funny feedback from a customer

so, late last month one of my mini sushi platters sold, and recently the buyer returned with feedback (positive) that totally cracked me up!

I offered my husband some sushi...He put this tiny treasure in his mouth and wouldn't spit it out! I freaked out and his saliva made the varnish go milky. I thought it was ruined for good! But when it dried, it went back to the way it was...Phew!
Thanks so much for one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

man i laughed so hard for so long....and part of my reply was this

phew i'm glad the varnish stayed intact, it's supposed to be waterproof, i am not so sure about spit/husband proof....> <

i think this has gotta be the nicest/funniest feedback i've ever gotten yet hehehe...and i now know that saliva does not mix well with the maple varnish?? :O DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EAT MY MINIS PLEASE!!

on another note, the chipmunk is doing better, the worst of the swelling is over (72 hrs after surgery) and he's back on semi-solid foods (he was pretty much just eating baby-food the past 3 days)...

my wrist isn't so good though, only managed to roll out enough cherries to make 2 halfscale cherry pies which aren't completed yet. but my hand can't take anymore :( i think it requires another week's rest, it doesn't hurt but it curled and 'froze' up after i made those cherries. sigh. if it doesn't get better i'll have to see a doc soon. so apologies to those who've requested some items, i promised this weekend but i think it'll have to be a while more before i can get back into things. admittedly, i also worked on some acrylic furniture for my cafe so that could have held back the recovery. will have pics of those soon as i clean up the cafe, it's now cluttered with furniture that doesn't fit!

my brother says, getting punched in the face was less painful than this.

i know it's supposed to be the post on STGCC, but i did most of the descriptions over on my flickr, so head on over and lookie there!

http://flickr.com/photos/snowfern

been real busy, probably can tell from my posts on flickr that real life caught up...i made a mistake of having coffee this morning while waiting for my brother to come out of surgery and phoo i'm paying for it now. threw up loads in the evening after i got carsick too....mostly just acid really. bro seems fine now i hope he's asleep and not watching anime...

here's pics of the goofy guy pre-and post- op....




hurhur i wonder which he'd prefer me call him, chip, or dale. ;) left could be dale and right, chip? ha!

oh and i snagged a treasury while chatting on etsy, i get all lonesome in the middle of the night....

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=77308

Etsy Clearance Sale till 8th Sept (bf's birthday!)

my latest offering on etsy!

ok, so bf's birthday is coming up, i know it's kinda tacky to try and promote my shop using his birthday as an excuse, but as you all know from the few of you who read my entry on "why i should be banned from ebay", that's why i'm imposing upon myself such a ban > <

so, until the 8th Sept, i have reduced prices on most of my items, and secondary shipping for cupcake cases are now ZERO! i don't really have much for sale anyway. i have plans to put up smaller scale work once my wrist/thumb heals (next week i hope!) and give my store a makeover....so swing on over to my etsy store!

next post will be one about my STGCC weekend. i'm all pooped out. i -did- remember to take photos, so it will be a loooooooooooong entry ^ ^

thanks for looking!

she's here she's here!

sharing icecream
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

my Yotsuba's here! after almost exactly a year after my friend got her at a local toy convention, i purchased her online!

also, i got myself some kitchenware...



in my excitement of bidding, my first time actually bidding for items, i misread the trays....LOL i thought they were the size of 1" scale pie uhh what do you call 'em? thingums! for baking pies in! those!

ah well they are still lovely.....can't wait to start painting on them :D


haze has been getting to me, so i've been suffering mild fevers, bleary tear eyes, and lost my sense of smell (hence taste) yet again. in a groggy state, i used the sliding door of my wardrobe for support and it got in the way of my thumb. scraped off a fair bit of skin. it hurts each time i wash my hands, on top of my already swollen thumb joint (due to lousy hole punching method for making cupcake casings) i'm unable to work on minis for a while.

sigh. :(

at least Yotsuba's here! YAY!

Half inch scale pies, and more experiments

gallery glass experiment
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

this is a totally off-scale pie. can you see why?

anyway, i used gallery glass for the 'jam' portion of this cherry pie, i quite like it! after it dried i sliced out a portion of the pie, and glossed the visible bits of jam/cherry.

few lessons i've learnt here:

- gallery glass bakes all fine after it's fully dried. i haven't tried it while it's wet and have no intention to, as i've read horrible things about baking stuff that -shouldn't- be baked (wet or otherwise)
- this is the ruby red gallery glass i used. it looks opaque in the bottle, but dries reasonably clear for such a thick layer.
- sticks reasonably well to polymer clay
- yes, if you guessed right, the cherries are offscale. this is because i simply wanted to experiment, and was going to bake a 1:12 scale pie and the cherries used here were for colour sampling before i roll out larger batches of cherries

my half-scale pie pan and plates/dishes experiments. i would say the pie pans were moderately successful in that i baked all my half-scale pies in these, but not so much for the dishes as you can probably see why. the colour darkened pretty noticeably after baking, and at this scale is a little too flimsy. i might just decorate them a little more or bake another pie into them. but i doubt it. these seem destined for the bin.

pumpkin pie! this is my fave of the lot, i am contemplating if i should dust this with white chalk to simulate castor sugar. what do you think?

blueberry pie. i quite like this but i might have to add a layer of blue liquid since it doesn't really look quite blue enough. hrm...

