Klimt Millefiori Cat (b.29 December 2009)

As you know, I've been keen to try out more millefiori techniques, and on this occasion, I wanted to try out what Kato calls the Klimt cane technique, after the artist, Gustav Klimt, because of his trademark circles within squares. Although this looks like quite a complicated pattern, it is really quite straightforward. The cane works on the basis of what happens when you extrude clay using a clay gun with a square die.

I selected eight random colours, ranging from pinks and reds through to beige and brown, and then rolled them into logs, making them as close to the diameter of the barrel as possible. I then cut slices from each cane, approximately 3mm thick, and stacked those slices together in a new log. I kept the colours random, but tried to make sure I kept constrasting colours next to each other.

Once the composite log was complete, I rolled it lightly again to make sure it would fit snugly inside the clay gun. It took a bit of trial and error to get the right diameter, and I had to resize the log a couple of times. (As I found out, it's important to make sure the slices have adhered to each other before putting the log into the barrel, as it's sometimes necessary to pull it out again to get it to the right diameter.)

Once the log was in place, I used a square die and extruded all the clay. Because of the force used to extrude the clay through a small aperture, this resulted in concentric circles of different colour clay being framed in a square log. The outside of the log pretty much kept the same colour of the first disc of coloured clay (purple in this case), which I found to be quite amazing. I'm looking forward to experimenting with different shades of clay and different shapes of die to see what other effects I can come up with.

I cut the resultant very long, thin, square cane into 16 equal lengths, and stacked each length on top of each other in four rows of four, flipping some of them over so the pattern was different from adjacent lengths. Then I lightly rolled this square cane with a roller to adhere the blocks together, and cut thin slices to cover the core of scrap clay. Because the cane is quite large, it was easy to do large areas of the cat, but filling in the small gaps using single squares reshaped to fit was a bit more fiddly.

A light sanding down and a couple of coats of satin varnish finished him off, and now Klimt Millefiori Cat stands at 5.5cm tall, proudly showing off his fine multi-coloured coat!

Update: On New Year's Day, I made a Roly Poly Klimt Millefiori Cat to join his big brother using what was left of the cane. He measures 2.5cm all round and he wants to grow up to be 5.5cm tall too!

Hurty Paw Cat (b.28 December 2009)

This little kitten has definitely been in the wars! A commission from Jan, a good friend of mine, he is to be a present for a friend of hers who takes in all waifs and strays, particularly the ones who are on the poorly side. And so this wee kitten is going to be mewing at her door soon!

When Jan told me this story, I immediately pictured a kitten with a bandaged ear. I knew then that he was already made, and it was just a question of sitting down to bring him into being. Jan wanted a brown stripey cat, so I started off by mixing up a number of browns and beiges and blending them until I achieved a nice pattern.

I then rolled a very thin sheet of white clay out, and cut off a long, thin strip for the bandages. I wrapped this loosely round the kitten's right ear. I then had an idea to put one of the paws in a sling, which I did by  placing a small ball of white clay halfway up the body, and then winding a couple of strands of 'bandage' clay around the body.

(By introducing a third paw, this represents a bit of a departure from my usual 'two visible paws' policy. However, I think you'll agree that the kitten would have looked decidedly odd had he just had one paw on the ground.)

The look was finished by adding a small bandage to his tail, and he has a 'poor me' eyebrow above his visible eye - I just want to give him a hug!

Daisy Cat (b.25 December 2009)

On Christmas Day, there was snow outside, which had frozen hard, the sky was grey and leaden, with the promise of more to come. My mind drifted to all things sunlighty and summery, and this was the inspiration for Daisy Cat!

I have some lovely bright colours in Sculpey III and Fimo Soft (although I have recently put in an order for Sculpey Premo! as it comes highly recommended for millefiori work. More on that story later...)


I was drawn to the sunshine yellow, as I had a very clear idea in my mind that I wanted the cat's head to be the centre of the daisy. I made up a cat in the usual way, and cut out twelve small petal shapes from a sheet of clay rolled out on the thickest setting on the pasta machine (special thanks go to my sister for giving me a new Atlas machine for Christmas!).

I then thought carefully about the best way to attach the petals to the cat, and came up with the idea of putting a green collar round his neck, similar to the green stalk of the dasiy. Each petal was attached with a dab of liquid polymer clay, and I then added thin lines to each petal using a scalpel. There is so much scope here for using cane petals, so there is likely to be a range of Flower Cats in the not-too-distant future.

Wee Horses (b.21 December 2009)

Wee Horses go custom!

Steph Keegan from Methil in Fife (not too far from Pitlessie where I lived before moving down to Leeds 11 years ago!) contacted me through Folksy over the weekend and asked if I could make up Wee Horses in different colours. It turns out that she has four gorgeous horses, all with quite unusual markings. Well, you probably know by now that I'm always up for a challenge, so I relished the chance of trying out new techniques to achieve the right look. Steph sent through a number of pictures as source material, and I got to work!

The dun horse was probably the most straightforward, and it was just a question of mixing up the right colour of reddish brown for the body and head. The mane, hooves and fringe were all a deep brown/black.

Next I made the dun and white horse. This horse is really unusual - mainly white body with pale brown patches, pale mane and tail but with a startling black fringe and ears! I made up a white ball of clay for the body and then rolled out a thin sheet of ivory clay. From this I tore out random patterns to apply to the body, and then blended them in. The face was white clay too, with strips of ivory attached to either side to create a white blaze on the nose. And the dark fringe and ears speak for themselves!

Next I tried the spotted horse, which reminds me of a strawberry roan (I was horse-mad as a young girl, although my memory of all things equine is a little rusty now). To get the right spotted effect, I chopped up lots of white clay very finely, and then grated a few pieces of dark brown clay into it randomly. Once I was satisfied with the mix, I reformed the chopped clay into a sheet and rolled it out a few times. The brown specks were embedded throughout the clay, which gave it a mottled effect because it can be seen through the white clay. I rolled the sheet into a ball for the body, which smeared the brown even more, giving it a more natural look. I made the face using a similar technique, and added a few more tiny scraps of brown to the nose to complete the look. The mane was a mottled grey/brown/red so I roughly mixed up these colours and extruded them, which caused the strands to come out with a mottled effect.

The final horse was more straight forward, being black and white. I made this horse in much the same way as I made the dun and white horse, ie by having a white ball of clay and applying torn strips of black clay for the markings, and repeating the process with the face. The mane and tail were grey, and black hooves and ears complete the look.

I had so much fun making up these Wee Horses that I tried a bonus one using the Starry Night cane effect - I had wondered before if a dapple grey horse would work using this technique, and now I know that it does!

Starry Night Cats (b.19 December 2009)

I've been wanting to experiment more with canework of late, and I recently bought a copy of Donna Kato's The Art of Polymer Clay: Millefiori Techniques. I can't say I'm a great fan of her designs, and her self-promotion throughout the book can be a little OTT at times (she is the Donna Kato of Kato Polyclay) but there's no denying that her techniques are superb and I'm bursting with ideas!