The Making of Long Stemmed Caned Polymer Clay Flowers Bouquet by KatersAcres

Behind the Scenes

The Making of Caned Polymer Clay Flowers Bouquet

Every once and awhile there’s something you make that has more meaning than your day-to-day creations. For me, it was this lovely bunch of caned polymer clay flowers. Why? Because I made these in honor of my Mom’s birthday this past weekend.

Inspiration from Carol Simmons

Polymer Clay Caned “Fantasy Flowers” by Carol Simmons

My inspiration for this bouquet of flowers came from none other than the fabulous Carol Simmons. Carol even teaches a workshop for how to make your own “Fantasy Flowers“. My flowers were inspired by hers, but as you can tell, aren’t near as pretty or lovely as those that she teaches and creates herself. I did the tops of mine as flower “buds” that match the caned flowers underneath too.

One day I aspire to be able to be as good of a caner as Carol (and take a class or two with her), until then, I will keep trying, trying, and trying again. If you haven’t visited Carol’s polymer clay website, be sure to do so.

Caned Polymer Clay Flowers Bouquet

To make these flowers I made my own custom color palette from just 3 main colors of polymer clay. This means that my clay would always match each other.
I didn’t want the harshness of “white” for my skinner blends. Instead I settled on a 50/50 mix of ecru and white to add a “creme white” mix.
After I made all my blends, I made them into rolls and plugs in each color.
Then I began the longer process of making individual canes from all those rolls and colors.
The result of all those canes was what you see above, stacked, fun, & lovely flowers.

What I Will Do Differently Next Time

I hope that you are like me and that with each and every project you learn something that you could have done differently. The list of things I would do differently is not a large one, but definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

I would choose only 3 colors for each bouquet. I used the rainbow of colors, but afterward realized that the color combinations I should have kept together were: red, blue, purple and green as well as red, yellow, orange, & green. This would have made a more harmonious looking bouquet.
I also would create lovely in my flowers by baking in small dishes to achieve a “roundness” that they lacked.
I would also create more “spikes” from canes, cane ends, and pieces too.

Meet Blue!

I made so many colors, so many blends, and rolled so much clay through my pasta machine that I actually killed it. Now, if I was being honest, my pasta machine has had a ‘hitch’ for about a year. [Likely I ran too thick a stack of clay through it at one point in time]. Well that hitch became a “stop point” about halfway through my project. Since my Mom’s birthday was on Saturday (and yes I procrastinated and started on Thursday) I had to finish this project and had no time to wait on a new pasta machine. So, since Amazon and I are buddies, I had this beautiful new blue pasta machine over nighted to me.