Jelly rolls are one of the basic caning techniques. It is often used in more complex canes but can also be sliced to form round beads.  A cane is a rod or log of clay. The advantage of creating canes like this one is that you can create a pattern throughout the whole piece of clay.

Materials

• 2 different colours of polymer clay* – the amount depends on how much you want to make

*It is better to use stiff clay for canes. If you use Fimo make sure you get Fimo classic

Tools and equipment

• Stiff blade
• Piece of glass or ceramic clay to work on
• An additional piece of glass to roll the log
• Graph paper or cutting sheet

Method

Condition and mix the clay you want to use. Roll the clay into sheets. Trim to size – I trimmed mine to 5cm (2inches) by 10cm (4 inches). It is important to remember that the jelly roll basically gives you a spiral therefore you should ensure that you use a long enough piece of clay. 

Place the two sheet of clay on top of each other and smooth to remove bubbles. Cut the edge of the clay closest to you at a 45 degree angle. Image 1 shows how the blade and image 2 after it’s been cut. (The edge on my photo is ragged because I cut onto the paper. I only realised that I did not take a picture of the corrected cut after I downloaded the pictures. It won’t make a difference to the result; it just annoyed me because it looks messy.)

Press the edges of angled clay up so that it starts forming a roll [image 3]. Use your fingers to roll the clay. See image 4 for how it should look.

Cut the other edge of the clay at a 45 degree angle [image 5]. Smooth the edges on the roll [image 6]. Place the jelly roll between 2 sheets of glass and move it backwards and forwards to smooth the join [image 7]. Trim the edges. Image 8 shows how the jelly roll looks when you’re done. 

Use it in a complex cane or cut it into slices to make beads. Remember to wrap the cane in plastic or something similar to prevent it from drying out if you don’t use the whole cane.