My second miniature how-to article is now published! It's about making a 1:24th scale Key lime pie for your doll house. From the techniques used, you can also apply them for your favorite scale as well. The article is divided into 2 main parts, key lime cane making and pie making. It's fun and I think the pie came out nicely. :)
Making air dry polymer clay cane had been on my mind for quite a while. I worried about time and speed and kept thinking that air dry polymer clay can't be used for cane. One day, I decided to try it out and told myself to do it fast. lol My first orange cane came out in good shape - size and color. However, the sliced pieces were not good. The white clay I put in the middle to make the cane orange cross sectional look were not straight, instead they swirl around and along the circumferential of the cane like fan blades. But, from this first try I know I can make fruit cane out of air dry clay. Wooooooooo Hoooooooo! :D
Practice makes perfect, I know and I'm practicing! :)
My favorite kinds of cake are chocolate and fancy cakes. I used to make a 1:12th chocolate cake in star shaped which looks like a chubby star shaped pillow. And it looks so very cozy and comfy...
This green cake is one of my fancy cake. It's in mushroom shaped with green roof and tiny pink roses. The cake body is decorated with chocolate flakes. So, for me it's a log cabin. I named it a fairy cottage cake. :D
It's fun to make things out of your own imagination. I think if I'm a kid, I would love to have my birthday cake a fancy decorated cake rather than normal cake and even better to give a cake some cute and funny name...
I just finished these cakes. They are an order with style selected from my Flickr album.
In general, I spend around 2 weeks on making cake from air dry polymer clay for overall process and to let the clay dry completely.
These cakes are in 1:12th scale. The wedding cake has 1" (~25 mm) diameter at the widest point while the 1-tier cakes have ~3/4" (20 mm) diameter.
I found out that some collectors have slightly bigger diameter cake collection (1" - 1 3/16" or ~25-30 mm diameter) while the other would like to have their cake diameter at ~3/4" (18-22 mm)...
Finally, I finished flower orders from my mini-lover customers! :) Custom design flower bouquets for their doll house(s) - in glass container, no pottery pot or ceramic vase. The bouquet should be classy look in one color tone or mixed color but, not rainbow...
Now... that's complicated as different people like different thing (and I love colorful flower bouquet - the rainbow kind!). Oh dear... Anyway, let's try...
Using technique I named 'free hand arrangement', I ended up with more than 10 different style bouquets. Here are 2 of those I like most, I think the first one look classy (to me) and the second one is cute. It reminds me to a daisy field (I love daisy ;)).
Make bouquet, I need a good mood day. I think the arrangement and color of the flowers reflect my mood. I wonder... Is there any kind of flower people use to celebrate Halloween ? (No, pumpkin is not a flower. ;))
Lately, I'm into fruit stuff. I made fruit cupcakes decorated with my mini-fruits (cherry, grape, peach, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry). I kinda like them and keep them in my personal collection. I think they are lovely. ;)
Yes, I collect my own work. LOL I've been collecting some items I made and admire them every once in a while. Often that my brain went empty, it just gone blank and I can't figure any new cake design out and think I'm at the end of my mini-making. So, I put this thing aside and try something new.
Before these tarts, I was 'blank' on my mini-cake making. So, I gave it a try making fruit tart and pie (some are listed in my Flickr album). Pie has been my 'to do' obsession for quite a while though...
Just before Christmas, I had an idea to use my mini-cakes as Christmas ornament by putting tiny metal loop on top. From there, I made some other miniature jewelry. I wonder, how do people think about these miniature as ornament and jewelry...
Since I start making miniature, I never tried to gather all the process, method, trick and tip out together. Things just go naturally at they are. One day, I have a chance to write miniature how-to article for a miniature online magazine, Dollhouseartisan.com.
Believe it or not? It was difficult to write things down than to make them. So, I started my article by making a simple, teeny, tiny 1:24th scale cake out and took pictures of whatever I did. Then, I sorted the pictures out and grouped them into 3 steps and wrote descriptions for each of them. The Dollshouseartisan's editor was so kind. She help edited my article and then, it went on published (was around mid-December)! I was so excited and hope the article could be useful and to inspire/encourage those who would like to start out their miniature cake making with my simple and easy how-to.
I also found that the website is a nice, good one. There are more than 250 tutorials and projects published there with variety field of miniature work, furniture making, sculpting, painting, cloth making, crochet, knitting, flower making, bakery, cake, etc. Not just for 1:12th scale but, also 1:24th scale.
One thing I learned from writing article is that it can be easy, just to read what others did. But, if the result come out in a good shape is question of skill and experience which can not be taught. And, yes, once the 'secret' is written down things seem to be easy. Is it actually easy as it is?
My half scale cake bodies (the clay) were mainly cut out to shape used color pen's cap (which is bigger than regular pen's cap) - no other mold, cutting tool or cookie cutter. So, the thicker clay layer made out nice dome shaped body. For heart shape and square shape cutters, I used metal strip from plastic food wrapping package and bend it into shape, not a perfect curve, but it works! The most time-consume part is pearl making, I roll small portion of clay into tiny ball. It's not that easy (for me) to make similar size tiny balls. And so, before I get enough pearl to decorate a cake, my fingers hurt!
It's amazing that every time I start making new cake, new idea just pop up into my head what around me to be used and so far, I do not need any special tool to make my mini-cake at all.
Now, just have a look around and try to figure out how could things you found can be used for your miniature. ;)
I really have no real idea why I started making my very first miniature cakes as 3-tier wedding cakes which, seen from now, is more complicate than 1-tier cake...
My first cakes were white cream 3-tier wedding cake decorated with chocolate flowers, 3-tier chocolate cake in flower petal shaped decorated with colorful roses and the third one was a 2-tier chocolate cake in heart shaped decorated with leaves and tiny flowers. I do not have pictures of these cakes any longer. But, they are in my heart. I still remember those time of difficulties with trial and error of 'learning by doing' as if it was just happened...
All cakes I made are out of my own custom design inspired by real cakes and flower bouquets. I enjoy making chocolate cake and chocolate cake with colorful topping/decoration.
Strange thing is after these 3-tier cakes, I, then, made 1:24th scale cakes. At that time I do not know about scales. I only know that those I bought and collect are rather too big and need space which I do not have that plenty. Therefore, I just grab a color pen cap and started to punch the cake body out and decorated them with my tiny, handmade flowers (yes, they were mostly flowered cakes).
Later on, I realized that I have big and small hand day. Some days I just can't make things small and other days I simply can only make tiny stuff...
When I was young, I was amazed by many different crafting my mother did. She is really talented in this field of handmade work. Knitting, crocheting, fruit /veggie and soap sculpturing, ribbon workings etc. Just name it! She taught me these stuff, but I'm never good at anything until we discovered bare-hand clay modeling. We made flowers and veggies brooch and earrings. Some sold to my school teachers and some we displayed at home. Many years later, my mother is getting older, her eyesight is no longer as good as it used to be and she can't do all these crafting any longer...
I've been making and selling my miniatures for quite a while already and we were discussed about techniques on the mini-making. She never had any chance to see my works before and always wonder how do they look like. I finally managed to get a small wood-glass cabinet display and put some of my works in, cakes, tarts, pies, and gave to her as a New Year present. Saw happiness and all past time remembrances in her eyes worth a million...
Love you mom...
