The Ugly Duckling

I think it's safe to say that just about everyone has heard the story of the ugly duckling. How a duckling was told he was ugly because he looked nothing like his brothers and sisters. It wasn't until he was grown that he found out he was a beautiful swan.

I think that's the way it was for this polymer clay cane of mine. When I first made it back in September (you can read about it here:  http://flowertownoriginals.blogspot.com/2012/09/work-in-progress.html)  I was pleased with it. But I was only looking at it from my perspective. It was only after the customer who I was making it for told me she thought it looked like an atomic symbol that I realized, yeah, it kinda did. Oops, I think she was right. I was a little disappointed.

Well, I set it aside and forgot about it for a while. I came across it the other day and decided it was time for it's true beauty to shine. After all, I still believed it had potential!

Here is the original ugly cane!

I took the original cane, smooshed it up a bit, twisted it a few times and rolled it into a log. Then I squared it up using an acrylic roller. Aaaaand,  I failed to take a picture at this point so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like! Believe me, I think it looked even worse then it did before. But I wasn't going to give up.

I used my ripple blade to cut slices from the long side of my new cane and ran them through the pasta machine so they were smooth and thin. At this point I was a little excited! They looked pretty cool.

Flattened slices

 I decided to cut out a leaf shape and make a cabochon.

I especially love the way the copper clay sparkles though this piece.

And just like the story of the ugly duckling, my embarrassingly ugly cane has a happy ending! Now, if only I could decide what to make with it.........