I find, sometimes, that the simplest techniques can yield the coolest things. Point in case (case in point? never could get that right!)....this necklace I did using extruded strings in just black, white, and translucent. I like it...I think it's, well, cool! I use Kemper extruders. I know, I know...people scream and holler and make goin'-to the-holy-land testimonials about the Makins extruder...!!! Well, I'll tell you. I used the Makins extruders...in fact, I "used" four of them within a year..only to have every one of them break. Now, I'm not saying the Makins is a bad extruder. It's just not for someone using and extruding all the time, or using and extruding anything other than soft, soft clay...which kinda limits your abiities, ya know? After having communicated with the Makins owner several times, he told me his tools were made specifically for the Makins clay, and they were "working" on something every clay artist could use. Don't kow if they have or not, but I'm sticking with the Kemper. It's indestructible! I have one for white, one for translucent, one for black and one for all other colors. It's most annoying to get some little bit of some other color mixed in with white or trans...and believe me, without THOROUGHLY cleaning your extruder, you're going to get something mixed in! Still, I will take a bottle brush, dip it in alcohol, and run it through my extruder a few times every once in a while to really clean it. I also use a modified caulking gun to help extrude. If you're interested in one, go to
www.shadesofclay.com. It's a Canadian company - you pay Canadian Dollar prices - and the shipping is most reasonable.
Anyway, extruding clay is just too, too much fun...you never know what kind of pattern you'll get...and that's the whole idea! When you do this, always keep in mind the colors you're putting together. This whole process is based on fluid dynamics, i.e., as the plunger moves, the MIDDLE of the clay is pushed out, and the surrounding clay is moved along the sides. So, if you put green and orange together in the tube, you're gonna get brown muck as the final product along with bits and pieces of orange and green! As with this piece, If I had wanted very little black, I would have stacked the clay like: white, trans, white, trans, white, black...and repeated that until I had filled up the plunger. Obviously, I wanted black to be the dominate color. Play with the way you stack the clay to see what you like. A .5" (1/2 ") circle cutter is perfect for cutting out pieces to fit in the extruder. I roll the clay through the thickest setting on my pasta machine, and just start puching out circles. When the table is full of all the colors I want, I start stacking! Once you have all your extrusions, start cutting into sections and stacking to make a cane. Reduce if you want, then start laying slices. Simple as that. With this piece, I used the square die...but the round die is just as interesting.
WARNING!! This may be a repeat...only because my English and spelling was soooo heinous in the first post, I tried editing...it may have worked and it may not have. If this is a duplicate, hopefully, the spelling is every so much better!!!
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