“I really like all the interesting ways you’ve incorporated this cane… giving us a lot to think about once again Cindy!!” ~DJ
On September 21st, I posted an introductory preview clip for the Spotted Lily Petal Cane tutorial. Today, the full version of this video lesson (Vol-028-4) is available for viewing at the Polymer Clay Members Library. Here is the link: Spotted Lily Petal Cane – It Doesn’t Get Much Easier Than This
For anyone who is not yet a paid member, if you did not know, the cost works out to only $3.32 per month. This gives you 24/7 access to the full versions of my Friday video tutes. Plus you also receive four A-series color recipe cards. This week’s color is: Golden Sunflower (4A) from the Autumn Sunflower Polymer Clay Color Palette.
I love my purchase of the entire set of back issue videos! What a joy to have a “tutor” instead of flying by the seat of my pants, wasting time, money. ~Bonnie-B
Hiya Cindy, Your tutorials are the best Cindy, and with your tute’s I have so little scrap clay and I always am able to find a use for the scraps. And I’m very glad your tute’s are so affordable. I learn so much from you. And thanks to Doug too – his video’s and photography are fantastic! Thank you both for all you do for us, your students!!! One of your many grateful students. ~Lisa-W
Hello everyone! I know I don’t write much here like I used to, its just that life has a way of taking over when you least expect it. Husbands getting ill, children moving and one going to Iraq, grandchildren being born, etc. But when I saw this article come up in my weekly quick scan I just had to write in and add my $.02. I have had the opportunity to write to Cindy several times in the past. And once just recently. She has always answered me very quickly, sometimes within the hour! I don’t know how she manages to do all that she must have to do in a day, not to mention raising a family! Maybe we should ask for a tutorial on THAT someday! LOL! I have been here almost from the start and I can’t complain about one thing. I haven’t regretted becoming a member for a single moment. And it just keeps getting better. So big kudo’s to Cindy and Doug for all that they do. I can’t imagine life without them or this blog anymore. It is my one moment of sanity each week to sneak away and watch my video and read the blogs. I hope it never ends. ~Jamie-H
If you want to become a paid member, here is the link:
Polymer Clay Video Library
Or if you are brand new to polymer clay, the best place to first learn all of the fundamentals is here: Polymer Clay Beginners Course
To browse other video tutorials that are available for purchase without becoming a subscribing member (in other words… just a one time fee), you can go here: Polymer Clay Video Back Issues
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Open Mic… Please use the comment sections of these Friday posts to discuss polymer clay challenges that you need some help with… success stories about your bead and jewelry projects… requests for upcoming video tutorials. In other words, it’s an open mic :-) .
Listed below are the topics that were discussed in the last Friday’s Open Mic comments:
- Roll’n, Roll’n Roll’n… Wheels still spinning :-)
- Zoned out and thinking about polymer clay.
- Hot Artfire tip.
- Another Doh! moment,
… have been doing things the hardest way possible.
- Candy cane earrings for Fall.
- A successful day with over $304 in jewelry sales.
- On a desert isle with a gorgeous hunk.
- Dreams of PC jewellery floating around in her head.
- Using a deli meat/cheese slicer to cut polymer clay canes.
- River rocks for your rock tumbler.
- Loading up the entire craft room into her car.
- Talking about rhinestones.
- And more…
If you need to catch up, here is the link to the article where last week’s topics were discussed in detail: Tube Beads & Roller Tool
Otherwise, you can use the comment section below to start talking about some new topics and ideas. Happy Friday!!!
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Oooh, I’m gonna go watch the video now…so exciting! ~Kat
@Lupe: Sorry, I wanted to get your attention here…someone is asking about the covered plastic eggs you made some time back. I know you mentioned it on your blog, but it didn’t say which brand you used. A question from Ceallaig is posted here, at Cindy’s post about Egg Shaped Polymer Clay Beads. Thanks!
