The Joy of Metal Clay: Extruding Canes

When Hadar was here a couple of weekends ago, I made these fun pieces.

I discovered the fun in extruding and caning copper, bronze and steel. I didn't think this was something I would enjoy but, WHAT FUN it was. Details on how to do this and more can be found in Hadar Jacobson's book Patterns of Color in Metal: Canes, Gradients and MokomeGane.

The extruder disc I chose was a teardrop shape and as soon as I began slicing the discs I found my inspiration. Each disc reminded me of a peacock feather. So I began arranging the pieces in the shape of a peacock fan, laid them on a piece of copper clay and then let it all dry. Once dry the I sculpted a peacock body and added a bail and voila. I then proceeded to make smaller ones for earrings.

Here they are all dry:

Once fired I polished and put on Baldwin's patina. (I will add a better photo, later).

I took the rectangular disc and made the following:

For information for use of Hadar's clay and firing go to her blog site.