skinner blend stripe cane

As promised, here are the instructions for making the Skinner Blend Stripe Cane used to make the Squiggles and Pod beads used to make pieces such as the one pictured to the left.

Enjoy!

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Step 1.

Make a Skinner Blend.

Step 2.

Roll the sheet up not from one color to the other but sideways.

Here is what it should look like.

Step 3.

Roll the cylinder against your work surface, moving your hands from the ends to the middle. The goal here is to create a “plug” from the original cylinder. It helps to occasionally push the ends with your palms.

Step 4.

Place the plug on your worksurface and pinch the top as shown. By working against your worksurface in this way, you are less apt to pinch the wrong part of the plug.

Step 5.

Turn the plug over and pinch as shown.

Step 6.

Continue pinching the piece, gradually lengthening the piece so it becomes a strip. Try to maintain the same width, as you extend the length of the strip. Pinch and thin until the piece is approximately twice the thickness of the thickest setting of the pasta machine.

Step 7.

Roll the strip lightly with an acrylic rod to even and smooth the strip.

Step 8.

Roll the stripe color through a medium thin to thin setting. The thinner this sheet, the thinner the stripe between the Skinner Blend. Place the strip on the sheet as shown. You need the margin on three sides in order to completely cover the Skinner Blend strip.

Step 9.

Roll the strip and sheet through the thickest setting of the pasta machine as shown.

Step 10.

Here is the strip after being rolled through the pasta machine. The clay, in this case, has “self trimmed”.

Step 11.

Cut the strip in half and place one half atop the other. This what my piece looks like. If you want thinner stripes, roll through the pasta machine again.

Step 12;

Cut the strip in half and stack. Repeat until you have a thick slab. Trim the sides (I haven’t done that yet to this cane). You are now ready to make beads.