Fantastic!!!!!! I was wondering how you were going to get the spots in the petals. I’m going to try this using the Stargazer colors, it’s my favorite lilly in my garden between the vibrant pink of the flower to the unbelievable fragrance. A big thank you to the Lietz Team!!!! Since I’m more of a hockey fan I’ll just say….. GOOOOOOOOOAAAAL!!!!!!!…… :)
Cindy, this tut is awesome. I was trying to wrap it around my head of how you were going to do this awesome Lily creation and it ended up being just the simplest thing. Your basic course is definitely a way to go to get all the basic requirements and understand how clay works; then add some of one’s creativity to come up with these awesome designs :) I have all kinds of designs racing in my head now. The difference between what I’ve been doing with graphic design is that now I have to think 3D instead of 2D.
You’re the best Cindy :)
I love this flower pedal! It’s so pretty and I’m so excited to try it…. but first I shall sleep. I love getting home Friday mornings and watching the weekly video before I go to bed to dream of the polymer clay fun waiting for me later!
How can you make something so amazingly simple ? You really have done your homework !!! Thank you for everything………. After I work out, I am going to make this up. These are just about my favorite colors. But lily’s come in so many wonderful colors. Just might try all of them ( yeah, right like I have the time for that, haha). So you and Doug have done it again………. We love you guys ;}
Fantastic tute. I too was trying to figure out the spots….:). So simple….with your teachings that is.
@ Ken: I’m so with you on the Stargazer Lily colors! I’m thinking that both of the B Palettes this week would make beautiful lilies, too.
Cindy, HOW do you think this stuff up!! I think my brain is going to explode with all the things that could be done with this tut!
@Linda K.: B palettes? Am I missing something?
Judy
@Judy: The B-Series color recipes are included in the weekly email newsletter that gets emailed each Friday to everyone on the Guest List. You can click the link by my name for more info.
I can’t wait to try making this Lily. It looks beautiful and appears to be very easy. I can see using this method where you need little polka dots too. Thanks again for a great technique.
OOOOooo, I’m about to watch the vid and make the cane… I may even attempt to make this into a flower cane, if I can figure out how to make it look like a lily…hmmmmmm maybe a part 2 Cindy? *grin* I love the colors for this one, I can’t wait to see my finished product…
Happy Claying,
~Lisa :)
Oh I just want to try this cane and make lilies and pendants. I’m going to mix the pallette; it’s such a gorgeous palette too. Thanks Cindy & Doug!
Love the ease of making this luscious spotted lily. Just went to Google for more images…wow, there is a lot of color variation and shape with this one.
Think my first try on this one will be a fantasy blue metallic based blend, with white spots.
Loretta, good idea about the polka dot pattern to develop out of this. I’ll bet it would be gorgeous.
Just had a chance to watch this technique – not only a beautiful result but beautiful in its simplicity! I’ll have to “tinker” with my pasta machine though. I’ve been procrastinating about having to take it apart and reassemble it, hoping the offending streaks will just magically go away with surface cleaning. I’ll just have to review the pasta machine back issue again, gather courage (gulp) and proceed ;)
The video was absolutely great. Can’t wait to make the cane today. I have been in a total funk with clay. I had my clay work spot in a spare bedroom with Sesame Street Wallpaper. We redid the room and I had every thing to a different room and it is all still in an unorganized mess. So, I am hoping this project will help me get back to my true passion.
Anna, Des Moines, Iowa
Posting this again- I think this was discussed somewhere sometime; How do I measure 1/8 part. When measuring for mixing colors what do you use as one part?
@Cherie: Use a square cookie cutter to measure the parts. Size doesn’t matter that much, though a large one will give you more clay in each part than a small one. Same goes for the thickness. You can roll the sheet to whatever thickness you want. Thick if you want more of the recipe mixed… Thin if you want less. Just make sure you use the same cutter and the same thickness for every part. By using a square cutter it is easier to cut into fractions like 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. by cutting from corner to corner and then dividing each piece in half. Hope that makes sense.
There was an old article written about this ages ago. The link by my name will take you there.
I just tried to make this cane. The flower cane I made with the petal cane was awesome, until I started reducing… The translucent background cracked and the flower is distorted…
I have problems with the consistency of my clay lately… It is way to soft or way to hard… Both fimo and sculpey… It started with the new packaging for both…
@Cindy Graveline: I don’t know much about the latest packaging; I have some in certain colors, but I haven’t dug into it yet. (I still have plenty of the old stuff & the “kind of old”, from when Premo removed the Phthlates.)
