I’ve always admired the way some polymer artists are able to cover animals. You can see some of them, and other project tutorials of mine on this  pinboard.

I honestly don’t know how some artists do such an amazing job covering their work. it’s like a puzzle to figure out how to arrange the can slices. This is what I’ve figured out for this swan. The canes are from the January 2017 issue of Cane Builder.

I started with this idea.

I wanted a nice, strong, heavy base, so I found a teardrop shaped rock. (the Tucson desert has rocks everywhere!)

I put wire in to hold up the neck. You can’t see it here, but the white clay was never perfectly smooth around the neck. It didn’t matter though, because I was planning to cover it anyway.

I baked the swan with wings not pictured here BEFORE I added the canework. This yellow card stock is the pattern. I made the whole wing before I placed it on the pre-baked white wing on the swan. Any arrangement of canes would work.

Finish the head and neck by placing canes wherever they fit!