Kato Polyclay – Ornamento

Adobe has a neat, free on line tool called Kuhler (pronounced cooler) that lets you play with color. After you open a free account, you can even upload pictures and pull palettes from them. See my picture below.

Here’s a good tutorial on how to use Kuhler.

What got me on this Kuhler/color obsession? Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s magnificent new book, Polymer Clay Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes. This winter, a friend and I plan to work our way from one end of the book to the other. When we come up for air, maybe I’ll have something new to show you.

I initially tried polymer clay because of its amenability to caning techniques. I had always loved African Trading Beads and wanted to try my hand at millefore. No matter what I do with polymer clay, I always find myself coming back to caning.

So when my copy of Donna Kato’s eagerly awaited new book, The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiore Techniques came in the mail, I snuck off and read it from cover to cover.

You don’t need intricate canes to have a pleasing design. The simple caned necklaces below were inspired by a design I saw in South Africa. I learned the spiral and jelly roll cane techniques from Donna Kato’s demos and classes.