Important
things to remember
All
canes
Round
canes
Square canes
End
Caps method
Misc.
REDUCING canes
When you have "built" a cane,
it can be reduced in size so that the image becomes smaller and smaller. The image
will remain exactly the same (if you reduce well). Reducing a cane is also useful
if you want to cut it into same-length pieces then recombine them to form smaller
and more complex multi-cane canes.
The
most successful reduction will happen if all the clays used in a cane are
the same consistency and temperature... otherwise
those parts won't reduce equally (...or could
use the "end caps" method below).
...you may have to add a bit
of softer clay to any clay which is harder than the others
...or to leach
a harder clay between pieces of paper to make it stiffer
All
conditioned clays have to move at the same rate (or the moutains and cliffs
come tumbling down! --probably my most crucial canes are my landscape canes)
....
When I am using many colors, I check on softness by conditioning every
color
......... then I let them set
overnight at least to cool off.
..........the next day or so, I cut off
an equal amount of each color; flatten them slightly with my roller; and
then put each through the pasta machine.
................If one flattens out
too easily, it's too soft..... If I don't get a nice smooth sheet from another,
it's too stiff.
........If I am just using a few colors, I make little sheets
of them on the #1 setting, make a little stack, and roll the roller over
them. If a color is too soft, it will squeeze out more at the sides (Mike Buesseler?)
I test the (relative) softness (of the clays) by putting layers of the different colors together(just a little square of it) and then brayer it as if I was trying to thin the layers. You can tell rather quickly if one of the colors is too soft because it will squish out more than the others or too hard and it won't move. Kat
Many
caners will tell you to let your cane "rest" for a time to allow it to reach a
uniform temperature ...before reducing.. Okay. Yes, this is a good idea and essential
to prevent distortion. However, this does NOT mean that the cane must
be uniformly COLD. My canes are almost always large (http://www.velocity.net/~cam/moose/moose.html...gone).
When I let one of my larger canes (2-3 pounds) cool overnight, what
I have in the morning is a large cold cane. Great. Do you know what a pain in
the butt it is to reduce something like this? To say the least, it's difficult
and time-consuming.
Another problem with this method is that when reducing
a cold cane the heat from your hands will warm up the outer layers faster and
leave the center cool. There goes your uniform-temperature cane! I've reduced
many canes this way with less than ideal results.
To remedy this problem,
I've learned to put all my canes in the oven before reduction. Again, I
use a cookie sheet and set the temperature very low. The results are GREAT!
I now have the option of reducing a cane right after I've made it or the next
day. The cane is uniformly soft and reduction is a breeze. I can't tell you
what a difference this has made for my caning (and my attitude…I actually look
forward to reducing a cane!). Candy
...One
of the most important steps to reducing a cane, and the hardest for me to do,
is to let the cane rest once it is constructed. This gives all the components
a chance to come to the same temperature. Sally
...I respectfully disagree
. . . I reduce (successfully) 4 pound+ canes without.
letting the cane rest. In fact, the cooler the cane gets, the more
difficult it becomes to reduce and the more distorted it will become in the reduction
process. Think of it this way...you have a cold cane (room temp) and you reduce
it with your *warm* hands. What ends up happening is the outer layers of the cane
warm up *much* faster than the center because of your hands. This causes the outside
of the cane to move faster than the center. I don't disagree that a cane should
be uniform in temperature to reduce properly (that is *very* true),
what I am saying though is that the cane needs to be warm so that the middle
moves just as fast as the outside. You can warm up your canes in any way you want,
but what I have found that works best is to warm them up at a very low temperature
in my oven. I need to get to Wal-mart and get an oven thermometer so there
isn't any confusion over "very low temperature." Anyway, that's my cane reduction
advice and I know I'm in the minority... Candy
I don't really cane all that much, but I have noticed that if my Premo has been leached, I have much more control of it during the reduction process. If the Premo is good and soft the outside moves so quickly! Heather
outer design elements vs, inner design elements
When you reduce, almost no matter how well (except perhaps with the end caps
method), the warmer outside design parts of a cane will move
more than the cooler elements near the middle of the cane
...So
whatever's on the outside of the cane image will thin, and whatever's
on the inside will grow larger
.......so begin with smaller
elements near the center of the cane than you might normally use
(for example, the nose or lips for a face, unless you want to end up with a really
large schnoz or lips if they're close to the middle)
......and make
the elements near the outer parts of the cane image larger
than you normallyl would (hair around a face, e.g., especially if the face
has no background or very little)
......another way to protect the outer elements
from getting too small is to use a lot of background around the
image, so the image itself will be farther from the outside of the cane
..It's
also good to wait for the entire cane to cool to the same temperature
before reducing (I refrigerate too, if necessary).... for really large canes,
this could even take several days
Since the outer portion of the cane will usually be warmer than the inside from your manipulations during building (unless you've let it rest first, which is always a good idea), you can begin pressing gently or whacking! in the *middle* of the cane length, especially for firmer clays.
