Sweet Little Flower Bowls from Polymer Clay, a Tutorial

These little bowls are easy and fun to make, and I show you how, step by step in this tutorial. So, sit back, relax, and watch the process unfold. Then have some fun and make your own.

The music from the video is English Country Garden by Aaron Kenny and is available from the YouTube Free Audio Library.

If you like my work, then please do have a look at my website, http://www.fionaabel-smith.co.uk/ and follow me on Facebook   / fiona.abelsmith   and Instagram.   / fionaabelsmith.artist  

I also have a number of Polymer Clay PDF Tutorials to buy in my Etsy shop, PolyOriginals - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PolyOrig... and as a video tutorial here - http://polyoriginals.thinkific.com/co...

Here is the link to my conditioning Polymer Clay video -    • Conditioning Polymer Clay Quickly - some tips  

Here is the link to the Skinner Blends video –    • Basic Skinner Blend Tutorial from Polymer ...  

I used Kato PolyClay for this bowl but any of the well-known brands of polymer clay will work, although Kato, Cernit, Premo and FIMO Professional will give a stronger finished article than FIMO Soft for this particular project.

I used 1/2 oz (14g) of White, Magenta (with a little added White), and the same amount again, being a mix of half Blue, half Turquoise. The same amount of Purple, and 1/3 oz (10g) of a green which I made using 20 parts Yellow, 1 part Green. Most brands have similar colours you can use.

The second bowl used White, Yellow (with a little white and gold), Red (with a little White and Gold) and Gold. The inner part used a soft green made using Yellow with a little White and Green.

The third bowl used White, Yellow, Magenta and Purple, with the same inner green as used in the second bowl.

Other equipment you need is:

A polymer Clay Blade
Craft Knife
Small roller
4mm Cable Needle – or something similar
A semi sphere mould, 6cm / 2.75 inches in diameter – or something similar - see extra info below.
2 cm / 0.75 inch round cutter.
Small pieces of card/scissors.
Small sheet of baking, wax, tracing, greaseproof paper/parchment. Only to put on the very bottom of the bowl, temporarily.
Tile or baking tray to bake on.
Aluminium foil to cover the clay while it bakes.
Measuring sheet –(not essential, a ruler will do) but the one I use is freely downloadable from https://www.printablepaper.net. I laminate mine so I can use it multiple times.
Texture sheets – optional if you want to use some – search for ‘petal moulds’ online or in shops or make your own using 2 part silicon moulding compound.
Pasta machine dedicated to polymer clay use.

If you do not have a pasta machine you can roll the sheet of clay between two even stacks of playing cards. Setting 9 on my machine is 1 playing card thickness, setting 3 is 5 cards, setting 2 is 6 cards and setting 0 is 8 cards thickness.

You can buy the semi-sphere moulds in stores and online, they are often found in cookware departments, and bath bomb moulds (not plastic ones) are often good to use too. If you cannot find or do not want to purchase these moulds, then you can use the old fashioned round topped SPENT lightbulbs instead. Put a little scrap clay at the bottom to hold it upright and use the top of the spent lightbulb as your rounded mould. As an alternative, you can carefully cut off the bottom end of a used drinks can, and masking the cut edges, use it as a gently domed mould, (if there is printing on the bottom, sand it off first). Finally, if you have none of these, then a nice, rounded spoon can act as a good mould.

Helen Briel’s Mad About Bowls Tutorial is here - https://helenbreil.thinkific.com/cour... - where she covers making your own texture sheets.

Other Petal Cane tutorials that I have done will work well for these flower bowls – check out:

Inset Petal Cane -    • Polymer Clay Petal Cane with Inset Detail ...  
Curved Petal Cane -    • Polymer Clay, Curved Blend, Cane Tutorial  
Flame Petal Cane -    • Flame Petal Cane in Polymer Clay, a Tutorial  
Peacock Petal Cane -    • Peacock Petal Cane in Polymer Clay, a Tuto...  
Speckled Canes -    • Speckled Petal Canes in Polymer Clay.  

Thank you so much for watching.