Imitation Game 8

Hi Everyone
The Imitation Game Project is moving on. I've experimented with rolling the striped clay from last week through the pasta machine with very good results. The rolling does not significantly alter the stripe. In fact, I would say the stripes are improved. I made several rolls through the pasta machine at 1,3 and 9 settings. The final setting (9) is very thin and the clay needs to be protected by (encasing in) paper but the stripe held up well. My conclusions about the technique can be described in positive terms. It's definitely my way forward.

I've covered a few scrap beads with the fine rolled clay and have made a few new beads - to check out the suitability of the very thin clay. These experiments are more to do with the striped clay technique but they have worked well as a material and I feel encouraged.
I've put together a number of collage photos to share the results.







In the last photo I've included some stripe 'clay to be' which is the extruded version of my experiment. My initial idea was to use the extruded approach to develop the stripes. This weeks version was simply hand rolled, thin sausages.
I've spend my allotted hour this week - my time is up ! However, I'm tempted to squeeze in another short session to prepare the extruded clay for use.

I'm generally convinced about the long bead shape as my aim and I'd like to get some interesting colour combinations going. The beads will form a mini collection (in theory) eventually - if all goes well !

Thanks for reading.