Layl McDill class (July 11)

About a week ago, my daughter and I were fortunate to have been able to attend a class taught by Layl McDill of Silly Millies fame. We had such a great time! A big THANK YOU to Sue Castle, who made it happen!!! She's the sweetie on the far left here:Here you see Layl teaching, with students in the foreground and background. She taught us her technique for creating a butterfly cane.

One cool thing about Layl's class is that she has trays of small blobs of polymer clay colors on all the tables; mixed, all sorts of shades, ready for students to use!

Another really neat aspect to her class is that you needed very little in the way of tools - a rolling tool, a work surface, and a blade. No pasta machine required - as a matter of fact, Layl says she does not use a pasta machine (what? no pasta machine? wow!!)... which means that the newbies in the class did not have to purchase any special equipment to take the class.

This took me back to my first polymer clay experience... no pasta machine... a tile... wallpaper scraper blades... a brayer... and I had a ball!! (Except for conditioning the old Fimo clay!)

First, we created the components for the wings - the shaded segments - and put them together. Then we made the dots, and put them in place.

We packed the wings with marbled clay, halved them, added a torso and antennae, did some more packing, and a little reduction... and voila!!

Because we had so many colors to choose from, no cane turned out even remotely alike. And yet, they were all beautiful. So unique!!