Easter Lily Cane | Polymer Clay Tutorials Vol-058

Just One More Day!!
I’ve had the hardest time waiting on this tutorial Cindy
Love everything about it especially the colors
I’ve got my egg shell empty, clean and dry…just one more day:)

Hi All

I finished my 2nd egg yesterday:)

I’ll be sending Jason the 2nd one, where I put 4 larger slices of the cane on each side and then filled in w/ much smaller slices all over

Polymer Clay Express delivered my Ren Wax (plus other things) yesterday so I gave the egg the Ren Wax treatment after sanding and buffing—- WOW — it Really Pops
I’ll take pics of both eggs and post them for you guys to see

also used the Ren Wax on the beads I made from this cane – even though my ‘normal’ way of finishing my beads is to sand all the way through the grits my thumb was talking to me yesterday after only the 2nd grit of the micro-mesh pads….so I Ren Wax’d them too – and what a Lovely sheen they have YAY

I did try to post a picture of the 1st egg to fb BUT it seems that what ever file they went to went out of business and now I have to use a new company- Nicon Image Space-, and I’ve not figured out how to use it yet

I’ve almost used up this whole cane now and can’t wait to make a cane end Natasha bead with the rest

Thank you Cindy for such a great project :)

yay pics are up at Cindy’s FB page

got help from a father of a teenager
Is that one of the signs of aging? ;)

thanks everyone for letting me share my adventure in polymer clay with you

:)

Members Photo Page – Okey dokey got it :D
LOL NO wonder the page looked
different :/

I KNEW you would be teaching this cane. You teased us,huh? Well, it worked -we’re waiting for the whole tute! I am not much of a caner, but I know I will try this one. Maybe in different colors too. Friday, work space clear -waiting ,waiting,waiting……….happy dance

Hi Dixie Ann, all the exact amounts for this cane are explained very clearly in this video. I don’t think that you will have any problems, once you see it. If you need to use a different brand than Premo, just divide the block into 4 equal parts and it should translate to approximately the same amount of clay I use in this tutorial, since most blocks are around the 2 oz size. (The color recipes won’t work though, since each brand’s colors mix differently. You would have to come up with your own colors to use instead.)

In regards to another video with cutting the clay into different fractions, are you referring to the Mixing Custom Color Recipes video? Because that explains how to mix up batches of colors in any amount that you want.

Hopefully that answers your questions well enough.

Well the problem Dixie Ann is that there really isn’t a standard for how big a part is. What that tutorial gave you was a recipe for the color mix and not an exact amount of that mixed color to use in your cane. I guess they expect you to mix up a batch of the color and hope that you had enough to make the cane.

It is those kinds of incomplete instructions that are out there that drive me crazy! It leaves people hanging and then feeling like an idiot when they don’t ‘get’ what’s going on.

In fact I read a polymer clay tutorial just yesterday on a well known bead company’s site, designed by a highly respected clayer (neither of which I will mention names because I do like both of them) that was guilty of a terrible lack of information.

It had a picture of a beautiful three color blend stacked into a Skinner Blend Plug, and beside it, all it had for instructions was basically, take three blocks of clay in red and three blocks of yellow, make a graduated blend and fold to make this stack…… Hunh?

The only people that would be useful for is the person that has made a gazzilion canes. And they don’t need any instructions. All an advanced clayer needs is the picture of the final cane design and they would pretty much be able to reverse engineer it from there.

So who are these instructions for, if they’re useless for a beginner and pointless for an advanced clayer? It makes no sense!

Meanwhile a beginner caner will buy all the supplies, thinking they have the instructions to make a wonderful detailed cane, when all they have is a set of confusing partial instructions.

It is sort of like saying to a new cook, take some flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk and a egg… mix them in a bowl, cut them out and bake. Voila! Biscuits!……. More like… FAIL!

I promise to never do that to you with my tutorials. And if I ever do leave something out, make a mistake or am vague with the details, let me know and I’ll fix it. I want to make it easier for you, not harder.

Anyway, I know I didn’t really help fix this issue you are dealing with in regards to that other person’s tutorial. If you ever find my instructions confusing or unclear, do make sure to let me know. You won’t be the only one having problems. And I will always do my best to ‘clear the mud’ so to speak! :)

You can measure out amounts of clay using a cutter Dixie. There just isn’t a standard used by all clayers.

Can’t wait to see this tomorrow! As far as mixing colors goes I think of a “part” as what ever size I’m starting with. For example one section of a block of clay can be one part or two sections can be on part etc. Then every other “part” is a measurement of the original size part. So, say that my one part is a whole block of clay, then a half part would be half a block of what ever other color, a 1/4 part would be 1/4 section of another color etc. Does that make any sense? I’m pretty tired I’ve been studying all day, lol.

