I STARTED Early--Took my Dog--And visited the Sea--
The Mermaids in the Basement Came out to look at me
--Emily Dickinson

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Bullseye Cane Bonanza, Part Three: Complex Cane

By adding layers (and complicated layers), you can make a bullseye cane look fairly complex.  It's not really hard, but can take a bit of time and planning (especially with all the clay conditioning...wish I could farm that out to someone!).


I decided to go with a yellow, orange, red theme this time around.  Here's the conditioned and rolled out sheets...they vary in thickness, which you can see in the finished cane. 


Roll your center with a sheet of clay


Then roll that in a thinner sheet of clay, followed by a thicker sheet of clay


This next couple of steps can be a little tricky...hopefully, I can explain it clearly.  Roll two different colors on the thickest setting.  Stack on top of each other


Cut into several stacks (I used four here)


Stack on top of each other


Then slice the stack in half and stack the two halves on top of each other; do it again one or two times (depending on how thick your stack is).  Roll the stack through the pasta machine with the stripes going vertical (you want the clay stack layer to be even thickness without distorting the lines)


Trim the edges if it's too long for the roll (or roll out the cane to make it fit the sheet...either way works).  Roll the cane in the striped sheet, trimming off excess (if it's too short, reduce the cane before wrapping)


Smooth the layer onto the cane (usually it will gap apart in a couple of places...just mush it back onto the cane and smooth)


Wrap the cane in a sheet of medium thickness.  Roll two or three colors on a very thin setting, then stack the sheets and roll on a setting that is one or two steps thicker.  When you're dealing with very thin sheets, it's often easier to stack them and roll the cane with the stack, then rolling each sheet individually.  Of course, I may just find it easier because I'm a klutz (Lol!)


Roll the cane in the resulting sheet


Ta-da!  A complex bullseye cane!

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