This beautiful swallow cane from the UK’s Claire Wallis illustrates a problem she’s working to solve.
“I really struggle with translucent clays,” Claire explains adding that, “I find it very hard to slice the cane thin enough so that the translucent is clear not opaque. Plus I find layering the cane slice distorts it somewhat.”
These pendants represent one solution. She trimmed and baked thin slices of the large swallow cane. Then she pushed the baked slices into unbaked backgrounds. Voila! No distortion….but more sanding. Claire brings her painterly approach to caning with impressive results.
Sue O ,
Oh my. Amazing. Did you see her paintings and graphite work on her website? Equally fabulous work!
rmkdesign ,
I know, right?!! One of the hardest things to remember in working with PC (for me, anyway) is to STOP, cure a section that should remain undistorted, and then proceed with the rest of the piece. That interim step makes all the difference in the world, but in the heat of creation, so easy to ignore. Claire’s work is a great graphic reminder–and with breathtakingly lovely results.
Lorrene Baum-Davis ,
These are AWESOME… Thanks for the eye candy post.
Ginger Davis Allman ,
She does really beautiful work. Her attention to detail is fabulous. She has several other canes on her site that are really quite wonderful as well. And the drawings….wow!
Evelien ,
This cane is just awesome. I have the same problem with translucent clay and slicing it thin enough. I would also like to know which translucent clay is generally seen as the most translucent.
Sandra D. ,
JUST FABULOUS WORK!
Patty S ,
Regardless of the difficulties you’ve had these turned out beautifully!
Dolly Madison Designs ,
Oh my! She captured swallows in flight–in a cane. How talented! 😀 I can’t visit this site without getting bowled over by the creativity and talent. Makes me feel like my buttons aren’t so special after all (which would explain why they don’t sell)!
Dolly
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