beadyeyedbrat

Canes

Easter Eggs

This is an Easter Egg cane I made over the course of two days. I was inspired by some Pysanky eggs I saw on a Ukrainian site. This is not quite what I was aiming for, but it turned out pretty cute, I think. Trying to get an idea out of my brain and into r/l isn't always easy. Spatial relationships were never my strongest point. Anyway...I mixed 21 colors, indulging myself using most of my favorite colors. Then I made mini canes: plain triangles, stacked triangles, checkerboards, stripes, pinwheels. I reduced them to about 1/4" depth and combined them into layers. I put combinations of lighter and darker colors of the same color family (light purple & dark purple for example), opposite colors on the color wheel (such as violet and light orange), and complimentary colors (powder blue and fuschia) into each mini cane. This sample is from the first slice after the distorted end and isn't quite into egg shape. The cane was still pretty soft, but I wanted to scan one. I'm already planning a second one as I type this.

The second one I used more saturated colors and less pastels. I've never been a pastel person.

I crave color, the more the better.

The end piece before shaping or reducing. It was late and I was getting sloppy, so I stopped. It took an entire day including mixing colors. (Thanks to my daughter and roommate for helping me to condition it) I used most of the types of canes for the first one, except I made a log of stripes, cut it diagonally and reversed it. The same technique is used for making leaves. I also layered strips of color between the triangles this time, too and it's much bigger than the first one.

Background and edge added. I added a little extra background to the upper part to keep the egg shape. Not altogether successful, but I'll try to manipulate it as it's reduced.

Cane end after reducing. For newbies who are reducing their first cane, the next two pictures are to reassure you that this is normal. The ends will distort a lot.

See? This is the back side of the above slice. Pattern safe and intact, if squished.

Representative slice. I will bake this and put it in my "Examples" file for future reference. Reduced to the size I will use. Still a little rough, but some of this used the softer Sculpey clay. I may have to refrigerate it so I don't turn it to mush.

Note: All of these are made up of rows of simple shapes and complimentary colors. One row could be triangles, another stripes and another bulls eyes. They, like many things in pc, are much easier to

do than they look.

All are Natasha or Mirror Image.