As I’m working on my new stock for 2016 I’m trying to use some of my old canes and, yes, even my scraps. I’ve been busily looking around the internet to see what other people do with old, boring, tired canes and clay mixes. Kate Tracton (Shiborigirl) has a post from a few years ago where she turned old and unappealing canes into edges, borders and new feature spots for her work by mixing it up a little: adding a little crackled clay, a crystal or combining and reducing existing cane pieces.
While I’m a firm believer in giving yourself permission to not have to keep every mess and mistake you clay up… I do mostly keep mine. I’m not bad at using my ugly purple brown mud as the insides of things. It’s the stuff that still has some life that gives me trouble. I make swirlies but fewer than I used to. I have made a lot of Natasha beads over the years. And I’ve had my share of fun making Stroppel canes. Today I played around more and turned some cane ends into kaleidoscope canes. The first few are promising so I’ll keep poking at the pile of scrap.
Those are beautiful