The cane for the Central American native inspired necklace

I researched quite a bit for the design of this cane. I chose the triangles arranged to formed lozenges because they are a repetitive motif in many cultures, and as symbol it usually represents fertility - not only as babies and breeding, but also as general fertility in life, a kind of "may all be bountiful to you".  The symbolism is very simple - and some might find it crude. The triangle with the point down is the female, the triangle with the point up is the male. It's essentially based on ... the shape of the public hair that is different for human males and females. When they come together in a lozenge.. you get the picture. So, yeah, it's been around since the dawn of the human species, and is one of the most generally spread world-wide, it can be found in all ancient cultures, from Australia to Siberia, to Africa and to South America, beyond and in-between.

Now, the colors.

If you want to go for more a more contemporary look, you can choose brighter colors (also specific to modern Mexico). But if you want to go with the traditional, ancient native color palette, you must choose colors that are a subdued. 'earthy" primary: cinnamon red instead or red, stoneware blue instead of blue, sage green and forest green instead of regular bright green, pale yellow instead of bright yellow. And the rule is, you MAY use a brighter blue or green but NEVER together. If  you have together green and blue they both must be subdued and earthy. Otherwise you can use a turquoise blue, but then don't add green.

examples (one brighter one not so bright)

As what you can find on the market, I'd recommend the Souffle. It has beautiful earthy colors that don't really need mixing. In fact, I am using the Canary yellow in the tutorial.

If you don't have Souffle and don't feel like going to buy some and just want to use what you have, you'd get the colors as follow - a little approximate as the colors are a little different on different brands. I am talking here of primary colors for the mix - count as "part" any unit of measure; you can get a sheet on the thickest setting then use the same cutter to cut the "parts" out of the sheets:

- subdued yellow - 3 parts white 2 parts yellow
- earthy red - 2 parts red 3 parts yellow 1 part brown (or 1/2 black)
- stoneware blue (or thereabouts) - 3 parts white 1 part blue 1/2 part black.
- sage green - 2 parts white 1 part yellow 1 part green 1/2 part black
- forest green - 3 parts green, 1 part white or yellow, 1/2 to 1 part black

Careful with each color - in different brands the pigments are stronger. So whatever is not white, yellow or green, first add half of what I recommend, look at the result, then if it needs more, go for it.

The cane is huge. I tried making it smaller but I'm losing detail. This way, it's a pain to reduce  but it keeps all the design. Careful with the center, it will have the tendency to move slower, like any other big/thick cane. Also try to get all your colors at about the same amount of conditioning otherwise some might "pull" more than others.

Reducing:

ALWAYS start with just pressing. Give one firm press, with an even pressure (you can use an acrylic stamp block if you're comfortable with that better than your hand), just one press, roll once for the next side, one press, roll. Of course, only press on the wrapped in black side. You will be amazed how fast it reduces, within 5 minutes you will have it at about 1". From there it's easy. Start using your roller. But be patient, one roll, turn, one roll, turn, every 8 rolls turn it around - most people have an uneven rolling and if you don't turn it one end will be thinner than the other. It takes about 15-20 minutes to reduce it to about 1/2" side. Just don't get greedy and in a hurry and don't do more than one at a time.

Here's the diagram.

The tutorial should be up at around 7:15 pm CDT - it's 5:40 pm CDT right now and youtube says one hour and 35 minutes remaining. I'll update this with the link when it's up.
P.S. I'm utterly confused. The uploading computer says "29% uploaded, about 1 hour 10 minutes remaining". The laptop says "20% uploaded, about 2 hours 55 minutes remaining". WTF Youtube?!?

The cane is from this necklace. The tutorial is the first one I ever uploaded.

 

The tutorial is up