2/27/2013

Fimo tutorial: simple petal cane



More than a tutorial, it is rather an idea of cane, as it is very easy to achieve!
Regarding the way I use my fimo canes most of the time, I prefer to make “pieces” to put together or stick on beads rather than whole canes.
Today it is a flower, here it is:

While basic, it is rather nice... to use as a pendant on a big leather cord, on a long collar reducing it a little more or as a charm for a bracelet...!
Here is the method to build the same flower petal cane:
I used 5 colours: white, black, purple and two shades of blue. I only needed my blade to cut the different pieces and my pasta machine to shape the stamens.
We start with a cylinder which will be the centre of our petal:



It’s just a ball of clay that I rolled on the table before evening up its ends.
To place stamens cut the cylinder. I first cut mine into 3 parts, letting the biggest piece in the middle and cutting it in 2 afterward but if one thinks better than I do it’s possible to cut it in 4 in one time… (the two middle pieces are slightly smaller than the other ones).

To shape the stamens, flatten blue & black clay sheets with a pasta machine (the same thickness). Then cut into these sheets strips whose width matches the cylinder’s height.
Roll the end of the black strip on itself and roll the ends of the two blue strips around a purple cylinder (just a piece of clay rolled on the table) then put the two strips between the pieces of cylinder we cut earlier like this:

It’s important to let some spare clay above the « head » of the stamens so that we can « close » the white clay to form the petal. On the other hand the strips go until the finest extremity of the petal (towards the centre of the flower).
Then, depending on the final result we want to achieve, we just flatten more clay sheets and cut strips whose width match the cylinder’s height in them to successively roll around the cylinder.  

Now reduce the petals to reach the final size and cut them to assemble the flower!
In my example I put the petals on a black clay sheet (middle thickness in my pasta machine) and put a slice of a “shading spiral” cane in the middle!