Stamen Cane
 

There's something about that word that I just don't like! Sounds creepy!!
Anyways.....does anyone have a stamen cane tutorial with pictures that they would be willing to share?
Thanks in advance,

sounds like something out of a horror movie, doesn't it?

"He stamen caned them to death"

Bwahahahaha.

Here is the one I read the other day - no pics, but seems pretty easy.

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...+cane+tutorial

The word is just too close to semen for my liking!

:lol:

well, they are both sexual since a stamen is part of a flower's reproductive system. :shock:

Angela, I was saying the word stamen over and over trying to come up with a word close to it as to why you don't like the word and semen was the only thing that popped into my head :badgrin:

Here's one with really good pics -
http://www.cauldroncreations.com/stamenstringer.html

I took a class with Kim Miles a year or so ago and she made stamen cane like this:
on a clear rod put stringer size strips (yellow or intense black) around the clear horizontially. Incase with more clear and pull.

flowers come out looking so life like.

good luck

K

Horizontially?

That appears to be so simple! Thank you.
So when putting the cane into the flower, does one cut it up and apply it with tweezers, or do you just spot heat and plunge the cane in then break it off? Or does it not make a difference?

I would spot heat, plunge, cool and break.

Thank you for starting this thread Angela. Made me wanna try it..........I also do not know how to apply it. So I faked it; used the cane to plunge with, broke it off and the applied a dot of clear as I really like bubbles in the center of flowers. Anyway, I'll show you a pic of how the flowers turned out.

Julie - I too tried adding clear on top of the stamen cane, but didn't like the outcome at all - it looked odd to have a bubble on top of it. All personal preference, however, and if you like it, great!

Yes, the more I thought about it, the more I figured it wouldn't look so great. Guess I'll see when they come out of the kiln.
So the scooby doo is to just plunge and then break it off? Or not plunge at all? Or like you said, maybe nip little pieces and set them on???
what did you like the best?

confused, as usual......

I spot heated, plunged, cooled and broke off, then encased the entire bead in clear.

Hey all, Just an FYI.
In the book "Beads of Glass" by Cindy Jenkins, one of the wonderful artist shows how to make stamen with filigrana cane. It not hard at all. I've done it countless times.
J.

Kismet....do you mean wrap the colors down the side of the clear like usual or around the center on top of each other? That sounds kind of cool to wrap in a disk then pull, think I'll try that next time I'm torching. Is that what you mean?

Kismet,
Typical stamen is formed by striping the opaque color down the gather of clear. Then encasing the whole gater with clear and puling it straight down.
Good luck.
Joan

Shoot! I forgot I had said I'd post a pic....anyhow, I think I made my stamen cane waaay too skinny. You can barely even see it. Then on the last bead, I tried to do a pansy and I put a blob (dot) of the stamen cane in the center....not very good examples; next time I will make the cane thicker and see if that's better.

I have a stamen phobia, which I need to get over because they look so awesome. Maybe I just need to accept that mine just aren't going to look like Carolyn/Fireglass's! :) My main problem is that I get fogging between the layers of clear. I find it helps to warm the stamen cane tip SLIGHTLY before plunging... It should be hot but hard. I'm also trying to find the right heat level for the base bead, so it plunges deep without mushrooming inside, and without blowing a huge hole in the flower. I keep getting discouraged and giving up... I should just practice more on small flowers before experimenting on my huge ones!

For cane, I have been making pre-encased components (and/or using filigrana) and stacking them. I find this keeps each stamen-bit round instead of flat. I still have a long way to go in terms of proportion, though! It's so easy to make things so skinny they fade to nothing...