Signing your Polymer Clay Creations
Welcome to 2021, I hope it will be a good year for you all (or at least an improvement on the last one!
2020 was a strange year and I really didn’t make anything very much from polymer clay, I just didn’t feel like it. 2021 is a new year and I hope to get back to spending lots of time experimenting, learning and creating with polymer clay – I do still love it really!
I don’t do it every year but I do try to make a new signature cane to sign my work every few years. Last year I developed a couple of new logos including one with just my initials so I have made a cane to match it.
Here is my logo digitally on the left and the cane on the right.
And here is the signature cane in use on the back of a pendant. I’ve reduced it so it is about 1cm wide.
When I made my first signature cane (back in 2011 see it pictured below) I realised that you really don’t need to make it that big. The cane I made was about 4.5cm square and I reduced the cane to a few different sizes for different size pieces of jewellery but the biggest was probably only 1cm across so my starting cane went on forever! This time I worked with a much smaller amount of clay so I can actually use it up I hope!
Here is my first signature cane from January 2011. I am pleased to see that both my canes and my photographs have improved over the last 10 years.
As making canes is my favourite thing to do with polymer clay it makes sense for me to make a signature cane but if you don’t like making canes then there are other ways to sign your creations. Another popular method is to make a custom stamp, or have a custom stamp made. I have a pinterest board (as I do for most things!) for inspiration and tutorials for signing your polymer clay work here.
I do have a custom stamp of the same logo design which I am trying out using on the edges of thicker double-sided pieces where I don’t want to place a cane on the back as there isn’t a back! Here I stamped into the side of the pendant and then filled the impression with white acrylic paint.
How do you sign your creations? If you have an interesting way do let me know in the comments or on social media.
