Polymer Days 2012 – Part 2 – Carol Simmons’ Mokume Gane Technique

One of the reasons I booked a place on this course was to meet and learn from American polymer clay artist Carol Simmons, who creates the most amazing Kaleidoscope canes. I can’t exactly remember how I found her on Facebook I guess it was via other polymer clay enthusiasts. Carol has been claying since 1995 and teaching since 1996. Her beautiful Kaleidoscope canes take a long time to make and the courses she runs for these take about 3-6 days. As the Polydays only lasted three days, she chose to teach us how to make beautiful shimmering Mokume Gane veneers. Mokume Gane is a Japanese technique originally used with wood and metal, but has been adapted for Polymer Clay. Different tutors have slightly different techniques, but the basic Mokume Gane technique involves the stacking of several sheets of different colours of clay, texturing them and revealing the resulting veneers by carefully slicing the cane. The beauty of this technique is that you never know what you end up with and each slice will look different.