How to make a snowman

A finished white snowman with a black top hat, scarf, carrot nose, black buttons and stick arms

How to sculpt a snowman from polystyrene spheres.

A finished white snowman with a black top hat, scarf, carrot nose, black buttons and stick arms

Products used

Step one: the head and body

Take the two different sized polystyrene hemispheres and glue them together with UHU Por to make the head and body of the snowman.

Once they are glued, fill the joins between the halves, then add a snow-like texture to the spheres with Foamcoat. Cover a small amount at a time and use a brush to stipple a slightly raised, spiky surface onto the sphere, then allow it to dry. Repeat until both spheres are completely covered.

A polystyrene sphere covered in a stippled white snow texture

Step two: the eyes, mouth, buttons and nose

Now make the carrot nose, stick arms, eyes, mouth and buttons.

For the eyes, buttons and so on you need small polystyrene spheres. Squash them all slightly to give them a better look, so that they are not identical. Then pin them into a polystyrene board with small pins and paint them with black acrylic paint.

Small black-painted spheres pinned into a polystyrene board

Use craft foam clay to make the arms and nose. For the nose, roll the craft foam clay into a carrot shape, allow it to dry, then make grooves in it using sandpaper. Paint it with orange acrylic paint, and add shading with black acrylic paint for a more realistic effect.

A grooved carrot nose made from craft foam clay and painted orange

Step three: the arms and hat

For the arms, bend the aluminium wire to form two armatures. Once you are happy with their shape, roll out some of the clay and wrap the armatures, smoothing out all the joints. Once they are covered, add grooves and detail to make them look like wooden sticks, and allow them to dry. Then paint them brown, adding black shading for a better effect.

To make the hat, take the black sticky-backed velour, the cardboard sheet and the cardboard tube. First cut the tube to the height you need, then cut the cardboard sheet for the top and the rim of the hat, and cover them in the black velour. Once they are covered, glue the pieces together with UHU Por to form the hat.

Black velour, a cardboard tube and a circle marked on cardboard sheet for the hat

Step four: putting it together

Now all the parts are made, you can start putting the snowman together.

  1. Glue the eyes and mouth onto the head, using the pins and glue for a stronger bond.
  2. Do the same with the hat and nose. For the nose, it is best to cut a small piece of wire and insert it into the nose for strength, as the nose will be heavier than the polystyrene balls. Then glue on the hat and allow it to dry.
  3. While this is drying, stick the buttons onto the body, then attach the arms with both glue and the wire used in making them. Put something under the arms to keep them in place while the glue dries.
  4. To attach the head to the body, glue and pins work best. Glue 3 pins into the snowman's head and leave it to dry. Then cut a small flat curve in the top of the body so that the head sits flatter on it. Apply glue to both the body and the head, leave it for about 20 minutes until the glue is tacky, then stick them together.
  5. Once it is dry, add a strip of material to make a scarf, and the snowman is complete.