Polymer Clay Cane Reduction Disaster

I'm a little frazzled, I've had two strange men peeking in my windows all day today.

The painters are painting the window trim, the front and back porches and the 2nd floor deck. Every time I turned around I had one or both peering at me through the window. I spend most of the day hiding out in my studio or the basement. When I got hungry or thirsty I would press up against the wall and slither down the hall to the kitchen. I'm a very private person, I do not like people looking at me... I would have never made it as a goldfish. This will most likely go on for a couple more days.... my cats and I are not happy campers. Every time I sit down a furry critter.. or two... lands in my lap. Normally my cats are not lap sitters.

It rained off and on all day today.... didn't stop the painters, they just kept painting. I went out and asked how they could paint in the rain and they said "No problem, when it rains heavy we paint on the inside of the porch and when it lets up we paint on the outside". Seems strange to me, I was under the impression you needed dry weather to paint, silly me... I have visions of waking up in the morning to puddles of paint all around the house. They also kept painting an hour or more after it got dark. I went out and asked about that too but they assured me they could see just fine.

Okay now to my cane disaster story.

I spent a couple days building what I thought would be a lovely butterfly cane with flowers in her wings. I assembled the cane... as you can see in the photo... Now I must tell you canes are not my thing, most all of the canes I make are fairly small, about 1 to 2 inches across and 1 1/2" high. There in lies the problem, this one grew to 4" x 5" and was only 1 1/2" high... so when I tried to reduce it I could not get the center to move. I got it down to 2" x 3" before I sliced it open and it was a total failure. It was a big disappointment and I forgot to take a photo... you'll have to take my word for it, it was badly distorted and didn't look like a butterfly at all. I haven't given up on the idea, I will try again with a more manageable size.

Click on the photos for a close look.

I chopped it up and made these... they look kinds like sting rays...
I also made several mirror image tiles.... and lots of what I call "rattlers" cause to me the resemble rattle snake rattlers. The one in the center has little flutterbys going up a chute...
I used a couple other "rattlers" to make a reversible pendant adorned with a bail made of coiled wire and freshwater pearls then completed the necklace with matching wire links.

This is the front view:

This is the side view
and here is the back view.
My muse is into purple lately, here are a couple more purple canes.
I made more mirror image tiles and beads from the disaster cane but I haven't sanded them yet. I"ll post photos when they are looking their best.