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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Dollhouse Miniature Cantaloupe



This week I am making another fruit that was requested, the cantaloupe. I had never made cantaloupes before so I did a lot of experimenting before I found the right method. I did come up with several ways that seemed like good ideas but just didn't work out. I think some of them will be useful for other items later though.

To me the things that I wanted in my cantaloupes were the layers of color and the heavy texture. The color layering was pretty easy, I knew I wanted a darkish green for the under-layer so I went directly to leaf green. For the outside I knew that I needed a light beige type color and the Sahara seemed to be correct after trying a few other colors. Another plus to the Sahara is that it is one of the soft clays. The soft texture allowed the texturing to break through and expose the dark green of the under-layer.

Now it was onto finding the right tool to give the texture I had in mind. I tried several things and was just not happy with the results. A few that were close to what I wanted were crumpled up aluminum foil and a peppercorn. Then I remembered I had bought the scrubber to use for texturing a while back. As soon as I tried it I knew it was just what I was looking for.

The cantaloupes need no coating because the skin on the real thing is very matte finished so once you bake them they are ready to display.









5 comments:

  1. Dear Joanne, I took your amazing idea and also decided to do a cantaloupe cut in half and filled it with tiny fruits. I just made a log of the color of the fruit and wrapped the outside of it with the log you made. Thank you for the great idea. Your friend in PA.

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  2. hi joanne, i love all of your tutorials. i have a question though. im wanting to make a jar of pickles for a swap im in and im not sure what to put in the jar to make it look like liquid. i don't have any resin, so what would you suggest? just plain water or something else? the lids will be glued on for permanence. thanks a bunch!
    mini huggs,
    jan

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    Replies
    1. I would stay away from water since it can cause problems over time. If you can't get resin I would look for some clear glass paint (like Gallery Glass, etc) most craft stores have some brand of it. Just add it in thin layers and build up as it dries.

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  3. Thank you so much for the great tutorial. I'm excited to try making these. If we don't have a pasta machine what would you suggest to use to get the white as thin as you did. Thank you

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  4. You can get clay really thin by rolling it with either one of the acrylic rod rollers that are sold near the polymer clay in most craft stores. Since they can be a bit spendy another option is to use a straight sided glass bottle (like olives sometimes come in) as a roller. Work with the clay on a clay tile that has been dusted with cornstarch so it doesn't stick and be patient. It can be done with a roller in place of the pasta machine it just takes longer. If you are going to do a lot of work with polymer clay I would suggest saving up for a pasta machine. You can sometimes find them at thrift stores and yard sales for pretty cheap.

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