Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Introduction to Polymer Clay
Millefiori Canes
What is polymer clay millefiori cane exactly?
Well, a millefiori cane is a material handmade from polymer clay which can be used to create
variety of art works, decorating almost anything and can be used for different types of crafts.
Canes are created using the millefiori technique, in this manner of work we create a long cane
which we slice into thin sheets for our work.
Extend Your Knowledge....
You can read more about Millefiori and Polymer Clay on Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia
On our online Etsy Shop and ArtFire Shop we sell a huge number of different polymer clay
millefiori canes which is being updated almost daily.
Table of Contents:
Tools and Materials
Part 1 – How Polymer Clay Millefiori Cane Looks Like?
Part 2 – Reducing The Cane
Part 3 – Creating a Cutting Sheet
Part 4 – Creating Beads from Polymer Clay Leftovers
Part 5 – Baking The Polymer Clay
Part 6 – Next...
Terms Of Use & Links
Tools and Materials
This is a summery of the tools and materials used in this guide.
First of all a variety of millefiori canes is needed, some leftovers or one colored polymer clay.
Pasta machine is a must as well for processing the polymer clay. A polymer clay blade is needed,
this is a thin and sharp blade. A Roller, a silicone made one is recommended. Rubber gloves,
Polymer clay is not healthy for your skin until you'll bake it, wear gloves and wash your hands.
Thick nylon, like the one used for binders and folders. Thick needle or toothpick to create an holes.
Baking oven, Try not to use your main oven and to use a simple toaster oven instead. Baking dish
and parchment paper. Polymer clay varnish and a Brush to apply it.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Part 1 – How Polymer Clay Millefiori Cane Looks Like?
When you order a polymer clay millefiori cane from one of our shops or on custom order you will
get it packed inside a sealed nylon bag an inside an hard plastic box padded from inside in order to
keep the cane during the shipment.
Here you can see the box closed and sealed.
Here is the box open and you can see inside it the cane sealed in the nylon and and blister nylon
which was used to for padding the box from inside.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
On this image we can see the cane packed inside the sealed nylon and outside the box.
Here is the Butterfly cane outside the nylon as well. This is a top view and a side view on the cane.
Our canes are not fully reduced so you can reduce them or use them at this larger size as well if you
like.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Part 2 – Reducing The Cane
It is recommended before you start working with your canes to reduce them into smaller diameter.
To reduce a cane which you've ordered all you need to do is to very gentely roll it on a table using
your hands.
This is a reduced cane after we've rolled it a bit on a table.
Part 3 – Creating a Cutting Sheet
A cutting sheet is used for cutting different types of shapes of polymer clay with a great texture
made from the millefiori canes.
First we need to reduce several different millefiori canes.
Then each reduced cane should be sliced into a thin slices in approximately 5 mm wide.
Tip!
Try to choose different yet matching designs of canes. For example: Leaf, Flower Butterfly, Bee..
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
The next step is to take some polymer clay leftovers or some unneeded polymer clay and create a
square sheet in the pasta machine which is set to level 2 thickness.
After the sheet is ready use a polymer clay blade an straighten the edges of the sheet.
Now we can take the millefiori canes slices which we've prepared earlier and randomly cover the
leftover sheet.
We must make sure that the entire sheet is covered with the millefiori canes slices.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
After we've finished to cover the leftover sheet with the millefiori canes we take a roller and we
need to roll out very gently the covered sheet just enough to make sure that it was flatten.
We start this step by covering the sheet with a thick nylon, like the ones used inside folders and
binders. Then we take some kind of mold like the ones used for cookies and we press it against the
sheet, after that we remove the nylon and complete the cutting process.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
We've chose to use a Hamsa shape.
Extend Your Knowledge....
You can read more about Hamsa on Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia
After our millefiori decorated shape is ready and released from the sheet we take a thick needle or a
toothpick and create an hole on the top of it.
This hole is used later for connecting the millefiori decorated shape to other parts of our art work.
Alternative method is to leave it without an hole and using a glue to connect a magnet to it's back
side.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Part 4 – Creating Beads from Polymer Clay Leftovers
When we cut different shapes from our millefiori sheet we left with some leftovers of the base sheet
which was decorated with the millefiori slices.
We can make a use of those leftovers to create different items, in our case beads.
This beads are used for mobiles and different crafts, though they are simple and not perfect they still
looks great!
First we need to take some undecorated leftovers or some plain colored polymer clay and roll it into
small balls.
Tip!
You don't have to create balls, you can create any shape like cubes for example.
Now we need to cover the ball with our millefiori decorated sheet leftover in manner which the ball
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
will be fully covered.
After we've covered the ball we roll it very gently in our hands to flatten the polymer clay layers
and to smooth the surface.
We're almost done, like with the hamsa we need to use a thick needle or a toothpick to create an
hole in middle of the bead.
This hole is needed for later steps of the work.
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Part 5 – Baking The Polymer Clay
Tip!
Though each polymer clay brand has it's manufacturer orders on baking past experience showed us that
each oven need to be set into different temperature and the polymer clay is need to be baked on
different lengths of time for each oven.
We start by preparing a baking dish with a parchment paper on it.
Inside the baking dish we arrange our beads and millefiori decorated shapes in manner which they
don't touch each other.
Now we need to bake it in our oven. Each manufacture has is own setting for time/temperature for
baking the polymer clay.
A usual setting for baking is 130 C (266 F) for 30 minutes.
After the baking is complete and the polymer clay is cooled we need to cover it with some kind of
varnish or enamel.
We most of the time use a gloss varnish which is applied with a brush.
Check the manufacture instruction on how to apply the varnish you've chose.
Part 6 – Next...
What we can do with our baked millefiori shapes and beads?
Seems like there are lots of ways to put them into good use!
Some examples: Jewelry, mobile, magnets, crafts and more...
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Ben-David's Art Studio :: Introduction To Polymer Clay Millefiori Canes
Terms of Use
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This is a free guide given AS IS, this is a sample of our series of E-Book guides.
The Ben-David's Art Studio or any of its members will not be responsible for any outcome to the
use of this guide by any one who chose to use it.
You may share this guide, you may not sell this guide or use it for any profit making action.
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