Pulling-stretching*
and pressing are the most distortion-free ways of reducing a
cane, not rolling.
........however rolling
is fine for reducing canes in which minor distortion won't matter,
like spiral or other geometric canes
.......rolling is also fine just to smooth
out a cane, etc., when a reduced cane is almost as small as you want,
(or for canes which have already been mostly reduced with other methods)
..Also
try to keep all motions equal on all sides, and reverse the direction
of the cane periodically to keep the ends the same.
..Remember, the ends will
always be distorted with this method (you can periodically squeeze near the
end of the cane to keep the clay "inside" and the ends less distorted.)
Diane B.
Z Kripke had us use the side of our
hands and fists to pound the clay to reduce it.
...Surprisingly, it worked! Her theory was that the pounding took energy to the
center of the cane and got it moving along with the outside.
.....After using
edges of hands and fists (which got sore), some of us moved on to using our
acrylic rods. Dotty
(....see more below in "whacking")
various
photos of large canes being reduced with various techniques
(... look at thumbnails of all 100 photos to find the reducing ones!)
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4153008&a=31266991&f=0
Packing
clay in and around various components (or simply pressing components
together) can cause distortion in the cane
when it is compressed and reduced, because it's really difficult to avoid
having tiny gaps between the
added packing pieces of clay.
...unfortunately,
these gaps will be filled in by
any clay
closest to them during reduction!
(...see
below in Component Method for for warnings about
packing clay around features when making face canes and reducing... and
how to avoid distortion)
whacking (hard!)
First, I let the cane sit
overnight after building it and making sure it's well compacted together (no
air spaces).
My reducing technique involves
banging the sucker around until it starts moving as one peice and not just
the outside. I whack it pretty good, aiming the hits toward the center
of the cane. Then I try squeezing the middle a bit and sort of working
outward from the squeeze to the ends.
If it starts edging
the sides over the ends at all, or sucking in at all, I go back to banging
it.
"The important thing is to direct all your moves toward the center
of the clay and get the center moving at the same speed as the outside". (This
is a direct quote from Kathy Amt).
When it gets moving pretty good, I might
hang it down from one end and sort of stroke downward like milking
a cow letting gravity help stretch the cane. If you do this swap ends once in
a while.
....I use a register mark (a thin line down the top of the
cane) so I can see if it twists.
Bob just rotates (his huge
cane) and whacks it...... his acrylic rod is actually crazed from all the
whacking. Kat
...Bob's lesson on reducing
a huge face cane by rolling around the outside with a large solid acrylic
rod...pressing down on the middle... pounding with the rod up and down
the sides of the cane...then pulling
BEFORE: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4153008&a=31266991&p=68339447
DURING: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nitrogal68/detail?.dir=/5ffe&.dnm=8817.jpg&.src=ph
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nitrogal68/detail?.dir=/5ffe&.dnm=3215.jpg&.src=ph
AFTER: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4153008&a=31266991&p=68339547
(hard to tell the diameter here, but I'm sure it's less an an inch)
OR...
http://www.tinapple.com/oldsite/reducecane
(then click on each Next photo from drop down menu)
(for
square canes only?)....For some reason that I don't understand, this method will
reduce a cane with little distortion and little waste....if anything, it reduces
the inside of the cane more than the outside so the ends bulge outward only slightly.
