What to do with canes of grave disappointment?
chop it up
like I did these canes I felt were butt ugly
Chop/2002-03/African Mix Group Page
I did not love any of the canes I chopped up in this early mix, but I
felt they all spoke AFRICA to me in one way or the other.
As for chop in general. You won't find it in books, I don't think.
It's one of my salvage obsessions. I hate to waste any clay. I just
transform it and worse come to worse salvaged clay is the base for
something nicer over it. By utilizing every little cane end and scrap
we have no garbage clay.
Chop Index
There are three different chop indexs and that link will lead you to
all of them. When you make canes and you like them and then you chop
and mix them with a theme in mind, like the Mexico canes, the mirror
images you get from the chop will evoke Mexico, or Africa, or what
ever country you can think of.
Your theme could be under the sea, so abalone, choral, pearl, dappled
blue, fish scale, sea weed, all these can be done as canes and then
chopped and you'll see vistas that belong under the sea and sea
creatures will manifest themselves to you in the designs that you
create.
The way to do your first chop is to take these early cane efforts and
give them a good send off. They aren't passing muster as stand alones
and they will only get better if you chop them up. Toss them, or layer
them like a lasagna, do them in a layered half round for a nice ringed
effect. Check out the different chop index.
I chopped up three years of scraps and cane ends as a monster clean up
and ended up with this chop production line...
Production Mode
Now scraps and cane ends are in and of themselves are butt ugly, never
meant to be stand alone, but don't deserve to go in the trash.
Also, our first cane efforts will be wonky, count on it. Anyone who
attacks cane making and comes out perfect right out of the gate is
rare. I can't remember anyone who didn't have a couple of goofed up
canes early on. Some folks learn faster than others, that I'll grant
you, but cane making is something that takes practice. What to do with
our practice canes? If they are big designs, do a lace cane and then
chop them, if they are small designs chop them as is... what do you
have to loose if you're using canes you weren't happy with in the
first place? Absolutely nothing. Plus you get revenge on a cane that
made you disappointed. Start with a cane end, chop one cane and toss
it with itself. Cut two slices and open as a book and what do you see?
If it isn't interesting yet, get another cane, different pattern,
different color, chop that up and mix it with a bit of the first, cut
two slices of that and open it like a book and what do you see? Keep
on adding a bit of this and a bit of that from different canes, it's
like cooking, add black and white stripes to taste sort of thing.
I did a bunch of canes in the last month or so of demos. I'm fixing to
chop them up and see what they reveal. It's a cycle, make canes, do
things, have cane ends and scraps, chop them up and make beads to go
with pendants that the good part of the cane made. There is a
wonderful feeling that comes from utilizing all of a particular run.
Tins/DOD-Angel/Paces-005.htm
Here's the Natasha bead logs and other things made with the cane ends
and scraps from Guardian Angel Day of the Dead Tin. Two colors. Two
basic canes. The rest, as I say in this websection is Fiddle Faddle.
xoxo
NJ