October 2002
Volume 3, Issue 10
by Jean Sheppard
Jean's Photo Gallery
Adobe Acrobat version
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October 2002 Volume 3, Issue 10 |
Gertsch Feather Cane Part Two by Jean Sheppard Jean's Photo Gallery Adobe Acrobat version
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Click on image to enlarge |
Step Seventeen: Continue stacking the pieces in this fashion until all but one piece are together. Reserve this last piece. Sometimes it's interesting to reverse the dark to light Skinner blend on one or more pieces as you build the feather. In this example, I reversed the Skinner blend on the 4th, 7th, and 11th sheets by putting the light edge, instead of the dark edge, on the work surface. While you're stacking the pieces, you might want to add spots (bull's eye canes) or dots (snakes of one solid color) between the pieces as you create the feather.
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Step Eighteen: Gently lift the feather cane off your work surface and turn it on its side. The finished rectangle should be about 2 inches wide and about 1/2 inch thick. You now see the beginnings of half a feather. |
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Step Nineteen: Take the 2" piece you set aside in Step Seventeen and place it so it lays "under" the pieces that were stacked on end. |
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Step Twenty: At this point, you may like to add a thin sheet of the color used for your spots/dots on top of the reserved piece. In this cane, I placed a narrow, thin sheet of the fuchsia/white blend across the center of the reserved piece. |
Click on image to enlarge |
Step Twenty-One: Reduce this half-feather cane by pulling the ends away from one another, carefully stretching it. Take care to keep the thickness of the cane even. You can place one end of the cane on the table, keeping your hand on it to anchor it, and pull while gently shaking the cane with the other hand (a little like skipping a rope). This uses the weight of the cane to do half your work for you and gives you a more even stretch. Swap ends and continue. If you find this step too hard, go through the next three steps and reduce after the two sides are matched up. |
Click on image to enlarge |
Step Twenty-Two: Cut the stretched cane in half, then pick up the two ends in the middle where you cut, leaving the cane spread out on the surface (like it's doing the splits). Place the two ends together, carefully lining up the design so you get a perfect mirror image.
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Click on image to enlarge |
Step Twenty-Three: Now flip the cane over and place the matched cut ends on the work surface so you get a "banana peel" effect. Gently, firmly and carefully close the two feather halves together, working from the your work surface up to the end. Take care, as you close the sides, to avoid trapping any air, and try to make the bands of color match up as closely as possible.
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| Stretch (reduce) as desired, and slice. Tada! Enjoy your feather cane, and check out examples of other people's feather canes below.
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| This is an example of what you can do if you cut up the feather cane and reassemble it! The picture on the left is points placed together and the one on the right is the points facing out! Pretty nifty, hm? | This are two more examples, both by Kellie Robinson, of what you can do with your cane. | Series of pens made by Sunni Bergeron |
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| Kellie Robinson | Tonja Lenderman | Sunni Bergeron |
| © 2002 Jean Sheppard |