I speculate that it's the vibrations of the water that make it work so
well. I don't even usually let the cane rest before reducing--only if the temperature
in the room is very warm or I'm using different brands or consistencies of clay
in the same cane. I know this sounds crazy, but it really does work:
.....I
use a small straight-sided glass bottle with a tight-fitting screw-on top,
3/4 full of water. Like a Worcestershire sauce bottle.
Holding
the neck of the bottle as a handle, start tapping firmly on the cane
with the side of the bottle. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, moving from the end
of the cane farther away from you toward yourself.
Then after doing
this about 10 times, turn the cane end-to-end so you'll be working
in the opposite direction. Suzanne
I
once reduced somebody's round cane of Sculpey doing the pounding thing.
....Pounded it into a square, reduced it, and then patted it
back into the round. Surprised the heck out of me when it was not badly
distorted.
Sarajane's reduction of a
13-lb cane, which was built on it's side (rather than like a
cake)... ended up large as her arm, then she reduced it to about an inch (and
kaleidoscoped some of it?)
http://polyclay.com/13lb.htm
And
Sarajane's tips on reducing canes, esp. large ones
http://polyclay.com/reduce.htm
warming
For
canes, it doesn't matter if you let them rest or not, the main thing is to have
it a consistent temperature throughout so the clay moves at the same rate. The
reason large canes are a problem is that your
hands warm up the outsides layers, but can't get to the inside so the outside
moves faster, the inside stays put, resulting in lots of waste as the ends with
no center...
....the trick was to put the entire cane into the oven
at low, low temps before beginning to reduce (tip was from Candace or Stephanie
of Clay Daze)...test with something less dear to make sure you oven won't start
to cure even at the lowest setting.. . .(after warming up the whole cane,
it's much easier not only on your arms, but you've solved the consistent temperature
problem). Kim Kl.
(I think my biggest cane ever was 2 lbs...but anyhow, I can say that the slamming really REALLY helps, as does letting the whole thing warm up). . . I put mine in the microwave at 5-15 second intervals.. .it helps SO much to warm it up, but you definitely have to be VERY careful with doing it. Lynne
Carol Simmons' huge 6
x 2" triangular cane (to make various kaleidoscope cane variations)
...
polymerlcaydaily mentions that Carols put the cane in the microwave twice
for 3 seconds during the 2-hr reduction
http://polymerclaydaily.com/2008/11/14/more-simmons-canes
squeeze the ends first
Donna Kato...lately i've
been pinching the ends then rolling the middle down. i have less waste
that way….
Start reducing your cane by "choking" it at each end. That is squeeze
up near the ends and reduce just that area somewhat. The middle will stay fat.
Then, begin squeezing in the middle until it is the same diameter as the end portion.
Repeat this. Don't try to do this all in one squeeze. Do it slowly. Stretch
the cane a little in between squeezing. When the cane is about twice as long as
it was to begin with, then is the time to start rolling it. But when you are rolling
it, make sure each hand pulls outward somewhat, helping to stretch the cane out.
Use the palms of your hands.
squeeze the middle first
Syndee: I'm going to
do a real simple description of Marie Segal's SureFire Method of reduction,
which when combined with Premo clay will yield the most beautiful, undistorted
canes!!!
1. Grasp the cane in the middle of cane and SQUEEZE to create a
dumbell effect.
2. Turn the cane and continue squeezing and squeeze up to
one end.
3. Flip the cane over and squeeze to the other end.
4. Now
lay the cane down and roll to smooth
This forces the inside clays to move
along with the outside portions and provides for the least amount of distortion
and waste. The photos I've included aren't the best, as this was a cane that was
already reduced, but I think it will show what I mean (please note how little
waste there is on the end of the cane). You REALLY feel like you would be causing
more distortion this way, but it works like a dream!!!
Bob
Paris reducing a huge face cane (same link as above)
...by
rolling around the outside with a large solid acrylic rod ...pressing
down on the middle ... pounding with the rod up and down the sides
of the cane...then pulling
http://www.tinapple.com/oldsite/reducecane
(see each step by selecting from drop-down menu)
or
.http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4153008&a=31266991&p=68352249
Leigh's
lesson on using Marie's method as above, but she reduces the ends
after squeezing most of the middle before squeezing the whole cane, then
finishes squeezing the leftover unreduced length
http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/poleigh/reducing.html
I
would say yes to squeezing from the center.. . this will push the ends out
and keep them (somewhat) from caving in.
