
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.

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:
- Polymer clay pieces must have good contact to make a solid seam.
- 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.
- Cane slices need to be very close to the same thickness or they’ll distort if you try to flatten them.