How to Make Ceramic Fruit

Decorative fruit can be made from clay, plastic, paper or wood.

Ceramic fruit looks attractive and never goes bad. The ceramic fruits in this article are based on making a hollow form and shaping it to look like the fruit it is supposed to resemble. Other fruits like bananas, grapes or cherries can be made using coils or rolled up balls of clay.

Things You'll Need

• Clay
• Slip
• Clay pencil
• Needle tool
• Wire tool
• Rolling pin
• Clay rib
• Colored glazes
• Kiln
• Kiln stilts

Instructions

Basic Form

1. Wedge the clay to remove air bubbles. Cut two fist-sized pieces of clay from the wedged clay and roll into balls.

2. Create a pinch pot by sticking your thumb in the center of a ball and using your fingers on the outside to push the clay outward, thinning the walls and creating a cup shape. Turn the piece as you pinch. Repeat with the second ball of clay. Attempt to make the pinch pots the same width.

3. Tap the rim of the pinch pot on a flat surface to even out the pot.

4. Score and slip the two pinch pots together. Roll a coil from additional clay that is about the width of a pencil. Cover the coil in slip and apply to the seam.

5. Knit the seams together by taking the clay pencil and making diagonal lines through the coil and seam, from one half to the other. Using a rib, smooth out the area so that it appears to be one solid piece. These round spheres, also known as clay balloons, will be used for the fruit.

Into Fruit

1. Make indentations with a clay pencil across the surface to make an orange. Orange peels are dimpled and at one end have a big dimple where the fruit hung from the tree. Using your thumb, gently push down in the center of one end of the fruit to make this dimple. In the middle of the dimple, use the needle tool to poke a hole in the clay balloon to prevent shattering in the kiln.

2. Make a smaller clay balloon that is slightly cylindrical to make lemons and limes. Add a small ball of clay at the ends to shape the fruit, using a coil to help build the shape. Dimple the surface with a clay pencil. Vent the piece by using the needle tool to poke holes through the surface in a few places.

3. Roll out a slab of clay that is about one-quarter of an inch thick. Cut leaf shapes from the slab. Use the clay pencil to make veins in the leaf. Use these leaves to add to fruit like apples or peaches.

   To make these, form an indentation in one end of the fruit for a peach, and both ends for an apple. The second indentation should be smaller than the first in the case of the apple. Use the clay pencil to make a vertical indentation from the top to the bottom of the peach on both sides. Add a small coil to the large indent to serve as a stem, and score and slip leaves in place. Vent the pieces with the needle tool in the indented area.

4. Gently tap each piece on a flat surface so that the fruit does not roll around.

5. Let the pieces dry over a week to 10 days to encourage slow, even drying.

Firing and Glazing

1. Fire the pieces in a kiln to the bisque stage as directed by the clay manufacturer.

2. Glaze the fruit. If you desire full coverage of the glaze, you will have to use stilts in the kiln to prevent the glaze from sticking to the shelf. If an unglazed portion is suitable for the piece, glaze the piece except for the flat area that the piece sits on.

3. Fire the pieces to the suggested temperature from the glaze manufacturer.

Tips & Warnings

• Using matte or semigloss glazes can add a more realistic finish to fruits that are not shiny.

• Community arts centers may offer access to their kilns for a small fee.

References

• JH Pottery: Making a Pinch Pot
• TeachPottery: Pinch Pots