. . .I would also say no to
rolling.. at least until you get the cane
reduced. Rolling will allow any air trapped
inside to destroy the cane.
....Squeezing will push the air out.
....Sometimes
when I've finished building a cane, I slam it down on it's side
a few times . . this helps push it all together (I cane with Fimo exclusively,
but others are able to do it with softer clays) Cindy
I've had very few problems since I tried the "wasp waist" method that someone once described in this newsgroup. Basically, from the center of the cane, pinch in all the way around - just a bit - on a 2" diameter cane, I "wasp" it in about 1/4 to 3/8 " deep all the way around. Then you expand the "waist" with a second pass next to the original line. Once you have about 1 1/2 -2" pinched in, you can start to flow this reduction all the way to both ends. Speaking of ends - you'll notice that the ends are pushing OUT instead of sucking IN like when you roll the cane to reduce. ONce this happens, stop & do a little rolling & some just plane stretching of the cane to equalize. To stretch, stick one end to your surface & pull the other end & stick it down too, stretching it along the way.
I reduce using the barbell method of squeezing the cane in my hand. I don't worry about keeping the cane round as I reduce and when I'm almost done I round it out -- I have very little distortion and I have reduced plate sized [8" diameter] canes to ciggarette [1/4" diameter] without loss of clarity or detail.
(for reducing triangular logs and canes, see Canes--Gen.Info. > Tips for Making Canes, triangle )
Square (or rectangular)
canes are usually created square, and reduced while remaining square.
...some
canes won't suffer too much distortion though if they're pressed and rolled into
a round cane first for reducing, then pressed back into a squared shape after
reducing
...also, any round cane can later be made into a square
cane (before or after reducing) as long as the slight distortion won't
matter (e.g, many geometric and kaleidoscope canes, etc.)... making
a round can squared can be for purposes of design, or to make slices
from these canes fit together in a grid or row because of their now-straight
sides
Squared canes (like any cane shape) can be created
any size or volume of clay --from humongous, to medium-sized, to
fairly small
...... and they may be created any height ---from very
"short" canes (relative to their widths) to "taller" ones
...if
they begin as fairly short and wide canes, the first part
of reducing may need to concentrate just on getting the cane to be longer so
there's enough room for it to be held or pulled or rolled over to finish
reducing (...for canes which are already long enough to hold or roll over, this
may not be necessary
(...some of the following tips are
for first getting the cane small enough, and some may assume it's already small
enough to pull/roll over, etc.)
Cristel's lesson
on reducing a square cane using squeezing and a brayer
http://home.online.no/~raje/Polymer/projects/tulip/index.html
(gone)
Janet's very large,
short/wide rectangular cane beginning to be reduced with a long rod (hitting?,
rolling?)
http://www.janetfarris.com/images/kabuki_reducing.jpg
(for
larger square canes)... i work all sides evenly by pressing-squeezing opposing
sides
....... periodically, i roll each side smooth
to square up the corners
... when i get to the small reduction, i pull
the rod instead, like ceramicists pull handles. Donna Kato
(after
it's long enough to hold onto) CZC uses an acrylic rod to lengthen the
cane
...They hold one end of the cane with left hand .... then use
the long rod to roll over it from the middle of the cane to its farther
end –this lengthens the cane a little.
........then they turn the cane
90 degrees so the somewhat flattened side is up, and repeat
....They
then flip the cane end to end so they can hold the otherend of the cane
and roll over the other half
....... repeating everything until
the cane is reduced as much as desired.
When I do square canes, I
use my thumbs and first two fingers of each hand for the squeezing part,
and an acrylic roller for the smoothing part of the process.
....so
first I smooth all four sides down the length of the cane with the roller,
pressing a bit
....then I pick the cane up and "climb" up
and down the length of it with pinchy fingers (one hand set doing the
left/right faces, one handset doing the front/back faces of the square cane) ...do
this several times
....then I do the rolling thing again to smooth out
and realign your cane's squareness. Sarajane
I
start out by banging down the length of the cane with my acrylic
roller... I do this on all 4 sides
....... then turn the cane 180 degrees
and do it all again.... repeating this until the cane is a manageable size.
