Vol-085 Nautical Anchor Cane PcT Tutorial (Intro)
Video #668: This fun sailor themed project will have you right on trend with the latest in fashion… Ships Ahoy!
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** This post is an introduction to one of our paid tutorials.
I loved the sailor look when I was young. And since it is so popular once again, I just had to make a Nautical Anchor Cane from polymer clay to create some awesome nautical accessories to wear this Summer!
I really hope you enjoy this tutorial! The cane is a little more complex than some of the others I have taught in the past, but don’t worry… I have broken it down into very doable steps.
Soon you will be wearing your own Nautical Jewelry to go with that cute little Sailor Suit (or that Striped Tee) down on the docks, ot at a picnic this Summer… like me!
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Cindy you have very good information in all your videos, and as a new member, I am totally hooked. Your explanations are thorough and even when you stumble, it's like talking to an old friend cause I stumble sometimes when I teach. Love your projects and videos.
Gwen B
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Cindy, I absolutely prefer your tutorials. I have bought classes from other teachers... some quite advanced. One cane tutorial was WAY too big. Spent quite a bit of money on clay and ended up with a full box of scraps. The instructors language was not clear and I was very disappointed. Cindy your tutorials are doable... the best!
Patty J
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Hi Cindy, I just love your tutorials and wish I could meet you in person some day. I want to tell you that your tutorials are just superb and lucid, and very easy to understand, even for a beginner like me. I wish you could come to Mumbai (India) and share your great work with art and craft lovers here.
Nandini N
Transcript coming soon...
Transcript coming soon...
Our goal is to translate these videos into as many languages as possible. If you are interested in helping with this initiative, then please do contact us and we will figure out a way to make it worth your while :)
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Hi Cindy and Doug,
Many thanks to both of you for answering my questions, and Doug as you can see all went well.
Thanks again
Marie
Perfect!
Hi Cindy and Doug,
Another quick question – How would I set my avatar picture please?
Thanks again
Marie
Hi Marie… welcome to the PcT Community!
The way to add your image is to go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and follow their simple photo upload instructions.
After the Gravatar system “processes” your photo upload (it can sometimes take a few hours)… then that generic sideways G logo which is currently posted beside each of your comments at my blog… will miraculously change to the personalized photo you have added.
If you type “Gravatar” into the search box at my blog, you’ll get some links to other comment threads where this topic has been discussed in previous threads.
Hi Cindy and Doug,
Marie Lilley here from Bury in the UK, I joined PCT on Friday, and purchased all the tutorials, I’m so glad I did. I’m fairly new to Polymer Clay and have learned a lot already from the videos not to mention the ideas it has given me. I’ve already transferred a photo of my dogs on to Polymer Clay and made them into keyrings. They are not perfect but for a first attempt I’m well chuffed with them.
I will be making more (not just photos of my dogs) and giving them as presents to people we visit, we are a Pets As Therapy visiting team, and go into Nursing homes, hospitals, hospices and let people who want to stroke and fuss them. It has a very calming effect. We also work with people who are afraid of dogs.
I do have one question please – when do you use a heat gun as oppsoed to a blow dryer which I assume is a hair dryer. In some of the video you refer to and use a heat gun and in others the blow dryer.
Many thanks and have a great day.
Hi Marie, it is so wonderful to have you here in our sweet little clay family! We have many members from the UK… maybe you can connect with them sometime? With all those new tutorials you should be able to make lots of presents for Christmas and then you’ll have plenty to do over the cold Winter! Your Pet Therapy work sounds very fulfilling. It looks like you bring joy to many others. :)
In regards to your question about heat guns vs. blow dryers… Heat guns tend to be a lot hotter than blow dryers are so the two tend to be used for different reasons.
If you just need to dry something on the clay like paint or ink, but you do not want to risk curing the clay, then you would use a blow dryer.
If you do plan on curing the clay (like the partial cure you do in the Faux Deep Crackle Raku Tutorial) or if you want to cure a liquid clay, then you would use a heat gun.
You can also use a heat gun to heat set paints, inks, or embossing powders on already baked polymer clay. You need to be more careful with a heat gun though, since it is relatively easy to burn your clay if you get too close or hold it in one spot for too long.
I hope that answered your questions. Have a wonderful time learning and making new things in polymer clay! Happy Holidays!
Hi Marie
Just wanted to welcome you to our fabulous clay family! I also live in the UK, in Leafy Surrey. Cindy is the most wonderful teacher to have and I’m quite sure you’re going to be a long-term member like me!
