This is the way the fern looked when I posted yesterday. The individual canes are about 3 inches long.
I inserted a stem between the two rows of graduated leaves and filled in the empty areas with translucent clay. I then reduced the cane by alternating gentle squeezing and gentle stretching. It is important to do this little by little so the design of the fern is not distorted. I continued until the cane was about 5 and 1/2 inches long. The ends are larger than the middle because I wanted ferns of different sizes. I could also have squeezed and stretched until the cane was long on one end and short on the other.
The fern cane is about 2 and 1/2 inches long on either end. The section in the middle is about 1 and 1/2 inches long.
Below is the longest fern on the left. The fern from the center section is on the right.
Below is an example of how the design sometimes is distorted. The fern on the left is the original fern from one side of the cut when I cut through the center. You can see that the main stem has some curious angles in it. On the right is the fern from the other side of the cut after I did a bit more reducing, squeezing and stretching until the stem straightened up.
Now that looks like a fern. I am anxious to see it completed and I am wondering what it will look like and how you will use it. Green looks so good in the wintertime. Hope you are staying warm:)
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