A 1:12 scale miniature scale

1:12 scale dollhouse miniature mechanical scale, aluminum, paper, glue, plastic

 Yes, I really did make it myself, from scratch, out of aluminum sheets and drew up the scale face using Inkscape. It hadn't occurred to me that it would be unusual to find a metric scale in 1:12 until someone commented on it in my Flickr stream. It is rather an interesting thought eh? kekekekekeke

This scale took me over 8 hours in total to make as I did it through trial & error. I've long stopped looking for tutorials and such since there's no real way of making anything in mini anyway. Haven't found a suitable material for cutting out the ...hand?(? is it called that? the pointer? wuh?) or i'd try to make that more convincing. Toyed with the idea of even spring loading the top bit but eh, it's going into the roombox...

I'll go more into detail about why this scale is so important to me once I've completed this project!

1:12 scale dollhouse miniature flying gliders. Paper, glue, sealant

There will be a few more novelty items to go into the tidbits stall, here's the first of the lot ;)

Chinese New Year was fun and I'm glad that the first few hectic days are over. Here's to a more productive year!!!

Dollhouse Miniature Biscuits 1:12 - part 3

 1:12 dollhouse miniature pineapple jam and chocolate sandwich biscuits, air dry clay

the pineapple jam could be a little darker, but it looks pretty like this....am a little torn about it haha! maybe a different batch in the future.....sigh.

1:12 scale dollhouse miniature sugar crackers and butter coconut biscuits, air dry clay

and then there's the sugar coated crackers, which IIRC are my cousin's fave ^_^ the ones on the right are supposed to be butter coconut biscuits. Might have gone a little overboard with the sugar...hiaks.

Here's progress this far. I have 3 more biscuits in mind, but they're the hardest to sculpt so I think it's time to take a break and start packaging these. :)

wonder how many biscuits there are here...almost 800 maybe? do sandwich biscuits count as 2? :P

Dollhouse Miniature Biscuits 1:12 - part 2

 1:12 scale miniature sugar gem biscuits (again!), air dry clay

Compare and contrast!

2009 versions, polymer clay

These sugar gem biscuits are still pretty popular these days :) Back in April 2009 (!) I attempted to reproduce them in mini using polymer clay. Since they weren't strictly 1:12 back then, I never did quite let it go, and seeing as how it would fit great in my latest 80's Singapore project, here they are again! 

1:12 miniature cream crackers, air dry clay

Classic cream crackers. As usual, I tried to print the tiny letters onto the crackers...they're supposed to read "cream khong guan crackers" but .....the detail didn't come out so well :( will try again another time, kinda running low on time and I still have loads more to do......have to keep reminding myself that they're going into the tins and nobody's going to care anyway.....*heart pain~~~*

Also, I tried to edit a video but the stupid movie maker exports my video into a gibberish mess (audio is still intact though). I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and after wasting 3 hours on it, I GIVE UP.

at least, until it bugs me enough again. GRARRGHHGHGHHHHHHH STAY FOCUSSED CINDY

Dollhouse Miniature Biscuits 1:12 - part 1

1:12 miniature Khong Guan biscuits, air dry clay

Click for a larger image. It's not very evident here, but I did attempt to put the actual words on these sandwich biscuits.....as humanly possible as I could without a magnifier, had to take my glasses off for this task! *squints*

1:12 miniature folding door

Also, a more detailed photo of the door handle.....

moving along....

1:3 Miniature Chocolate Tarts!

 1:3 miniature chocolate dome cake

It has been quite a mess in my room lately! A friend of mine asked if I was interested in working on a doll-related exhibit, and since Asuka and I had been looking for opportunities to work together again, this was an opportunity not to be missed!

 1:3 miniature chocolate treats. very figure-friendly, since they're inedible :S

I enjoy working on such projects, as it is reasonably less stressful. There's room to be creative, inventive as well as an opportunity to use up my ADC (air dry clay) stash. Some of my clay had hardened somewhat during storage (ADC usually has a shelf life, even in its original unopened packaging T-T), and although the weather has been quite humid lately, it also means I had more working time with the clay :)

1:3 Miniature Chocolate tart and dome cake
Strawberry slices fanned out look so purtee!~ Do you like my new logo too??? :P I intended to use this logo for my 'new website' (as you know, snowfern.com seems to always be WIP XD), but working on graphics is not my wrist/shoulder's best friend, amidst countless other excuses.....*blinks innocently*

 I mentioned to Asuka that these tarts look like they were baked by someone who's scrimping on ingredients. Somewhat mis-gauged the thickness of the 'mousse' layer, realized this only after I sliced it -_-"

So what is this event that we will be at? it is on the 9th of December 2012, and we'll be at the Doll Cafe @ EOY Cosplay Festival 2012!

http://www.theeoy.com/2012/cosplay-festival/
(strange, the website was up earlier this afternoon, maybe there were some changes :-/)

I've got a number of items still in the works, as does Asuka, and Fujiwara Yukino! We won't be selling anything there, but please, drop by, take photos, and say hi if you can! :)

Lighten up!

