investigating miniature macarons...

in halloween colours. I am loving this range of bold macaron colours, ever since i started on the "I'm a Giant" challenge, i've had to dig deep to figure out what i'd like to incorporate into my work, vs what i think would sell well.

 it all started with this. i made a batch of purple macaron boxes, in both 1:12 and 1:24 scale...i chose to work with slightly thinner papers (120GSM) cos i knew that it'd be difficult to fold the 1:24 boxes.

this is the paper i prefer, and will use it for my own bakery setting. it's tracing paper according to the packaging, and the blurbs stated that it was suitable for printing too. the thing is, my printer's ink (hp 1050) is not waterproof, so i had to deal with a powdery sealant (krylon matte) that worked, but irked me as i had to wipe off the powdery residue. i think it's part and parcel of using matte sealants, does anyone else have a better brand to recommend? i've tried 2 brands, a general purpose acrylic epoxy matte from the hardware store (RJ london?) and the krylon one, both leave a similar powdery residue :( i've read online that it's 'normal', well, i don't like that i might be breathing in that stuff!

I've made some halloween coloured macarons. The idea this time was to work with colours I enjoy, and since I've moved all my stuff to the office, my wardrobe is now back in use XD looking into it revealed...that although I no longer have that many funeral colours in it, the palette resembles...well. the above XD shocking, i know *eyerolls*

I'm really happy with the way these turned out. I previously made my macarons looking matte, cos that's what they are generally photographed to look like. However, my personal photos of macarons (that I've subsequently consumed, YUM) are more...sticky looking. colour wise, these are less one-dimensional too, which adds to the realism. What do you think? do you prefer matte or these satiny ones?

and since I was supposed to be preparing the 1:24 for my bakery, I thought to start selling them too :) I wish my camera battery hadn't run out, luckily I'd finished taking photos of the items for sale.....i'd stupidly turned off the power cord to my extension last night before i left the office, so the battery isn't ready for use yet :( and it was such a bright and sunny morning too! *sadface*

this is my fave set, for its simplicity and versatility. you can find the rest of my 1:24 macaron box sets here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/snowfern?section_id=6330861

There are a few other macaron boxes and this macaron display set, also in my store now.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/snowfern?section_id=6330860

it's been interesting, and i'm going to move on to other 1:24 items. familiar favourites that have frustrated me the past week, my silicon putty has reached its expiration date and is no longer setting up the way it's supposed to, resulting in 2 ruined sets of 1:24 masters that i worked so hard on. looks like i'm going to have to do things the hard way. which is kind of QQ considering the sheer number i was hoping to churn out for the display window T-T ah well. try, try again seems to be how i always do things T-T I WILL DO IT OR DIE TRYING

:p

have a great week ahead! and Happy Deepavali to those who celebrate it :)

Playing with Colours - Part 1

i'm not very brave when it comes to colours. most of my previous more colourful works were customer requests. natural progression dictates i take it up as a personal challenge, and tried to tackle pastels first, as i find pastels hardest (for me) to work with.

well. not really, if they are pre-coloured...:P i played around with some doily designs, and as you can see from the stack on the left, i got a little too serious :X what? practice makes perfect, right??? *blinks* and also for very sore wrists....

 macarons first....cos i think they're the most 'basic' colourful confectionery.....

and played with a different meringue shape.....the purple meringue 'sandwich' in the foreground reminds me of clams though :(

 ooh looky! little Eva wants to know what smells so good! thanks Kristy!

and....made some cake/tart bases. i call them cake-tart bases cos they look like neither. XD but they're cute! or should they be cake/tart/pie bases??!?!? whatever!

i think the blackberry one needs a light dusting of caster sugar....we'll see....

thus concludes part 1 of my 'colourful' adventures :)

1:12 Cameo Cakes

my customer sent me some cameo stickers for use on her request. i hope she likes these. the toughest bits for me to make were the ribbons, and getting the cake bases nice, clean and even zzzzz i'm not a machine! XD

more pics.

decided to use picnik's collage option cos i'm too lazy to upload that many pictures. i LIKES IT. :D free to register and use, very good for simple image manipulations :D no need to mess about with photoshop/gimp!!!

and as a personal project, since i had so much oddly coloured clay laying around, i made a chocolate macaron tower. some of you might recognize the chocolate portions as part of some older works....i needed something to fill in the blanks (HA!) and yayyyy they came in handy! the toughest part of assembling this tower has got to be fiddling with that dang ribbon. BUT I DID IT YAYYYYYyyyyyyyyy took me only 2 hrs....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

off to the mini meet!

