What's Caneworking?
The way we make our jewelry is called caneworking. It's a way of building pictures and designs that uses precisely layered pieces of pigmented polymer clay. Different shapes and colors of clay are fitted together in a slab so that when a piece is sliced from the end, the picture is revealed.
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| Large, complex leopard cane made up of many colors, ready to be reduced and recombined. |
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| Sliced Fimo polymer clay. The clay comes already pigmented, but it is mixable much like paint. In the following cane, I have used three different colors or clay: tan, brown and dark brown. |
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| After the cane is reduced, it is cut up into smaller sections and recombined to repeat the design. |
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| Reducing, or stretching the cane. This cements the colors together and solidifies the design. When the cane is reduced, it is stretched out, but the colors inside stretch with it. |
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| Slices are applied to the outside of a raw polymer clay ball to cover its surface. Then the ball is smoothed into a bead. These beads become a part of Em's Gems whimsical jewelry. |
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| Once the cane is reduced to the correct size for the project, it is sliced to reveal the design. These slices become pins, earrings or beads. |