When I was working on my owl key cover, I used the Millefiori technique to make the owl’s eyes. When I was finished, I had lots of the “Millefiori’ed” clay left over. So I smashed it all together and made a couple of erasers. (I happened to be using “Amazing Eraser Clay” for my owl.)
… So now I can be really stylish when I make mistakes. (A good thing, because I make plenty of mistakes!)
There are lots of tutorials online for the Millefiori technique. Here is one example:
Here is the basic (VERY basic!) technique I used (sorry for no pictures):
- Start by rolling a snake of black clay.
- Then roll 7 or 8 much-skinnier white snakes.
- Cut 7 or 8 long, narrow, flat strips out of the black clay. These should be the same width as the diameter of the skinny white snakes.
- Stick the white snakes and black strips all around the perimeter of the first, thicker snake. Arrange them so the colors alternate, and so that the black strips radiate out (on edge) from the large black snake. Squeeze them together a bit so they stick to each other and stay in place.
- Roll out a sheet of black and a sheet of yellow and stack them on top of each other.
- Wrap the stacked sheets around the entire “snake assembly” and then trim the excess all around.
- Now narrow the resulting “super-fat snake” by rolling it, snake-style, until it is the diameter that you want.
- Then cut slices (thick for the eraser) and arrange them however you like. Squeeze them together with your fingers until they form a sort of rectangular shape. Then roll across the whole thing with your “rolling pin” (obviously, not one that you use for food — can be just a short length of narrow PVC-type plastic pipe), to fill in any gaps and create a smooth surface.
- When the surface looks good, trim around the edges with a knife to make it nice and neat. (This reveals cool striped patterns, too.)
I think I’ll make some more of these, using more colors and a mixture of Millefiori techniques. The spiral in the video looks easy and fun!
