Zendo Stones

I've made a nice stashbox that holds six stashes of hollow Icehouse pieces (not the Clever Carrying Case, but something more recent.) I realized it has just enough room to add two small tubes, about four inches long and a half-inch wide. If I could find a lot of half-inch flat discs, black and white and colored all over, I would have a perfect Zendo set, without having to add any volume.

I've seen a little of what polymer clay canework can do. It's fascinating and scary. So I bought some and started experimenting.

I used Fimo Classic and a regular old Black-and-Decker toaster that I hadn't used for years. The results were, well, fascinating and scary. I wound up with way more patterns than I needed for Zendo; I selected out pale, dark, and mid-range ones for the stash tubes, and kept the rest in this cookie tin.

Quick lessons:

• The Fimo bricks do have the color name printed on the label. Don't mix up the white, the translucent, and the pearl (which is effectively translucent with fine glitter mixed in).
• For pieces as small and thin as these stones, you don't need the full recommended baking time or temperature. (The translucent Fimo tends to burn a bit tan if you use the recommended temperature.)
• Put the canes in the freezer for a half-hour before slicing.
• Buy one of those long, thin razor blades from the shelf near the Fimo. They're thinner than exacto knife blades, and cut clay better.
• Buy a pasta machine. Really.
• The Glass Attic is a good web site for polymer clay novices.
• Watch out for people absently trying to eat your beads.

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