Millifiori in Polymer Clay

...with Donna Kato

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PC03: Millefiori Basics

You Can Make Millefiori Canes That Rival The Very Best Work Of Venetian Glass Makers

Millefiori is a technique borrowed and adapted from ancient Venetian glass makers. In "Millefiori Basics" of The Master Artisans Of Polymer Clay Video Series from Mindstorm Productions, you'll learn how easy it is to make millefiori canes using clay and a few simple tools. Canes are pictures that run lengthwise through the clay.

Donna will teach you how to make a Jelly Roll, Stained Glass, Checkerboard, Quilt Pattern, Flower, and Watermelon Cane. You'll also learn how to reduce the canes without distorting the image. As an added treat, you'll learn how to apply cane slices to a simple Bic stick pen to create Donna's special "Stubby Pen."

To make the millefiori patterns, you'll need some basic tools for working with the clays. Perhaps the most important tool, however, is one that money can't buy, but that you already own: your hands.

You'll begin by creating the simplest cane of all: The Jellyroll Cane. How simple is it? Well, once you've conditioned your gold and black clay, your finished cane is only a few cuts and rolls away. Yes! It's that simple! And it's just as easy to reduce the cane using your fingers as your guide. Donna will also show you how to minimize wasting clay during the reduction process.

Next you'll create the Checkerboard and Quilt Canes. These are a little more complicated, but easy to make if you follow along the step-by-step process Donna outlines. She'll show you how to cut and position the black and white clay pieces to create the checkerboard pattern.

What will you do with these canes once they're complete? "Some of the nicest millefiori vessels and picture frames I've ever seen incorporate a lot of these checkerboard canes simply because of its strong graphic impact," Donna says.

And speaking of graphic impact, nothing is more colorful than a Rainbow. And once you've mastered the basic checkerboard pattern, you'll learn how to use a similar technique to create a Rainbow Checkerboard. It's so easy, you'll be amazed!

Your next project will be to turn a Rainbow Jellyroll into Stained Glass. "The Rainbow Jellyroll is really only a little more complex than the normal Jellyroll," says Donna as she rolls and cuts dusty rose, lavender, atomic orange, and hot pink clay into 1/8" slices. "Of course, when you make yours you're going to use the colors that you choose," she says.

As with all the videos in this series, camera closeups and step-by-step instruction leave no doubt as to how things are done. A few simple cuts and rolls later and you can transform your Rainbow Checkerboard into a beautiful stained glass pattern.

But wait, there's more! A green thumb is easy when you've got Donna to teach you how to make a Flower Cane. Although this technique is a bit more complex than the previous ones on this video, it's easy once you begin. Using lavender and orange clay, you'll create the flower's petals. You'll then use the stripped Jellyroll you created earlier to make the flower's center. Finally, you'll pack the cane with green clay to complete your flower.

Once you earn your "green thumb," why not reward yourself with a juicy slice of watermelon? You can if you follow Donna's instructions for making a Watermelon Cane. Depending on your appetite, you can make a whole watermelon, half watermelon, or a single slice if that's what you crave.

After mastering millefiori canes Donna will show you how to use them to make her special "Stubby Pen." The video ends with a visual potpourri of a few of the numerous ways you might use your millefiori canes to create a variety of projects.

(about 46 minutes)

PC07: Advanced Millefiori #1

Polymer Clay Blooms Before Your Very Eyes!

During the 1850's Venetian glass makers developed a technique called Millefiori, which literally means 1000 flowers. Today's clay artisans borrow that technique to create Millefiori canes, whereby a one dimensional image runs lengthwise through a rod of clay.

Using a potpourri of colored clays, she'll teach you how to make a Face Cane, Butterfly Cane, Woven Cane, Cathedral Glass Cane, Sunflower Cane, and a Rose & Leaf Cane. In addition, you'll learn how to use your finished canes to create an "Angel Vessel" and decorative beads.

Before you begin, you'll need to gather a series of tools and materials, all of which are outlined at the outset of the video. These include: Polymer Clay, measuring and cutting tools, oven, timer, a pasta machine to roll and condition your clay, and perhaps the most important tool of all... your hands.

