Polymer Clay Skinner Blend Bullseye Cane Tutorial by KatersAcres

Polymer Clay Tutorial

How to Make a Skinner Blend Bullseye Cane

One of the most basic skills in working with polymer clay is learning how to make a Skinner Blend. Once you know how to make a Skinner Blend, there are infinite possibilities of what you can do and accomplish with that blend. Today’s mini-tutorial will show you how to make a Skinner Blend and change it into a Skinner Blend Bullseye Cane or even a log/plug. This tutorial will walk you through some of the basic steps and show you exactly how that is done.

Making a Skinner Blend Bullseye Cane is not only a basic millefiori skill that every caner should master, but it is also a good skill to have in you bag of techniques. This basic skill looks much harder than it actually is. You will need a pasta machine in order to achieve the most uniform and fastest results. Other than that, this basic skill requires no fancy tools or equipment of any kind.

Materials

2 or more colors of polymer clay
Pasta Machine
Your hands

Instructions for a Skinner Blend Bullseye Cane

Use 2 or more colors of your choice and make a Skinner Blend
Here I am using the teardrop method of making Skinner Blends because my end canes are going to be tiny micro-canes. The total amount of clay in the picture at the top left is less than one ounce.
NOTE: If you are new to doing this, I suggest trying it with a larger amount of clay to save frustration.
Run your triangles (or teardrops) through the pasta machine on a medium setting.
The middle picture here shown has been run through the pasta machine approximately 7 times.
Keep running your blend through the pasta machine until your blend is even and the colors merge & combine seamlessly. (About 25-30 times).
Now use the fan-fold technique to make a Skinner Blend Stack.
Choose ONE end of this stack and run through your pasta machine at a thick setting.
Continue to repeat this step placing clay in the same direction as the first time, but with each pass make the thickness of your blend smaller.
Once your clay is in a nice super-long strip, roll it up beginning with the color you want on the inside.
Wah-La! There you have it. A Skinner blend bullseye cane!