Rainbow Cane Tutorial by Jennifer S. Geldard
I originally intended for this
to be a few pictures about what I was up to on my blog, and
only took a couple of pictures. I decided afterward to make
it a tutorial, so I had to re-make the cane to get the rest
of the pictures...so I apologize for the inconsistencies in
the cane images. I was taking pictures of two different
sessions.
This tutorial is for a flat, decorative, ribbon-style cane. Any colors can be used
of course, the choice is yours. For the purpose of the tutorial, I chose the classic
fade from violet on one end, to red on the other.
The First step is to make 7 fat encased stringers.... encase the end of an opaque rod
of glass with a transparent color.
Melt that into a round ball shape and pull VERY slowly to make a nice fat stringer...
you're shooting for approximately 3-4 mm. or so, in thickness.
Mine are only about 4-5 inches long...here they are all done:
The colors I used are:
Purple: Effetre transparent Dk. amethyst over Effetre opaque dk. pink
Blue: Effetre cobbalt transparent over Effetre sky blue opaque
Turquoise: Effetre dk. teal transparent over Effetre sky blue opaque
Green: Effetre Sage green transparent over Effetre pea green opaque
Yellow: Effetre Electric Yellow transparent over Effetre white opaque
Orange: Effetre med. amber transparent over Effetre tequila sunrise coral opaque
Red: Vetrefond oddlot Candy apple red transparent over Effetre tequila sunrise coral opaque.
Next step- using a rod nipper, cut short lengths of each color....about 1 1/2 ".
Before you move to the next step, place these somewhere to keep them
warm, so they wont shock when you re-introduce them to the flame later.
I use a block of graphite set right under my flame...some people use coffeecup warmers
or the kiln is great too. :)
Next, make a large gather, using a rod of clear glass, and flatten it into a lollypop shape.
Then manipulate the shape until it's more of a square... I used my tweezers to pull out
corners, and added a bit of glass etc...
Then melt it smooth, trying to keep the squarish shape.
Now you're going to start building the cane.
Heat up the leading edge of the lollypop enough so that your first stringer
length will stick to it, while flashing the stringer piece (held with tweezers) in the flame...
then apply the stringer to the edge of the lollypop.
We flameworkers are ambidextrous folk aren't we? (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture
of this step, as my wish for a third hand hasn't been granted yet.)
but here's what you should end up with after laying down a few pieces:
whoops! That orange looks a bit twisted!... (actually, it's yellow)
No worries.... You'll never see it after it's all done.. :)
Continue on, laying down the pieces until they're all on there...then melt smooth.
Once everything is absolutely melted smooth, start encasing
the sides and top, until everything is covered in clear.
It needs to be totally smooth, so you don't trap any air bubbles between the stripes.
Next, attach a rod of glass to the end of the cane using a little extra glass as
a buffer between the rod and the cane. When it comes time to pull the cane, I
want as much usable color as I can, and the extra glass helps eliminate wasted color.
(I hope that made sense)
As you'll see in the next picture, I shocked my original rod when I
attached the second handle, so I removed it, and attached a new one
with extra glass as well... and then I started heating up the whole mess...
I can't show you the pulling part because of the whole third hand thing,
but this is what you end up with...
Cool, huh?
Have Fun!!
-Jen
