Spring Green Fauxsaic Cane

As you'll have seen if you've taken a look at My Creations over on my other blog, I'm a huge fan of the faux mosaic (or Fauxsaic as I like to call it - see what I did there? :D) 'cane'. A cane is simply put a log of polymer clay with a design running right through it, much like a stick of rock, that can be sliced off and used in a wide variety of ways. A heck of a lot of time goes into creating these designs and so I thought it might be nice to document the process.

I start by blending my colours. I've been waiting for a chance to try this cane in many shades of green. At the time of writing this ( January ) the weather outside is grey and miserable, these colours remind me of spring which I have to keep reminding myself is just around the corner :D I love spring, it's so full of life - unlike midwinter which I find rather dark and depressing! :(

I marble together a few of these colours as I thought it might look interesting, and mixed some pearl ex powder (in duo green/yellow) into the lighter, almost turquoise green.

Each of these colours (I find six varying shades give a really nice effect) is rolled into six equally sized logs, which is the covered with a very thin sheet of white clay ( I use a pasta machine for this but you can do it by hand using an acrylic roller or even a glass. Don't use a wooden rolling pin - the clay WILL stick to it and that is a real pain!)

The next step is to arrange the logs in a pleasing way. Once I'm happy with this I then begin the process of turning this cluster of logs into one big one! It's most important at this stage to ensure there is no air trapped inside. I press the logs together in the middle, working my way around the sides and moving outwards until I'm sure all the air is well and truly out.

This 'shape' is now worked into a large log of all six colours. The ends are now quite distorted so how the cane will actually look is really kind of unknown at this point! This is one of the things I love most about this cane, you have a rough idea of how you want it to look but the final result is always a lovely surprise :)

Now I am faced with a big, squat log of clay and the fun really begins :D The next step is to cut right through the log. It's best to try to intersect as many colours as you can, the more blocks of colour you cut through the more 'tiles' your mosaic will have. Next I cover one of the exposed 'faces' of clay with more of my 'grout'. The next step is crucial, flip one of the cut pieces over so the colours are no longer aligned :D

I repeat the action of slicing and grouting several more times and carefully reposition my pieces in an arrangement I find pleasing.

Then it's time to reduce my cane, again starting in the centre and creating a kind of hourglass shape before thinning out from the centre.It's important not to roll a cane to reduce it as this distorts the image inside.

Squee! I'm really happy with this :D The next step is to use this design to cover one of my glass votive holders for a gorgeous effect.

This cane took around five hours to produce and will probably cover up to five tea light holders which will likely take the same amount of time again! This is why I LOVE handmade items. No mass produced item has had this level of love, care and attention paid to it's creation. Handmade or crafted items have soul, which is simply priceless if you ask me :)

If you would like to see what I made with my Spring Greens cane, take a peek at my Etsy shop