Tutorial: Ballard Design Inspired Pear

So we've all been in love with the terracotta pears from Ballard Deigns for years, myself included.

It wasn't until I was walking through Hobby Lobby last week when I got inspired. They had a set of an over sized pear and apple, decoupaged with old book pages (sorry, I looked for a photo and couldn't find one). That's when the "I can make that!" light bulb came on. A couple days later, with my 40% off coupon in hand I went to Joann's. I bought one 6 inch styrofoam ball. The cones only came in packs of 2, so I bought a pack of medium sized ones.

First, using a bread knife, I cut off a small section off the ball to create a flat bottom.

Then, I cut the top off of the cone, about half-way down.

Then, I simply hot glued the two together. I wanted my pear to sit at a slight angle, so I glued the cone off-center.

Next, I raided my kids' craft box for some Playdoh. I didn't think till after, I should have just made a small batch of homemade since it doesn't need to be colored.

I used almost the whole can to fill in the space where the two pieces meet. I also used a small bit to round out the top of the cone. I went out into the yard and found a twig to stick in the top for a stem.

I let mine dry outside for around 36 hrs. It may vary where you are, but just make sure its dried through. Next, is the messy part. I used glossy Mod-Podge because its what I had. I'm sure matte would work fine too.

I grabbed some plain ole tissue paper from my wrapping supplies and ripped a couple sheets into manageable pieces.

Using a foam brush, I laid a thick layer of Mod-Podge down on the pear form. I then draped tissue paper over it and bushed another layer of Mod-Podge on top.

After drying a couple hours, I Mod-Podged another layer of tissue paper and let it dry another few hours.

This is what it looked like after it was all dry.

To give the pear color, I used some warm tan "oops" paint and acrylic paint. I used an apple green, burn orange, and mustard yellow.

I started by brushing on one coat of the tan all over.

Then while still wet, I loaded my foam pouncer with green paint and started to blend. I concentrated the green on the bottom and top and lightly blended it down.

I added some orange around the fullest part to mimic blush. The whole thing felt a lot like applying makeup really...blend, blend, blend.

Finally, I pounced on some yellow for highlights. I also flicked a little bit of white paint to create the little speckles you see on a pear, but decided I don't like them. They remind me of my mom's adventures in toll painting in the 90's. I stole a stem and leaf off of one of my silk trees, gave it a couple quick sprays with some dark brown paint, and hot glued it to my stem.

Here's the final result! What do you think? I think it's more realistic than the Ballard Version, but the size and tone are the same. With the stem its about 13 inches. I love it, but it needs a friend... a green toned one. I can't decide if it needs a big brother or little sister. What do you think?