Dragonsglass

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.