How to Make Pottery Barn Handcrafted Mini Terracotta Pumpkin Dupes

When I saw the Pottery Barn handcrafted mini terracotta pumpkin and gourds I instantly fell in love, but not with the price. So I made dupes!

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, but these are products I recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.

Today I’m so excited about joining some friends for a Fall DIY blog hop.

Fall decor can be so expensive, so I like to DIY as much as I can to cut costs and still have a gorgeous fall home.

If you’re here from Lora’s DIY fabric leaf wreath project I’m so glad you stopped by!

If we’ve never met I would love for you to head over to the About Aliya section so you can get to know me a bit more.

(Over there I share how and why I came to start Open Doors Open Hearts.)

I hope you sign up to get the emails so you can stay up to date with everything that’s happening over here.

Mini Terracotta Pumpkin Inspiration

One night I was scrolling through my phone before bed (I don’t recommend this ever, but here I was haha).

A Pottery Barn ad popped up, and for some reason, I decided to click it.

I don’t own a single Pottery Barn thing, but in my exhaustion I gave in to the ad haha!

Once I was at their website I went to all the Fall decor and found these cute handcrafted mini terracotta pumpkin and gourds.

After looking at the price I knew I wouldn’t be getting them.

But when I put my phone down and was drifting off to sleep an idea hit me.

My friend Jennifer from Cottage on Bunker Hill made these gorgeous clay leaves recently.

So I thought maybe I could use air-dry clay to make my own handcrafted mini terracotta pumpkin and gourds!

I ordered the air-dry clay from Amazon and began the project.

You guys, these pumpkins turned out so cute!

Not to mention I don’t feel a bit bad for making them for the grand total of $10.50!

You can watch the video of me making these on YouTube if you prefer the video.

If I’m being honest, I think the reason I had this idea was that I’ve always wanted to try to make a clay pot or bowl on one of those spinning wheels.

This is by no means a beautiful handcrafted bowl, but I do think it helped answer some of that desire to create.

Making Time to Create

It was such a beautiful time.

I dropped the girls off at my Moms, turned on some music, and put my hands to work.

**TOTAL ASIDE**

I don’t usually drop my girls off with other people to do projects, but if I’m being honest; I needed it.

I’m not a super Mom.

I’m just a regular Mom who needs a few minutes each day to recover and rejuvenate my spirit.

I’ve received a few messages from some of you like “How do you do all these things with your girls around?”

Usually it goes one of two ways.

1. Mommy is going to work on something so I need you to go play nice with each other while I do it.
   **Insert interruption after interruption**

or

2. Hey, Mommy is going to do something really fun, do you wanna help me?

But here’s the thing…

Maybe me doing all of these things with my girls is me trying to prove to myself that I’m good enough.

Does that make sense?

Maybe I’m afraid it will prove that I’m weak when I ask for help.

Is it possible that I believe that it takes a village to raise these beautiful girls, but I’m afraid to admit that I can’t do everything all the time?

Yup.

That’s it.

So while I’m walking this out and learning that self-care and asking for help isn’t a weakness, I want to encourage you too.

It’s okay to ask for help.

When I’m not trying to do it all alone, I have more energy and enthusiasm to show up and be the mom, wife, friend, sister, and daughter I want to be.

Who I actually am, when I’m not running myself into the ground.

So take a lesson from me and make sure you’re taking care of yourself.

Also, added bonus, I was able to make a few clay leaves while Mom watched the girls too because I had the time to create.

Tip When Working with Air-Dry Clay

Water

Water is magic when working with air-dry clay!!

It helps keep the clay hydrated while you’re working with it, but it also helps to get rid of the creases and folds.

Just dip your finger in a cup of water and start smoothing over the clay with your wet finger.

It will begin to make the crease disappear!

I definitely used water to complete these terracotta pumpkins from start to finish!

Mini Terracotta Pumpkin : Supplies

Aluminum foil
Parchment paper
Air-dry clay
Dish of water
Rolling pin (I used my girls play dough rolling pin)

Mini Terracotta Pumpkin : Instructions

Step 1.

The first thing I did was put parchment paper down on my workspace.

This just makes clean up easier, and who doesn’t want that?!

Step 2.

Next, I created an aluminum foil mold of the pumpkin I wanted to make.

My first pumpkin was more circular and the second pumpkin was flatter.

So whatever your pumpkin inspiration is, just create a mold that resembles it.

*TIP*

I had a picture of my inspiration pumpkin pulled up on my phone as I was making them.

Step 3.

The next thing I did was grab the air-dry clay and start rolling it out flat.

I used the girls play-dough roller so I didn’t get the air-dry clay on my food rolling pin, but again, this is necessary just easier for clean up.

Step 4.

After the clay is rolled out I put the aluminum foil mold in the middle and wrapped the clay around it.

Step 5.

Now that I had a clay ball I took a small piece of clay and rolled it into a snake.

Then I kind of flattened it.

I took the flat snake and pushed it down into the clay ball starting at the bottom and then again at the top.

Repeat this step again so you have two lumps side by side on your clay ball.

Step 6.

After I had two sections of clay on the clay ball, I began smoothing the clay sections over toward each other to create my first pumpkin ridge.

After I did this for the first ridge I added another piece of flat clay and did the same thing.

I did this all the way around the pumpkin until the clay ball was covered with the ridges like those on a real pumpkin.

Step 7.

After the body of the pumpkin was complete I added a stem to the top.

Using the same techniques as I did with the ridges, I smoothed the stem down onto the pumpkin.

But I also used a popsicle stick because I felt like my fingers were too big to get the creases gone.

And you’re all done!

I hope you enjoyed this project and you have to let me know how it turns out if you try it!

Next, make sure you head over to Anna’s DIY Fall centerpiece.

Pin for Later!

Don’t forget to head over to your favorite social media platforms Facebook or Instagram.

Also, make sure you follow along on YouTube & Pinterest to check out all the other Fall decor ideas I’ve been pinning for this year!

Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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