How can I make millefiore fun and easy?

The beauty of polymer clay millefiore is that you can start with two colors of clay and a blade...and a decade or two later, end up using Monster Squishers and 6 Ton Hydraulic rams! AaaarrrGH!!

I'm a Cane Makin' Man,
That's What I Am!

But what most people need to know here and now is: What's FIRST?

CLAY:

Repeated attempts to try others have taught me that FIMO is prettymuch the solution. More details later on Kato Clay which is really good too, but as for so much of the other stuff: ISSUES.

TOOLS:

• I use ONLY Olfa UltraMax blades, but then again, I'm a Cane Makin' Man...
  If you're working on a small scale and plan to do alot of Mokume Gane or translucent claywork, get a tissue blade or two...too.
• I use MELAMITE surfacing(most lumber or finishing stores) throughout my studio and for all shelving. It's impervious to polymer monomers, and has a plywood base beneath its laminate. It takes a heavy handed blade to scratch it, and it can be sanded smooth again. FIMO adheres to it, not like it does to glass, but more than it would to most surfaces...which is often a good thing. So the key is, smooth, but not too smooth, or you'll be holding a pallette knife for the rest of your life. My, we are poetic tonight, aren't we?
• Rolling Pins: (Groan!) The only marble rolling pins I've ever found have this crumby plastic bushing for the inside spindle. That is to say, watch out for chunks of plastic dust getting into your clay unless you take the following advice: Ask the Bread Makin' Man in your life to ream out the ends of the marble out to suit a pair of commonly available skateboard roller bearings, then sit back and calmly listen to his suggestions on whatever he tells you he'll eventually do. He he. If you're in possesion of his PayPal password, and want to just buy one, let me know. Then you can really lean into it and save yourself alot of putzy problems.
• Pasta Machine: yes, you'll need it. And don't think you can use it for making pasta on the side. No, no, no. Okay...I have SIX of the darn things and I'm rebuilding them constantly. The main thing to remember when shopping for one is that you want the rollers to meet nice and flush together at it's smallest setting, then if it appears quite close(the same gap at both ends) you probably have a winner. At the widest setting you could take a pinch of Post-its or something to guage the gap, and slide it from one end to the other. Hopefully, the people with the Padded White Van won't be standing at the end of the aisle when you're done choosing, but it is worth the trouble, trust me.
• That's IT! You'll soon be grabbing pins and pokers and knives and rulers and calipers and stuff, but yeah...That's about IT!

...for now.~Sept 29/06