Letter Z Alphabet Cane Tutorial
Finished! This Letter Z polymer clay alphabet cane is the final part of the series showing how to create polymer clay letter canes. (For a list of all of the previous alphabet canes, please click here.)
Most of the alphabet cane tutorials were published first on my other website (KayVincent.com), but now the polymer clay-related posts are migrating over to this PolymerKay site instead.
The letter Z is created by making just three cuts in a cylinder, then inserting a layer of black clay in between. As usual there are several ways that this letter cane could have been created – for example, if you’ve already read the letter “N” tutorial you could just turn that cane on its side! Therefore this version is not necessarily the ‘best’ version – rather it is just one quick and easy way to make a letter “Z” in polymer clay.
You will need:
- About 30g white clay (approximately half of a standard-sized block of clay)
- Approx. 8g black clay (about an eighth of a standard block)
- Pasta machine (5 things to look for when buying pasta machines for polymer clay)
- Tissue blade or clay slicer
Step-by-step instructions: Letter “Z” cane
Step 0) Always start by conditioning the clay (and here is an article about how and why clay should be conditioned.)
1) Roll the black clay into a sheet about 1.5mm thick (usually the middle setting of a pasta machine):
2) Cut off around a quarter of the white block of clay and save it to use later on:
3) Roll the larger piece of white clay into a cylinder about 25mm (1 inch) in diameter:
4) Then slice off the top and bottom of the cylinder, starting from about an eighth of the way in from the top and bottom:
5) Make a diagonal cut down through the central section of the cylinder, going from top right to bottom left:
6) Sandwich one layer of the black sheet of clay (from Step 1) in the diagonal cut between the two larger central pieces. Then press the black clay sheet to the flat top and bottom of those two pieces. After that, replace the top and bottom sections of the cylinder and then trim off any excess black clay:
7) Using the white piece of clay from Step 2, roll it through the pasta machine on the thinnest setting, then wrap the sides of the cane with the thin layers of white:
(Sorry – forgot to take a photo – so let me know if you need me to add one 🙂
8) Finally, reduce the cane.
Finished Letter Z polymer clay alphabet cane:
I hope you found this series of tutorials useful. Have you tried making any of the letters in the series? Were you successful as a result, or do I need to add any clarification to the steps or images? If you do have any comments/ suggestions about the tutorial, please share a comments below, or via the contact us page instead.
…and finally, here is a handy graphic which shows the main steps all on one page.