As you’ll soon discover it’s very addictive, but it’s a great addiction to have!
Hope you have a great Christmas.
Marion
Hi Marion
Thanks for your comment, yes I have found it really addictive and enjoyable viewing. I see you are a dog lover too, I now have two cross greyhound/Salukis. I will ask Cindy and Doug to send you my email address and then if you wish to exchange emails on anything to do with polymer or dogs you have it.
Thanks, I’ll try to have a better christmas than last year, I had gotten everything ready to have a good polymer session making canes, had the pasta machine all set up. Took Billy and Kelly (pooches) out to the local country park at 6.20am but tripped in there on a bridge and ended up in A & E with a broken arm – my dominant arm. So anything has to be better.
You too have a great christmas.
Hi Marie
Yes I would love that (Cindy, please give Marie my e-mail address – thanks!)
I am so sorry to hear of your fall last year, how awful and with your dominant arm! Hope you’re feeling much better now and looking forward to Christmas this year.
Dog lover? Oh, yes! Rosie, our Goldie is our 5th dog and is absolutely adorable.
I look forward to hearing from you and sharing some polyclay stuff, what fun!
Marion
Hi Cindy & Doug
I’ve tried not to bombard you with questions while you’re switching stuff over to the new platform, but as we approach October I felt I had to write as the list of my videos only goes up to No. 35 and I own them all. I can access all my videos by clicking on the Member Video Library link, but will all my videos be transferred to the new platform, or only those listed?
A bit worried – Marion
No need to worry Marion… they will all be transferred over. Btw, you now have access to the studio cam videos if you did not already know.
Cindy, you are a wonder! Caning is what I most want to focus on, And love doing so imagine my delight, when “fFirst Friday” came around and the lesson with the best, clearest and my most favourite teacher (you) was about to teach me more about caning. I hesitate to write too often because I am aware that you and Doug must be iINSANELY busy, but I had to say THANK YOU for this lesson.
On another front, I just read Doug’s comments to Elisabeth about the JoolTool. Though I bought mine last year, I did buy it because of Your videos, Does that still count? I hope it does!! Maybe you can get some extra ” ambassador” points! I have yet to be really comfy using it and did ask you,Cindy a while back whether you were planning to teach more about it. You said you were…..so I hate to bug you, but do you know when that might be? I’m not asking you to be EXACT about it….but might you be able to tell me whether it might happen in weeks, or months, or even as much as a year? I am getting desperate as I look at nearly a year’s worth of dull beads! I’ve experimented a lot and found it hard to get decent results. My beads get wonky or I wear away a veneer….etc. etc. If your teaching about it isn’t too far off I won’t subject myself to more misery with it, but if you don’t think you’ll be teaching about it for a LONG time then I’ll know I’ve just got to try and muddle through. It is made harder for me because I have health issues ( lots o’ pain) that makes operating the Jooltool harder. I apologize again for pressuring you, and for making this “comment” so long, but it is very important to me.
I have been claying now ( my second time around) for a year. In May I had a celebrational bowl of icecream on the anniversary of the day I opened my first block of clay! In that time I have bought many video tutorials, books, lessons of all sorts and I have NEVER found any teacher, or quality of lesson that comes close to what you and Doug do. Whether I am delving back into your archives or taking a new lesson I feel as if I’ve “come home” thank you so much for what you do. And thank you again for the latest, coolest caning tutorial!! Maybe now that the First Friday of the THIS month is done you two can relax a bit?!??????
Julia
Hi Julia… you always have such nice things to say about us… we really appreciate it :-)
Now… in regards to the JoolTool Ambassador stuff…let’s see what we can do with that. I just sent you an email with some follow up questions. It would be best to discuss the details of your specific situation privately, rather than here on the blog.
And again… thanks for all the kind words!
Hey, Cindy,
Do you have a channel into the Cindy Groupies brains? I tried to make a picture cane of a bison head last night, and it was a DISASTER! (It wasn’t wasted, however, as I chopped it up and made some Swirly Lentils and Natasha Beads that I absolutely love! I am going to call the group “Magick” because I ended up with a Maleficent pendant and a Book of Spells pendant – will post them on your Facebook when I get a chance. It wasn’t a colour combination that I would ever have thought of using for that purpose (Burnt Umber, Black, White and White Translucent) but the colours would have worked for a bull bison.)
Now, today when I opened my emails, your tutorial is making a picture cane. Obviously we Groupies need to keep a check on our thoughts, or you might hear us! LOL.
