Ghost Pins

Bonnie Willey

Make these spooky ghost pins, great for Halloween.

Getting Started

Preheat oven to 275 °F. Test temperature with oven thermometer for perfectly cured clay. Condition all clay by kneading until it’s soft and smooth or running it through the Clay Conditioning Machine for several passes on the widest setting. Fold the clay in half after each pass and insert the fold side into the rollers first.

Candy Corn

Make a 7/16 ball of White, flattened into a ½” circle. Wrap a ¼” thick snake of Atomic Orange around the White. Wrap an 11/64” thick snake of Yellow around the Atomic Orange. Your bulls-eye should be approx 1” wide. Cut the bulls-eye into pie wedges. Bake the wedges. After they are cooled, draw dash lines around the candy corn and across the colors. Set aside.

Body

Roll a ¾” ball of White clay, shape into a 2” long tapered egg shape, and flattened to approx, ½” wide. Pinch the narrow end and curve end up towards body.

Arms

The arms are two 1 ¼”x ¼” thick tapered logs. Press the tapered end of the top of the body.

Head

The head is a 9/16” ball of White clay shaped into a 1” long tapered egg flattened to approx, ½” wide. Pinch the narrow end and curve end up towards head. Press onto the top of the body by the arms. Using the circle cutter, press half of the cutter into the face to make the smile, or you can use the Needle Tool to draw smile. Dot corners of the mouth with the Needle Tool. Chalk the dots. Insert seed beads for the eyes. Using the Needle Tool, add two lines on the outside corners for expression lines. Add a 11/64” ball of line clay for nose, shape the ball in to a oblong shape. Press onto the head of the ghost.

Bow Tie

The Bow Tie is 2 hearts cut from Lime clay rolled out at #3 setting on Clay Conditioning Machine. Press hearts at the base of the head. Mark with the Needle Tool. Add a 11/64” ball for the knot. Place a piece of candy corn in the middle of the ghost’s body and place arms over the top to hold it in place. You can make a pumpkin out of ½”ball of Atomic Orange, flatted to ¾” wide. Use Needle Tool to mark and insert a ½” piece of round toothpick for stem. Place on ghost like the candy corn.

Baking

Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet according to manufacturer’s directions. Cool, glue pin back on the back using E6000 glue.