How to make a miniature Thanksgiving pecan pie

You will need

Materials

• Polymer clay: white, yellow, ecru or beige
• Pastels: brown, dark cadmium orange, golden ochre
• Acrylic paint: metallic bronze, metallic green, terracotta.
• Metallic copper permanent marker pen
• Sculpey Bake & Bond
• Gloss varnish
• Craft glue
• 1/12^th scale ceramic plate
• 1/12^th scale cutlery
• 1/12^th scale leaves

Tools

• Small paintbrush
• Small ball tool
• Needle tool or sewing pin
• 1/12^th scale silicone pie/flan mould

1. Mix white polymer clay with yellow to make cream. Fill a 1/12^th scale silicone mould for a pie/flan measuring around 1.9cm in diameter with the mixture.

 

 

2. Use either a small ball tool or the end of a paintbrush to create a hollow in the centre of the pie, forming a crust around the edge.

 

 

3. Lightly score lines roughly around 2 1/2mm apart, all the way around the edge of the pie crust with a needle tool or sewing pin. Give the pie crust it’s scalloped edge by pressing the ball tool or end of a paintbrush into the side of the crust alternately between the sections made by the lines.

 

 

4. Mix grated pastel in shades of golden ochre, dark cadmium orange and brown, testing on a piece of cream clay to make sure you’re happy with the colour. Remove the pie from the mould and brush with the grated pastel.

 

 

5. Use a needle tool or sewing pin to flake lots of tiny pieces of cream clay.

 

 

6. Coat the inside of the pie base with Sculpey Bake & Bond or similar before adding the flakes of clay to resemble chopped pecans, filling all the way to the bottom of the scalloped crust.

 

 

7. Grate golden ochre and brown pastel, brushing over the top of the pie filling. Add shading for a realistic finish.

 

 

8. To make the whole pecans, mix a little ecru or beige clay with cream. Roll twenty-one balls, each roughly around 2mm in diameter, into ovals. Flatten slightly with a finger, ensuring they still retain a slight curve.

 

 

9. Brush each pecan liberally with grated dark cadmium orange pastel mixed with brown. As with the pie base, test the colour on a piece of spare clay first. With the side of a needle tool or sewing pin, score two deep lines all the way down the length of each nut towards the centre, adding an additional lightly scored line down each side. If you can see any clay showing through the scored lines, brush with a little more pastel to cover.

 

 

10. Use Bake & Bond to adhere the pecans to the top of the pie in a circular formation, an outer circle and an inner circle with a final, single nut in the centre. Bake and allow to cool thoroughly.

 

 

11. Coat the whole pecans and the ‘chopped’ pecans beneath with gloss varnish for a realistic shine.

 

 

12. Take a 1/12^th scale knife and any other miniature cutlery you would like to include in the final scene, such as forks, and paint the handles using metallic green acrylic paint.

 

 

13. Once the paint has dried, decorate the handles with tiny dots using a needle tool or sewing pin dipped in terracotta acrylic paint.

 

 

14. Take three 1/12^th scale leaves or make your own using the step by step project in the September issue of the magazine and coat them with metallic bronze acrylic paint.

 

 

15. Decorate a ceramic plate (preferably cream, but not compulsory!), adding dots all the way around the edge using a fine permanent marker pen also in metallic bronze.

 

 

16. Once the paint has dried, glue the three miniature leaves to the centre of the pie, allowing each one to stick up slightly. Glue both the pie and the knife to the plate to complete.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!