Posted on 9 Comments

They might be stripey or polka dot…

…but we can all pajammy in whatever we’ve got! Sorry. Sandra Boynton took over my keyboard there for a minute.

Stripes. I wanted to talk about stripes. Dan Cormier got some really nifty-looking stripes with his take on the Skinner Blend, and I’ve been itching to try my own version for a week now. Since I am officially 1/2 of the way through the orders I have to process, I decided I deserved to indulge myself for an hour or so.

Experimenting with blends

I created a template that would result in 1/4-inch solid-color stripes, alternating with 3/4-inch skinner blend stripes and I wanted to complicate it somewhat by blending the white with three colors instead of one. All of my color schemes are comprised of three main colors and white (or another light color), and I want to be able to use this technique to make veneers that match my existing canes. My final goal is to compress the stripey sheet into a new cane design. A square cane with soft striping that includes all three main colors, and several combinations of those colors with each other and with white really sounds appealing to me.

My first attempt, which took a three-way skinner blend and combined it with a white step blend from my template resulted in this sheet. It’s not bad, but I decided after looking at it that I didn’t want so many variations in brightness.

Experimenting with blends

My second attempt took a traditional skinner blend between two of my color scheme colors (orange and pink), and combined them with a step blend from my template with the third color (green). I added a thin sheet of white clay to the back, so that the entire blend would be uniformly brighter than the straight-from-the-package clay colors.

Here is the resulting blend. I like this one better, but I think I lightened it too much.

I also am having trouble re-working these sheets into the canes I’d like them to be. Part of that has to do with the fact that I am not using enough clay to begin with. I plan to continue experimenting, and the three things I plan to try next are:

  • Using double the amount of clay.
  • Creating a new step blend template that creates narrower stripes and most likely eliminates the blended stripes altogether. I’m not happy with the blendy look.
  • Trying a much narrower blend, to avoid having to manipulate it so much when turning it into a cane.

Once I turn this into the cane I want it to be, I have visions of letting it star in some of the ideas I sketched out in Judy Kuskin’s silver bezels seminar and Kathleen Dustin’s earring design seminar. What I really need to do is put the blend in silver bezels and make a pair of earrings out of them. Now that would truly be “synergy,” wouldn’t it?

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Posted on 9 Comments

9 thoughts on “They might be stripey or polka dot…

  1. whoa…..I think I am being *synergized* second hand. I like both of those blends, the first one better though *g* Though I am having trouble caning (reducing them) I can see using the blends for other things then for a cane. I might have to hit the clay studio tomorrow to play. thanks for synergizing me 🙂

    See what Kathi has been blogging about: So not a happy camper

    1. My pleasure 🙂

  2. I knew there was something much deeper that bonded us! You love Sandra Boynton too! My poor son, now 13, was forced to keep a parade of animals along the baseboard in the corner of his room because I couldn’t bear to paint over all the “Boynton’s” I had painted for his nursery.

    I have enjoyed reading all the responses to your blog posts. I missed a whole lot of Synergy running around seeing to details and you have brought it right to my early morning computer! Thanks! I’m looking forward to that round table discussion at the next Synergy….”skitter with the chickens now, cheep cheep cheep!”

    1. Oh, how funny! My older son loved Moo, Baa, La La La as a baby, and the younger one had a thing for But Not the Hippopotamus. Personally, I love The Going to Bed Book 🙂

      Have you heard the Philadelphia Chickens CD? It’s great! It appeals to adults as much as children, which is always a Good Thing in kids’ music…

  3. Hi Lisa – I love both your blends, the first is really dazzling and reminds me of one of those sticky rainbow sweets you could buy as children. I would try and use it as it is rather than rolling into a cane….
    Can’t wait to see what you do with it in the end. Kylee

    See what Lunes has been blogging about: A heir in the family loom

    1. Thanks! I haven’t had much luck turning it into a cane, but I did find a way to make it narrower and use it as is. I can’t wait to play with it a little longer.

  4. […] I lulled myself to sleep last night, thinking about how best to get the stripey look I started to experiment with yesterday. […]

  5. Hi Lisa,
    I enjoyed meeting you at Synergy. Great post. These are scrumptious blends!
    -Karen

    1. Thanks! It was nice meeting you, too – always great to put a face to a familiar name!

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