This ‘retro’ cane is popular – it looks great and it’s not as difficult as it looks, but you do need an extruder.  The key to the look is the shape of the die you use in your extruder and your color scheme.   As long as you stack a range of colors into the extruder, the design just happens. I extruded through a square – but I would imagine it would work well with other shapes such as triangle and hexagon.   See Bettina Welker’s lovely cane made with the small circle shape.

I made this nude cane about 14 years ago, and I still use it occasionally in my work.    These pictures show the end cut from the original cane before it was reduced, and different sizes once the cane was reduced – her body shape tends to change a little with every reduction!  See the original drawing below. Sometimes, as on this pin, I used a slice of the nude cane then added slices of face and hair canes separately.  I also made a cane  which included all these elements.  There were very few tutorials on the web at the time, and no youtube, so I worked out how to make this by trial and error.  However, Cynthia Tinapple’s video of making a face cane is similar to the technique I used, although I shaped each piece separately then packed it together.  You can see the shapes of some of the components in the big slice beside the drawing, as well as two of the pieces that went into it.

Canes can last for some time as long as they are not exposed to heat, but you need to be patient to make them usable without cracking.  I put pressure around the sides of the cane with my hands, and very gradually try to reduce it – this can take some time with an old cane.  Alternatively, if the cane is at the size I need, once it’s a little warmed up in my hands, I carefully cut a thin slice, place it between two pieces of baking paper and gently rub with my finger. The warmth and friction make it pliable enough to add to a bead – like this one below.

I’m always amazed by the intricate patterns that emerge from repeating a random design, which initially doesn’t look that interesting.  These are called ‘kaleidoscope canes’ for obvious reasons.

The original group of canes is pushed together, and shaped into a long triangle, cut in half and packed together, worked until it is longer then cut in half again and so on.  In this case I had a bluey-green cane with some interest (left over from a Sarah Shriver workshop) but I’ve had lovely results with just plain colors.

Starting with canes left over from other projects, they are stacked together (top left). The black, white and green flap was then folded down and the entire stack was pushed into a triangular shape.

At top left is a slice taken from the original cane once it has been pushed into a triangle shape. The edges are straightened further, the cane is cut in half and doubled up to create another long triangle (top right). This is reduced and stretched further, cut into four and packed together again. Finally this last step is repeated.

Pendant made from the cane

Here is a good basic tutorial for this type of cane, just using plain colors.

For lovely work using kaleidoscope canes, see work by Carol Simmons and Sarah Shriver.