This is part of a series showing how to create polymer clay letter canes. (These alphabet cane tutorials were first published on my other website (KayVincent.com), but now I’m moving all of my polymer clay-related posts over to the PolymerKay site instead.) The letter J is one of the more complicated letters to create with polymer clay, because it mixes a curve and a straight line, plus it’s also asymmetrical. There may be better ways to create this cane, but this one seems to work for now. So here is the Letter J Polymer Clay Alphabet Cane Tutorial.

UPDATE (April 2024): Depending on your preferred learning style, there are now three ways to view the tutorial:

  • video
  • full step-by-step written and illustrated guide
  • handy one-page summary. 

Letter J polymer clay alphabet cane tutorial

Letter J polymer clay alphabet cane tutorial - KayVincent

You will need

Black and white polymer clay

Step-by-step instructions: Letter “J” alphabet cane tutorial

Step 0: Condition the clay (e.g. by rolling each colour through the pasta machine at least ten times, until they are soft enough to work with). (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):

Sheet of black clay

2: Roll the white clay into a cylinder about 25mm (1 inch) in diameter:

Letter-Y-polymer-clay-alphabet-cane-tutorial-white-cylinder

3: Slice off about a third of the white cylinder and save it for later:

cut a third off white polymer clay cylinder

4: Cut off the top quarter of the cylinder and save it to use later:

cut off top quarter from cylinder

5: Take the U-shaped section and reduce/lengthen it to about double its current height (or length, depending on how you look at it!)

reduce and lengthen the U-shaped section

6: Cut the lengthened U-shape in half.

cut the lengthened U in half

7: Wrap part of first U shape with a layer of black

Wrap part of first U shape with black

8: Add a layer of the black sheet to the flat side of the crescent.

Put a layer of black on flat side of crescent piece

9: Squeeze the second U shape into a long thin triangle shape:

Press second U shape into a long thin triangle

10: Bend the long triangle around the first U shape.

Bend the triangle around the U shape

11: Using the white piece of clay that was cut off in Step 3, roll it through the pasta machine on the thinnest setting and then wrap thin white layers around the sides of the cane:

Wrap in white clay

12: Reduce the cane (e.g. by carefully rolling it on a flat surface until it becomes longer and thinner).

Finished Letter J polymer clay alphabet cane:

Letter J polymer clay alphabet cane tutorial - KayVincent

Here is the TikTok video tutorial:

@polymerkay

Letter J polymer clay cane tutorial. By Kay Vincent – polymerKay https://polymerkay.com/letter-j-polymer-clay-cane-tutorial/. The letter J is one of the most complicated letters to create with polymer clay. There are probably lots of other ways to make this cane, but here is my effort 😀 polymerClay polymerClayCane polymerClayCaneTutorial polymerClayTutorial craftTutorial sculpey fimo premo katoClay clayTok polymerClayEarrings polymerClayMiniatures

♬ Angels Harp – HW

…and finally, here is a handy graphic which shows the main steps all on one page.

Letter J polymer clay alphabet cane tutorial graphic - KayVincent

Thanks for reading – I hope you found this letter “J” tutorial useful. If you’ve tried making any of these canes I’d love to hear from you – please share any successes (or problems) via the comments section or contact us page. Please also consider supporting me via the Ko-fi button below, which allows people to contribute to my polymer clay stash so I can keep creating these free tutorials for you.