Teensy Weensy Miso Soup

am waiting for the resin to set. :)

SLURP!


made these last night with air dry clay.

i remember watching a video i found online, and stored it away in my memory till i finally found a reason to use it YAY!

FOUND IT IN MY BOOKMARKS WOOT!

http://www.thaiflowerart.com/english/thaiflowerart/Coating_wire_graded___Making_clay_flowers.html
i followed and adapted the technique used here, using i -think- 28 gauge wire. it's so fine and slightly less than 0.5mm thick. not sure where you can buy it since grandma found it while packing and asked if i could use it. chucked it away for a long time, YAY FOR HOARDING!!!

the whole website is a treasure trove of information. i can't remember when i first discovered it, but i do recall spending hours reading and watching ALL of the videos the lady has posted.

http://www.thaiflowerart.com/english/thaiflowerart/Techniques_to_make_clay_flowers_from_DaisyClay.html
above link shows all the techniques she uses with air dry clay. i think she sells thai clay too i'm not familiar with the products, but all the free videos are awesome~!

the tofu is made from polymer clay, baked of course. and the kelp....well i had a lot of problems with it cos i didn't know how to manipulate green. i have problems getting colours right since i don't buy ready made colours (which will be amended tomorrow... wah ah haha ) and after multiple failed attempts with polymer clay, i thought, "F*CK IT" and painted a piece of tracing paper with acrylics. YAY!

mixed up some ochre/brown/white acrylics into epoxy resin, and voila. miso soup. just wish i had nicer appropriately scaled bowls. time to do some online shopping :E

kk off to CNY lunch with bf's family. imma be late!! :O :O :O

How I made the Taiyaki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyaki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorayaki

WARNING: NOT A TUTORIAL, just showing my process. will not be answering technical questions cos i'm a grump like that :X all resources and tips and tricks can be found under the "Important Resources" section in my links to the left. or, you can always consult Google.

i rate this process under intermediate difficulty.

you could, alternatively, just find a fishie charm at some accessory store and mold that, but i want to start *ahem* sculpting my original works and stuff. so....HERE WE GO!



first, sketch out the fishie onto tracing paper. i'm terrible at drawing and after 5 failed attempts i finally got it to the shape i'm satisfied with. then reverse the paper, and trace over the fishie onto some spare polymer clay so the pencil marks the clay. do this lightly.

using all the tools you have at your disposal, in my case, a needle tool, ball stylus and some wire (for the scales bit), gently notch the clay where the pencil marks are. i guess this can be considered sculpting? OMG I'M ON MY WAY TO BECOMING AN ARTIST ZOMGZORZ!!! XD XD XD *snurk*

bake the clay, and after it's cooled, dust it lightly with cornstarch or using a little mineral/baby oil and a cotton bud, coat the fish lightly before molding it with molding material of your choice. i use alley goop, it's a 2-part silicone putty, but i've found that at such tiny scales (*snort*), it has a tendency to stick to the master itself, or not solidify as it should. maybe it's the temperature change, but this never happened to me before until recently :(



here i tested out the mold with some polymer clay, and dusted it lightly with ochre and other appropriately coloured chalk pastels. i forgot the exact shades :( most of the time i just 'eyeball'-colour my works. this fishie doesn't look crispy enough to me, i made this last night.


this afternoon, i made another pair, but in my excitement i neglected to let the clay rest and cool down before i jammed jam into it. sigh. which explains the broken piece on the left. but i decided to go ahead and use it anyway, to show the red bean filling.



kissing fish! i like the colouration of the one to the right. at least it looks more crunchy. that, and i prefer the shape too. did the mold this morning, but it's almost time to set the table for reunion dinner, so can't play with my stuff anymore today ; ; will try and even out the two sides hopefully tomorrow, or later tonight.


so that's how i made the 1:12 Taiyaki!


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i really shld make separate posts, but i'm quite lazy, so.....XD


dorayaki! did this for a trade with Yuki/Amatheria. hope to get a set of taiyaki done for him too before i send out the package.




and cos i had a lump of 'pineapple jam' remaining from my 1:12 pineapple tarts, decided to make a larger scaled one. this is approx 2cm across, i guess it could pass for 1:3, but in my heart i know it's 1:2 *sulk* will be chucking it in my portfolio for larger scaled items, and will be scaling this down to 1:3 and 1:4.

off to set the table! have a happy weekend everyone :)

(oh yeah, i know it says murder book XD was looking for something to hold up the items and the book happened to be on my bed. yay for libraries and crime mysteries!)

