an apple pie....

i've tried baking an apple pie once, a looong time ago. it didn't turn out as pretty, and the only thing pretty about it was that it tasted pretty bad. i'm betting this one would taste worse XD

glossed some of the pieces....

gotta head out now~!

i've won :O

1:6 polymer clay. my customer said she wanted something marie antoinette-inspired, i think i've -almost- got it right? i hope? XD

anyway, remember this? i blogged about it previously, and omg I WON!!!! woot woot 3-mth premium membership subscription on deviantArt woot woot!!! and i've also won a number of cute charms, can't wait for them to get here!!! i've never won any contest before (not that i can recall, my memory isn't that great and i really don't have any other notable skills i don't think XD)! i'm glad i won though, i put a lot of thought and effort into this one. you can view the contest results here:



http://semi-sweeties.deviantart.com/blog/32499694/


i really enjoy participating in contests, looking forward to more :D well, that is, if i have the time, still a lot of stuff to do yet.

anyway. back to stuff i've been busy with.

these are pre-glossed. i don't know if my customer wants them glossy or as is. i'll have to ask. but here's a preview! i know the tray is upside down, didn't notice till after i took the pics XD

i didn't quite like the cake base colour of the previous batch, so i re-did a whole bunch and made new designs. the cupcakes in the back are practice ones, they aren't all that pretty but eh sometimes i get bored while trying to think up of new design ideas, and keeping my brain working on subconscious mode helps alot in my thought process.

a few more items to finish up, orders to fulfill and i will need to get back into bf's office next week. gonna have to figure out if my programming brain still works XD

1:12 chocolate rose cake

was supposed to cut a slice out of this cake, but i couldn't bear to XD prob have to ask my customer if she'd like a slightly different choc cake, i only realised it would be difficult to cut it after i made the centrepiece :(

i'd seen this lkea storage box on oese's flickr stream, and thought it was an awesome awesome use of a 'common' item. who knew it'd also be a great lightbox!!! the light source comes from a portable strip of LED lights from my neighbourhood hardware store. battery operated, and rather cool. i had to do a little bit of image editing as the macro pics still came out a little bluish, but ohhh i like it so much :D

made the raspberries using Yoyo's wonderful tutorial (berries is the 4th link from top). i think i got a little too enthusiastic with the paint, turned out a little too red. then i went home and made more......

 i got a little too serious ;)

been busy the past coupla weeks. bf rented an office space, it's rather roomy for 2 people, and i helped him pick out and set up the furniture. he's told me that i can hold workshops in here, which means i'm seriously weighing the possibility of giving lessons. wonder if anyone would like a slightly disorganized and erratic polymer clay tutor who is willing to teach for an exorbitant fee XD XD XD

new cake slices and cupcake mold

cloudy all day. poor pics ahead XD

new cake designs, unglossed, fresh from the oven!

the shoulder is slightly better, however hands cramped up after completing some orders for more of those cupcake liners :X but i've been trying my best to pace myself, so only made these few items over the weekend. was a busy week, planning stuff (winks at Sans & Dale), taking grandma for her regular checkup, playing DESKTOP DEFENDER ON FACEBOOK omg that is like, my fave game right now. i was so obsessed by the time i looked up it was 5am yesterday :X i told myself to stay away from mini making to heal up, but what do i do? i wind up playing sudoku on the nintendo DS and hopelessly addicted to desktop defender. i don't know what it is about those itty bitty games that captivate me arghhh maybe cos it's in mini too? :P

i also made a new cupcake mold, finally, one i'm rather pleased with. these are cupcakes from the test batch. just made one in 1:6 scale too, for a separate order. but as always i've forgotten to take pics *laughs at own stupidity* that wonky cupcake on the far right makes me grin :P i remember making a batch a while back, all wonky cupcakes to make a 'lousy baker's" prep  board, but i never got round to assembling that. goodness knows where that batch went. *snort*

Enjoy :)

Happy Birthday, Ben!

WARNING! THIS POST IS FULL OF PARENTHESES!!!!  (i'm not sure why either, i think cos i'm really tired and full of afterthoughts)
=======================
i wanted to post this earlier, but i hadn't yet given my brother his present, so although i know he doesn't read my blog regularly, i didn't want to ruin his surprise? :P

Ben turned 30 today, and i wanted to make him something he'd suggested ever since i started making minis. he originally wanted mini aeroplanes, but i didn't know if i could make them (back then) and so i tried to make some this year...but since i 'specialize' more in foods, i decided to make plane(plain?) cookies.