1:12 diorama (eh?)

*groans at own pun*

The lights are IN! and ON! and....finally, I have a 'proper' roombox to take product photos in! XD

Ever since the magnificent Pepper of http://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com/
posted a very comprehensive lighting tutorial, I had been itching to give lighting a try. I thought I could get all the materials locally at Sim Lim Tower, alas, they had nothing to scale for 1:12 T-T. I finally relented and spent countless hours scouring greedbay and googling for the most affordable suppliers (shipping to SG is often higher than the items themselves garrrrghhh) and waited patiently for them to arrive.

and then waited somemore.

worked on the roombox/diorama/scene....

waited s'more.

then i gave up waiting. cos the electrical wire arrived first (although it was the last item i ordered), but the LED lights/resistors and battery casings just refused to make an appearance. frustrated, i decided to just go ahead with whatever i had.

since i'd already 'bashed' some IKEA Billy lights for 'the challenge that fizzled out', why not re-use them?

and since i had a couple of these keychain lights from Daiso, why not use those too? I googled for some paper lampshade templates and came across this one on Instructables. OOOOOOH it made me go on a desktop laser machine video rampage....GRAGH I WANT ONE SO BAD IT MAKES MY TEETH ACHE. alas, being broke and all, i went in search of an easier one. AND FOUND THIS AMAZEBALLS MODERN ONE.

of course it had to be made in mini :D the template provided in the instructable was for a life sized one of course, and so i came up with my own...since the idea isn't mine, i wasn't sure if it would be alright if i posted a tutorial on how i made it.....then again it's all kind of 'generic'...i suppose i might ask the author for permission to post my own version for 1:12 if enough people want to know how to make it (though it -is- DEAD EASY to modify from the life sized one!)

ANYWAY

working with the lights brought up vague recollections of  hazy secondary physics (and primary school) lessons...hazy because I'm one of those terrible students who sleep frequently during classes. :-/ so armed with a dodgy soldering iron, sheer tenacity and lots of swearwords, i put everything together and SURPRISE SURPRISE IT WORKED OMG OMG OMG (and i hardly even hurt myself!)

hurhur. the ceiling was the backing of an ikea glass frame thingy that i'd kept after the glass portion broke :X battery casing purchased from a neighbourhood hardware store....i'm quite new to building and bashing stuff from other stuff lying around so it took quite a bit of trial and error (and re-reading of Pepper's tutorial a gabillion times) to put everything together, BUT I DID IT.

and after all that, i walked out of my room to discover that the LED bulbs off greedbay had arrived.

*facepalm* i have the best timing ever.

i quickly tested them out, but 2 out of the 10 LED bulbs that I purchased were duds :( As you can probably tell, I'm more of a 'glass half empty' type person. But given my moderate successes with bashed together lighting, WHATEVER.

moving along.

 test shot under all the lights + my worklamp

aaaand, obligatory shot of bf's mom's birthday gift. made a similar one for my aunt too, but ran out of time to take pics of the two together T-T it's in 1:6, and Yotsuba seems to be wondering if the orchids are edible....probably me just projecting, since i'm hungry at 3.19am now.

the pitcher/jug was inspired by Marlies' easy to follow tutorial here:

http://marliesminies.blogspot.sg/2009/03/draw-pattern-that-you-want-to-use-on.html

re-drew and re-sized the template for this pitcher closer to 1:6, might blog a little more about it since i came up with my own template etc. but it's a pretty common sight anyway, so....*shrug* not quite 'my style' but i sure hope my aunt and bf's mom like it!!!!

i'm sure i've missed out some links and stuff, but i'm just so happy i wanted to show off like a little kid who has a new toy. meanwhile, here's a sneak peek at another project Asuka and i are working on :)

(btw, Sans, that's the magnifier lamp that my brother gave me, but i broke the clamp portion while shifting my workspace stuff around QQ)

it's great to be back! hope to update more frequently now that i have one less excuse for not taking pictures.....XD

(and THANK YOU SOOO MUCH PEPPER YOU ARE AMAZINGGGGGGG)

Plonking down with Purple

PHEW! The weather's been pretty brutal lately, and what with all my unpacking/packing and trying to get into a new rhythm of things at home....warm and humid weather really makes it difficult to get much done. polymer clay gets mushy and difficult to work with, and even with the new LED magnifier light that my youngest brother gave to me (came free with his spanking new specially-purchased-just-to-play-DiabloIII desktop computer) i can't do much at night, stupid astigmatism.

but i -have- been keeping busy. i switched to air dry clay instead, seeing as how the humidity means i have a barely-noticeable longer time to work with the clay before it dries out.

i first noticed a beautiful blue cake via my Foodbuzz subscription. i'm not really a 'foodie' in real life, hardly try any new foods unless introduced by way of family and friends (by 'introduced' i mean usually 'challenged' by my middle bro to try out something new, or suffer mild humiliation and taunting XD). but i digress. Foodbuzz features all sorts of beautiful photographs of a wide variety of foods, which is more 'realistic' (or 'rustic'? huh?) than the photographs i've come across in cookbooks. it's also the only 'food-related' subscription i have :-/ maybe i need to surf more, no wonder i'm so uninspired!! huhuhuhu! agh! i've digressed again!

