Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Macarons, Ladyfingers and other sweet treats



ahhh this took longer than estimated. i re-did a whole batch of macarons specially for Joanne (she's so nice! and inspirational!) because i felt that i could do better.

the cherry coloured ones are filled with 'raspberry' filling, the mint ones with 'chocolate chip'....i know the pic doesn't really show the details, but it's midnight (took the pic just before mn) and i have a long day tomorrow.

just have to finish this up, and move on to the other items and we'll be all set!


i have some experimental towers to let go of for cheap, if anyone is interested, just drop me a mail at snowfern AT gmail DOT com. :)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Eva stole my ahma's heart


Eva stole my ahma's heart
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

This is the cutie pie who has been keeping me sooo busy!

ahma is really afraid of cats and dogs, she won't even dare touch them, but now, she's occasionally taken to patting Eva, secretly giving her treats of grapes (quartered) and other fruits!

she had a bath yesterday, and that's my clip ;)


edit: brought her to the vet yesterday where she threw up thrice due to carsickness :( anyway, found out grapes are actually poisonous to dogs!! especially wee ones like Eva!! poor girl, no more of her fave treats!!!

biscuit tower and usage of 'failures'


biscuit tower
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

i really like this! good thing i had some ladyfingers handy, they were laying around and as i was looking for a stray macaron (boy they roll around fast on the worktable) i saw my old experiments and TA-DAH!~

not perfect, but so what! i'm so pleased with it!

next up, pink and cherry macaron tower!

Have you ever eaten your miniatures?

was taking my morning meds, and i thought i'd dropped one of them on the table. so i opened my hand and realised that they were still in it, one of the stray macarons had me all confused!

have you ever accidentally eaten one of your minis?

i'm not happy with this tower


i'm not happy with this tower
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

i don't know how to assemble the macarons :(

i was thinking maybe it'll look better shorter, and with 'whole' macarons instead of half shells. these have 'fillings', but you can barely see them (my main grouse), but it's late and i'm tired, so we'll see how i can remedy this tomorrow.

it's a good thing i made extras (as you can see in the background)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Weekends and macarons

these are part of a commission, i don't ordinarily enjoy making 'full bloom' roses cos i don't like the shape, but i think they would probably look better than the tiny roses that i favour, i hope she likes them, if not i can always give her the smaller ones instead :P the yellow/orange roses were done to test out the colour and effect, i quite like the results!


i don't know if i should seal this with acrylic gloss. on the one hand, i'm afraid the glue is insufficient to keep the stuff on the board, on the other, i'm afraid the effect will not be as nice with the gloss. :( what a dilemma.

anyway, the pair on the left is for my cousin! she is very supportive of my hobbies and even got me cute little acrylic containers which i use to keep my 'fruits' in!


had to experiment with macarons, customer wants a macaron tower, but i'd only tried making macarons once since i've never even eaten a real one before...this is the result of the 3rd try (i'm not even gonna bother wasting anymore time posting pics of the failed ones)

more of my practice work (green) and macaron cream-ing going on!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

sushi platter


sushi platter
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

oh wow! the little ebiko sushi photograph well, don't they!

i'm sooo happy with the results, i think imma make more later :E maybe even some handrolls....ARGH i'm making myself hungry again :( there goes the diet...

on other news, i finally put up items for sale on etsy! woohoO~!

i'll put more stuff up tomorrow, after i take some pics...i'm so lazy at taking pics....:(

my 2nd commission ^ ^


boxed up
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

he ordered 1 each of the hand made tarts and cakes that i made for my 1st commission, and a jar of orange sweets! i'm supposing it's a gift, so i threw in a nice box and shopping bag for free :)

Cucumber & Salmon Maki


Cucumber & Salmon Maki
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

my first time making sushi! i am so pleased with it!

Friday, April 17, 2009

busy busy busy!

apart from the demands of a tiny dog, i have been busy with creating mini cakes and tarts for a new friend i made, thanks to flickr!

here's a sneak preview...they're almost done :)



i thoroughly enjoyed it! i hope she will enjoy them as much as i've enjoyed making them. my brain is teeming with ideas! ^ ^ gotta go work on them now!

