Polymer Clay Springoween Pins

Who’s feeling crafty this spring?! I like to beat those I-wish-it-were-Halloween-blues by doing some spooky crafts! I myself have been getting into making pins and earrings out of polymer clay. I’ve always wanted to give it try and found it to be a fairly inexpensive and fun way to create all sorts of charms and accessories. I’m still very much in the early stages of perfecting the art of working with polymer clay – but I learn something new and inspiring each time I sit down to mold with it. I want to share how I made this bright and colorful jack-o-lantern pins for spring if you too want to start sculpting with clay – they’re super simple and minimal tools are required!

I bought an starter pack of polymer clay from Michael’s for about $14.99. This came with some smaller sized clay bricks and included twelve different colors. Before getting started – make sure you have a super clean work space free from debris (I learned this the hard way having to try to pick fuzzies out of my pieces).

Sometimes I use a designated placemat to work on or I just roll out a clean piece of aluminum foil since I’ll end up baking them on it anyhow!

Pinch off the desired color you want and roll it around in your hands real good to soften and condition it so it’s ready to be molded.

To get a marbled effect on your pieces you can simply pull, twist and roll two colors together – or heck MULTIPLE colors if you’re feeling real wild and crazy. In crafting (at least for me), rules do not exist!

I rolled each pumpkin into a ball before pressing them down into a jack-o-lantern shape. I also pressed a little dip in the top on them to place a little stem on top.

Once you’ve shaped the jack-o-lantern into something that speaks to you, you pop that bad boy in the over to bake and solidify. Check the directions on your package of clay for the right temperature and time as you do not want to over-bake them. The Sculpey I used bakes at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let them dry completely before painting a face on them. What’s great about polymer clay, is that you can use acrylic paint on them to get any fine or small details defined. You can opt to mold the face features out of black clay and press them on but my big ole fingers end up smooshing everything all wrong.

I used a toothpick to paint the faces since none of my fine paint brushes were narrow enough.

After the paint dries, I used super glue to attach butterfly pins to the sculptures. You can pick up a few of these in the jewelry making aisle at your hobby store or order a bunch in bulk like I did from Amazon. I found that making pins became quite addicting so I got a bulk supply. I’ve made the following pins so far: ghosts, mushrooms, narwhals, tacos, pizzas, avacados, skulls, ladybugs, and bumblebees. But nothing compares to the classic jack-o-lantern – a favorite among all Halloweenies!