Paw Print Cane Tutorial

NOTE: The projects and tutorials on this page were all created by Laurel Nevans, Polymer Clay Artist.  You may feel free to link to this page,  but you may not copy or reproduce any part of it without the written permission of Laurel Nevans.  Please link to this page, rather than linking to the actual tutorial page.  All projects and tutorials on this page are copyrighted © by Laurel Nevans .

Materials:

• Black Polymer Clay (2 oz. package or hunk cut off of pound brick)
• Translucent (or white or Pearl) Polymer Clay (2 oz. package or hunk cut off of pound brick)

Procedure:

			Start by cutting off approximately equal sized hunks of black and translucent polymer clay.  (White or Pearl may be substituted for the translucent, depending on planned use for clay slices.)  Or use a small package of each color.
			Cut the brick of block in half.  Cut one of those halves into quarters.  Roll each quarter into a snake of approximately the same size and length.  Roll the remaining "larger" chunk into a snake of the same length.
			Roll the translucent (or white/pearl) into a sheet.  Roll through to # 4 or 5 in your pasta machine.
			Cut a piece of translucent to the length of your larger log.  Cover with a wrapper of translucent.
			Repeat with each of the smaller logs until all black logs are wrapped with translucent clay.
			Arrange small logs around larger log.  Roll bits of translucent into snakes the length of your cane to "pack" any spaces.
			Wrap the whole thing with what is left of the translucent.  Squeeze together and gently roll into round shape, watching the ends to ensure you maintain your "paw" shape.
			Let cane rest overnight before reducing to desired size.  Use "end cap" method of reduction to minimize distortion.  (See glassattic.com for information about this reduction technique.)
			Slice from finished paw cane.
			Paw Print Cane slices on blue/green interference Pearl-Ex and TLS Background.