toblue, and yellowto violet.

TOOLSStiff sharp tissue blade Straight edge or ruler Acrylic brayer2 unlined index cards Ceramic tile (optional) Pasta machine

MATERIALSPolymer clay in the following colors:2 oz. ea. Premo Black, and Yellow or White1 oz. ea. (½ pkg.) Premo Blue or Green, and Purple or Violet

Translucent Liquid Sculpey (optional)Scrap clay (optional)

Figure 2. Fold one of theblends accordion style

(blue one). Cut the other in half lengthwise,and roll up, one from light to dark, the otherfrom dark to light.

Figure 3. Wrap one blendin white, and one in white.

Figure 5. After slicing theaccordion fold cane, flip half

and line with the black sheet in the middle, trim it to fit.

Figure 4. Slice the accordion fold as shown.Pink lines denote the corner slices marks.

Figure 6.Detail offold withliningsheetsadded.

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Figure 8. Build the cane by placing pieces into apleasing combination.

Figure 9. Press into atriangular shape.

* Editor’s Note: In honor of this year’s summer games in Athens, and the Greek father from that movie, “My Big Fat GreekWedding,” I’ve included here the etymology of the word Kaleidoscope: Kalos=Beautiful, Eidos=Form, Skopos=Watching (just in case you wanted to know!) —j.c.-Source, Webster’s New World Dictionary

Figure 10. Continue to reduce until the caneis about 8" long and ¾" in diameter, let rest.

About the Artist: Barbara FajardoBarb has been working passionatelywith polymer clay since 2000. Shebegan selling her polymer beads onJustBeads.com under the seller name“rubarb” and was Featured Artist atthe site in January 2003. She currently sells her beads and jew-elry from her website www.rubarbde-sertdesigns.com and occasionally lists

on eBay under the seller name“rubarbbeads.” She is a member of the NewMexico Polymer Clay Guildand the National Polymer ClayGuild. Barb is a native NewMexican and lives inAlbuquerque with her husband,two teenage sons, and three dogs.

Figure 7. Various components, beforeassembling into thekaleidoscope cane.

Step 5. Okay, now comes the fun part! Use yourimagination here—be brave, it’ll look great, I prom-ise! The most important part of kaleidoscope caningis making sure that whatever you do to your cane,you do the same thing all the way from one end tothe other. Your design must go all the way throughthe cane. Gather all your cane pieces and make them into dif-ferent sizes and shapes, reducing them some more ifyou wish, and slicing down through them to get dif-ferent shapes (Fig. 7). Begin building your kaleido-scope cane by placing all of these different compo-nents together (Fig. 8). Stretch and twist some parts as you go, always mak-ing sure that you are doing the same thing to bothends of the cane. Look at the cane closely and care-fully as you build it.Step 6. Push your cane into a triangle shape.You will reduce this to approximately ¾" by 8".Reduce the cane by pushing against your work sur-face and stretching. Run your fingers along the sidesto smooth any lumps, flipping your cane from sideto side and end to end, keeping the same diameter

(or as close as possible) on each end (Figs. 9 & 10).Let your cane rest again. It will be much easier towork with.

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Step 7. Cut your cane in half lengthwise; set one half aside.Cut your other piece in half again. Look at your two triangles,rotating to see what pattern looks most pleasing to you. Lineup your two triangles in the desired pattern by looking downat the lines of color, and match them up. Press these gentlytogether (Fig. 11). Now hold one of the top corners and pushdown the other corner against your work surface to flatten(Fig. 12). Now you should have one larger triangle. Step 8. At this point, one option is to reduce this largertriangle a bit more and slice in half again, or if you prefer, cutfour nice even slices about ¼" thick (Fig. 13). If you make your tile using two slices instead of four, it ismuch easier to line up (Fig. 13A) .Line the slices up next to each other on your work surface. Asyou put these together, you will see thekaleidoscope pattern emerge (Fig. 14).Before you do too much smoothing, makesure your cane slices are as even as possi-ble. To do this, take your tissue blade andslice across the surface of your tile to evenout any high points (Fig. 15). Be sure not totake too much off or you will end up slicingall the way down to your work surface! (Ifyou cut too deep, slide the blade back outwithout lifting it and press the cut pieceback down.) Now push gently on the surface towardsthe center and out to the sides. Use yourstraight edge or blade to hold the shape asyou push out (Fig. 16). Continue squaringup and slicing across the top if needed,then gently brayer the surface of your tilein all directions to further even out the top. Step 9. Pick up the tile with your bladeand lay it on some scrap or black clay rolledout to the thickest setting on your pastamachine. Brayer gently and cut off excess(Fig. 17). Look at your tile and decide; doesit look better as a square or diamond shape?Which sides should be the top and bottom?

Figure 12. Carefully line up the col-ors and patterns, and press gentlytogether. Press down on work surfaceto flatten into a larger triangle shape.

Figure 11. Cut the cane in half and setone half aside. Cut the other half inhalf again. Try different arrangementsuntil you get the most pleasing pattern.

Figure 13.Slice the caneinto four ¼"thick pieces.

Figure 13A. Form your tile fromthe two or four slice configuration..

Figure 14. Kaleidoscope pattern. Figure 15. Trim the tile to even it out.

BLADE

Figure 16. Use the blade to keep edgesstraight, press to smooth the surface.

Figure 17. Lay the tile on the backingclay, smooth with your brayer, trim.

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Step 10. For the reverse side of your tile, use the other trianglecane that you set aside. Cut this in half and put these together tomake a square cane (Fig. 18). Reduce until it is one quarter thesize of your tile. You will need 4 slices of this for the reverse side(Fig. 19). Repeat the squaring up and evening out process. Place iton the reverse side of the scrap clay backing and brayer gently.Figure 20 shows both tiles, configured differently for oppositesides of the pendant. Another option is to make the reverse tilefrom a cane with another color scheme entirely.Step 11. Put your tile between two index cards with a ceramictile on top (tile is not necessary, but it will ensure that your piecebakes flat.) Bake in a preheated 275° oven (use an oven ther-mometer) for 30 minutes. Let cool. Sand and buff if desired.

Figure 18. Square cane for reverse side. Figure 19. Cut four slices.

Figure 21. Bake 20 minutes, sand, and buff(optional) and apply the frame.

Figure 20. Two sides of the pendant.

Figure 22. Finishedpendant.

Step 12. Finally, time to make the frame.Use black clay to roll out very thin longsnakes, and gently twist two together (Fig.21). If you like, apply a thin bead ofTranslucent Liquid Sculpey to the sides ofyour tile to help the braided frame adhere topendant. Start at the bottom of your tile,take the two ends of your snake and gentlypress it around the tile. Bring your clay uparound the sides, pressing as you go. At thetop, twist the clay snake into a bail. Bakeagain for at least 20 minutes.

Add a cord, and voila! I hope you createlots of different, colorful tiles!

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