![\"Slicing](\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/2009-07\/13-slicing-polymer-clay-canes-2009-04-19-083.jpg\")
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Techniques for Dealing With Warm Soft Polymer Canes and Clay in General: In the hot Summer heat it can be tricky doing even the simplest tasks in your bead making projects… slicing polymer clay canes for example. Here are some<\/span> tips and tricks that will help things go a little easier for you:<\/span><\/p>\n 1) Work with Firm Clay: <\/span><\/strong>Soft sticky clay is difficult enough to work with at the best of times. And in the Summer heat, it’s near impossible! Premo, Fimo Classic and Kato are your best bets for a firm clay. If your clay is too squishy, you may need to leach some of the plasticizers from it, before making the cane. More on this topic at these links: 2) Chill Down those Warm Canes: <\/strong><\/span>Before slicing, place your cane in the fridge to cool for a half an hour or so. As an alternative, you can you a frozen gel pack. Resource link: Frozen Gel Pack for Polymer Clay Canes<\/a> 3) Use an Extra Sharp Blade: <\/strong><\/span>When cutting thick slices for making simple cane slice beads, I prefer to use a stiff blade for better control. However, if the slices are to be extra thin as is the case when cutting ghost canes<\/a>, a thin flexible blade often works better.<\/span><\/p>\n 4) Use a Clean Blade: <\/strong><\/span>Wipe down your blade with rubbing alcohol or a baby wipe before making your cuts. It will slice through the clay much more cleanly and easily than if there is gunk stuck all over it. Common sense I know, but worth mentioning.<\/span><\/p>\n 5) Pull Blade Towards You: <\/strong><\/span>Plunging the blade straight down through the cane can lead to smooshing and distortion. A better technique is to pull the blade towards you as the blade moves down through the cane. This is especially the case with thin slices. The Studio by Sculpey Blade Set<\/a> is a great little kit to have on hand because it has a stiff blade, a flexible blade and two sizes of ripple blades that all work with interchangeable, snap on handles.<\/span><\/p>\n So there you go, hope that helps with your cane slicing dilemmas. Do you have any other tips and tricks for slicing polymer clay canes that you would like to share? I’m sure there must be a few that I’ve missed<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Techniques for Dealing With Warm Soft Polymer Canes and Clay in General: In the hot Summer heat it can be tricky doing even… 25<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,18],"tags":[2682,2726,301],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cane-work","category-tools","tag-cane-management","tag-conditioning-polymer-clay","tag-cutting-blade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Cindy](\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/cindy-sig.jpg\")
![\"Polymer](\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/polymer-clay-tutor.jpg\")
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