I had to say something when I noticed your comment…I didn’t want it to get buried behind my long reply above…
You said the change happened with the new packaging…have you been using only old clay up til recently? Maybe the wrapping is different/thinner…and it’s reacting to the something where you store your clay? Or maybe it has something to do w/the way the clay was stored before it got to you…is it all from the same place? You’ve been working with clay a long time…so I’m just trying to trigger an idea, or see if anyone else is having the same problem. What about your studio/clay table…anything new going on there?
“Bump”…sorry I couldn’t help! :·S
Concerning the weekly color recipes, how can I see the actual colors from 2 months ago? Not just the recipe, but what the finished color looks like. When I go into the archives at the members library site for the A-series recipes, all I find is the recipe. Thanks, Debbie.
@Debbie McLelland: Cindy has an article for each A-series color palette (as well as B) so if you search the palette name then you will see each color and even the inspiration for the colors. So if you want to find this months palette you will type in “Autumn Sunflower” in the search box it should pull up the article from August 25.
Debbie, if you go upper left on the screen under Topics Categories, and then go to
09: Color Recipes (71)
This takes you to the original post and colors.
I do not know if this list of colors contains the B series or not.
Hi Debbie! Jocelyn’s right, the “09: Color Recipes” has both the A & B-Series color palette posts. It also has some others, like member-provided recipes. I want to add one thing to Melinda & Jocelyn’s advice…that is to save the palette pictures with your color recipes. After you find the article for each Color Palette, save the picture at the top of the page, and put it in a folder with the recipes you download from Cindy’s website or newsletter. That way, if you haven’t made the colors yet, you still have an idea what they look like.
It’s simple to save the photo…just right-click on the picture of the palette at the top of the page. A context menu will come up — choose “Save Picture As…” Then you’ll get a “Save Picture” pop-up. Navigate to the folder on your computer where you normally save your recipes from Cindy. Decide on a “file name” for your picture, or keep the default name. Then click “Save”.
Normally, the default filename is the name of the palette, with volume # and date. To make your folder neater, & easier to read/search on, add some additional information to the filename. Start with the Volume #, “A” or “B” series, Palette Name, Color Names, clay type, color family — whatever you like! The more info you add, the more ways you can search (like when you add your recipes, you can add info like color family, color tones, clay colors used, etc.) This works if you have Vista or better…it has a wonderful search feature. Say you wanted to find a palette with a good blue in it. Just type “blue”…it will bring up all relevant recipes. Or type “flower”…it will show you all recipes or palettes that have the word “flower” in them. It’s up to you! ~Kat
PS: Sue F.’s reply made me recognize how far I could take this. I had already been adding extra info to my recipes/palette photos, but after seeing her method, I added even more. My recipe folder is really well-organized now.
Sue wrote about her filing system at the Johnny Jump Up Cane video post.
The link should take you to one of the color chip photos, and there’s more information above & below that. Several other members contributed their recipe filing systems/ideas there, too. Some great ideas for your recipes! :D
I just finished making the tute. What wonderful colors. I have a gooood friend that is going to get a Calla lily set in these colors……..Yeah
Thank you everyone for your great comments! I appreciate you all, more than you know!
Just to comment on Cindy Graveline’s comment about different clay hardness’s. I have talked to the manufacturers before about this. It seems that consistency is hard to control. I have had certain colors be harder than others for one batch and softer in another. I wish it could be a little more consistent. But for now it is important to make sure you condition your clay really well and test it to make sure all the colors you are using in your canes are of the same firmness.
If the clay is too firm, add drops of baby oil or clay softener, or mix in some Sculpey Mold Maker or Fimo Quick Mix.
If the clay is too soft, leach out the excess plasticizers. The link by my name will take you to more info on how to do that.
I will continue to talk with the manufacturers and see if they can’t make the clay ‘all the same’ so that we all will have a little less trouble, combining them in our canes. It wouldn’t hurt to ask as well… Tell them I sent ya!