Zuni Bear cane

Zuni Bear

The Zuni Bear symbolizes the most powerful animal, the bear: Guardian of the Earth.

 

One day in my caning frenzy, I decided to create a Zuni bear cane. I thought I would share the steps I used to make it.

 

Supplies: Clay, blades, brayer, pasta machine, image, and my favorite *toy* for canes like this, a mini food processor.

Step 1: I start by drawing the image as I want to cane it, then color it in with the colors I am thinking of using. I draw it out in the size I want my unreduced cane to be

 

Step 2: I then condition the clays I am going to use. I start with the background clay. for this cane I decided Iwanted something along the lines of a sandstone looking effect. I used different browns, ecru, white and tan and chopped up the blocks of clay into small blocks.

Step 3: I then took these pieces and ran them through my food processor until I had them all mixed and chopped up to the size of cottage cheese.

Step 4: Once the clay was nicely "cheesed" I then packed them into a roll and rolled them into a couple of tubes.

Step 5: I then took the log roll of clay and began twisting it.

Step 6: once nicely twisted I doubled it and twisted it upon itself.

I did this step a couple times until I was happy with the blended look of the clays.

Step 7: Once I was happy with the blend I then began to square it up with my hands and the brayer.

Step 9: I now make the block into a neater square and set it aside until I am ready for it.

Creating the turquoise inlay clay

 

Step1: I decide what colors I want in my turquoise.

Step 2: Just like making the *sandstone* I chop up the colors I will be using for the turquoise inlay and drop them into the food processor. They are chopped up just like the browns were until they look like cottage cheese.

Step3: instead of twisiting these colors I just compress them into a block that I can cut the design out of.

Step 4: I then lay the design out on the area of the clay I have decided to use.

 

Step 5: I trim the extra clay away from the design and then set all of it to one side.

 

Making the bear

Step 1: I take the big block of conditioned black clay I set aside earlier and lay out the bear drawing on top of it. I then trace around the outline of the bear with my needle tool.

Step 2: I then cut away the black I won’t be needing and set it aside.

Step 3: I then lay the zig zag design on top of the black bear where I need to cut out the strip to add the turquoise zig zag.

Step 4: I carefully cut out the strip.

 

Now comes the time to put it all back together.

Step 1: I take the zig zag sections and slide it into the center of the bear. As you can see I have only placed the zig zap turquoise in the center. However, you could make it go the whole width of the bear.

Step 2: The next part is to take the back ground block and cut it so you can pack it around the bear form. Below is a picture of the bear al packed and you can see how I took sections and packed it in.

Step 2: I decided I wanted the outer wrap to accent the image some so I added some black and more turquoise accents.

Step 3: I needed a final outer wrap to hold it all together for reduction so I added a layer of black.

Step 4: Let the reduction begin!!

from this….

to this……

all in the time of about 30 minutes. If you are unsure how to reduce a large square cane, check out my giant cane reduction video. Though this bear cane was not 5 pounds, it was about 4 inches tall and 4 inches in diameter.

 

I hope I have given you some ideas on how to make a cane with an image inside. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

One last word….have FUN, cause thats what claying is all about!

© Kathi Gose 2/2007