This article demonstrates how to make a simple polymer clay flower letter cane (or letter flower cane!) These canes are great for making buttons, beads, or signature canes, and are fairly quick and easy to create.
Many years ago I wrote a how-to article about my ‘Never Fail Flower Cane’ design (which is still on the British Polymer Clay Guild’s website. Click the link below to go straight to the article.)
…and recently I finished my step-by-step series on How to Make Polymer Clay Alphabet Canes…
…so now today’s article combines the two designs, and shows how to make a flower design with a letter on the inside (or a letter design with a flower on the outside, depending on your preference):
You will need:
- Half a standard block of yellow polymer clay
- Quarter of a block of green clay
- An eighth of a block of black clay
- A pre-made letter cane approx. 15mm tall by 15mm diameter (here are the instructions for how to make polymer clay letter canes)
- Tissue blade (a.k.a. clay slicer)
- Pasta machine or clay roller
Instructions for Making the Polymer Clay Flower Letter Cane
Step 0) Condition the clay. (Here is a tutorial about conditioning clay with a pasta machine.)
1) Roll out the black clay as thinly as possible.
2) Cover the letter cane with one layer of the thin black sheet of clay. Trim off any excess black clay.
3) Roll the yellow clay into a cylinder approximately 10cm (4ins) long, and cover it with one layer of the black clay. Trim off any excess black clay.
4) Roll out the cylinder into a snake about 15cm (6ins) long, and cut into sections approx. 3cm (1.3ins) long.
5) Flatten the pieces and bend each flattened log into a ‘U’ shape, to make petals.
6) Arrange the petals around the letter cane
7) Insert green triangles
8) Reduce the cane.
Finished flower letter cane:
I hope you found this useful. If you’ve tried this technique and found it useful (or if there was anything in it that I could make clearer) please let me know!