Cindy, you are a very thorough teacher that both explains and demonstrates things in an easily accessible fashion. It’s very common for me to find myself thinking “Why didn’t I think of that?” when watching your tutorials.

Take Care!
Wendy

This Lily Cane Tutorial is WONDERFUL as usual. Im so glad you did this tute as Ive been wanting to be able to do some pix or graphics via cane and you take some of the fear out of the trimming of the lily out of roll. etc. thanks.

Hi Janice, I am so happy that you came by to say Hi. It is wonderful to have you here! Yes I know about having a polymer clay addiction!! It is a healthy type of addition to have so don’t worry. Anything that gets you fired up and inspired, without harming your body or your mind, is a good thing right? ;)

Any way, glad to hear that the Easter Lily Cane is perfect for a gift for your mom. I think you are going to enjoy making it and that it will become a springboard to other caning projects as well.

Hope to continue to see you ‘around these parts’. Thanks for your comment!

Thanks Michelle! Glad you liked it! As far as where I buy findings, I am going to have to say, pretty much everywhere. I regularly buy at ArtBeads, ShipwreckBeads, FireMountainGems, Rings&Things, and of course my local Michaels. I like to watch for good deals. I believe those particular caps came from ArtBeads.

The 3D cane I think you are referring to is called a Fountain Flower by MarsDesigns. Although I love that design, I need to be careful not to do tutorials that are too similar to other artists in the industry that have signature designs like that one. Just like me they are trying to make a living off their work. It would be mean to copy them and I hate it when it happens to me… which is WAY too often btw.

I can however add whatever of my own original cane designs (like this Easter Lily) or ones that are more ‘common license’ or ‘public domain’ (like rose canes or jelly roll canes etc.) that I want to. Especially if I can make it head slapping easy and put my own little spin on it. I would like to create some more 3D type canes as well as some more ‘frilly’ and ‘multi-petaled’ designs though, so those should keep you happy when I can get to them. :)

Hello Cindy & fellow Clayers ~

I sent the following questions to Cindy a few days ago and she thought they are great questions and to forward them to the group for some well rounded help and advice from everyone…… Thank you all so much for taking the time to help me on this~~

Hi Cindy ~ I need your advise on how you manage to store your findings not only by what they are made of but also by what company you order from, how many pieces you have and the cost…..

I have been struggling with this, I have my studio all set and am set up with Etsy to sell when I get to the (making jewelry part) but can’t see to get this done.

I watched an Etsy video class that recommends a company call “Outright” for keeping track of stock for making and price per piece and such & there is a DVD for a “Jewelry Designer” not sure if either are good sites for Clay Makers with Jewelry parts as well.

Do you use anything like these & if so what one & how do you sort your findings “other than your bags of bead wire” which I saw on your tutorial and love!!

Help Teacher!!! I need yours or someone from our groups help, ideas, suggestions. I am extremely organized & that is best for how I work. I live in Indiana & even searched tons of stores and sites until I found the exact cabinets you have on your back wall & bought 8 of them for beads and clay storage & have them labeled by color & color # & maker. I even painted the black to be a soothing lite aqua color. Will send in pics of my area soon to share.

Thanks Cindy for your time & expert help!! =)

Deby Petzke

Hi Deb, I hear urgency in your post. The best way I can think of to keep track of all your expenses is using a spreadsheet, unless you have a software program that will help you. I don’t know how much computer experience you have but if you do a google search you can find free applications online that you can download and use. There is even a free Open Office that is identical to Microsofts Office which has A spreadsheet, and a word processer.
You can have a sheet for Inventory, a sheet for vendors etc; There is also help online and in the program itself as to how to use it. Good Luck.

Thank you Dixie Ann for your help. I really appreciate you guidance!!

I use Bead Mgr. Pro. I track the clay by quarter section, therefore each 2 oz block yields 16 pieces. I use register receipt numbers for tracking my own parts. It tracks merchant price , etc. Once set up it is perfect.

Thank You Karronkay for your help and letting me know you use the Bead Pro, I will look into it… I really appreciate you help as this is really a struggling point for me as I like to be organized & I only want to set it up once and then be able to create and just keep updating from there!!! So a Big Thankyou!! =)

I’m a software developer and have very specific ideas about what I want to accomplish and how I want things to work. None of the existing beading / inventory tracking software that I’ve looked at meets my requirements, and to be honest I find much of it unusable, but I want functions that many people don’t and am very particular about user interface design so my opinion probably doesn’t reflect the majority’s.

