Pumpkin Beads Made of Polymer Clay – Great Halloween and Fall Jewelry

Pumpkin earrings for a cute trick-or-treat costume, and to wear at Thanksgiving dinner:

Fall is coming so today's theme post is about pumpkin beads! This particular sculptural polymer clay bead is made in three parts. (1) The pumpkin; (2) The leaf; and (3) The vine. Each can be stacked to create dimension and movement.

The plump little pumpkin is shaped and given 'pumpkin wrinkles' to make it look realistic. A toothpick works great for putting in the lines. Then to accent the creases and give the pumpkin beads a 'fresh picked from the field' look, they are antiqued using a dark green artist acrylic paint.

The leaves are created using a special leaf cane made with two different shades of green Premo Sculpey clay. Thick slices of the cane were cut and baked over a chopstick to give the curved shape. This way when they are stacked on the pumpkin, the leaves drape over instead of stick straight out.

A snake of clay is twisted to look like a vine and baked on a bed of cornstarch. Always make sure there is a little loop in the vine so it can be threaded onto the earring wire.

Creating sculptural beads in separate parts makes it much easier to sand, buff and polish the individual items. Also, these parts fitted together loosely in the final jewelry piece, provides a nice sense of movement or fluidity.

All three components, the pumpkin bead, the leaf bead and the vine are threaded onto a head pin to create the dangle for a pair of earrings. A loop is made at the top of the pin so it can hang from the ear wire.

These polymer clay pumpkin earrings are simple to make and fun to wear! Leaving off the jack-o-lattern faces that you often see on pumpkin beads, allows this project to "fit in" throughout the entire Fall or Autumn season. Not just for Halloween costume jewelry.