After watching this Nautical Anchor tutorial, maybe I will get a chance to try that cane again tonight, to create some more pieces for my table at the Bison Festival at Elk Island National Park (east of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) on August 15. I have been wanting to make some earring sets, but that’s hard by hand. That’s why I’m trying to make a head cane. Will let you know how I go with it!
I am also going to try the anchor itself. I love nautical theme stuff. I have some baked mica-dusted mold-pressed pieces (sea turtle, star-fish, fish, etc) waiting to be turned into something wearable. Maybe they will end up flanking some anchor beads. Or better yet, maybe I need to make a plaque pendant of a sailboat gliding past a beach with seashells and waves. Hmmmmm … so many ideas, so little time!!
Fantastic tutorial! I’ve been enamored with caning since I started, but have pretty much stuck to the more “forgiving” ones (flowers, etc). I’ve been wanting to try more complex, graphic canes and here you’ve given us a step by step! Thank you again Team Lietz! I’m also a little sensitive to the smell of Kato (although I know some don’t have that issue) but I have quite a bit of Fimo classic. A little more work for the fingers, but less distortion.
Hi Cindy!
Thank you for a great video about the basics, and some not so basics, about caning.
I am very curious to know what you finally decided to do with the Natasha bead. It seems a bit big for a pendant.
Maria
I have not yet decided what to do with that large bead. Right now it is sitting on my shelf like a little piece of art… maybe it will stay there? :)
I agree: That could be a great use for it as well! It is very pretty. : )
Thanks Doug! Found that if I just waited a second using Chrome, the video did start. Another excellent series, thanks to you both!
Glad to hear you got that figured out. Thanks for the update.
Hi, Cindy, I have a question for you. I have always read that you should sand under water or in water. Recently a friend told me that the really fine sandpaper does not work under water –that the water negates the fineness of the paper. I generally use micro mesh underwater… but wondered it there was any substance to this non water issue with regular sandpaper. Since you investigate I thought it would be an interesting story.
Also I have the Jooltool that you recommended and I finally got the Polymer kit…. Jool tool site is pretty contradictory about what you should use vs what is in their package. That might be a topic too.
Thanks for your tutes.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth… Cindy will respond to your question about underwater sanding… but in regards to the JoolTool… if you just purchased the machine and/or the polymer clay accessory package because of our videos, then be sure to let us know. Cindy is now an official “JoolTool Ambassador” and our referrals will be getting special perks in the form of extra training that you won’t want to miss out on.
Actually Elizabeth, I have found really fine sandpaper, does better with water because the water is constantly cleaning out the dust that is clogging it up. Of course this only goes for sandpapers that are wet/dry papers. The other regular papers just fall apart in water. Just do whatever works best for you.
Elizabeth, I have heard that actually using the micro mesh pads under water will make them come apart. That is fixable, with some glue, but it would last longer if you didn’t actually do the sanding underwater.
How about instead of sanding under water, you sand outside of the water and dip the sandpaper into water to clean off the dust and grit removed from the clay piece. That works really well for me.
Fran
Thank you everyone for your kind comments about this tutorial! I was a little nervous that it may be too challenging for you guys, but it seems I was able to break it down into enough simple steps that it is doable. Phew! I really enjoy having the jewelry I made with this cane. There is something playful about it that just screams Summer to me. I do hope you enjoy making this cane!
I learned so much from this tute!!. Mainly on how to pack it. Your technique is so much better than others I have seen. So doable. This is why I am still here doing your OUTSTANDING Toturials!!!!!!!!
TY TY TY TY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cindy, Why did you leach the red and blue instead of bringing the white to an equivalent softness with the NeverKnead and some clay softener? Is it preferable when making a cane like this to have the clays on the harder side? Thanks as always, Fran
Hi Fran, yes I prefer to leach the softer clays rather than soften the harder clays, when I am making canes. Cane making is easier when the clay is firmer… well not exactly easier, but it distorts less. That is why so many people love Kato Polyclay for making canes… it is by far one of the firmest clays on the market. I would use it myself if I weren’t so sensitive to the smell. Hope that answers your question.
Cindy
Growing up near the ocean, this nautical themed cane is right up my alley. I love it!
Unfortunately, when I go to the members page and start the videos, all I hear is your voice, no images play.
Could Doug please help me to diagnose the problem? I use a Chrome browser, if that helps.
Thanks!
