Polymer Clay Sesame Seed Cane Tutorial

The Sesame seed cane is a beautiful and simple way to create something interesting from the humble beginnings of a Skinner Blend and a Skinner Blend Bulls Eye Cane.

In this tutorial, I've made a blue and white cane with white sesame seeds, but you could use any colors, and add more or less seeds to vary the effect.

In order to complete this polymer clay tutorial, you will need to know how to make a Skinner Blend, a Skinner Blend Bulls Eye Cane and a Skinner Blend Plug. You will find links to these tutorials in the suggested links box below the video.

You will need the following supplies:

A Skinner Blend (I'm using Premo Cobalt to Premo Pearl White)
A Skinner Blend Bulls Eye Cane (I'm using Premo White to Black)
A tissue blade
An acrylic roller
A Pasta machine

How to Make a Polymer Clay Sesame Seed Cane

To start you’ll need a Skinner Blend (I'm using Premo Cobalt to Premo Pearl White), and a Skinner Blend Bulls Eye Cane (I'm using Premo White to Black). See my Skinner Blend Tutorial, and my Skinner Blend Bulls Eye Cane Tutorial if you haven't made these before.

Your Skinner Blend should be rolled out on the middle setting of your pasta machine, and your Bulls Eye cane should go from white in the middle to black on the outside and be reduced to around 0.5cm in diameter.
Trim up the edges of your Skinner Blend.
Cut your Bulls Eye Cane into segments the same width as your Skinner Blend.
Place one piece near one end of your Skinner Blend, and fold your Skinner Blend sheet over, as you would if making a Skinner Blend Plug. Make sure to push out any air bubbles.
Add another piece at a different place and fold again.
Repeat until all of the pieces are used up and your entire Skinner Blend is folded. Do this in a random fashion, adding in extra folds in some places and varying the location of the Bulls Eye logs. See the video for more detail.
Trim off any remaining Skinner Blend.
Use your hands to squish the cane together to condense it and eliminate air bubbles.
Continue reducing using your acrylic roller, alternating sides until the cane is in the shape of a longish log.
Cut your cane into six equal pieces.
Pinch each piece into a triangular shape at the pearl white end. See the video for instructions.
Place three triangles together to make a semi-circle with the white pointed sides all pointing the same way.
Repeat for the other three triangles.
Place the two semi-circles together to form a rough kaleidoscope.
Gently condense into a round shape using your fingers, reducing at the same time.
Continue to reduce using your fingers and roll on your tile intermittently.
Use your roller to convert into a square log.
Trim off the ends.

And that's all there is to this easy, but beautiful sesame seed cane. Play around with different colors and see what you can come up with.