Polymer clay pumpkin tutorial

My most recent custom order inspired me to share this tutorial with you. While I’m not reinventing the wheel here, I thought it’d be a fun tutorial to bring to you. If you’re looking for some last minute Halloween decorations, these can easily be turned into a jack-o-lantern or left as is. They can also be used as decoration or any upcoming fall events you may have!

They’re very easy to do, and the aluminum foil interior will make them lighter and use less clay, and they are more likely to cure thoroughly this way as well. I’ll also show you some fun add-ons you use to customize how they look.

Supplies:

• Aluminum foil
• Polymer clay in orange and brown
• Roller or pasta machine (optional)
• TLS (optional)
• Exacto knife
• Needle tool
• Tapered tool

Add on supplies:

Step 1: Create your armature

While we don’t need an armature to hold the shape of the pumpkin, having one will allow you to sculpt around it. This means you’ll have a much lighter center of your pumpkin, so your finished piece will be lighter and use less clay. Thick, solid pieces of clay take much longer to cure in the oven too, so having this center reduces your bake time and gives you a better chance of the clay curing properly.

To do this, take your aluminum foil and squish it up in to a ball. It should be smaller than what you want your pumpkin to be since we’ll be wrapping this in clay.

Step 2: Prep your clay

Flatten out your conditioned orange clay to about 1/4″. You can do this with your hands, with a roller, or with a pasta machine (you’ll have to fold it over with the latter, however—pasta machines don’t roll that thick, I don’t think). This thickness isn’t important. It can be thinner, but you also want enough thickness to thoroughly cover the dips and bumps in the aluminum foil and give you enough to create the segment indents.

Step 3: Wrap your armature

Once your clay is flattened to your desired thickness, begin wrapping it around your armature. I usually place my ball in the middle of the clay and start wrapping it up toward the top. You may also choose to cover the aluminum foil in TLS to help the clay bond to the foil, but this is not a necessary step since the it will be completely surrounded.

Once you get to the top of the foil, you’ll need to start trimming out the extra clay. Be mindful of any clay that may move away from the foil as you are trimming, and smooth the opening together.

With the seams blended, I like to roll the clay ball between my hands just to help shape it.

Tip: Pumpkins come in various shapes and sizes, so your finished pumpkin will look the most natural if it isn’t a perfect ball. You can lightly shape the clay ball once the foil is covered, but you can also use an aluminum armature that’s either more squat or narrow as well.

Step 4: Create the segments

Now that you’re happy with the overall shape of your pumpkin, it’s time to create the segments! The initial lines are done with a needle tool and then cleaned up with a tapered tool (I like to use my clay shaper). If you don’t have a tapered tool, you can also use your fingers to smooth the edges, but be careful about gouging your clay!

Holding your pumpkin in one hand, align your needle tool in the middle of the top and roll the side of it down your pumpkin, all the way to the middle of the bottom. This gives you a nice thin line for your segment.

Repeat this around your pumpkin, starting and ending at the same point and spacing the segments out fairly evenly around the pumpkin.

Step 5: Smooth out the lines

If you’re happy with these lines as is, feel free to move to the next step! Chances are, however, you’ll want them to look a little less harsh. This is where your tapered tool or fingers will come in.

Follow your segment lines with the tool. This will help smooth out the harsh edges left by the needle tool, and it makes the segments look like they are curved indentations. Even if you do have a tapered tool, it’s also a good idea to finish off by smoothing the curve further with your fingers.

Step 6: Add your stem

Step 7: Bake

Pumpkin leaves

You may want to add a leaf to the top of your pumpkin to give it a little extra flair. These are normally positioned near the stem.

 

Before baking, roll out your green polymer clay to the desired thickness. You may want to look at reference photos of leaves, but they have 3 main points. You’ll want to cut out this basic shape:

 

 

You can smooth out the edges of the clay with your fingers and even use your needle tool to create the leaf veins. Then it’s ready to add to the top of your pumpkin!

 

Pumpkin vine

Another fun thing to add to your pumpkin is the vine. These are a bit more on the fragile side once the clay is baked, so keep that in mind!

 

These are created by rolling out thin snakes of your green polymer clay. Cut pieces off that are longer than what you want them to be. Take each end of this clay in your hands and twist in different directions. You’ll see that the clay will start curling up on itself.

 

 

I like to gently press on these curls to help reinforce the shape before adding them at the base of my pumpkin stem.

 

Add depth to your pumpkin