The most important part of successful reduction is
correct building BEFORE reduction!
It is absolutely vital that all the clays in a
cane be of similar consistency...if one color is hard, and one is soft,
they will reduce unevenly, with the soft color moving very quickly, and
the hard moving little at all!
Also, packing around the various bits and pieces must be done so that
there are no holes showing--the clay will move around to fill any spaces,
and not in ways that you plan! The clay on the outside of your cane gets
the most pressure applied, so you must protect your design elements---I
usually wrap clay around my canes so that there is at least a 1/4 inch
layer between design parts like flower petals)
and the edge.
This is particularly important for face canes--otherwise
the central parts (like the nose ) reduce very little compared to the outer
parts (such as eyes and mouth) then you get little squinty eyes and lips,
and a huge honker! (which can still be fun...however....)
So for face canes, I usually wrap a lot (as much as a whole brick )
of black or flesh around the face cane before reducing. Much (even dare
I say, most) of this layer gets pulled out to the very ends of the cane
by the time reduction is done, so that what started out as a 1/2 in. layer
of black looks like a fine black outline by the time I'm done.
And, since most of the ends of the cane are solid black,
(instead if being most of the eyes and mouth), it can be salvaged back
into use easily, and my cane looks more as I intended it to look!
Another very important thing to do before reduction is
to rest the cane...the bigger the cane, the longer it needs to rest.
I always try to impress this on my students, and I have learned the
hard way not to ignore my own advice. I would go home, curious as could
be, and think "Well, I'm the TEACHER, I'll just reduce this now because
I WANT TO SEE HOW IT TURNED OUT!!!! Then it would not reduce well at all,
reducing ME to tears on the last occasion...now I know better.
If your cane is bigger around than your wrist, let it sit for at least
an hour or two, and if it is bigger than 6 inches in diameter, let it sit
overnight.
This allows the outside of the cane to become the same temperature as
the inside---you've been working the outside the most recently, so it is
warmer and more pliable, plus the outer layer gets the most pressure---so
it moves much faster and easier than the inside.
This is particularly important for faces.
Our brains do not like to perceive eyes below noses, etc. The
brain says wrong! ugly!, whereas a flower moved around a bit is OK!(Sometimes
even better!) In fact, you can manipulate the image to deliberately distort
it. You can also cut and add or change things--a kind of "plastic
surgery"!
I start the reduction of large canes while they are still standing
upright, like a soft drink can. I use both hands (on opposite sides of
the circle) to press towards the middle, condensing it inwards and moving
my hands and the cane as I go. I do this until it is at least taller than
my hands.
Sometimes, especially with whopper canes, I use my roller--a piece of
acrylic pipe, like a rolling pin, or a piece of pvc pipe will do. I put
the bottom of the pipe on my work surface, perpendicular (standing upright,
like the cane) and use my hand to roll it around the circle, pressing again
towards the center of it all, and using my other hand to hold the cane
in place, and for resistance. I do this to smooth out the ridges before
they become pronounced--you want to keep things moving smoothly.
When my cane pillar has become tall enough, I flop it over, laying
it on my clean work surface (otherwise all those little bits you didn't
notice before get embedded) so that it is a "snake" in front
of me. If it is particularly thick (more than 2-3 inches) I pick it up,
and SMACK it down onto the table, then roll it a quarter
turn-- so a different part of the surface hits the table--and do it again.
This jolts the clay all the way through to the center of the cane "
waking it up" as Z Kripke put it (she taught me this part.) This is
a very useful technique to try when your cane is refusing to reduce, as
well.
