Boy, am I glad making miniature food does not require a significant amount of materials! I have sculpted many fruits and vegetables over and over and thrown out so much. I do see some improvement in each rendition, so that’s good, but it’s always hard to give up on a piece and try again.

Practice, practice, practice!

Anyway…here are my most recent oranges.

I made them by building a “cane” out of the clay so the inside of each of the oranges is realistic.

Once the disc was free of spaces and air bubbles, I shaped it into a long log by continuing to squeeze, stretch and roll. This part is tricky as it is easy to distort the disc and alter the interior. The photos below illustrate this.

To make the orange slices I simply cut very thin slices of the cane. Trial and error taught me to let the cane sit overnight or put it in the refrigerator for awhile so my blade wouldn’t squish and distort the image as I cut it.

To make whole oranges I cut about a quarter of an inch from the cane and carefully pinched the peel together on both cut ends. After rolling this into a ball, I added some pastel chalk with a brush to add depth of color, then stuck a teeny tiny piece of green on the stem side of the orange.

Finally, I added texture to the peels with a toothbrush then baked the oranges in the oven for 15 minutes to harden the clay.

I know it would have been easier to just roll the orange clay into balls instead of building the canes, but I love the idea that the inside of the oranges are realistic as well. I cut many more slices than pictured, so I’m sure there will be plates of these somewhere other than the kitchen in the Mouse House!