The Rainbow Skinner (page19), I think there is too much yellow for the ratio of the other colors. I have very little purple or red, the orange and green is nice and the strip of yellow dominates. I even took a lot of yellow off the top. The Pinched Petals cane (page62) turned out pretty cool. I'll slice it later once it has cooled. I continued with another color exercise that taught me that red is a very strong color. Using the color scale (page 70) for the red and yellow, the red took 2 shots to get back to the original red while the yellow took 6 or more to go back.
When I tried to slice my Pinched Petals cane (page 62) I ran into some problems. After slicing, I managed to shape them OK but hers were curved from the inside and she asked for slices of 1/16". My cane had air pockets in the center of the green part of the rainbow. By the time I had filled that they were distorted. I cut mine at 1/8" and ended up with petals I could pierce. Don't know how they'll hold up to manipulation. I then tried the Bargello Beads (page 75). She called for mud. Mine was mud from Prince Edward Island because it was very dark red. Ha! Ha! Ah, well, at least it was brownish. The mixing of the mud to the other colors went well and I went to adding white. I'm learning to add and measure better for the color mixing. I made a cane fine, following instructions. The assembly of the bead was a little difficult. I tried to place my slices in a skewed way but didn't understand the pattern enough to get it right. Her photos show a black stripe or space in between her colors. Nowhere in the instructions does she mention adding stripes of black so I don't know where she got that. Was I supposed to just leave space in between the stripes? Don't know.
Trying again with the Rainbow Skinner (page 19). this time I reduced the yellow slightly and increased the last stripe of blue and red on the sides. While sheeting I adjusted the slab, evenly matched the colors and pushed the slab back in to shorten it, that way if still fit in the pasta machine and didn't get distorted. yeah! So I assembled the Stripe Blend (page 86). I didn't do everything she asked for, sticking to one in-between color- sunshine yellow. I thought it would take alot of clay and I didn't get the purpose. After doing it, I got the purpose. her technique of passing the stripes through like a skinner blend (the translucent sheet on top of the stripes makes it possible and blend the colors well) makes them come out really nice, although she calls for 20 times. The first one I did was 20 times and the colors were all blended together. the other i only did 10 times and the blending of the sunshine and the colors was more discernible and pleasing to me, especially that I was going to make the the log cabin pin (page 88). Making that was fun and easy. I haven't backed it up yet because I prefer to do that after baking using Kato's technique of cutting out the pin back out of the clay and then replacing it. Much neater. Anyway, I discovered another side to this stripe/skinner technique. the crosscut for the clay looks a lot like IKAT cane. Cool!
Now, I making the pattern sheets (page 113) I've whitewashed using white and color. I've just applied bulls eye cane on white and at the thinnest setting. The sides of the cane kinda meld together and give a 3-d effect.. Next, I had chosen to make a Mosaic Leaf Pin (page 106). She called for another rainbow skinner and I had leftovers from the previous one, so instead I decided to finish up the one I had left. I made 2, one with color following each other, the other I turned the IKAT side of the cane and had that showing. they turned out nice and tomorrow I'll do the grout part and then the re baking. Then I tried the pattern samples, I did the color-wash samples (page 114) technique. I'd noticed it before not realizing it was a technique. My wash wasn't great, I could have pressed it again to get a better finish. Then I used a bulls eye cane and applied a green skinner cane to a white background. The contrast was pleasing and the cane flattened into each other giving a dimensional effect. Very nice. I also used some kaleidoscope cane (Kato book) and arranged it on the clay. I was going for a square but it did not work. With this sheet, I made the sample Beads Bracelet (page 116), although not like she called for. I don't really like the shape of her beads and I had not made enough pattern to make enough. So I made a couple of beads.
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