'normal' pie pan pumpkin pie, sliced. as you can tell, all the pies featured so far are half-scale. they are approximately 1.1cm in diameter. :O that's approximately 3/8 of an inch! (IRL should be 9" diameter?)

i tried so hard to duplicate my previous attempt at the soft-serve icecream to no avail. :( but! i persevered and came up with a variation using my leftover experiment batch of piped 'meringues'...

see the difference? which do you prefer?

ok it's late, i had a long day out and am pooped. i actually have quite a few considerations running through my mind, so i'd better get some rest or i won't be able to make 'proper' decisions......

please comment! i love and appreciate all comments/feedback, unless of course you are a spammer. then may cockroaches infest your innards, you slave of an idle mind.

:E

Colourful Cupcake Cases!

assorted cases
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

woo hoo! made a whole bunch of these cos i was bored during the weekend, will be made available on my etsy soon with mix-n-match options!



i have even put up a sampler set!

just drop me a mail @ snowfern [at] gmail [dot] com....

ok i'm off to watch Up with bf and his pals WOOHOO!

Snowfern's Strawberry Snowcones! (not really snowcones but i love alliterations)

i got so excited when these tips arrived in the mail, they are PME42C tips if you're looking....anyway!

i prefer working with polymer clay ANYTIME and after much smooshing around with clay lying around from various projects, i came up with an -almost- right texture! it's kinda soft, but not too sticky (i used liquid fimo, maybe i should have used a softener instead, i don't have any though :( )

my fave knitting needle has been roped in to help me out in my task! these are the baked results, can you tell the difference after it's baked and the pre-baked in the tip?

i don't really like working with this brand of texture paste for a few reasons

1) sticky and messy
2) dries too fast, and as i'm piping, it can clump up and clog up the nozzle, thus resulting in uneven piped 'meringues'
3) dries to a -slightly- glossy finish, which is ok if i'm going for whipped creams, not so good if i want to make meringues
4) i prefer to have translucency in my work, and it's not possible to achieve that with texture paste unless i get texture gel...which IIRC is more expensive.
5) adding colour is a nightmare. i used brown pastels for a small amount, and although it looked -light brown- when i was done mixing, it dried to almost a purple sheen eesh maybe i should try acrylics next round....

the shapes are lovely, and it was so easy piping them out from my heavily modified syringe (i originally had silicon sealant around it but i messed -that- up when i pushed the plunger in too deep) so this time round after i cleaned it all out (a breeze to clean with just water and a pipe cleaner) i used sticky tape to hold it together. have yet to see if it works though. will update.


i finally got around to using the cones i posted up about previously here, so far i'm liking the results! but bf says the grooves are too deep...he might be right, but what do -you- think? i really appreciate honest critiques, that's the only way i can improve upon my work, right?

EDIT: NEWS NEWS!!!
i just had the most amazing tip (haha geddit *groan*) from a fellow flickr mate, she suggested this:

"Those icing tips fit perfect in the makins clay extruder and will make your work even easier."

please send some love to craftaddict02 on flickr, or on her etsy for such a wonderful suggestion! i would have NEVER thought of it ^ ^

why i am so broke, and should be banned from ebay.

how do i refurbish this? any tips?
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

look at this darling wine rack!

i found this on ebay, after shipping costs it was approx USD$15 > < but i love it so much! look at the little basket drawers (i'm going to dress it up a little too)

but i don't like the colour. it came darker than is visible in the pictures, i want to give it a makeover, probably turn it white?

i know i have to
1) sand it
2) prime it
3) paint it



but how do i get into those nooks and crannies??? :O i have a spray primer and i think it's made of wood from what i see inside, i doubt i should take it apart right? anyone have any tips?



my Bozart "the Kaleidoscope house" kitchen kit arrived! it'll fit nicely into my cafe i think ^ ^ I LOVE IT SO MUCH!



the detail is incredible! it's so thin as well, nothing like the clunky stuff i keep getting > < it's plastic though....so i have to be careful to bake my foods thoroughly to ensure all the plasticizers are baked out...

i am awaiting 2 more parcels, and a trade i've made has already arrived (thanks Dale!) but i want to keep that a secret until i use it bwa ha ha

My moldmaking failures and experiences...

i have had difficulty sourcing for good moldmaking materials here, they either cost a bomb, or i have to purchase them in bulk from a factory (in a very isolated area), looking at the moldmaking kits available from sculpey, i began to think they weren't so good in the sense that they seemed to be made from the very same clay we manipulate, just softer and more pliable when cured? moreover it's not suitable for resin pours either...

