Today I want to tell you how to make an autumn pendant in the form of a juicy, bright and uplifting pumpkin!

The manufacturing process requires concentration, safety and special care. Manufacturing is not difficult, but requires perseverance.
So, you will need a set of materials and tools:

• muffle furnace and carbon coal container, ceramic fiber blanket;
• boron machine;
• sculpting tools;
• food film or glass for working with clay;
• scissors, knife, paper, pencil;
• hand engraver;
• brushes of different thickness;
• tweezers;
• water (preferably filtered or distilled);
• olive (sunflower) oil;
• bronze (I use goldieclay, because I think this material is the highest quality of all existing metal adhesives on the market);
• small pumpkin leaves;
• roller;
• abrasive sponges and files.

First, prepare the workplace and put all the necessary materials and tools in front of you. This will allow us to reduce the search for a particular item, as our metal clay dries quite quickly.

Before you start, think through the idea and make a sketch, from which we will build in the future.

You do not have to repeat everything as in the picture! We can fantasize and change details in the manufacturing process. It is necessary to understand that sometimes it is simply technically impossible to repeat the sketch exactly.

Draw the shape of a pumpkin on a separate sheet of paper, you can use a carbon paper and outline the shape from the sketch. Cut out the pattern.

Lubricate the work surface with oil, so that the clay does not stick to the plastic/glass.

Then, pinch off a small ball from the main piece of clay, roll out a layer of bronze clay with a roller (rolling pin).

Apply the pattern to the layer and carefully cut out the shape of a pumpkin with a scalpel, as in the photo:

Carefully remove the pumpkin from the surface of the plastic, since we lubricated the surface with oil, the workpiece should be easily removed.

Put the workpiece to dry in a warm place. It should be remembered that flat workpieces can bend at the time of drying, if you put the product on paper or on a hot surface, so try to use a lattice or not very hot surface. You can use a hairdryer, even if it is not a very fast way, but it will save the product from deformation.

While the workpiece is drying, let's start making leaves. Take a pumpkin leaf and smear the inner surface with oil.

Roll out a layer of clay and roll the sheet.

Cut with a scalpel along the contour of the sheet.

I recommend drying the leaves with a hairdryer, you can put a small ball of polymer clay under the sheet. This is necessary in order for the sheet to bend and have a more natural shape.

We do all the steps again to get two leaves (or more, at will and depending on the idea). Put the leaves in a warm place for better drying and return to our pumpkin. We will outline with a pencil the places for engraving and the place where there will be a hole – a window.

Drilled by marking the box boron-machine or a drill and needle files.

Scratch out grooves on the pumpkin with manual engraver, or with any sharp object.

Our next task is to treat the surface of the pumpkin – to remove bumps and burrs. For this purpose I use such abrasive sponges, they have different abrasiveness, on a photo rough (red), average roughness (blue) and small roughness (green) are presented.

Usually they are used in descending order, but today we do not need the green one, it is more suitable for silver. In addition, we do not have a goal to achieve a mirror smoothness, but on the contrary - we want the pumpkin to be velvet-matte.

Make a syringe in the window crosshairs, as shown in the photo.

Coat everything with a damp brush to ensure the best bonding. Leave to dry.

And return to our leaves, which are well dried.

Process the edges of the file so that they are not sharp.

Let's start making wheels for our carriage. To do this, draw a circle on paper with a diameter of 1.5 cm and put the drawing under a transparent plastic, on which we will work with a syringe. Syringe gently outlines the contours, makes strips in two layers to strengthen the structure.

Dry the rings. On a separate section of the working surface, make the crosshairs with a syringe, as in the photo:

Without waiting for the crosshairs to dry, put the dried ring on top, using tweezers for greater convenience.

Press down and remove the excess with a damp brush. It coat all the seams. We dry our wheels.

Now it remains for us to connect our parts. To do this, squeeze out a small but sufficient amount of clay from the syringe on the surface to be glued, then connect the parts.

Take care not to damage the already glued parts. To do this, it is best to put something under the foundation. In this case, I used plastic rulers.

Remove all excess with a damp brush. Coat connection.

Carefully dry the product.

Now our carriage looks rustic, decorate it with a mustache. To do this, apply a syringe several sausages, which can be twisted into loops. Disguise the suspension under the loop of the mustache.

Do not forget to put something in order to avoid deformation. The loop is thin and because of this sagging. Put a ruler under it.

Loop advise strengthen another layer by layer with the reverse of hand. The pendant is quite heavy, so a thin loop is not suitable at all.

All thoroughly dry. Check for flaws and immediately remove them before firing. In metal, everything will be much more difficult to clean up.

Put in a container with coal as shown in the photo. It is necessary to put a ceramic fiber blanket, in order to avoid deformation during firing.

Do not forget that each clay has its own firing mode. Goldieclay bronze is subjected to two-stage firing. Put in a cold oven container, heat up to 350C and keep 30 min. Carefully remove the container and fall asleep with coal to the top and close the lid. Put back in the oven, heat to 820C and keep 60-70 min.

Cool the container in the oven, remove the product from the warm coal. Here's what should happen:

Clean the wheels, leaves and tendrils. Polish. Grind.

And here is the result:

Many thanks to everyone, and especially to those who had the patience to read to the end! I wish you success and good luck!