these 8 were all i could manage with my horrifically aching shoulder. it's not as bad as last sunday, at least i can turn my head now XD they're larger than what i'm used to, each approx. 2.2cm long, i can't pipe any smaller i think. well i know i'll challenge myself some day....cos i'm crazy like that. :P

here's how i did it, roughly...NOT A TUTORIAL so view at your own peril :P

starts with a sketch. that's my lame rendition of a what-i-thought-would-be-a-cute-plane. it's surprisingly difficult to find nice pictures of aeroplane cookies that resemble my brother's company's planes ?!?! i thought there'd be plenty but...uh.......:-/

i then used an aluminum sheet, approx. 0.5mm thickness, available at craft stores (got mine from art friends' bras basah). using a pair of garden shears (make sure whatever tools you use are suitable, and use gloves, these can be real sharp), i cut out strips of metal approx 1cm wide and bent them with pliers using the sketch as a guide. you can probably use base of disposable pie tins folded in half if you wish, that's what i used for my eclair tutorial. i then used a hot glue gun to hold it all together, and also as a safety thingamabob. forgot why i even have aluminum sheets, i think i stupidly tried to solder them (hahaha yea i know better now)

i guess i could have simply MADE the prototype instead of going through all that cutter trouble, but i'm not so good with the defined edges. anyway, i cut out a shape, and modified it a little (mostly the tail bit), textured it with my toothbrush then used alley goop to make a mold. i was in a bit of a hurry, hence the poorly made mold XD bah i don't care. i was gonna pipe over it anyway :P don't you think it looks like an anchovy? well i do!

since this is not a tutorial, i don't care too much about showing how to mix up the piping 'cream' and stuff. made mini piping bags (you can probably go search how to make them and just make mini versions) and filled it with the polymer clay + liquid polymer clay mix, and piped away like crazy. yellow and blue are his company's colours, the rest are leftovers from my tonnes of piping (failed + successful) attempts :P

piped the cookies, am glad they turned out pretty decent. can't say they're 'cute', try as i might i can't do 'cute' as well as i'd like :( but eh, i like the result :)

packed away and now in my brother's safekeeping :) those planes are glued onto the plates, with mounting tape at the back (i can't believe how expensive a roll of mounting tape is, ~SGD$6 for a small roll!?!??!) cos i couldn't get the magnets in time. the other 4 are blu-tack'd onto the cardstock.

OK I AM NOT SORRY ABOUT THE GROUCHY TONE COS YOU KNOW WHAT I'M LIKE OR SHOULD KNOW BY NOW :P this is to deter people from asking me questions that i've answered over and over again, my advice is, JUST TRY IT. what better way to learn than through experience i always say!

i'm also uber excited cos my brother proposed to his gf yesterday (that cunning bugger LOL DAY BEFORE HIS BIRTHDAY? WTH? LOL) and she's wearing the ring now ;) i don't know what it's considered, wedding/engagement wuh? but anyway they won't be married so soon, but i'm still really happy :D CONGRATULASHUNS BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TeamMIDS Feature: Jody Raines of PeachBlossomHill

i am so in love with this chaise longue. first came across this fainting couch over at cdhm forums and...man oh man. i keep going back to 'visit' it XD

naturally, there are other things to be drawn to. like the layout of the room, which i'm sure you can see for yourself, can be easily mistaken for a life-sized room.

i must admit, i don't own much shabby chic (actually i don't think this qualifies as 'shabby', maybe just 'chic'?) stuff as the style is not something i'm usually drawn to, but such beautiful works suit almost any tastes i'd think ;) not only does she make these beautiful couches, much of the accompanying accessories like the peaches, the swan, even PAINTINGs are done by Jody herself :O multi-talented, what!

anyhow, please visit her blog and say hi, and as much as i'd hate to see that chaise longue go to anyone else but me, i've gotta say it deserves a better home than my grubby one. XD you can find her works at the following links:


http://peachblossomhill.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19713618@N00/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/peachblossomhill



i'm happy to make Jody my first 'official' TeamMIDS feature! regular readers (hi COUSIN ASUKA AND NYANN LOL) will probably know  that i LOVE my teamMIDS team on Etsy, and have been procrastinating on the features ._. apologies!  i hope to do this more regularly ^ ^

fruity, and i'm nutty.

trying something new. i've made fruit canes, little berries, oranges, strawberries, cherries...1:48 fruits and vegetables....but i don't think i've tried making pears. i wanted to do something 'not confectionery' :P alas, the damned 'twigs' broke :( perhaps they were too thin (fruits wholly made of polymer clay) or maybe i shouldn't have handled them without tweezers (i got so fed up with them rolling all over the place during the phototaking i grabbed at them whenever they rolled). in any case, that'll teach me. grr

messed up my right shoulder over the weekend. i think the tension of having to make 'adult decisions' has knotted up my shoulder, neck and jaw muscles. maybe sticking to minis is my thing. maybe maybe maybe. :(

anyway, i'll force myself to stop again this week, i can't even turn my head it hurts so bad. affected areas are slathered with fastum gel (which i usually use on my hands) in hopes i can relax the muscle enough to NOT hurt. tense much? YES.

more updates for my customer, before i take the break. sorry T_T

a ranty post with plenty of pics

EDIT: YAY I SUBMITTED IT! PHEW! asked if it was possible to submit this, and they said it was OK since it was mostly polymer clay ^ ^ wahhhh i'd better remember to RTFM more carefully in future T_T

back to the whiny stuff :X

====================================================

i am such an idiot. i did not read the rules BEFORE i made my entry for the semi-sweets group over in dA, they state specifically only POLYMER clay was to be used. somehow got it in my head that any medium could be used, and that the deadline would be 7th. but no, the deadline's 11th -_-" what's come over me?

