3-water-canes

I had fallen in love with the stone, larimar, and wanted to recreate it in polymer clay. If you’re unfamiliar with its loveliness, it’s in the silver bezel in the photo above.

blue-water-cane
First attempt on left. Second attempt in middle. Third, but not last, attempt on right. The canes are in plastic wrap at the top and the baked samples are below.

My first attempt on the left I call “the blue giraffe.”  The spots and borders are way too big. I tried making a pen out of it, but cut it off so I wouldn’t waste the pen kit.

I recycled the first cane to make the second one in the middle.  It’s better, but the borders shouldn’t be white and the color is too baby blue.  All the borders should be soft-edged, but some ended up hard-edged.

If you compare the cane (in plastic wrap) of my second attempt to the baked slice below it, you can see how the colors changed in the oven. I tried a pen with this, but cut it off, too.

I’ve been reworking the second cane into something like blue lace agate.  So far I’ve made pens, pendants and earrings from it.

My third attempt was after I bought Claire Wallis’ water and lightning cane tutorial. I also bought a real piece of larimar, rather than relying on photos and memory. Both helped. I did a better job of matching colors this time. I thought the result was interesting and pen-worthy, although it doesn’t quite look like water or larimar.

If I combine what I did right in the second and third canes, I should come up with something closer to real larimar.

What I learned from this:

  1. Use careful observation when trying to mimic something. Get the real thing to use as reference.
  2. Test clay colors by baking them before you make a cane.
  3. Magic does not happen in the oven. Clay comes out looking like it did when you put it in, or worse.