I begin with custom colours, this is a blend of yellow, orange, crimson and translucent with a touch of brown. I want a base that's going to show through the translucent but not stand out over the cane work. I roll out a thin log, measure and cut, then roll each section into a ball.

Now I'm going to choose my canes. My customer wants warm colours that will go with garnet, these are my final choices. To see how a cane is put together see how I build a cane...The major difference with these is the background colour is translucent clay.

Using the sharpest blade possible I take paper thin slices off my cane and lay them on a piece of parchment to use later. The clay tends to gum up and frequent cleaning of the blade is required, as is letting the cane rest every 20 slices or so, this is solved by using two canes of the same pattern and alternating.

I begin layering on my slices. This particular design uses 9 different cane slices. I cover all the background clay and layer the lighter and smaller designs over top to give depth and a floating effect, ending with the leaves and butterfly.

Although I lightly roll between patterns I have to be very careful at the end, this is where you can get the most distortion. I roll forwards and backwards very gently to smooth and blend seams and make a nearly perfect sphere.

Finished beads are then gently placed on accordion folded paper in a big lasagna pan. The beads are then cured at 275 for 30 minutes.

After beads are cool I wet sand each bead through multiple grits of sandpaper, 400-2000, sometimes less if I want more of a satin finish and less of a glass look.

Each bead is then buffed on a dremel fitted with a handmade felt buffing wheel (yes, I cut and sew all of these myself). I never gloss this style of beads, all shine comes from lots of labor :)

Finally I drill each bead with a 2mm bit unless requested otherwise.

A finished bracelet using beads of this type.