My guinea pig group of teens at my church have completed their sales of Words of Purpose. Congratulations to them, they earned $1203 to help fund students attending district and regional gatherings.
So now, it’s my turn to get to work, fulfilling the orders. I have most of the inventory created. The pendants just need to be hung on the appropriate length cords and packaged. I “sign” my work with a bead at the back in the clasp. For the Words of Purpose line, I decided I needed to put that name rather than “KIMLE” in the clasp.
So this was my all-day Saturday project. I had college football streaming and I built the 14 letters while listening to games. The cane began by making each letter 3/4″ high and 2″ long. The cane had a little over 3 lbs of clay to begin. I did quite well with the reduction and didn’t have too much distortion and waste on the ends. Check out the process:
I’ve so far only sliced and baked about 1/3 of the total. The cane will make thousands of little signature beads. I usually make my “KIMLE” cane about every 3 or 4 years. We shall see how long this WoP cane will last! Here’s hoping we sell so much and raise so much for ministry purposes that I have to make it again!
Blessings,
Patti
Patricia Kimle Designs 
Wow! Great job! I have wanted to make something like this but have had such a frustrating problem filling in the canes. Your work really is just amazing! I love it! I need to try again. But I need to find somewhere to get softer clay though.
Hi Patricia. I’m trying to make canes for a fundraising event and I think the way you created the words in your cane can help me in creating my ribbons. Are you willing to share how you created the words and were able to reduce your cane without it distorting? I’ve tried with a few failures.
I make each letter in a uniform size first. then put the letters together. reducing is best done with squeezing and pulling on the shape, not rolling. Make sure all the clay is the same temperature and consistency before beginning to reduce. the cane may need to rest a few hours after construction before beginning to reduce it. good luck.
Thank you. How large/thick were your letters? I’ve tried what you said to do……all of my trials (including the one I did after seeing your post) didn’t work. Ugh.
My letters were made with the navy clay rolled to a fairly thin (#4 or 5) on my machine. That’s pretty thin in relation to the volume of the background of the letters. the rest of the letter block was probably 1″ high and whatever width is needed for the letter. But don’t forget to add enough background in between even narrow letters like “I” and “T”. My letters were about 2-1/2″ long. But remember, I wanted a lot of this cane. you might want your letters only 1/2″ by 1″ deep so you won’t have more than you need. Can you tell me what your cane should say?
Hi Patti,
I’m wanting to make a cane that says “Cure DMD”.