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

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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. :)

strawberry cakes & more macarons

sooo....

like some of you probably know i have been doing a few larger scaled commissions, and the bulk of it comes from Den of Angels (DoA), a ball-jointed doll forum. if you're a member and have at least 40 posts, you can view my marketplace and commission threads:


http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=345069
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=350187

these are my latest commissions, in 1:4 scale.^ ^




the ever popular macarons. i honestly honestly HONESTLY considered never ever EVER making these again. not only are they kind of hellish to make in larger scales (i don't use molds), the mixing of the colours are TORTURE on my wrists/hands. but beggars can't be choosers, and i really do need the $. so i guess i'll have to suck it up and keep making these for as long as people want 'em. =3=


the ones on top are for my customer. my first attempt at this commission is pictured below. ok, so why did i torture myself twice? or, 12 times? because after making the first batch, i realised that it was slightly blockish, and i wasn't quite satisfied with the colours. my customer requested the fillings to be lighter coloured, almost close to white, but can you see the fillings for the 4 lighter colours look...well, WHITE! GAH!

 i couldn't. i just couldn't let it go. i thought, heck. i'll sleep on it and let my customer decide if she likes it. BUT I COULDN'T LET IT GO. AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!! so i made another batch.  btw. each  batch took me almost 4 hrs to complete. no, i wasn't multi-tasking or anything, i just REALLY DO WORK THAT SLOWLY. i think cos i had to mix up the colours, condition the clay, and GET THE FRIGGING @#$)*@#&$*#& DUST out of the clay AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, shape, bake, cool, mix up filling colours, rebake, cool etc....

maybe i should turn the room into a clean room, like those in silicone wafer factories or summat XD might be better for my allergies too HA!



aaand, of course there will always be waste clay. this batch of sprinkles i made from the first 'failed' batch of macarons. haven't yet rolled out the rest of the oddly coloured clay. thought of making jellybeans, but i really should rest my hands. they ache to the point of numbness now, which is something new.

what else has been happening. hrm. well you can go to my flickr and view some pics of some beautiful dolls. had an outing last saturday, 'twas great fun, which is driving me to try and work harder on earning $ so i can get my own.

i have found myself tiring out increasingly easily these past weeks. the thirst simply cannot be slaked (literal thirst) and the tests tomorrow .....well, i get the feeling the results aren't gonna be good. but i guess being sickly since childhood does somewhat numb one into a "ah well" or "ARRGHGHG I HATE THE WORLD" state. right now i think i'm smack in the middle of both. but i have more stuff i'm working on (personal mini projects) and am trying hard to get out of a 'one-trick pony' etsy-store-limbo.

oh and btw, just a reminder, the blog is now hosted on http://snowfern-clover.blogspot.com . ok. time for bed.

g'nite.

Experiment - Resin clay + oil paint

resin clay experiment
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

ok i goofed. i thought i picked up the tube of acrylic paint, only when i started taking pics did i realize it was actually oil paints XD

i needed to do some piping/frosting for a cupcake, and after wasting 3 hrs fiddling with the nozzles and polymer clay, i gave up. since it had to be 'chocolate' cream, i couldn't use the huge tub of texture paste (base colour is white, any colour added to it would be of a pastel hue) either.

i don't remember where i posted a pic of how i used the little tips in syringes, might have been on flickr, but since ADC might dry up in the syringe itself, i decided to minimize on wastage and make mini piping bags instead.

