OMG Kato

 

Kaliedoscope Experiement

This is an experiment that I did last year to see what would/could be done. As you can see there was no real caning involved in this but rather the focus was to see how many ways the cane could be combined to make different ones!

I loved this experiment and wanted to try it again. One of the things on my to do list has been to try it but to do it with Kato. This week was time! I took all the Kato I had in the house and decided to use it for this project. So I am using clay that has been sitting UNDER my table for at least two years because I had the conditioning fear.

I am having technical difficulties with my camera again this week so any pics this week are from my phone, and all of the ones I took while making this with my camera can not be accessed. Freeken technology biting me in the butt again this week but at least this time they are on the bleeping camera I just can’t get to them!

I have heard of two ways to condition Kato and one of them is to pound the heck out of it with a hammer. So I spent an entire evening pounding the heck out of it with a hammer.

Two of the colors did well but the others did not they were very crumbly when I went to run them through the pasta machine. I then decided that I would throw them in the food processor ( I have one dedicated to clay). After another evening this time spent processing and adding diluent to the clay it was soft and pliable. I laid it out on my surface rolled with the roller and then ran through the pasta machine. INSERT ROLLED PIC HERE WITH PROCESSED IN THE BACKGROUND    Agghhhh

I then took the clay I had and tried to make some different looking canes with my limited colors and clay. I was very impressed at the crispness of the lines in the simple jelly roll and bull’s-eyes. This led to me mumbling to myself about how great this was going to be once finished if the lines in the stinking jelly were sexy.

 

 I then began assembling the cane remembering what I learned from last time. Air and or space is not your friend. Sounds crazy but if I say any daylight I removed the cane and inserted a log to fill. NO AIR OR SPACE. It makes sense that if there is any air then clay is going to go to that empty space and cause distortion no matter how small the space is. So I took my time and inserted the smallest of logs to fill in.

I then started to reduce. I will not go into the reduction but let others teach you (links at the end of the tutorial) not only about reduction but building as well. The first link is the first Kali cane I ever tried.

I began reducing and it got so big I ended up with two halves. One of the other things that happened to me while reducing is that the middle did not move for a while so I had a lot of ends that looked good but were missing detail. One of the things I was so impressed at was the crispness of the Kato look at these lines they look so nice!

Once combined the cane looks amazing! I am saving the final cane for December as I have decided to include this in the upcoming swap. But here is an end piece combined that still looks amazing. Under it you can see the cane with all the parts there and if you look real close you can see the distortion and missing elements.

 I can not wait to show you how the swap items turned out and even more I can not wait for the swap participants to get part of this wonderful experiment!

Have fun claying and any Kato tips you may have would really be appreciated. I have so many questions in mind.

http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/kalcane1.html

http://tonjastreasures.com/wordpress/?p=2736

http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/polymer-clay-kaleidoscope-pendant/index.html

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=250741.0

http://www.quiltedinclay.com/process/index.htm

 

Tags: kaliedoscope, polymer cane tutorial, polymer clay, polymer clay tutorial, Tutorial