Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part II     -     Background Cane

Step 14

I'm starting with the blue blend.  In this picture, (I got a bit ahead of myself) I've cut the blend into 2-inch strips

Step 15

Then I cut the black & white blend into thin strips.

Step 16

What you see in this picture is a bit of an optical illusion.  I've randomly placed the thin black & white blend strips on top of the blue blend strips.

Step 17

Here, I'm stacking the strips, keeping the light ends to the left and the dark ends to the right.

Step 18

Here's what the stack looks like.  I'm going to use my acrylic rod to compress and flatten it.  I roll from the center outwards to eliminate air pockets trapped between the layers of clay.

Step 19

Here's what it looks like after I've compressed it.  Next, I'm going to roll it through the pasta machine on the thickest setting to create a long narrow strip.

Step 20

This is what the strip looks like.  It's loosely folded in half so that I can fit it into the picture.

Step 21

I've cut the strip into 2-inch sections.  I kept the sections in order because I'm going to stack them from light to dark.

Step 22

Here, I've begun stacking from light to dark. 

Step 23

This picture shows the completed stack.  You can see the faint lines of the black and white blend that is sandwiched in there.  This side will be the front face of my stack.

Step 24

Here, I've compressed the stack. 

Step 25

Now I'm going to cut straight down through the face of the stack.

Step 26

Now I have two blocks that look like this.

Step 27

I've recombined the 2 blocks so that the lightest shade of the blend is in the middle.  (You could recombine it any way you like).

Step 28

Now I'm going to compress it into a cube.

Step 29

Here's what it should look like.  Again, we can faintly see that black & white blend peeking through the blue which signifies the front face of the stack.

Step 30

Now I've placed the cube face-up and I'm going to make a diagonal cut straight down through it.

Step 31

Now it should look like this.

Step 32

Now I'm going to recombine the two halves to look like this.  (You could also recombine them so that the dark ends {bottom of picture} are back-to-back.)

Step 33

Now I'm going to cut it in half straight down through the center, perpendicular to the "peak" of the triangle.

Step 34

Now I have two triangular stacks that look like this.

Step 35

Here, I've recombined them as shown to form a square cane.

Step 36

To reduce this, I begin by compressing it against the work surface, turning it a half- or quarter-turn and repeating...

Step 37

Once I lengthened it a bit, I begin rolling it with my acrylic rod from the center outwards to lengthen it further. 

Step 38

Here, I've reduced it to about 1-inch across and 12-inches long.

Step 39

Here's what the cane looks like after cutting one end.

I do more with this cane in Steps 67-70.

Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part III

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