(photo from http://i-heart-baking.blogspot.com/)

ANYWAY! i usually don't take much notice of the daily emails i get from the subscription (free!) but this one caught my eye. SEE WHAT I MEAN?? so gawwwjusss!!! i re-visited the photo a few times, before deciding that i MUST try to make it in mini! i was elated to see that she had even thoughtfully provided a link to the tutorial for icing the cake! AND AND i learnt a new word, "ombré"! i love using these graduated tones and had no idea there was a term for it o.O learn something new everyday!

and then, cos i'm easily distracted and bored, i tried out different combinations and designs using the same method. it's quite labour intensive, and the four in front were my practice pieces before i finally got the hang of it and did the 2 on the cake displays (from http://true2scale.com/!! i love them so much!)

of course i had to make macarons ;) i'd actually toyed with the idea of making these sorts cylindrical towers, rather than the usual cone shaped ones. but macaron making is rather labour intensive too, for all its simplicity in terms of looks. there are 64 macarons just in this 'tower' alone.

i don't recall where i'd first seen photos of these sorts of towers, or who was the first to stack (or popularize) macaron towers like these, but it seemed a little lacking on top. i could have stuck in some 'macaron lollipops' like the photos i've seen online, but it just seemed a little..boring. so i decided to make some flowers to see if it'll break the monotony.

TA-DAH!~! ok so they are a little over the top. but i like how they turned out, and i'm sure i could use them in countless other displays! these were made out of air dry clay too :)

i've also been working on a number of other things, some requests and personal challenges....can't wait to get back to working on them! :P

(oh yes, and i'm aware these look more 'pink' than 'purple', but it's such a difficult colour to pin down *whine*)

Miniature Rice Cakes, YUM!

had a very special request, and it seemed like a challenge, so i took it up....who knew it would nearly break me XD the hard part was all the graphic work....took me forever to clean it up and find suitable materials in making the packaging....i'm just relieved that i got it done and hope that my customer likes it!

these were quite yummy too :P but i think i preferred the caramel ones over the chocolate.....

dressed up the tins too. might re-list the old set with the graphics when i feel braver. right now i think; i need a break. *head throbs* it's lunch time anyhoos! but i want to get this posted so i can feel more relaxed for the weekend and enjoy it..

made this available on my neglected Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/95472668/cup-of-tea-and-tea-bags-set-112-or-one
i hadn't wanted to post this until i was pretty sure some people got their sets first. though i might have ruined the surprise (maybe??) *blinks hard*

as well as this one: http://www.etsy.com/listing/95472465/danish-butter-cookies-and-cup-of-tea-set

ok~ off to grab some lunch! and then....ONLINE SHOPPING O.O (best of all it's not for myself haha)

Eggs Benedict, Asparagus and Coffee in 1:3

Miniature Eggs Benedict, with asparagus, made out of polymer clay. I've never tried hollandaise sauce before, probably why it took me 4 tries (and more than 4 hours) to mix the colour for it -_-"

the asparagus...aiee. that was another issue for me. my initial batch, i showed bf while i was doing them halfway, and he said they're too dark!!! it was late last night and i mulled over it on the journey home, 'twas the first thing i thought about when i woke up, and as soon as i got back into the office, i remixed the batch so that it had more 'tones' and variances in colour.

total time for the asparagus (including mixing colours and conditioning)...8 fricking hours!!!! *groans*

but. i need to move on, and wished desperately i could tolerate caffeine (which i can't T-T) so....

same commish, for a 1:3 cup and saucer with coffee art. I made the cup and saucer too....

out of air dry clay (la doll premier)....i thought my previous commission was long, this took longer!!! =_=""""" but it was a challenge, and you know me and challenges....

though speaking of challenges, i've sort of given up on the "I'm a giant challenge"...fond as i was of it, i have had hardly any time to myself what with the stuff going on around me and the commissions i'm committed to....plus i think Emily herself has either given up or likewise not found the time to complete it. my little 1:24 bakery/cafe is still sitting on one of my chairs in the office -_-""" no matter. i'm not hoping for any downtime but if i do, it'll be there. waiting. just like my abandoned 1:12 secret project XD

and then there's this to round up this commission....

some 1:4 muffins! i actually went to buy one (cos i love cranberries) to check out measurements and well, research is always a good excuse to have dessert ;P

ok now to move on back to something smaller scaled. going to start on that soon! have a great weekend ^ ^ (it's DATE NIGHT TONIGHT WOOHOO!!! FINALLY!!!!!)