A Simple Flower Cane | Floral Pattern Mix part 1

In this post I’m sharing how I make a simple flower cane from polymer clay. This is the first of a four part series building up to a floral pattern mix cane.

Pattern mix canes are fun to make though they may seem a bit daunting to the uninitiated. They don’t have to be though, as they start with a collection of smaller canes such as this simple flower cane.

In this four part series I’ll be showing you how to make three different flower canes, the simple flower cane being the first, plus a leaf cane. In the last instalment I’ll also be showing you how to put all the components together into a larger cane.

Here’s a look at the finished floral pattern mix cane:

A word of warning—pattern mix canes can quickly grow quite large when you end up putting all the component together. I’ve often been surprised by how big my pattern mix canes end up being. Try to keep the individual components on the smaller side. I’ve included how much clay I used for this simple flower cane in the materials list.

If you don’t want to make the pattern mix cane this simple flower cane is fine all on it’s own. Try packing it with a translucent clay instead of the blue I’ve used here. You can then layer thin slices over a base and have the base color come through. Or use single slices to make simple stud earrings. There’s plenty of ways you could put this simple flower cane to use.

I’ve included the clay colors I used in the materials list but feel free to choose your own colors. I’ve kept the final pattern mix simple by making all the components out of the same three colors plus the background color but you could change it up by using different colors for each component. Just make sure to keep the background color the same as you build each smaller cane.

Tools & Materials

• Non-porous work surface — I work on either glazed tile or glass)
• Pasta machine dedicated to polymer clay use — I use an Atlas 180 and will refer to the settings I use on my machine. If you don’t have a pasta machine an acrylic roller and some playing cards will do in a pinch, it’ll just take a little more work.
• Polymer clay — I used Fimo Soft colors in Pink Grapefruit, White, Peppermint, and Indian Red 
• Polymer clay blade

Directions for A Simple Flower Cane

Condition the Pink Grapefruit and White polymer clay and make a skinner blend. For this cane I used 1/2 an ounce (1/4 block) of each.

Sheet the blend on a medium setting (no.3 on my Atlas.) Fold the blend into quarters and run it through the pasta machine, darker end in first, on the thickest setting. Work your way down on progressively thinner settings until you have a long, thin ribbon of clay. I went down to setting no.8 on my machine but you can stop sooner if your clay begins to tear as it gets thinner.

Starting at the white end of the ribbon roll the polymer clay into a tight cylinder, taking care to trap as little air as possible. Cut the cylinder into quarters.

Press in the corners of each quarter. Stack the quarters together lining them up neatly.

Gently squeeze the quarters together and lengthen the stack into a log until it’s 2” to 3” in length.

Cut the log in half and press together again. 

Press the corners of the log in to take it from a square log to a round log. Wrap the log in a piece of Indian Red polymer clay sheeted on a no.6 setting.

Use a pen, thin rod, or other cylindrical tool to press into the log of clay along the length of the white portion of the log.

Condition the Peppermint clay and roll a snake with a small piece. Flatten one side of the snake and press the rounded side into the impression left by the pen.

Squeeze, roll, and gently stretch the log of clay until you have 6” of length. Cut into six 1” pieces.

Shape each petal piece into a teardrop shape. Make sure the point is opposite the blue. 

Roll a thin snake from the Indian Red clay and place it in the center of the flower.

Roll a snake of Peppermint clay and pinch it into a triangle with slightly curved sides. This will be used to pack between the petals.

Pack the triangles between the petals taking care to shape it as needed for a tight fit. Check from both ends of the cane that it’s nestled in there nicely. Tightly packed canes means less distortion when reducing.

Wrap the flower in a sheet of Peppermint clay. I used a sheet of clay rolled out at the thickest setting but if you’d like your pattern mix in the final cane to be tighter use a thinner sheet of clay. Less clay wrapped around the flower now means less background color in pattern mix. Wrap your flower according to your taste.

At this point all you need to do is reduce the cane to your desired dimensions. If you are following along to build the Floral Pattern Mix Cane I suggest saving the final reduction until all of your component canes have been built.

If you’ve enjoyed learning how to make this simple flower cane and give this tutorial a try please tag @bysandracallander on Instagram!

I’ll be back next week with the second instalment of this series. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss the next post! Plus, you’ll get a free PDF tutorial for my Twisted Blends cane which I used to make Clay Covered Pens.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, I’m happy to hear from you.