Introducing: Nyann

beautiful madelines and her oh-so-cute-strawberry-stalks!!!!
omnomnom, creampuffs, i'd like to try making these someday soon, these look scrumptious :9
and as she puts it, her 'zebraberries' XD see those cute strawberry stalks!?!?!

and this!!! THIS IS ACHIEVED WITH AIR DRY CLAY STUFF!!!! no baking, no messy fiddling with liquid polymer clay and baking! GOR-JUS! where i have failed, she's succeeded!!!

i'd like to introduce my friend, Nyann. i first got to know her via my blog, and i went snooping around hers, to discover that she's also from Singapore, around my age (YESSS!!!!) and although rather new to this mini-food hobby, her potential is immense! look at all her kawaii cute and realistic works! you probably would have noticed me mention her in some of my previous posts, where we were at the same event where Asuka held a booth too ^ ^

we have since been chatting online almost daily, i adore her sense of humour and her willingness to share. she's far more patient than i am with regards to her process, and boy does she have sources. head on over to her blog to see quite a bit of work-in-progress pics, as well as places where you can get air dry clay stuff.

don't forget about her flickr account! she takes beautiful pictures of daily stuff as well ^ ^

ok Nyann. next time we go jalan-jalan, dinner's on you ;)

<3!

send her some love!!

http://overthesilvermoon.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/overthebluemoon/

Warning, plenty of pics!

my very patient customer's 1:3 request :) finally complete! at least i made the deadline XD















remember these? the last time i made them were in 1:4. these are approx 1.8cm wide.




i made the box too! and the toothpick > <



i've shown these before, but i couldn't help taking showing them off again XD








CNY is just 2 days away (well, it's on 14th but the IMPORTANT DAY is the eve, when we have our reunion dinner) and i haven't even done ANY preparations for the dinner. will be taking a nap, then heading to the supermarket to pick up some oranges. wish i had time to make mini versions....but i did steal some time to make these....




although it isn't an exact replica of the ones bf's mom made for me (yea they're almost gone XD ) i am happy with how they turned out! i had to individually add detailing since the molds were unco-operative, but only managed to 'fill' 6 of these in the spare time i had.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

biscotti, wish i had coffee

i don't know what scale these would be suitable for. the first biscottis i'd tried were rock hard and approx 5-6 inches long, so these would mirror them in 1:12.

air dry clay + baking soda :) baked for 15 mins at approx 120 deg celcius. i used Daiso brand "lightweight" clay, using Tomohachi's recipe and adapted it for oven use. the results are inconsistent, so i'm glad these worked out the way i intended! hope to put them in a nice cookie jar soon as i get some time, gotta finish up some stuff and get the house clean!!

/panic on

More experiments and sushi

i tried and failed 4 times at molding this bugger with my alley goop. i'm thinking either 1) i didn't get the ratio right 2) it's too small a volume to mold properly 3) i didn't mix it well enough.

but when i did use a larger amount of molding compound, it still messed up. sigh. looks like i'll have to find another way to do this.

it's supposed to be a cookie/pineapple tart base :( the shiny stuff on it is the leftover silicone goop that seems to like to stick to it. :( i never have this problem when molding larger objects. so this is a major annoyance and waste of expensive silicone compound :( if i feel up to it, i might do a resin mold instead. the air dry one i made seems to be -ok- just that the details aren't as refined, and it's bound to deteriorate after i subject to the abuse intended for this 'project'.



well this experiment didn't turn out too badly. i tried out the polymer clay + thinner + baking soda method by Garie Sim and it seems to be working fairly well. the thinner is giving me a high though XD

the cakes are displayed on a plate painted by Petitplat which i received as part of a swap ^ ^ i have been really pampered lately, and will do a proper post on all the items i've received recently...





and progress on the commission i'm working on. these were the hardest to make of the whole commission. it accounts for why i've 'disappeared' somewhat the past few days. the different parts have to be mixed, baked, assembled, re-baked, individual grains of rice stuck on, re-baked, then the 'eggs' stuck on....i originally was going to make them approx 2cm wide, but realised that would be totally out of scake with regards to the crab stick. these are approx. 1/2" or 1.25cm wide, which translates to 1 1/2" or 3.75cm wide in real life (1:3 scale). i think this size works better with the rest of the sushi rolls....and hope my customer thinks the same too > <

Chinese New Year is approaching, and i'm still quite behind on my swaps and posts...i hope to be back on my personal projects soon i have soooooo many ideas teeming in my noggin!

Congratulations Luc!

Congrats Luc!!!i will be attempting to contact you shortly ^ ^ his/her pet phrase...kinda makes me laugh. cos it takes on a rather different meaning in our local context XD


"moi pet phrase ish... "帮个忙" aka "help lah"... s22"

i think the winner is a 'he' because....i often hear this only amongst army guys haha!

and a big thank you to everyone who played along! i have found myself recently testing out the new pet phrases i've learnt...some were really strange....XD i want so much to play favourites but i think it's funnier if you just read through ALL of the pet phrases yourself! you can read the responses here

http://snowfern.com/2010/02/2nd-giveaway.html

again, gratz Luc!