Yep, talking “old” not “cold”, LOL!

Warm days like we are having this summer, are good days to try and use up old canes. The canes are little softer and more willing to ‘move’ when they are warmer. You can warm up canes with a heat pad or warm water, but you have to be careful not to cook them.

If you leave the cross hatching in place and don’t straighten it too much you get lovely little slices of the slashings…save these! They make remarkable clay fabric for future laminations.

Also, Cindy points out the raku effect that happens if you use old clay slices, with the bird cane in the video. I happen to like that, think that effect is great, and antiqued and set properly, would be fabulous.

Question. How do you tell from looking at a cold cane what shape it is in for lamination? We have to be more sophisticated now as a result of experience to be able to tell other than by trial and error.

Would love feedback. As stated I use plenty of transluscent, and I think this helps preserve cane life.

Then, you said to stack and rehatch & mesh the new top. Oh, I guess that makes sense, if you cut it from the top and stacked one side atop the other. You would be redoi ng the cuts—criss-crossing them again, N to S and E to W. Okay, so I guess my question is merely do I cut the initial cross-hatching from the top, or is there cutting happening on the sides, as well? (I know that’s not the usual MG way…)

Do you have some examples of this beautiful pattern to show us? I’d love to see some pics… I love greens, btw. Expecially Celadon greens! Thanks for the inspiration, too!

Used shades of celadon green, lots of layers, lots of gold leaf….then crosshatched all sides of the base rectangle, cut it in half, meshed and rehatched the new top, then straightening it out a little.

Those slices came off as breathtakingly gorgeous as you could ever imagine. Little diagonals, or cubes, or later, like a feathered painted paper.

If you alternate layers using the occasional contrasting dark color, you will find that lots of slices can be used for two or three entirely different color effects, or build adding dimension. For kicks, try a base color, then use the painters yellow and white to show light, and purple/browns to show depth. Surround it in translucent layers or shaded, and you can get remarkable “starship” or deep space imagery.

I am having fun. Hope you are too.

Hello to Everyone,

Some new Spotlight project pictures that relate to the topic of this page (Mokume Gane Polymer Clay Technique), have just been added in another post. They were submitted by Cheryl-H. The link by my name will take you to where you can see them, along with a bit of a write up. Hopefully they will inspire you to achieve great things with your own polymer clay projects.