"You have to find certain places on your own hands where the tools that you have naturally work best for you", says Marie.

The first thing you'll learn is how to create a Skinner Shade. This is a method invented by Judith Skinner to shade clay from light to dark or from one color to another. Then it's on to your first project... the Woven Cane. Using five sheets of different colored clay, Marie demonstrates how to cut the clay into squares, and position these squares to create the cane. After lengthening and cutting the cane, the weave comes to life.

Next it's on to the beautiful Cathedral Glass Cane. "The reason I call it this", says Marie, "is because it reminds me of the round windows in old churches and cathedrals." Orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, and black clay are combined to create a stained glass window effect. Once you finish this cane, you'll swear you can hear a choir in the background!

For the Rose & Leaf cane you'll use the Skinner method you learned earlier. This project is a little more complicated than the previous ones on this video, but with Marie's expert instruction and a little practice, you're guaranteed to master it in no time at all.

In fact, it's important for you to realize how easy Millefiori is once you've mastered the basics of pressing, cutting, and rolling the clay. Furthermore, the video's easy to follow instructions, coupled with camera closeups, simplify the process even further.

Each project builds on the skills you learned in the preceding project until you're ready to create the Sunflower and Butterfly Canes...the most intricate cane on this video.

Once your canes are completed, Marie will show you how to create decorative beads from them. And you'll learn how to cover a glass vessel with the Rose & Leaf Cane, and make a clay angel to sit on the ridge of the glass.

The instructional portion of the video ends with a series of examples

of what you can do with Millefiori canes if you use a little

imagination.

(about 57 minutes)

PC08: Advanced Millefiori #2

This video picks up where Volume I left off. It's a must have resource for advanced polymer clay enthusiasts! Here you'll learn how to create even more advanced Millefiori designs such as face canes, spider web canes, decorative plaid, and intricate moon and stars canes. You'll also learn about a clay "bundling" technique that combines rods of colors to form your canes, and how to personalize your works of art by making your own signature cane.

Marie's instruction includes dozens of shortcuts she's developed throughout her 20 years as a Master Clay Artisan. Even the most complex and intricate canes are easy and fun to create if you follow along the expert instruction she offers on this video.

Then it's on to the first project on this video: The Plaid Cane. You'll begin with a white rod of polymer clay and flatten it into a square shape. Combine it with two different shades of green clay, compact it, reduce it, cut it, add a sheet of white clay, and before you know it, your cane is complete. Yes! It's that easy.

Then, using your needle tool, you'll make a plaid heart-shaped bead from a slice of the finished cane.

Your next project is the Spider Web Cane. Using translucent polymer clay and a sheet of white polymer clay, you'll form a triangle cane. Several cuts later, the spider web comes to life right before your very eyes. Marie also shows you how to combine a series of single webs to form a block of webs. This technique can be used to create other lace-like designs.

You'll then learn how to cover and decorate a vessel using your finished spider web cane. It's here that Marie shares with you a technique for rolling the spider web slices through the pasta machine to flatten them without distorting them in the process.

Now it's on to what is perhaps the most fun and unique cane of all... The Signature Cane. "It's always nice to sign your work," says Marie. "And you can make a cane with your name in it and add it to all your finished pieces."

Marie uses white and black polymer clay to form the letters. She then wraps the letters in white clay and combines them to form a square cane.

She demonstrates the procedure by creating a cane using her own name. The concept and procedures she follows are the same when you create your signature. You can also reduce the cane to fit the size of each project you'll be signing.

The next canes you'll create are the most intricate of all: The Face Cane, and the Crescent Moon and Stars Cane. As for the Face Cane, Marie says "It's hard to say where to start. Some people start with the nose. Others with the eyes." Marie suggests you create your individual facial components... eyes, nose, and mouth... first, and then build the rest of the face. But where you begin is unimportant as long as each facial component is proportional to the rest. And you'll see how easy this is once you follow a few simple techniques that Marie will show you.

The final project in this video is a beautiful, Moon and Stars Cane that you'll create using blue and white marble clay.

(about 57 minutes)

This video was added to our catalog on March 04, 2005 in Arts & Crafts::Polymer Clay.

Product availability: very long wait

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