26 Apr How to Make a Clay Model of a Tomato

We are officially 1/6 of the way through the book, A Manual of Clay-Modelling by Unwin. We’ve questioned ourselves a few times as to why we decided to do this video series. There are 60 models in this book – and we are determined to do every single one of them. It was only a few weeks ago that I was sitting down looking over this book, feeling rather overwhelmed. But as with anything, when you break it up into small pieces, it becomes very do-able. Not only that, but it is important to us to do this for our fellow homeschool families, just as we did our paper sloyd series.

This week’s project is a clay model of a tomato.

The book’s illustration indicated a beefsteak-type of tomato, with obvious ridges around it. We didn’t happen to have any such tomatoes, nor did the grocery store. So, we settled for what we had, which was a tomato on the vine. It was much smaller but had a lovely set of sepals in the calyx. This was actually our greatest challenge, so be sure to watch our Happy Handicrafts video below to see how we handled it!

Materials Needed

• The book, A Manual of Clay Modelling by Hermione Unwin (or free online HERE)
• Modeling Clay (the book suggests red terra cotta clay)
• Clay modeling tools (this kit includes many tools, along with a sponge and wire to cut the clay)
• An modelling board with an armature – hopefully you’ve made this with us already
• A bowl of water.
• An apron or paint shirt to protect your clothing
• Newspaper, or plastic covering to protect your table
• A tomato

Happy Handicrafts Video: How to Make a Clay Model of a Tomato

The project began with the usual slab being built up around the armature. After careful examination of the model, we began to build up the mass of the object. Once the clay was about the size and shape of the model, we pressed it down onto the armature.

Once the clay object is firmly in place on the armature, Luci made a dimple with her forefinger to make a place for the calyx. Filling this space was our next challenge!

At this point, if you had distinct lobes on your tomato, draw them onto your tomato with the tools and build up each lobe by adding clay .

Since we had no lobes or division on our tomato, we then worked on the sepals. The book suggests rolling out tiny individual rolls of clay then flattening and shaping them on the board. Once they are all shaped, press them all together at the center. The problem with this is it fell apart each time we attempted to lift it and put it into the dimple.

Our solution was to create a larger, flattened piece of clay, from which we cut out the sepals. This way they didn’t tend to separate when moved. We pressed it into the dimple. Then we rolled up some clay for the stalk, curved it as seen in the model and pressed it into the middle of the calyx. We completed our tomato by curling the sepals and smoothing out the object.

These models are getting trickier! How are you doing with them?

If you are just finding us, and you want to start at the beginning of our clay modelling series, you can find the Clay Modelling Playlist over on our YouTube channel, Happy Handicrafts. Come and join us!