Hi Jocelyn – the first step for any video related issue is to try a different browser. So in your case since you normally use Chrome, then try Firefox… or even Internet Explorer (although IE is rarely the best choice). For other troubleshooting tips, there is a “Video Problems” navigation link at the top of the page, that will help you with additional things like clearing cookies and browser cache. Hopefully that helps.
MIne seem to be running OK on Chrome right now (East Coast NA), Doug. Could this be a regional server issue?
Monique U. (A Half-Baked Notion)
Oh my god, Doug! I have been having SUCH a hard time viewing these videos. My internet connection is pretty poor the last couple of days but even so, i have not been able to watch more than 3 or 4 minutes (often just seconds at a time) without losing the stream. (yet I can do Netflix streaming without a hitch. go figure). I have been using Chrome.
Now, I am a very loyal person. However, this can often translate to stubbornness. And I don’t much like change. For months I have been seeing your recommendation to try Firefox, but would I listen? Hell no. Google Chrome was such an improvement over IE that I really loved it.
But this was totally ridiculous. I was in the middle of the 6th video and it just stopped, and never came back on. I had tried all of your other suggestions (cookies, browsing data, etc etc) and nothing worked. So I finally gave in and installed Firefox. And guess what? it worked the whole way through, first time out of the box.
So, as always, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! And any other stubborn – nah let’s call it loyal – folks out there, Firefox really works!
Fran
Great to hear that Firefox is working for you, Fran… thanks for sharing this feedback.
Web browsers have so many “moving parts” and they all react or perform differently depending on which operating system is installed on your computer or mobile device… then there is the age of your hardware that comes into play… the type of internet security being used… firewall settings… software version numbers… the list goes on and on.
Chrome might work beautifully for one person, but not the other. And vice verse for Firefox… or Internet Explorer… or Safari.
When any sort of issue comes up with any web site on the Internet (whether video related or even something else), the quickest and easiest work-around is to fire up a different web browser. If the problem disappears when you use a different browser, that lets you know right away that the issue is being caused by some sort of configuration issue on your own computer… and that it is actually not web site that is to blame.
Computers… can’t live with ’em… can’t live without ’em!
So sorry Joce!! You will love this tute.!!Hang in there. Doug will sure straighten it out!!!
Awesome. Lots of clay used but awesome.
Cheers
Best one yet Cindy, I enjoy growing with you !!!!
Cindy, I absolutely prefer your tutorials. I have bought several classes from other teachers… some quite advanced. I got a butterfly cane tutorial and it was WAY too big. Spent quite a bit of money on clay and ended up with a full box of scraps. I had the cane for a year before even being able to begin to reduce it. The instructors language was not clear and I was very disapointed. Cindy, your tutorials are doable… yours are the best!
Cindy you have very good information in all your videos, and as a new member of your monthly treat, as it should be called, I am totally hooked. Your explanations are thorough and even when you stumble, it’s like talking to an old friend cause I stumble sometimes when I teach. Love your projects and videos.
Oh how I wish I’d had this tutorial a week or two ago!! I am the banquet committee chairman of an upcoming event and our theme is a “cruise” – it is the weekend of the 13th! If I have time, I MIGHT try to make and use these canes for jewelry or something for give away prizes. I love your tutorials – you’re the best!
Thanks!
Linda
Thank goodness!!! I have been craving one of your awesome graphic canes, Cindy :) It’s a date! LOL
Monique U. (A Half-Baked Notion)
This cane looks great! I have been wanting to try more complex cane construction but I’ve been sticking to simple ones because I don’t want to waste a ton of clay in experimenting. This will definitely help. I love how great the cane slices look by themselves. Could you possibly do a video on manipulating the cane slices to get that lovely domed look? I’m thinking that would look great as post earrings, with any cane. I have trouble with the pattern getting distorted when I try to do that.
I’ll put that suggestion on the list Krithika. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Cindy, I am at a loss of words to let you know that I just love your tutorials and wish I could meet you in person some day… I am unable to articulate, but would want to tell you that your tutorials are just superb and lucid, and very easy to understand, even for a beginner like me. I wish you could come to Mumbai (India) and share your great work with art and craft lovers here.
Nandini, You said that perfectly! Her tutorials are all that you say. And wouldn’t that be fun, a trip to India for a workshop with Cindy.
Am I right in assuming you are new to this community as well as being a beginner with polymer clay? Welcome!
I’m going to love this tutorial. My husband used to sail (merchant navy – communications officer) and I have a silver anchor on a silver rope chain and lots of nautical stuff.
That pleases me to hear you say that Cheryl. I hope you really enjoy the tutorial!