Spiraling Out of Control?
- Mar 19
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 20
As a former geology major and a Tucson resident I love being able to visit the Gem and Mineral Show. I don't go every year because it's too tempting. I'm ashamed to admit how many boxes of mineral specimens, fossils, and beads I have.
Recently though, I went through those treasures to find a focal piece for a box I was going to work on as a demonstration at the Southern Arizona Arts Guild gallery. I settled on a spiral ammonite whose shell had been replaced with the mineral hematite which has a dark, metallic shine.
I'm enamored of spirals and I had long wanted to use a technique I saw in a classic book by polymer clay artist extraordinaire, Donna Kato, that uses a single color of clay to create a perfectly flat, spiral design. Normally a flat sheet of a single color of clay would be just that. Solid color with no design whatsoever. The magic only happens when using a "pearl" clay that contains minute particles of mica. Mica is a mineral that occurs naturally as thin, shiny sheets. Those tiny particles of mica make the clay shimmer.
When pearl clay is run through a pasta machine repeatedly, the mica particles will all align making it appear to be different colors depending on the angle it is cut. Polymer clay artists call it "mica shift;" in real stones like tiger's eye it's called "chatoyance." Here's how to use that to create spiral designs from a single color:
Roll up the sheet of clay.
Stand the log up and slice off the sides. The sliced off pieces and the sides of the square log appear lighter in the middle and darker along the edges.
Roll the square log into a tapered snake, always rolling in one direction.
Flatten the snake and roll it into a spiral snail shape.
Slice through the snail. (The design on the inside has even more depth than than the outside.) Flatten the slices very thin, and lay them out on a plain sheet.
Flatten the whole sheet until no seams show.
"More spirals!" I said to myself. So, next came a clay cane inspired by the actual fossil. The leftover clay from the inside of the box was just the right color.
I inlaid slices from the cane into the mica shift veneer for the sides of the box.
I attached the ammonite to a clay base with wire and ...
... added glass beads, real pearls, and tiger's eye along with more spirals of clay as embellishments.
As the last steps, I added the ammonite to the lid and finished it with a twisted (aka spiraled) mica shift rope.
Here's the final result: spirals on top of spirals! But not out of control--at least I don't think so.
