The Advantage of Cane Complexity

Because reducing canes makes the details of the original grouping of colors and shapes so small, you really can add in a lot of complexity with multiple regrouping and reductions. This characteristic of caning can be used to do some pretty cool things with scrap as well. You can put together all kinds of scrap canes and through some manipulation and reduction basically erase the scrap cane images so they become just part of a new image. And the old or unsuccessful canes can become part of something great again.

Feathers seem to be a favorite image to rework scrap canes into in this fashion. I really like this version found on Polymer Clay Central by Jean Sheppard. She doesn’t lose the color composition of the original canes here, just the shapes. The elongation of things like a strawberry and star become realistic looking components of a feather. Rather of amazing, really.

There are also many, many examples online of clayers doing the same basic thing, but with kaleidoscope canes. The mix of colors and shapes in the scrap canes just add complexity to the these reworked canes, sometimes making them even more intriguing than if they were started with more uniform and planned colors and lines. Its just another way to reuse that scrap that keeps piling up, not to mention being a lot of low key fun that can result in great canes!