anyhow *sigh* i couldn't think of what to make so i asked bf what he would like. he said a parfait, with pocky sticks, wafer, strawberries and plenty of strawberry sauce. me, i think it looks like someone bled onto it. so maybe it was a good thing that i disqualified myself from the contest T_T

how i did -that- was, i made ALL the components, the cornflakes, the wafer, the pocky sticks, the strawberries, ALL from polymer clay, BUT!!!!! the 'icecream' was air dry clay! there's no way i can bake the clay in that parfait glass (or should i say, plastic?) which was one of the reasons why i opted for ADC. T_T here's how i did what, for the 1:6 version:

cornflakes - polymer clay, used a towel to get the texture
strawberry slices - polymer clay cane, old stuff i made
pocky sticks - polymer clay, it even had the grill marks on it like pocky sticks do. sigh. then coated with LPC and baked. it's real thin and rather fragile, but eh, i don't know how to get around that. it's barely 1mm thick!
wafer - polymer clay. used the detail on my utility knife
strawberry - polymer clay, then painted with acrylics for detail
chocolate twirl - polymer clay strip baked around toothpick
sundae - air dry clay, piped into glass.

SEE??? SEE HOW MUCH WORK WENT INTO IT??? AUGH *stabs self*

that'll teach me. :(

sigh. anyway. here's a 1:12  version. i guess i could have baked this one had i used PC, but i wasn't sure i'd achieve the peak (it's hard with PC as it's sticky and messy) and since i already had the ADC ready to be piped, might as well continue right? the cornflakes were so tiny LOL i guess i could have shredded up some paper but i really really wanted to challenge myself. or make myself go blind. whatever. i'm sure Yotsuba would enjoy this. looks so bloody, i really gotta find a better way to make the 'sauce'. maybe i'll just dig out everything and re-do it. ha ha. *grim faced*

this is the 1:6 tower i did for a customer. originally, she brought me a pic of Betsy's tower for reference, but i didn't want to 'copy' her works. my customer then said i could interpret it my own way, since i had already made 2 other towers for her and she just wanted a 3rd, different than the first two. i struggled over how differently i could build the macaron tower, so i switched up some elements to complement my customer's colour requirements.made the macaron shells and molds for them myself. had to, or i'd die making the individual shells XD

i don't particularly enjoy making the towers, they are sooo intensive (that's more than 60 macarons on that tower i think, so over 120 macaron shells, i lost count, excluding the batch of 100 shells i accidentally burnt T_T). maybe it's easy to some people, but any form of repetitive work just slays my hands. prob why i tend to mix up my designs and try to minimize batch work.

for those who are keen on making one of their own, Betsy does have tutorials available on her etsy :) i do so admire Betsy's works and contributions to the mini community, probably why i struggled so hard with rejecting/accepting/re-rejecting/re-accepting this commission. it's hard for me to say no to someone who has supported me right from the beginning, encouraging me to explore and invent myself, purchasing my works and commissioning me for more. this is the first time i'd run across this issue. i wish i could divulge more, or that i could have handled this better, but i feel i've already said more than i should :(  

maybe i should just charge higher, so they would go straight to the original artist rather than me XD i really would hate to think of my rates as 'cheap'! *angry look* i put a LOT of work and time into making these!!! grrr. hell i've already reduced greatly my commission slots, maybe i'll give it up altogether, i'm so angry.

anyway. on to happier stuff.

requests from a different customer :) sorry about the eariler angsty outburst. ha ha. these cakes make me much happier cos i had more room to work with, creativity-wise. the raspberry/eclair cake was something i did a long time ago, this is probably the 3rd one i've made so far. i changed the eclair mold though, not that anyone would notice but heck, i do! took this around 5pm, losing sunlight....gahhhh

and..some tarts. these are just samplers for the size. reminds me gotta make more whole fruits. :D

had a burst of creative energy, after being utterly frustrated by the macaron fiasco. funny, that i only made 1 macaron in 1:12 XD here it is, on my 1:12 mini cake! i know they're oddly designed, but i'm experimenting with different techniques. i think my fave is the one foremost, with the polka dots. i would so eat that. :P these are going into my personal collection, i love them so much :D the cake bases, are the burnt macarons XD XD XD woot woot recycling!

so i didn't win theminifoodblog contest, but i had so much fun making my entry, and pushing new boundaries, so thank you all for your support and votes! i am so happy that other than my bf, his 2 friends and my 2 brothers and 2 friends who voted, i got far more than the expected 10 votes XD (no i didn't vote for myself i'm not -that- narcissistic! ha ha bf says i'll make a crappy politician wuh?) i am looking around for more contests to participate in, oh crap i forgot about the other one that i failed XD better get to work on that, i don't even have an idea yet T_T

thanks for reading. or just looking at the pics. :)