i squeezed out a touch of what i -thought- was brown acrylic paint (that'll teach me to read labels XD ), squeezed out a small ball of grace resin clay, and mixed the two in a disposable sauce container (click on pic to see the notes in my flickr). then i added a little bit of water. by a little bit, it meant i ran my right hand under the tap, and flicked a few drops into the container. real scientific measurements, i know.

what resulted was a sticky gooey mess (thankfully not as messy as polymer clay) that i put into my home-made piping bag. Japanese ADC miniaturists have been using the 'foil cutter' nozzle for quite sometime now, i vaguely recall posting the tutorial link somewhere on my site, but i'm too hazy to find it now, haven't eaten yet today. anyway don't cut yourself doing it. shouldn't be too hard to figure out. just don't ask me ok? i'm grouchy. as usual, after every 'experiment'. ha.



'chocolate' is hard to capture in pics. at least, it's hard for me. i hadn't intended to make the smiley face, but haha it's there XD maybe it's my subconscious at work. yea i'm definitely not smiling now. so it's all in my head.


i tested on a sample 1:3 cupcake that i made out of polymer clay. i think the cream is too tiny for that scale, but i'll let it dry and scrape it off later. wanted to see if it piped nicely/adhered to the polymer clay.


and of course, i had to try it out on a spare 1:12 cupcake XD i'm discontinuing this range of cupcake shapes, since it is not out of my own mold. i will be making available some silicone putty molds of my own design, i've made the master copy of the cupcake base but have yet to test them out on 'proper' 1:12 cupcakes. so far it's looking pretty ok....

all that remains is for the clay to dry thoroughly (2 days maybe? 3?) but so far it looks pretty cool! i will test out a batch with acrylic colours later, and report on the differences. i -think- the oil paints provide a sort of translucency/gloss to the creams, i quite like it but i want to see how acrylic colours do when mixed into just plain grace clay.

anyway. i've finally made my 100th sale on Etsy! i haven't really listed anything 'new-ish', since the bestselling items are my cupcake cases, and also cos i've been busy fulfilling promises and orders and swaps...and i have soo many ideas that require working on (remind me to post about THE GRAND PLAN that some of us TeamMids members are working on....it's kind of naughty ;) *hides behind hands and giggles*

dang, this blog/website needs some major revamping. it's near impossible to find my posts XD

oh, and don't know if anyone really cares to read this, but please, don't ask me anymore questions about how to use clay, what i use for making my miniatures, etc. if you haven't gleaned the info you needed from my blog posts, it means i can't help you further. i think i'll write up an FAQ. i'm kinda sick of repeating myself. which adds to the grouchiness. :X

macaron disaster

trying to get a good pic
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

can someone help me with this?

i've found that for my larger items, there tends to be 'bubbling' on my clay. see the surface of the chocolate macaron?

i mean it's realistic and all, and i know some miniaturists -want- the effect, but i find it immensely annoying as it is not visible on first bake (the macaron shells have to be baked first before adding the 'filling'), but after i assemble the item, it's MARRED. *$@)(*#$

honestly, it does not look all that bad IRL, maybe i shld use soft focus for my pics *sigh* but ARGH!

i suspect it has to do with either the stock (happens only to my older clays) or how i roll the sheets (pasta machine, usually just once through)

halp!

more pics, sigh.


at least i'm quite satisfied with the shapes....



oh and i am terrible at mixing reds/pinks/greens. the pain, oh the pain. the above are just part of the test batch. bakes out differently than when mixed. @)$*#&

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EDIT: OK nevermind i figured it out, cross-posted over at CDHM....

i think it was due to my not pre-heating the oven, not the techniques or the oil paint...i've used oil paints in most of my previous work to no noticeable detriment.....

this time, i experimented 2 ways:

1) old method, roll out, cut, shape, bake WITHOUT preheating oven
2) pre-heat oven, roll out, cut, shape, bake WITH PAPER COVERING clay

results:
1) LEFT: still bubbly
2) RIGHT: NO BUBBLES YAY!!!

i think the oven probably overheated since it wasn't pre-heated, and blistered the clay. so for those who want the texture, go ahead and do what i did XD

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PHEW!