Pattern Transfer Tip:
by Kathy Gregson

To transfer a pattern for carving to raw clay, make a xerox of your pattern, put the xerox on the raw clay, leave it 15 minutes and then remove the xerox and bake the clay. You have a perfectly transferred pattern all ready to carve.

So far, I have only done this on flat pieces. To ensure that the pattern was exactly where I wanted it, I transferred the pattern and then cut out the form of the piece.

— Kathy

Display Tip:
by Ditzzi

My first offering is this: To those of you who like flea markets and yard sales; keep your eyes peeled for the old glass flower 'frogs'....remember those things that look like clear flattened mushroom heads with the holes all over them so our grandmothers could put cut flowers in them? These things are perfect for displaying your clayed pens! Why they were ever named frogs is beyond me...but if you can find 'em cheap at a yard sale, snag 'em...I've seen them at an antique show for $20.

I'm still kicking myself in the pants because last summer (before I was heavily into clay) my elderly neighbor ended up giving about 6 of them to The Salvation Army at the end of her yard sale.

— Josie

Cane Storage Tip:
by Marty
I had a lot of canes just lying around. I tend to make big canes. I got a plastic shoe box out of my closet. I took a cardboard tube from a waxed paper box. I wrapped a cane in waxed paper, put it in the tube, and into the box. Paper towel tubes also work but they are larger in circumference. Write the name or description of the cane on the tube and it is easy to find when you need it. Hope this is useful to someone.

by Michelle
Marty's tip about cardboard tubes is great - plentiful, free and useful things, those tubes. When I store a cane I bake a single slice and glue it to the container. This could be adapted by taping one end of the tube off and attaching the piece there so that all of the cane samples could be seen from the front at once. It also prevents the fired bits from being knocked off as the containers move against one another during the mad digging for the one that you just know is down there...

— Marty