Dragonsglass

So I already told you about the weekend with Jean and Cat. Now it is time to show the canes I created. I know you have been holding your breath for this haven’t you?

The first cane I made is a PNW style cane. Imagine that! Someone asked me to make a sea otter so I did. The background is different then I normally do for my PNW images. Cat suggested to make it like the sea with waves. So, this time I used trans and white chopped with small bits of blue and green. each slice will give a different aspect of the otter floating on the water. I think it will look great as an overlay on a nice background, which is something I have on my “to do” list.

The next cane I made was a flower cane. Yep…you read that right. Cat made a gorgeous one and I whimpered until she gave me a few hints and tricks on what to do with my blend. She responds well to whimpering and begging, even though her husband was looking at his non-exiting watch because they were almost ready to head out to Sacramento. I am really happy with how it turned out and had a few ideas on how to tweak it to make it more *mine*.

Once I got home I decided to see if my tweaks would work in this style of flower. So I whipped up a new blend and started to play. I am happy (sort of) with how it turned out but can see things to change about on the next one. Yep, read that right too. I need a break from the PNW style since they are so concentration intensive. so here is the second flower cane I made.

So, there are the fruits of my labor dduring the clay weekend. Soon, these canes will be coming to my Dragonsglass Etsy Store. I want to thank you for taking the time to look at my site.

I got home a couple of hours ago from a two day jaunt to Vacaville to meet C.A.Therien aka Cat who was out west visiting the parental units and family. I got in early Thursday afternoon with Munchie and we sort of rested until Cat and her merry band got back from SF. On Friday morning Cat and I started in claying at like 7 am Nope…we aren’t addicted to claying. Took a break for breakfast and then back to the clay.

Cat was making a zuni bear cane and I was working on a new PNW indian style cane. We were “patiently” waiting for Jean aka Stargazer_ca to arrive from the SF Bay area. can y’all say the traffic sucked? Anyway….she finally got there and we immediately planted ourselves out side to look at Jeans pretties she brought to show us.

oh yeah….lots of eye candy on that table. Once we all drooled and then wiped up the drool and ehaded into the motel room for more claying! We decided we needed a picture of the 3 1/2 crazy clayers. The 1/2 you ask? Well Munchie of course. she was right there in the thick of things while we clayed.

let the claying begin!! We clayed until about 7 pm when Cat headed off to her families place for BBQ and poker and Jean, Munchie and I headed out for supper. After a wonderful meal at OutBack, back to the motel for some more claying….well at least for Jean and I, Munchie was tooooo tired to clay anymore.

We finally crashed about 11:45 pm. Waking up at 7:30, jean and I were back at it and then Cat showed up to watch the reduction of my new PNW cane. Then I whipped out a *gasp* flower cane…yes I will show it soon. Then at 10 am Cat had to leave for Sacramento and Jean and I had to pack up and be out before check out at 11. Munchie and I headed down the road at 10:45 for our 5 hour drive home and Jean headed back to the Bay area. I got home so dang tired but lordy I wouldn’t of traded the time with those two women. Both….such amazing artists. We all had a great time.

Yep, you read that right! I grouped some of my PNW and SW Indian style canes and put some sets up on Etsy to tickle your creative imagination. I have also listed some of that dragonfly cane I just reduced. You can find them all by clicking right here!! Thanks for looking!

A couple days ago I finally finished making a PNW style dragonfly cane. It was a measly 5.75 pounds and measured 6″x6″x4″. I decided to put a teaser on Polymer Clay Central’s ….Delphi message boardsof this cane and showed a picture of it on a postal scale with a white side showing. I then told everyone the weight and said the person who could come closest to the time it took for me to reduce the cane would get a 2″ section of the cane. Man…what a response! 33 people took guesses.

So, this morning I decided it was time to reduce this baby! I set up the camcorder and then the timer on the oven so I could see how long it took to reduce the whole thing. I usually start reduction then when a cane is long enough I cut it in half and save half to reduce later. this morning I reduced the whole thing. Here is what it looked like before reduction.

SO I sat on the kitchen floor, man that tile is hard! and started reducing it. Used a couple different techniques, the one I normally use and then the way Sarah Shriver told me she does her large ones….by walking on it. wow…that works amazingly!! So, after building up a nice sweat the cane was all done. I have 60 inches of 1/2″ cane, 30″ of 3/4″ cane and 18″ of 1 1/4″ cane. I also had (note the tense) 1 1/2 pounds (24 oz) of “waste” but reclaimed 18 oz of white back so ended with a total of 6 ounces of “waste” (which if I know my friend Moe…will be turned into something beautiful! )

Here are the post reduction shots. One with the large slice after I took it down to 4″x4″ since I didn’t have a blade long enough to take a slice off the 6″x6″ cane.

and here are the sizes that will be on EBay and Etsy.

I suppose I should say how long it tool me to reduce this but I am afraid folks won’t believe me. It took all of 24 minutes to reduce it to these sizes. That makes Connie of Connie’s Clay Creations is the winner of the cane slice. Congratulations Connie. I will email you to find out which of the three sizes you want

PS: I did actually video tape the reduction….will work on editing that later this coming week.

Today I finished up a new cane and reduced it plus another one I had waiting for reduction. I am really happy with how the PNW Hummingbird cane reduced. I decided to leave it at two sizes in case people wanted the larger one.

These three canes, plus others cane be found in The Dragonsglass Etsy Store. Thanks so much for dropping by and taking a look. I am hoping in the near future to be offering cane sets.