# Another polyclay attempt



## Dale Allen (May 15, 2017)

For this I used a common background color and used the same clay for filling around the canes.  My previous use of transparent clay did not appeal to me. Also, I laid out the background color on a flat surface, cut in the cane pieces and then rolled the finished flat onto the tube.  There are some flaws but with practice, and patience, this may be my best method.  It seems to result in less distortion of the canes.  Of course, I also need a lot more practice making good looking canes!:biggrin:
Constructive criticism and comments are welcome.

Dale


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## Jim15 (May 15, 2017)

Looks great to me.


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## mark james (May 15, 2017)

Dale, this looks very nice.  My only thought is to "fill in the blanks."  I see no distortion, so if the empty spots are filled in/partially filled in, I suspect you will have some mighty fine blanks!  Then you can tinker with colors, canes, etc...

Nice.


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## Dale Allen (May 15, 2017)

Thanks Jim and Mark.  I usually do fill in practically all of the areas, but then sometimes it gets to looking too busy.  I was also thinking that I should place the smaller canes first at random and fill in nearly all of the areas with all but the larger canes.  Since the blue rose is the largest cane, and is the one I want to be prominent, maybe those should go on last instead of first, like I did here.  That way any overlap would still show the full blue rose.  I think I'll try that on the other blank.  The other attempt here is to do this on the slimline tubes.  Those are difficult to keep thin when overlaping the cane slices. With this method, I can cut the ends down without cutting through parts of the cane as the cane slices and the background are all the same thickness.
Thanks again for the comments and ideas.


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## mark james (May 15, 2017)

Gotcha, for your thoughts.

If these are simply for your own consumption, then consider some "Modified Slimlines" as you can increase the middle 1/3 and have more "meat" in the blank.  There may be some distortion, but I doubt it would be distracting.  Maybe even 2/3 can be enlarged.

Food for thought.  Have FUN!


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## CREID (May 15, 2017)

Great job. I don't mind the blank spots. The blank has a nice bright look to it. Very nice.


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