You slice them before you bake . On this website I'm lnking to , it says to refrigerate them so it won't distort the design when you cut it. Check this site out - it's a step by step along with a couple movies !

Here is a link that might be useful: fimo beads & canes

You slice before you bake, you can use a very sharp knife, a wire cheese slicer or dental floss and if they deform you can kinda mush them back. The wire cheese slicer is best in my opinion.

This one also says before, but that the very small ropes can be done after while still hot. My mother used to do Fimo, but I don't think she got into the ropes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slicing Fimo

That's a great site mmqchdygg ..... lots of good info !

Thanks for all the help. I played around with it a little bit tonight. I am NOT a pro with this stuff! I have probably had some of it for over ten years, threw out a nice bit of hunter green, just too old and crumbly. I don't think I am patient enough to ever get very serious with it, especially after watching those videos and seeing how tedious it looks! But I still it embellishing at least one of my turtles....

Takes practice just like everything else, LADY. Don't give up - you HAVE the talent. Have you checked out Laurie Mika's site? That's where I got soooo inspired to work w/clay. I bought her book recently, and ROSIE and I took her workshop last year in Dallas. Clay is a wonderful medium, but I just can't seem to get back to it, even though I have tons of things to incorporate into those tiles.