At the moment I use a very elaborate and detailed spreadsheet for managing inventory and tracking costs as I haven’t got around to writing specific software for my own use yet. I’ve written such software for other things, and I’ll do it for my studio supplies when my spreadsheet becomes too cumbersome, but that probably won’t be any time really soon.

The information I record depends on the type of item, but for beads and findings it includes things like materials, dimensions (X, Y and Z axes plus hole positioning and dimensions), shape, colours, decoration — so I can search for similar items or see if I have anything that matches a particular idea I have in mind — as well as quantity, reference images, source, overall and unit pricing (with currency conversion) with and without shipping, and handles recording multiple purchases of the same item from different suppliers at different prices, assuming “first in, first out” usage. Clay goes in there too along with anything else “consumable”, plus tools, instructional material, and what have you. If I want to I can determine the exact materials cost of almost anything I make, although I normally don’t bother. I’m definitely not “in production”, but I like having that information on hand.

(By the way, keeping up that level of detail isn’t too much hassle when you can record incomings and outgoings “as you go”, but if you have any significant existing stocks getting that initial information entered is a total pain! LOL I have several boxes of goodies I haven’t recorded properly yet, and am still undecided as to whether I’ll spend the time to record them all in full detail, or will just store them away where they belong and use general information from similar items if I ever need to price them in detail.)

In terms of storage, like items are grouped together and stored in a logical order / progression in my studio. For example, non-metal beads are arranged by colour, with one series for gemstone beads and another for everything else. Metal beads and findings are stored by material, type of item, shape and general appearance. I generally also put a sticker onto the storage package of each item with basic details such as material, dimensions, overall and unit pricing, and source of that particular package. For clay, I keep enough immediately accessible for any project I might have in mind (a few pounds of each Kato colour as I use this the most, 4 packages of each Premo colour, and 1-4 packages of each Pardo/Fimo etc. colour as I don’t use them much), with the rest in bulk storage crates that are kept out of the way.

I’d also say that you’re not going to come up with the perfect system instantly. I’ve reorganised things completely several times, and continue to tinker even now. Also, what works for one person won’t necessarily work for others. Do a general internet search, see what ideas people have that also appeal to you, try a few software packages with some basic “real” data and see if they do what you want (and if they don’t, quite, you can always email suggestions to the developers!). And when you set your prices, remember that it’s not all about materials; factor in your time and creative input too, and allow enough leeway to still get a suitable return even when constituents can’t be specifically priced.

I’m glad it helped, Deby! Good luck with everything, and I hope we get to see some of your work. :)

Cindy, thank you so much, I love this cane and I made it and am now making the beads. I needed all the videos you gave us for this and they made it so easy to make the cane and beads. A lot of hard work for you guys but so appreciated !!!!

Somewhat related to the question about inventory tracking, I’ve made simple spreadsheets that list the clays available (that I’ve found) in the Premo, Fimo and Kato lines. And I’m wondering if anyone here would like copies in PDF or Excel-compatible formats?

Basically it’s a list of the color codes and names, one per line and a row of boxes (think grid pattern) to keep track of blocks you have in inventory, or blocks you want to order. I made it to take with me when I am buying clay (or have with me at my desk when ordering online). For me, every time I buy a block I fill in one square for that color using the block size. For example, if I have 4 blocks of black in 2 oz and 1 block in 8 oz, I might have 2, 8, 2, 2, 2, on that row. I cross off one of the numbers when I use a block that size. I found I would buy clays I already had lots of and completely miss filling holes in my stash, until I did this. But you can use it anyway you want.

If enough people are interested, I have a couple of options for putting each brand sheet on a website and providing links. If only one or two are interested I can e-mail direct instead of bothering to make links. Most computers come with the software to open an Adobe PDF, but not to make changes. If you want to take this sheet and add your own details, I can provide a file you can edit in a spreadsheet program. So let me know if you are interested using reply.

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the offer. Yes, I know the reasons why posting e-mails are a bad idea and I probably should have clearly said reply with your interest, not your e-mail. (I have an e-mail account that I can turn on and off for temporary use like this.) But it was late and I had already had a glass of wine. ;-)

If you could upload the files that would be great. My website is really old and in need of a major overhaul so I don’t even tell anyone about it right now. I could try to throw up a quick page just for this but I’m not sure I remember the correct password and I don’t have access to my super-secret password hidey-place where I am now.

I will send the files to the contact info, zipped up to make it easier. Thanks again.

How wonderful Bertha :) what a useful tool that will be !
I just love poly people – don’t ya’ll :)
a big Thanks for a new tool

I have only been using polymer clay for 5 months & love your video tutorials. I have learnt so much. Thank you.