Doll Size Oranges

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week I decided to make a couple of oranges to put into our fruit bowl from last week. This project is pretty simple, only uses 1 color of clay (white), a tiny scrap of some brown clay, and some tools. The result in my opinion is not simple though, it is packed with details. I love the end result especially the fact that my oranges don't look perfect they look real.

Since this orange is going in the fruit bowl it is designed to stay in its whole form. If you want to be a bit more daring and make a sliced orange or some slices of orange I have an older video of that here.

So we start with the form of the orange, a ball about ¾” to 1” in diameter. It doesn't have to be a perfect ball either. A few marks are actually good, just none too large and out of scale.

Next we add the two end “markings” the stem at one end and the little dimple for the blossom end. The tool I am using is part of a large set of clay tools and if you are wanting to get serious about working with clay I do recommend it. I used a couple of tiny bits of clay from my scrap clay bag. If you don't have a scrap bag just use a tiny bit of any brown clay or leave it off.

Next we texture the skin of the oranges. I love using my wire brush for this. This brush is made for cleaning tools and was very inexpensive. I think it was purchased at a Harbor Freight store but I have seen them in most places that have tools (you can get similar cleaning brushes in the gun department too)

After I was happy with the texture I baked my clay oranges on a paper plate at 250°F for about 45 minutes. Then the clay needs to cool completely to room temperature before we do anything else.

Now time for some of the magic. We are going to add layers of paints to build up the realism of our oranges.

I started with the bit of green my orange had at the stem end. I know this can be seen on lots of oranges and I really like the look. Just a little bit of green and in just that small area.

After the green dries it is time dab on some yellow paint. I used a stencil style brush for this and it worked really well for this color and the effect I was going for. Don't cover the whole orange but cover more that you did with the green.

Now for the orange color of our oranges. I sadly didn't have an orange color of paint that I really liked so I started with what I had and added in a bit of white and a bit of yellow. I mixed then compared the color to my real orange and adjusted until I was happy with the color. You really can color match whatever color your orange has. Cover the entire orange with this leaving some of both the green and yellow showing. Try to not get a perfect even coat of paint just try to not have any white showing when you are done. It is better to do 2 light coats than one heavy one.

Now I mixed some of the leftover orange with a touch of brown and some water (I used too much water) to form a wash to apply to the orange. This wash is just a shade or two darker than the orange itself and will highlight that texture and the imperfections we added to our oranges.

For a topcoat I used some mat Mod Podge, on the last orange I made I had used satin finish and I felt it was way too shiny. The mat was perfect.

Lastly I used some cream paint to give the end of the stem a little highlight in the middle just like my real orange has.

I am in love with this project and I hope you like it too. Remember if you make any of the items in my tutorials I would love to see pictures of how yours turned out.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.