....Then
I roll the roller on all 4 sides, just to smooth the cane.
....To finish
reducing, I put my hands together on the middle of the cane, and gently
smooth outwards, applying just a little pressure
.........
I do this on every side, and turn the cane 180 degrees again.... and continue
until the cane is the size I want.
...The reducing starts out slow, but then
speeds up as I go (maybe as the clay warms up).
(...see
above in "Whacking," under Round Canes, for Suaznne's method of using
a bottle of water to tap, tap, tap the cane
........the purpose
of any type of whacking or banging is to create friction in
the innermost parts of a larger cane so that it will begin to warm up and
be able to move --the exterior areas will be warmed simply and quickly by the
warmth and movement of hands).
In the
McCaw tape, she stands the cane on it's end.
....Lock your fingers
together like you're saying your prayers... then with the heel of both hands,
press heels toward each other at the center of the (sides of the) cane
.......
release, turn the cane 1/4 turn, and do the same on all 4 sides...... work your
way towards ends.
....Turn the cane with the other end to the top,
and repeat.
....Once the cane gets too long to stand
on it's end, then lay it down flat and give it a stretch
........then
slide your roller down the length of the cane on all 4 sides
.......stretch
and roll and slide your roller again until it gets to the size you want. ....doing
it this way will help to keep your cane square.
(also see the End Caps method just below for reducing square canes, as well as round ones)
long, solid rods or tubes of acrylic (or
brass, or other things) which are square in cross-section
.......these
can be used to reduce a round or square cane into a perfectly
square cane ...or used to "square up" canes which
are already square but maybe not exactly
...place the cane between
two of the rods.... then roll over with a roller or sheet
of plastic/glass
...turn cane. and roll over again
(spacers
between the rods (like an H) are sometimes used between the rods at both ends
of the clay log to hold the rods apart (perfectly parallel)
....these
rods can be other acrylic (short) rods, square wood pieces, or even baked clay
ones you make yourself
.....some
people use paper or waxed paper under the clay so prevent it from sticking
to the work surface
lesson: http://members.shaw.ca/clayquilt/rods1
END CAPS method
(little or no distortion when done right)
creating a vacuum + squeezing the middle
If the
face ends of a cane are held perfectly flat, and therefore can't
bulge outward or suck inward,
then the amount of clay inside the cane must remain the same, and there
will be no distortion and no waste (or very little).
The
basic idea of this method is creating a total VACUUM between each end
face of the cane and the stiff plastic disc pressed onto it (or whatever
end cap you're using)
.....this vacuum will keep the cane end pressed tightly
to the disc so that it CAN'T *pull inward* in the middle, and it keeps
all the same clay inside the cane that you started with!
reducing
a moon face cane with hexagonal glass disks at Shrinemont 2004
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4153008&a=31266991&p=68340305
reducing
a humongous cane (lobster + background), using a (hexagonal) ceramic
tile on each end
...(photos of building cane, during
reduction, and after reduction...... also shows how canes are often left as
"gradual" reductions (she calls "volcanos")
so later any size slice is still possible... in this case, she left
both ends wide and reduced only the middle)
http://www.claysquared.com/silly-canes.htm
Sunni's
lesson on using small mirror tiles at both ends, and squeezing
http://sunnisan.com/crafts/nowaste.html
PREPARING
cane ends for end caps:
... first slice off enough clay to make
a perfectly flat cane end... slice back far enough into
the cane that there are NO air
gaps between any of the components
....OR,
if you just hate cutting off any of your cane, instead you can press
scrap clay into any gaps or even over the whole end of the cane
end
......... then pack everything tightly together to remove
any air gaps, before cutting the end of the cane flat
....press an end cap
tightly onto each end of the cane (bit of Vaseline may help with vacuum)
ONCE
the caps are ATTACHED --to reduce:
...press
the cane in the middle to get kind of a bone shape (if you can't
get your fingers between the disks for very short canes, use some kind of rod
to press on the clay instead)
(--on canes which are very wide but short, sometimes
a back-and-forth twisting motion can help loosen it up)
...then
press all the way around each cane end (which is tight against the
plastic disk/etc) from all sides with a tool or fingernail to reduce the diameter
of the ends...... press the cane all around those areas with fingers to smooth
if necessary
......in this step, I sometimes reduce only one end
of the cane so that I can save the larger end of the cane for larger
slices)
...then begin to stretch the cane apart by pulling
on both end caps to increase the length
...alternate the stretching
(which reduces the diameter of the middle of the cane) with the pressing
around the ends next to the end caps (which reduces the diameter of the ends
of the cane)
...once the cane is long enough, it can even be rolled
in the air with 2 hands to assist with reducing if desired
This whole
process can take awhile, but I've successfully reduced a 3/4" tall cane
(2-3" wide) with no waste. Diane B.