Eva Bite


Eva Bite
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

she's only 2mths +, so she's very bitey, and it seems she thinks i'm her playmate so she only bites me (for now).

regrettably, i've had to train her so i think her bottom's a little sore from the light spankings i've had to give her to stop, but she's learning!

today she barked aplenty, i felt so bad having to spank her for something that's natural, but if i didn't....i'd have to put up with her barking all day and i don't think my neighbours would like it :(

my heart almost broke when she let out a few soft whimpers while she was taking her afternoon nap :( i'm so afraid i've traumatized her, but she seemed ok when i took her out of her cage for dinner...

at least ahma seems to be fond of her :)

Eva Cute


Eva Cute
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

this is the sweetheart (ok, she's not so sweet anymore, it's only been her 3rd day here and she's turning out to be a terror!) who's been taking up my time and keeping me busy since wed!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

i can't sit still today > <


my hand made mini goodies!
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

will post pics of why later, when i -have- pics!

meanwhile, i finished up some jellies, tarts and stuff. actually they're just practice pieces, so they don't look very good, but at least i know the scrapes on the sliced pieces disappear when glossed or immersed in resin!

lesson i learnt today on resin:

- when adding polymer clay items to resin, do NOT remove from mould while it's still soft. the bendy bits will cause the polymer clay bits to 'shift' and/or break, and since polymer clay does not stick to resin (due to plasticizers or 'oily' nature?) the scrapes will show up again. :(

i accidentally tore a piece of resin while trying to remove it from the plastic mould (i used pill uh...what're they called? blister packs?) so that sucks. luckily it wasn't one of my fave items :P

- wait till resin has set, or is at least very sticky to add the ...inclusions? otherwise they will slowly sink to the bottom. can always top up with more resin later, even after it has set. also does make it easier to arrange the pieces.

- before adding the fruits, add a touch of resin so that it adheres to the previous layer of resin, this way, it also minimizes the formation of bubbles due to careless shifting.

- resin -does- create bubbles as it's curing, so even though i've read tutorials that state you can speed up the curing time by popping the resin in the oven, don't do so or you won't have a chance to remove the bubbles that form. unless of course, that's what you want :P

ok . that's all i can remember for now.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Danishes 2


Danishes 2
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

i love making these danishes.

wish i could say the same for the strawberries, or my failed kiwis :(

ah well. try, try again.

loti huey aka sugar gem biscuits

next to my initial attempts with fimo clay. they seem so amateurish now that i'm moving on to more complex projects. :X

this pic never fails to make me smile abit, because the actual sized one is .....really quite small, but in this pic it almost seems like a behemoth! LOL
i can't for the life of me figure out the lighting :( this pic makes the green look so washed out, when it's a tad prettier IRL.

anyway.

so what have i learnt from making these gem biscuits?

1) mineral oil, or in my case, baby oil, is pretty good for thinning out fimo clay. just remember to add a few drops of liquid fimo, depending on the volume of clay you're using. however, this mixture hardens if left in the open rather quickly (or dries?) but keeping them in syringes seems to be ok. i still haven't figured out the ratio, but i'm sick of experimenting with 'creams' and would rather move on to making cuter items.

2) i do not know how to use the back of blades -_-" it seems i'm too clumsy or something, so i used a needle tool instead.

3) don't flatten the biscuit before dropping it onto the mesh for the bottom detail. flattening it out makes it lose its form.

4) don't use corn flour or any other powder when making tiny stuff like that, cos the mild stickiness actually helps in controlling the tiny thing. when i coated it with corn flour to ease its removal from the mesh, i wound up having problems keeping it on my finger while making the ridges.

i can't remember anymore. too tired and my eyes are so so tired too.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

First 2 attempts at dollmaking


First 2 attempts at dollmaking
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

am -probably- calling the 2nd doll Minorin, after my fave character in Toradora! don't have a name for the first one, 'testdoll' sounds too...sad i think.

different angle for cream cakes


different angle for cream cakes
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

took forever to texture these cakes, but i'm quite pleased with the results :)

peach cakes


peach cakes
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

i'd forgotten to glaze these :( my tamiya acrylic gloss gets sticky, ruined one of my 'plates' (bf says it looks like a flat piece of yuck).

haizz.

shooting star cake!


shooting star cake!
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

used up some old experimental cake shapes. i quite like the result of my piping practice, just need to mix up more 'frosting', am running out.

the white chocolate were failed experiments with slicing up even pieces of cake :(