i had previously purchased some RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) silicone rubber, but that just was too messy and icky, moreover it was hard to measure out small amounts. i was going to purchase some alley goop online, but shipping to SG costs $15 for the 1 lb package, it seems they have very good reviews! i can only purchase that once i make some sales to cover the total cost (almost USD$44 :O ) :( yes, it's a rule of mine NOT to spend on supplies until i make sales, it's the only way i can justify spending and keep my habit in check :X

these are the pics of terrible silicone pours...i don't have a pressure pot so it was terrible trying to get the bubbles out.


this one was due to too much catalyst (the salesman recommended 5% for our climate, but it hardened up too quickly!)


so much so i couldn't tap out the bubbles in time...

that was the last of the silicone i had. i have a few more rather -ok- pours, made some bangle/ring and other oddly shaped item pours for my cousin's resin work, and some successful ones for my creams/raspberries/jellies/plates/cups...but i would say i wasted more than 70% of the material learning how to pour without having the bubbles ruin it. i like the pours cos i don't require any release agent, and they were extremely flexible/durable. however the learning curve is just too steep for beginners.


this is my pushmold for citrus pieces. i sculpted a segment of orange and grapefruit, and played around with a bead i had to get the flower shape.
i made this just last week and only got round to making the orange segments last night. you can see in the bottom 4 pieces the needle marks where i got lazy and simply poked the clay out of the mold, the upper two pieces show one glossed, the other unglossed.

so what do i think of these experiments? after reading, experimenting, and hunting around Singapore, i will stick to making polymerclay pushmolds for now (until i get the silicone putty). i haven't yet been confident enough to make 2-part molds, but so far i'm rather satisfied with what little i made.

hope this will help some other newbies, as to where i got my silicone rubber, you can see Wee Tee Tong's website, i got the RTV585, call them up for a quote as i am not affiliated with them in any way and prices might fluctuate....be prepared to travel, i lucked out as my cousin drove me but we took so long i fell asleep in the car -_-"

sheesh. i have got to stop posting half-fudged 'tutorials' HAHA!

my 2nd blog challenge!

i didn't do the first issued by Betty at Live Mini because i didn't have enough blogger friends to pass it on to, but now i do!

so here we go!

here's what i'm supposed to do:
1. open the 4th file where you store your photos
2. pick out the 4th photo & publish it to your blog
3. explain a bit about it
4. pass this challenge to 4 other blogs.



i organize my picture folder, which means i have quite a few subfolders, so whatever remains in it are 'rejects' that i clear each time i have a batch of new photos to put up. my last 'photoshoot' was of Amélie, and in this pic you can see i'm trying to hold her lashes down so that i can show off her eyeshadow, thinking i'd crop out my thumb later. i've cut my nails since ;) oftentimes it's 1 out of 20 pictures i take that gets chosen :O no wonder i take so long to post up pictures of my work LOL

Amélie is a dollcena i gave a makeover to, she's been featured a few times on my blog already, i don't have any other dolls currently, but i'm very excited cos i'll have to go to the post office to pick up a parcel, and i suspect it's my ...oh wait, let's keep her a secret for now ;)

DONE! so now i have to pass this on to 4 other bloggers....it's going to be hard, this challenge has been floating around a while now!

- Betty at Live Mini sorry i didn't do the earlier challenge....
- Asuka Sakumo at cloudy PURPLE sky whose exhibition is coming up soon....
- Sans at Dollhouse Diaries who has a beautiful and ambitious mini project going on.... (i can only manage picture books! she's already been tagged :O )
- Oiseau deNim at Le Petit Monde d'Oiseau my latest online pal....
- Christine at DandelionFair Dollhouse whose critters i covet. one of her upcoming works has got my name on it, i just KNOWS it *rubs hands* **checks paypal balance**

OKAY imma go get ready to head down to the post office, i have another post coming up later today after i take pictures of my purchases and miniwork :D stay tuned!

CDHM Contest Entry Cake

so! i finally can show off the cake i made for the contest! well, technically the details are more on the cookies, but i'm so proud of this one cos it's the first time i've participated in any contest that requires some level of skill LOL!



here's a closeup of the cookies, i made the cutter myself, took almost 2 weeks to make this cake cos i was slow in putting ideas together....



i actually made a carousel top to go with it, but no matter how i adjusted it i was dissatisfied. so i omitted it.

there was also a doll contest, i made one tiny one just as a lark, the work is terrible but i am loving the feathers LOL yes i'm crazy, i did it in 1:48 scale on my first attempt HA!



and she even has cellulite LMAO i didn't want to fool around with her anymore lest she fell apart (she did during phototaking, her arm fell off and broke at the wrist too) so i didn't sand her down sigh. BUT i love her just the same ^ ^



you can view all entries on the cdhm website!

ok i'm now working on some stuff, aren't i always? :P it's dad's birthday today, i'll be out later buying a -real- cake....we always have mini celebrations at home on birthdays....stay tuned for more pics!