"end
cap" possibilities
TRANSPARENT or TRANSLUCENT ... best because you
can actually see what's happening to the cane end
...I press a flat, round-,
square- or whatever-shaped piece of hard plastic or glass
... I try to make them just a bit larger than the end diameter.
...Michael's
has small round glass pieces with their glass etching materials... Marlene
...craft
stores often have glass discs for various things. . . flat glass disks to
embellish for xmas ornaments, e.g.
..the clear lucite mounting pieces
meant for rubber stamps can work...Valerie
...I
buy acrylic discs at my local plastics store
...... polymer
clay will begin to eat or cloud some kinds of
hard plastic, so don't leave the end caps on for a long
time unless they're acrylic
...With smaller-diameter canes,
I use the softer translucent plastic that can be found in margarine
lids or something similar, and cut them to the right size
OPAQUE ...but
then you can't watch what's happening
...In a
pinch, I've used a plastic or metal jar lid
...try
the small ceramic bath tiles (about 1-2" square)
...I
guess even using coins could also allow a vacuum seal if they were
very firmly seated over the whole surface.
...see using small round
mirror tiles in lessons just above, although the silvering can be removed
from mirrors with toilet bowl cleaner (carefully, because they have an acid in
them), or by scraping
My husband makes my rollers
and cane end caps from acrylic (rods?).
.... It has been a learning
experience for him. At first he just did the cuts and smoothed the rough edges
but had lots of problems with minute cracks. ...From that he learned to lubricate
the saw first. Now he is able to cut nicely and sand and buff to a
nice clear finish. So it can be done but you need the right equipment. Trina
I've heard that if you smear Vaseline on the cane ends, the clay can't pull away.... I have some plexiglass discs and I love them. Donna Kato
Don't
remove the end caps until your cane is reduced, because it is hard to
get it suctioned back onto the glass if you decide you want
to reduce it farther ( but could make a new cut or add scrap and make new cut).
. . . .I managed to stretch my "hockey puck" about three feet...
Ziggybeth
(her parrot
cane reduced by end-caps method) http://home.icenter.net/~squiggy/crafts/parrotcane.htm;
not at site either (gone)
Or ...use
your smooth work surface as a kind of end cap --or at least
a "holder" (instead of 2 end caps, or could use regular end cap on free
end as well)
...adhere one end of your cane to the work surface...reduce
a bit
...then flip it over and adhere the other end and reduce more.
Valerie
Miscellaneous
for reducing odd-shaped canes, see Canes--Gen.Info
when reducing canes to a very small size, the eye may change how it perceives the strength and shade of the colors, etc. (see Canes-Info)
If
we kept the outside of the cane cold, while trying
to warm up the interior
....then the pressure would make it to the center
of the cane more easily (to keep the outside from reducing more quickly than the
inside) .... ..........maybe use some kind of cold pack glove? Donna Kato
....or putting in frig for ten minutes or so?? Diane B.
(when rolling to reduce a cane over 4" long) CURVE the cane first, then roll or toward 11 o'clock with one hand & toward 1 o'clock with the other hand... the cane will stretch as it rolls. This works really really well.
make sure you have
about at least 1/4" of background clay around the outside
parts of your cane to make sure you don't get any distortion
... I also
try to return to the basic shape (round,square,triangular) every time I
add a new element of the design to the cane.... I use the background color
to do this
. . . . if I'm not using background (doing an odd-shaped cane),
I reduce the elements down to size first, then add them together.
syndee
