Tokens ~ Education ~ What Else To Do With Skinner Blends: Part III

What Else To Do With Skinner Blends

Part III: Making the Ikat Canes

Step 38

Roll the plug, tri-color end first, through the pasta machine on the thickest setting (#1 on an Atlas).

Step 39

It should look like this.

Roll this through a medium setting on the pasta machine (#3 on an Atlas).

Step 40

Now it should look like this.

Step 41

This long sheet of clay will be used to make 2 separate canes. So we'll take this opportunity to cut it now, before it becomes too long and unwieldy. I'd like one of the canes to be slightly larger than the other, so I'm going to find the middle and make a cut about 8 inches from it. I find the middle by loosely folding the strip in half, but you could also measure with a ruler or measuring tape if you'd like to be precise.

Step 42

After cutting, you should have 2 strips that look like this.

Step 43

Pick up one of the strips and pass it through a thin setting on the pasta machine (#5 on an Atlas -If you don't feel comfortable with #5, #4 should work as well...).

Then do the same thing with the other strip.

Step 44

Now there should be 2 very, very long strips of tri-colored clay.

Step 45

Lay the shorter strip of clay flat on your work surface. Trim the edge of the clay and get your ruler handy.

Step 46

Begin making cuts along the strip every 2 inches.

Step 47

Once you've made all the cuts, the strip should look like this.

Step 48

Begin stacking the pieces by laying one on top of the other gray-to-gray, and black-to-black. Stagger each piece slightly as you go.

Step 49

This side-view shows the stagger a little bit better.

Step 50

Continue stacking and staggering until you have used up all of the pieces that you cut from the strip.

Step 51

Once finished, the stack should look like this. Set this aside and lay out the second, longer strip of clay.

Step 52

Cut this strip of clay just as you did the first in Step 46. Make the cuts every 2 inches along the entire length of the strip.

Step 53

Begin stacking these pieces evenly, one on top of another, but this time, flip every other piece so that they are layered gray-to-black, black-to-gray (see Step 55 for the side-view).

Step 54

Continue stacking in this manner until you've stacked all of the pieces.

Step 55

Once finished, the stack should look like this. Now we have 2 stacks that will make 2 separate Ikat canes. We will be reducing them in the next section.

Part IV: Reducing the Ikat Canes

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