All about millefiori
You may not know that when I first started DoodlePippin in 2015, I mostly sold handmade, one-of-a-kind millefiori bangles, earrings and cheese knives like these.
DoodlePippin has come a long way since then, but it started with two very serendipitous discoveries - polymer clay, and millefiori.
Back in 2015 I had two young kids and was A) pretty skint, and B) desperate to do something creative after quite a long time away from it. I trawled round Hobbycraft one interminable day, and on a whim, bought some small packs of Fimo - a form of polymer clay - planning to do something craft-orientated with my boys.
Despite my best intentions, the packs sat unopened for a long while and when I finally opened them, my kids didn't get a look in!
Polymer clay is a form of artificial clay that's been around since the 1950s (it was originally developed in Germany as an alternative to porcelain for dolls' faces).
It's colourful, easy to use and to cure (just a domestic oven) and incredibly tough and versatile once properly finished.
What I discovered - fortuitously, as it turned out - is that it's also the perfect medium for a very old technique called millefiori. It comes in a myriad of infinitely blendable colours, has the ability to hold fine detail crisply and to slice finely, and is relatively user-friendly (no 1000 degree kilns or blow torches required!).
Even better, a complete beginner can make a stunningly beautiful kaleidoscopic pattern using this technique (I know, because I've taught hundreds of people to do it).
Cutting into your newly created 'cane' to see your unique, one-of-a-kind, never to be repeated pattern quickly becomes completely addictive.
The upshot was that, over a period of a few weeks/ months, I got completely carried away. I bought books, sought out online tutorials and classes, and joined the London Polymer Clay Group; their monthly meetings gave me a huge amount of support and endless ideas, tricks, tips and skills.
This is the book that first put me onto the wonderful possibilities. The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques, by Donna Kato.
This is an example of the sort of 'cane' I make. These unique designs now form the basis of almost all our patterns.
Millefiori in history.
Millefiori as a technique has a really interesting history - originally developed in pre-Roman times, for some reason it was then lost or abandoned for centuries before being re-invented (or rediscovered) in Venice in the 1500s.
A 1st C BC / 1st C AD Roman-Egyptian millefiori bead.
