How to Make a Floral Pattern Polymer Clay Bowl

In this post I demonstrate how to make a floral pattern polymer clay bowl using a floral pattern mix cane.

From tiny ring dishes to larger pieces like this floral pattern polymer clay bowl, polymer clay bowls make excellent decorative accents that are also functional. Thanks to the versatility of polymer clay, you can easily mix colors to match your decor and create designs that fit your aesthetic.

Although you can substitute any cane for this polymer clay bowl, I am using the cane from my four-part Floral Pattern Mix Cane series for this tutorial. This series includes a simple flower cane, a basic leaf cane, a rose cane, and a lily-inspired cane featured in the final instalment. If cottagecore is your style, this would be a perfect decor project! Feel free to use the clay colors I used or choose your own.

You likely won’t need to look far to find a suitable mold to shape your bowl. Check your kitchen cupboards for glass, ceramic, or metal bowls, as all work well. Just ensure the dish you use is oven-safe.

Bowls with a smooth, flat exterior are ideal. As you drape the polymer clay, seams may split despite careful burnishing. By draping the clay over the outside of a bowl, you can see any splits as they occur. Simply bring the seam together and smooth it out before curing.

However, there have been times when I formed a dish using the inside of a bowl and couldn’t see the splits before curing. When this happened, I mixed a little translucent liquid clay with the best color to fix the seam, backfilled, and baked the bowl again. Once sanded smooth, you wouldn’t know where the seam had split.

Grab your supplies and let’s jump into the floral pattern polymer clay bowl tutorial!

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.
Floral Pattern Mix Cane
Polymer clay — I used Fimo Soft colors in Pink Grapefruit, White, and Indian Red
Scrap polymer clay
Sharp polymer clay blade
Acrylic rod
Polymer clay extruder with triangle disk
Parchment paper
Craft knife
Ruler
Burnishing tool — I like using either a stainless steel soap or an espresso tamper
Knitting needle — I use a shorter double pointed knitting needle
Oven safe bowl to use as a mold
Foil for tenting the clay
Wet/dry sandpaper — I used 220, 400, 600, 800, 1200 & 1500 grits

Directions | Floral Pattern Polymer Clay Bowl

Step 1 | Make the Border Cane

Make a skinner blend with the White, Pink Grapefruit, and Indian Red clay. Use equal portions of the white and grapefruit and half as much red.

Turn the skinner blend into a long thin ribbon of clay

When you’re satisfied with your blend, sheet it on a medium setting (no.3 on my Atlas). Fold the blend into quarters and pass it through the pasta machine on the thickest setting (no.0) feeding one of the narrow ends in first.

Continue passing the blend through the pasta machine on progressively thinner settings until you have a long, thin ribbon of clay. I took mine down to setting no.8.

Roll the blend into a cylinder and wrap with another sheet of clay

Starting with the white end, tightly roll the clay into a cylinder, taking care to trap as little air as possible.

Wrap the cylinder in a sheet of clay rolled out on a thinner setting (no.6).

Load an extruder with the clay and extrude a triangle log. Turn into a border cane

Reduce the cylinder until it’s the right diameter to fit into the polymer clay extruder. Load the extruder with the clay, fit it with a triangle disk, and extrude the clay.

Cut the extruded clay into 2” lengths and stack them neatly together, alternating the direction of the triangles.

add a sheet of clay to the top and bottom of the border cane

Sheet some red clay on the no.6 setting and place a sheet on both the top and bottom of the border cane.

When you trim the clay on the sides of the cane be sure to cut it at the same angle as the triangle. I trimmed mine straight down and had to do a little finessing later when I butted the border pieces together. An angled cut would have saved me a little hassle.

Step 2 | Prepping the Scrap Clay Base

prepping the scrap clay base for the floral pattern polymer clay bowl

Condition the scrap clay well. The colors don’t have to be completely blended but the clay should be well conditioned so it shapes easily on the bowl mold.

My finished bowl is about 8.5” across so I cut my scrap clay base into a 10” square. To make a wide enough sheet cut the edges of two sheets of clay and join them neatly together. Burnish the seam to held the join hold.

Lay the clay on a sheet of parchment paper. Lightly draw two diagonal lines from corner to corner to find the center of the sheet of clay. Set aside.

Step 3 | Making the Floral Pattern Veneer

I reduced about 2/3 of my Floral Pattern Mix Cane to roughly a size of 1.5” x 1”. The other piece was reduced to about 1” x 0.75”. Use the larger cane for the center of the bowl pattern.

Use a running bond pattern when laying out the cane slices for the veneer

When I’m making a veneer with a pattern mix cane the lay the slices in a running bond pattern (like laying bricks.) This make burnishing seams a little easier because you’re not joining four corners together but rather two corners and a straight edge. I also flip every second piece around. The running bond and flipping the cane slices helps break up the pattern repetition a bit.

This first veneer was a little over 6” square and I trimmed it to 5.5” square before putting it on the base. I like to build my veneer directly on my work surface and burnish lightly before moving it to a sheet of parchment.

