Fimo Nail Art Designs - Making Polymer Clay Canes To Fit Fingernails

The size of your Fimo cane really does matter for today's nail artist… Here's some polymer clay techniques for teeny tiny cane designs:

The fun thing about Fimo nailart canes is that you can make one large cane and then reduce it down to the tiny size of 1/4 inch. You end up with hundreds of wonderful detailed mini artworks to add to your nail art design tool kit.

Problem is, not every polymer clay cane design will shrink down that tiny and still look good.

First there is the problem of the clay. Soft mushy clay gets very badly distorted the further you try to reduce it. Lines twist, shapes contort and become out of proportion. Colors blur. A very disappointing ending to a beautifully built cane design!

Another problem is the colors. In a large cane it is easy to see the subtle shadings of a expertly constructed fimo cane. But shrink it down to nail art size and the colors will visually mix together. This is where using colors of high contrast is very important.

Also the intensity of colors is critical for making Fimo nail art canes. Colors get denser and darker as they are compressed.

So a lovely blend of light blue to Medium Blue to Dark Blue in a large cane, may end up looking like just one shade of blue when reduced down to a small cane. So a better way to achieve a similar blend would be to shift from White to Dark Blue.

Electric colors like Florescent Green or Hot Pink are great choices to use in Fimo nail canes because their shocking intensity is muted by the smallness of the cane.

Black and white are also good candidates for their high contrast to each other.

The cane design itself should also be taken into consideration. Bold graphic patterns do well when they are shrunk down.

If you look carefully at the photo of the nail art canes above, you will see that the flaming heart cane and the flower cane stand out quite clearly.

Even the highly detailed spider cane and pirate canes are recognizable at this tiny size because of the clear outlines and the high contrast colors of black and white.

For a size contrast, here's some links to photos for 3 of these cane designs in larger form. Have a look:

• Itsy Bitsy Spider Jewelry
• How to Make Polymer Clay Pendants
  
• Pirate Crossbones Jewelry

So as you can see, unique polymer clay canes like the four pictured on this page, have a lot of versatility. Used large they can become jewelry beads and pendants. Made tiny they become fun and funky Fimo nail art designs. That's pretty good mileage that you can squeeze out of just a few blocks of colorful clay!