Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part V

Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part V - Background & Stem

In this section, I'll be tweaking the blue cane, forming the background for the plaque, and creating the stem for the flower.

Step 66

Here's a picture of the four canes that I've made so far. Technically, I won't be using the brown cane in this project (only the cane-end).

Step 67

I decided that I wanted to make the design of the blue cane more compact, so I'm going to recombine as shown in the following steps.

*Note: I'm going to use the blue cane to cover the background of the piece. I really wanted a mottled sky sort of effect, but as you'll see, it didn't really turn out as I had anticipated. In retrospect, I could have just used the original blend sheet...or I could have chopped that into bits and spread it over the background just as effectively without all of the work. Nevertheless...it's still fun to cane! :)

Step 68

I cut the blue cane into 3 equal sections.

Step 69

Then I compressed those sections together as shown in this picture.

Step 70

Then I reduced it.

Now it's time to construct the plaque!

Step 71

I rolled out a long sheet of scrappy blue clay. Then I cut the sheet and seamed it together to get the desired size. I rolled out a ball of scrappy blue clay and placed it on my sheet in the spot where I want the center of the flower to be. The ball is not attached at this point, but just lightly sitting on the sheet as a placement reference. It will be used later though.

Step 72

Next, I cut the blue cane into thin slices.

Step 73

Then, I began placing them randomly all around the blue sheet.

Step 74

As I continued to cover the sheet with cane slices, I realized I wouldn't have enough. Oops! So I started using up the cane ends and pieces. I also left a large gap around the area where the flower will be.

Step 75

Here, I started seaming it so that I could use the little cane I had left to fill in any gaps. Notice that I removed the blue ball of clay so that I could roll the sheet.

Step 76

In this picture all of the background is on and rolled-in. The empty space in the upper middle will be covered by the sunflower.

Step 77

Next, I'm going to make the stem of the flower. I used the left-over green blend from the leaf cane shown in Step 40.

Step 78

I reconditioned it by running it through the pasta machine a few times. As you can see, this evened out the blend a bit more as well.

Step 79

I trimmed one of the ends and began rolling it into a log. Note the direction that I rolled the blend. This will make the stem gradate from light green to dark green.

Step 80

Here's what the blend looks like after rolling it up.

Step 81

Here, I reshaped the stem and placed it on the background, using that blue ball as a guide for where the center of the flower will be.

Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part VI

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