05 September 2022
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Use polymer clay to create this little fun harvest food project for your dolls house or miniature scene
“It’s that time of year when everything is bursting with colour and the allotment is full of tasty treats! In this fun little project with super easy techniques, Lynn Allingham helps you to get your miniature scene ready with a crate full of bounty fresh from the ground.”
Fancy being inspired? Check out this gallery of incredible creations celebrating bringing home the harvest!
You will need
Materials required
- Polymer clay in translucent orange, red, yellow, white, green, brown, orange and sahara
- Soft pastels in black, dark brown and light green
- Acrylic paint in dark brown
- Clear gloss Liquid
- Natural white and brown feathers
- Small piece of kitchen tissue paper
- Small piece of newsprint
- Green model makers grass
- Very fine green floristry wire (preferably paper covered)
- Tacky PVA glue
- Blu Tack
- Strong glue
- 1 x small wooden bowl (2cm in diameter)
- 1 x small wooden crate (5cm x 3.5cm)
Tools required
- Pokey tool
- Cosmetic applicator
- Large embossing tool
- Medium embossing tool
- Fine paintbrush
- Coarse paintbrush (for dry-brushing)
- Toothbrush (new or used)
- Wire cutters
- Scissors
All materials used in this project are widely available from any good arts and crafts shop.
Lynn’s Top Tip!
“Securing small or round pieces to your worktop using Blu Tack or double sided tape makes it a lot easier to apply detail without making mistakes.”
Instructions
1 Form translucent orange clay into six natural looking carrot shapes in a variety of sizes between 1cm-2cm in length. Use a pokey tool to gently roll each carrot to create linear indentations on each, as pictured.
2 To resemble dirt and mud, use a cosmetic applicator to apply a little brown pastel to each carrot. Use a pokey tool to create a hole in the top of each carrot, apply a little light green pastel around each hole.
The eyes have it…
“I use inexpensive matt eye shadow to decorate my miniatures,” Bea Broadwood
3 For the bell peppers mix yellow clay with a little white to create a lemon yellow. Use your fingers and a large embossing tool to gently shape the clay into two basic bell peppers roughly 1cm-1.5cm in length. Repeat the above with red clay.
4 Mix green clay with a little bit of brown clay to create a natural green. Use your fingers to shape into three small pepper stems roughly 6mm-8mm in length.
5 Take a little of the natural green clay and roll and flatten into three discs roughly 2mm-3mm in diameter. In turn, apply a small disc to the top of each pepper, use the tip of a pokey tool to scratch and blend into place. Attach a stem and lightly dust all of the green clay with a little light green pastel. Make any further adjustments to the peppers as desired.
6 For the runner beans use natural green clay created in step 4 and mix with a little yellow. Shape into ten, long flat runner beans, between 2.5cm-4.5cm in length.
7 Use a medium embossing tool to create small dents along each runner bean to hint at the beans within. Texture each runner bean by brushing light diagonal lines into the surface of the clay with a toothbrush. Use the side of a pokey tool to create a linear line down one side of each. Lightly dust each bean with brown and light green pastel.
8 Mix Sahara clay with a little orange clay to create an eggshell colour. Shape into eight little eggs roughly 7mm-9mm in length. Take all pieces from steps 1-8 and bake as recommended.
9 For the carrot stems cut green floristry wire into small lengths (cut 2-3 pieces of wire for each carrot). Dip the end of each piece of wire in tacky PVA glue then roll in the model makers grass to create carrot stems. Once all PVA is dry, trim and glue 2-3 stems into the top of each carrot as pictured.
10 Water down brown acrylic paint to a thin, translucent consistency. Secure each egg to your worktop using Blu Tack then lightly speckle the eggs with the watery paint using a stiff brush or toothbrush. Coat the yellow and red of each pepper in clear gloss liquid. Cut brown and white feathers into 5mm pieces. Leave to dry.
11 Roughly line a small wooden bowl with two small pieces of folded kitchen tissue. Glue six eggs into the bowl and attach a few feathers to each. Leave two eggs and one feather loose to display next to the bowl.
12 Take a small wooden crate and age the wood by dry brushing it with brown acrylic then rub it with a brown pastel to bring out the grain of the wood.
13 Line the crate with a little newsprint; then display the carrots, peppers and runner beans as desired, or as pictured.
