Bull's Eye Cane and Millefiori Leaf Cane,
Step by Step Tutorial
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The idea of a polymer clay cane came from the techniques used by glass blowers as early as the 1-st century in Egypt. This technique was further defined by Venetian glass makers in the 19-th century.
Millefiori is just a fancy name for the same technique, and it means a thousand flowers. A polymer clay cane is made from rods and sheets of polymer clay in different colors to form a design that can be revealed when a cane is sliced. A cane may be reduced, which allows creating intricate designs with many details. Slices of cane may be used in sculpting or applied to a surface to form a pattern. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a simple bull's eye cane, how to turn it into a leaf cane, and how to reduce the obtained cane in the most efficient way. Using the same Skinner blend sheet, you can make two different bull's eye canes – with the light color in the center and the dark on the outside of the cane or vice versa. I like to make both from each Skinner blend I prepare, and here is how I do it. | |
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Start with a two-color Skinner blend sheet. |
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Cut it in two strips lengthwise and set one of them aside. Roll the other strip through the pasta machine on the second thickest setting, feeding the short side of the strip in first.
Re-set the pasta machine down to the next setting and repeat the previous step. Keep going as long as you can comfortably handle the clay strip. I usually stop at the third thinnest setting. Please note how much longer the strip is now. I had to fold it to fit into the picture. |
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Take some of the clay you used for one of the colors in this blend (let's say, light green) and form it into a thin rod. This rod shall be as long as the width of your clay strip. Place the obtained rod on the light green end of the strip and roll the entire strip tightly around this rod. Starting to roll around the rod (rather then the clay strip itself) helps to prevent an empty space in the center of the cane and makes the entire process easier. |
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To form the other bull's eye cane, simply roll the clay strip in the other direction (from dark color to light) and use a dark-colored rod in the middle. The picture on the left shows the two finished canes (I had to cut off small portions on their ends to reveal the pattern inside). |
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Let's turn these canes into leaf canes now. First, slice the bull's eye cane vertically as shown on the picture. You shall obtain four parts of about the same thickness. |
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Condition some clay of the same color as that used for the outer side of the cane (light green in my example). Roll this clay into a sheet using the second thickest setting on your pasta machine. Disassemble the sliced cane and put three slices on top of the prepared sheet keeping them in the same orientation as they were in the cane. Cut the sheet of clay around the cane slices. |
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Reassemble the cane. It should look now as if you inserted pieces of the light-colored clay sheet in between the cane slices. Lightly press all parts together. |
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Slice the reassembled cane vertically again as shown on the picture. |
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Place one half of the cane on top of the clay sheet and cut the clay sheet around it to obtain a rectangle. Holding a blade at a sharp angle to the long edge of the obtained rectangle, slice through it as shown on the picture. |
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Place the bigger part of the rectangular sheet on top of a half of the cane. Please note the orientation of the rectangle. It's thin part has to be near the side of the cane with the shortest stripe.
Take the second part of the rectangular sheet and place it on top of the first part (which is already attached to the half of the cane). The thicker sides of both parts shall match as shown on the picture. |
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Gently roll a round pen or a knitting needle over the attached parts to press them together. |
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Flip the second part of the cane over and attach it to the other one as shown on the picture. Press them together.
Wrap the cane in a sheet of light green clay as shown on the picture. |
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Trim off the excess of the clay from the cane. This is your completed leaf cane. |
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Take some clay in similar colors as those used for the cane, and make a plug with the same diameter as you leaf cane and at least a couple of inches long. Cut this plug in half and attach to the opposite sides of the cane as shown on the picture. Press the three parts together. The purpose of these added parts is to protect your cane ends during the reduction process. As you will see, when you reduce a cane, it's ends cave in a little bit and the design at the ends gets distorted. The parts we just added will minimize this distortion.
Now let's start reducing the cane. It can be simply rolled by hand, but I prefer using a piece of glass sheet or a ceramic tile to roll the cane with. If you want to have all your leaf slices the same size, all you need to do is to continue rolling until your cane reaches the desired diameter. |
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However, I like having leaf slices in various sizes. That is why I roll the cane until it reaches the size of the biggest slice I want to have, and then reduce the middle of the cane to the minimal size I want. This reduction I do by hand by simply pulling the two ends of the cane in different directions. |
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And here is the final product: a leaf cane ready to be cut into many slices of various sizes and used in your future creations.
Repeat the steps above with your second bull's eye cane to make the leaves in reversed colors. |
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