Simple & Easy Leaf Cane Tutorial

There are literally hundreds of versions of this cane that exist online. This is my super simple, quick and easy version! These leaves can be made & used to accompany many different handmade designs of your choice.

Materials:

Polymer Clay in greens, browns & tans
Pasta Machine
Your hands

Leaf Cane Tutorial

If you go looking online (especially on Pinterest) for “leaf cane” literally hundreds of different tutorials pop up. I’m not sure who came up with the leaf cane or where it originated, but with so many different techniques, making fun & colorful leaf canes isn’t that hard, even to a novice caner.

Condition your clay.
For the first part, make a basic skinner blend (shown left hand column).
Then make your skinner blend into a tapered strip.
Roll the strip to make a bullseye cane with the lightest color on the inside.
TIP: Desiree has an awesome article on Skinner Blends, making them, and stretching them. Find her tutorial here: http://desiredcreations.com/howTo_CABasicSkinnerBlend.htm
Then cut your round into sections using a curved blade.
NOTE: I cut my cane into four different sized sections.
Roll a thin sheet of clay in a darker color on a #5 setting of your Atlas pasta machine.
Insert the darker color (I have used brown) just shy of the full length of the cane, between each of the cut segments.
NOTE: I have cut “curves” instead of straight lines. It is very hard to see them in the bottom right picture, but the curves that I cut are apparent in the top picture where the veins “bend” instead of protruding straight out.
Roll a thin sheet of clay in a darker color on a #5 setting of your Atlas pasta machine.
Insert the darker color (or the blend) through the middle of the entire length of the cane.
NOTE: I chose to use a smaller skinner blend or yellowish-gold to brown for mine. The yellowish-gold tones are nearest the bottom. You can see on the finished can the “pop” that this has given to that center vein.
Then simply reduce the cane using the standard cane reduction techniques.