Once the veneer is moved to the sheet of parchment use a knitting needle to close up the seams by gently rolling the needle over the clay.

Burnish the seams and trim the veneer to size

When the seams have all been closed up place another sheet of parchment over the veneer and burnish all along the seams. I like to burnish both the the front and back of the veneer.

Trim the veneer to size using a ruler and a craft knife.

Step 4 | Decorating the Bowl

Peel the parchment paper off of the veneer. Don’t try peeling the clay off the paper as it will stretch out of shape and possibly tear.

Lay the veneer on the scrap clay base and trim with the border cane

Find where the top corners of the veneer both touch the diagonal lines and gently lay it on the base. Lower the rest of the veneer slowly, taking care not to trap air between the layers and make sure the bottom corners also touch the diagonal lines.

If the veneer has stretched out of shape at all coax it back into line by butting a blade up along the edge to straighten it. Once the veneer is centered and the edges are neat place a sheet of parchment overtop and burnish it to the base.

Place slices of the border cane around the perimeter of the veneer. Cut the corners diagonally and join neatly. Burnish again once everything is in place.

Add more cane slices to the outside border of the floral pattern polymer clay bowl

Use the smaller cane to build out the veneer past the border. Lay the slices directly onto the scrap base and trim the corners on the diagonal as you go. I was running short of cane slices so I cut some of them in half to make sure I had enough to go around all sides.

Close up the seams with the knitting needle and burnish with parchment paper and your burnishing tool of choice.

Trim the edges to size using a ruler and craft knife.

Finish the backside of the polymer clay bowl with another veneer and a solid red border

Cover the top with a sheet of parchment, flip the whole thing over, and remove the bottom layer of parchment paper. Mark the center again by drawing diagonal lines from corner to corner.

Make another veneer and place center it on the clay base as you did before. I simply used up the remainder of my cane for this veneer.

Condition the red clay and sheet it to the same thickness as the cane veneer. For me, this is the no.4 setting on my machine. You may have to do some experimenting depending on how thick your cane slices are.

Cut strips from the sheet of red clay that are long enough and wide enough to cover the rest of the scrap base. Join the strips neatly at the corners.

Burnish all the seams well.

Flip the bowl over and trim the excess clay

Cover the back with parchment and flip the clay over again. Peel the parchment off the front and trim the excess red clay away using the trimmed top layer as a guide.

Add a final trim of red clay to the polymer clay bowl

Sheet some more red clay on the thickest setting (no.0) and cut strips that are as long as the sides and slightly wider than the thickness of the bowl.

Trim the edges of the bowl with the strips of red clay. Make sure the red edging is well adhered to the bowl by running a finger up and down the edges.

Use a sharp blade and the top of the bowl as a guide to trim away the excess clay.

Carefully inspect both the back and front of the bowl, making sure seams are neatly joined and removing stray bits of lint and whatnot.

Step 5 | Molding and Curing

If you’re fortunate enough to have a bowl with an exterior suitable for a mold, all the better. Center the mold over the clay, slide a hand under the parchment, and flip everything over. Remove the parchment.

Shape the floral pattern polymer clay bowl by draping the clay over an oven safe bowl

Press the clay to the bottom of the bowl from the center out to make sure you get rid of any trapped air that will cause bubbles.

Looking straight down on the bowl press the corners into place. Check that they are all an even distance from the edge of the bowl. Once the corners are in place press the sides into place. Take your time and gently ease the clay to shape around the bowl.

If any seams have opened up on the backside of the veneer be sure to close them up again before curing.

If you don’t have a bowl with a suitable exterior, not worries. There just may be a little more finessing to get the bowl perfectly centered. And you may have to backfill any seams that open up on the backside as you can’t see them until after the bowl is cured. I find I generally have a little backfilling to do on my larger bowls when I use the inside as a mold.*

Bake the bowl, tented with foil, at the temperature recommended for your brand of clay for at least an hour. I often let my larger pieces go a little longer.

Remove the bowl from the mold once the clay has completely cooled.

Step 6 | Finishing the Floral Pattern Polymer Clay Bowl

Wet sand the bowl starting with the lowest/coarsest grit and working up to the highest/finest grit. Use lukewarm water with a couple drops of dish soap in it to rinse the bowl and sandpaper as needed. Change to water between grits.

If you like a glossy finish buff the bowl after sanding. I find a little Renaissance Wax helps bring out the shine faster but it’s not necessary. I prefer a matte finish (unless I’ve used a clay with mica particles) so I usually skip buffing my pieces to a shine.

*If you find you have a split seam after taking your bowl off the mold it’s pretty easy to fix. Simply mix a little translucent liquid clay into whatever color clay is best used to fix the split and pack the sticky clay into the gap. Scrape off the excess with a blade and wipe off any remaining residue with a wet wipe. Bake again and sand to finish.

If you’ve enjoyed learning how to make this floral pattern polymer clay bowl and give this tutorial a try please tag @bysandracallander on Instagram!

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