millefiori Archives ⋆ Polka Dot Cottage

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Lisa Clarke — Leave a comment

The Claycation of Tiny Flowers

I know I am two months late, but I wanted to share a bit about last year’s Polymer Claycation.

Most times when I have several dedicated days of claymaking ahead of me, I have a bit of a theme in mind to guide my work. This year was the year of the tiny flowers. In other words, I had decided that I was going to make my Calico Cane design in as many of my popular color schemes as possible. In all, I finished eighteen canes, nine of which were brand new. The other nine were replacements for designs I had run out of.

Read on to see what I did!

Read More: The Claycation of Tiny Flowers

Posted on July 10, 2023September 2, 2023 by Lisa Clarke — Leave a comment

Whimsy

This is the story of how I went from flipping through an artsy magazine on a weekend morning to laboring over two versions of a new cane design, and the questions that has inspired. Questions like: is this a nice design? Should it be a smaller scale? And should I make more in other colors?

Read More: Whimsy

Posted on February 18, 2016May 24, 2022 by Lisa Clarke — 24 Comments

Constructing Successful Retro Canes

The Retro Cane has been around for some time, but there are tricks to making it really pop. Learn how to build a Retro Cane with great contrast in colors you love.

Read More: Constructing Successful Retro Canes

Posted on January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by Lisa Clarke — Leave a comment

The Jubilee Cane

I’ll bet my polymer clay friends thought I might never get around to saying this again, but here I go: I have a new tutorial available!

Read More: The Jubilee Cane

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Lisa Clarke — 6 Comments

Sneak Peek

New patterns for custom-made crochet hooks and seam rippers! The shop will be opening this week.

Read More: Sneak Peek

Posted on January 22, 2013August 25, 2021 by Lisa Clarke — 11 Comments

What do I mean by Millefiori Canes?

I know that many of you are here because of your interest in the yarny or fabricky things I do, and that sometimes when I talk about my work in polymer, you might not really get what I’m saying. It’s ok. Every craft has its lingo, and sometimes you just need somebody to clarify a […]

Read More: What do I mean by Millefiori Canes?

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Lisa Clarke — 10 Comments

An ode to extrusions

I love it when a customer gives me creative license. As in, “I’d like a set of six crochet hooks, but you can choose the handle patterns, heavy on the Retro look.” It’s fun for me to paw through my several hundred raw millefiori canes and dig out the ones that with coordinate nicely with […]

Read More: An ode to extrusions

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Lisa Clarke — 3 Comments

The Afghan Cane

I am happy to report that the Afghan Cane tutorial is complete! It took dozens of photos, and fourteen PDF pages, but it’s finally done and ready for you in the download shop. The afghan is an intermediate level cane. It takes advantage of several partial blends and uses them in a non-traditional way, allowing […]

Read More: The Afghan Cane

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Lisa Clarke — 16 Comments

Redirecting my efforts

After gushing so excitedly about granny squares and clay last weekend, you’d think I’d have gone millefiori crazy, made a small pile of afghan canes, written up a fabulous tutorial, put it up for sale in the download shop, and then hopped up and down yelling, “go check it out! you’ll love it! you’ll learn […]

Read More: Redirecting my efforts

Posted on February 28, 2012December 27, 2021 by Lisa Clarke — 20 Comments

Crochet: like portable polymer clay. sort of.

Before I picked up a hook for the first time, I considered crocheting to be a craft most closely related to knitting. After all, you often hear the words “knit” and “crochet” in the same breath. But it didn’t take me long to realize that, for me, crochet is more like polymer clay work than […]

Read More: Crochet: like portable polymer clay. sort of.