pink-bowls-bottom
The bottom bowl was made first, the top bowl made second. Note how the canes aren’t as squished and distorted in the top bowl, especially the spiral canes.  In the top bowl, I also made the bowl’s feet simpler and added pink cutout hearts to fill space.

I needed small canes for a bowl-making class given by Barb Harper in February 2015 at our local Pikes Peak Polymer Clay Guild.  These canes were easy to make, mainly because I used an extruder or clay cutter and only reduced them a little.

pink-bowls-top-view
Here’s a top view. The bowl on the left was made first. The bowl on the right made second.

My first bowl broke near the center after baking because I didn’t have a good seal between the canes and the brown snake.  I was able to repair it, but it’s not as nice as it would have been if done right. In the second bowl, I used a flat brown ring instead of a snake.

What I learned from this:

  1. Polymer clay pieces must have good contact to make a solid seam.
  2. To avoid distortion, use your fingers to carefully place canes next to one another.  Use an acrylic rod only for a very careful last minute touch up.
  3. Cane slices need to be very close to the same thickness or they’ll distort if you try to flatten them.