Wednesday 3 December 2014

Light up those pumpkins! (tutorial)

It may have taken me the best part of a month to post, but here's how I made the little illuminated pumpkins for my Halloween setup.

Halloween

At first I just made them out of solid fimo, but then, whilst looking to see if anyone else had a better idea for making them hollow, I stumbled upon this excellent tutorial.
She advocated using polystyrene balls in the centre, as the material shrinks under extreme heat. I didn't have any the same type, but I did have some scraps of polystyrene packing material which I was able to tear up into little clumps. It's a fantastic technique and one I will certainly use again!

I used dried grape stems for the stalks, and made a variety of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes as I tried to work out how best to light them.

1/12th scale Halloween Props

 I'm a big fan of £1 shops, especially this time of year as you get a lot of useful LED products to choose from with all manner of seasonal items coming out during the runup to Christmas. Most are too big and/or poorly made to use, but if you've got your eye in you can find a lot to salvage.
 I bought a set of battery powered LED pumpkin lights, and found to my delight that the hollow plastic pumpkins simply popped off the bulbs/ (I used a cut down one for David's head in the final photo, ahaha!)

1/12th scale Halloween Props

As the fimo pumpkins were so thin, I carved a small hole at the back of them and fed the bulb through...et voila!

1/12th scale Halloween Props

I taped the lights to the table and used a combination of blu-tack and, at one point, superglue, to keep them down as they kept pinging back up. XD

1/12th scale Halloween Props

Once they were all in the right place I added the pumpkins, made sure they were secure and covered the exposed wiring with foliage.

1/12th scale Halloween Props

I made a new batch of autumn leaves too, using some freshly fallen leaves from a cherry tree down the road and a variety of paper punches. I punch them out when they're fresh, then leave them to dry as if you try it when the leaves have already hardened they become incredibly fragile.

1/12th scale Halloween Props

1/12th scale Halloween Props

So there you go! :D

Happy Halloween!

10 comments:

  1. Awesome! I love that you punch your leaves out of actual leaves- it's brilliant and they look perfectly realistic!

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    1. It's strangely addictive too - I remember buying a new paper punch on holiday a couple of years ago as the leaves were turning, and one day, when it was too wet to venture out of the holiday house, I sat up in my room with a handful of leaves I'd pre-emptively gathered that morning and punched a veritable canopy of leaves. XD

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  2. I would have never thought of using real leaves to make fake leaves. That is BRILLIANT!

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    1. I'm not the only one to have thought of it, I've seen other miniaturists do the same thing over the years, so alas, I can't take the credit for such a great idea! The best part of using the real thing rather than paper though, is that they curl naturally as they dry out, and if you keep them safe in an airtight container (I use some small glass herb jars) they keep their colour for a good long while. :D

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  3. Can we expect a Christmas post in Easter then? Ha-ha. Kidding. Love the haunted horseman =0)

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    1. I'd love to say 'don't be ridiculous, of course not!' but let's face it, this is me we're talking about. XD I could procrastinate for Scotland!

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  4. Thanks! This is awesome!

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  5. Well Done! I'm not a big fan of halloween but I must say, that I love what you have done with the pumpkins and how you have lit them. I also like the autumn leaves that you have scattered about! Totally cool, especially the final photo... Clever Girl! :D

    elizabeth

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