Art break - Pumpkin Carriage for Pumpking

Whilst on my recent travels, I went to visit my friend Pumpking (it isn't as dirty as you may think, he just really like pumpkins).
So I thought I would bring a vision I had for his home-grown pumpkins to life.

To begin this little art journey, we need some air-dry clay and clay tools.

I don't have a kiln and I don't think I want one.

The centre needed to have good structural integrity while being able to support windows and a doorway. To do this, I molded the core in two parts using yogurt containers as molds.

The bottom one has the beginnings of the seats inside the carriage.

Once dry enough, they could be freed from the molds to dry fully. One advantage of air dry clay is that it shrinks as it dries, naturally pulling away from the sides of the molds.

This time I was smart enough to put down baking paper to limit the mess I made!

Then the two parts just had to be glued together.

This one looks kind of dirty atm...

Just craft glue will do.

Together!

To create the texture of the pumpkin surface, I stuck on rolled 'worms' of clay. Like a prize ham I did not take a photo of this bit. I also added a stem and began to paint it all.
I used acrylic paint in various shades of orange and green.

See the 'worms'?

Done!

Then we have a pumpkin!
Now we need the wheels and frame. For that I used floral wire. It is green and very easy to work with.
I also used a green ribbon to make the leaves.

I put craft glue on the ribbon to make it stiffer (hur hur hur) and cut it into leaf shapes.

Big ones and little ones!

I then added a little interest by painting the centres light green...

... and adding some veins.

These leaves were then glued to the frame and the whole lot glued to the pumpkin.

Final result:

On the road!

In nature!

Verdict: I believe he really appreciated it :D