Playing in the Bakery...

For the past few weeks, I must admit that I have not been terribly productive or feeling very creative, either in the sewing room or in the mood to write anything blog worthy of posting. I recently got over a pretty awful case of pneumonia, and have since been struggling to get my energy, and creative muse back so I get back to going full steam in the sewing room!

Instead of playing on the internet, or curling up in bed with movies, I decided to try to get a few things done while I'm feeling down. So I've been playing in my "bakery" again, making different kinds of sweet treat jewelries including more jello jewelry we talked about earlier, and I have been playing with clay as I have always wanted to learn how to make those faux desserts, cookies, miniature sweets, etc!

People are always saying I should take more progress photos, but how is one supposed to do that if your hands are messy?

While I've always been good with my hands in the areas of sewing, or crafting tiny things, I don't think I was ever very talented when it came to creating clay things. I was always so wistfully wishing that I could be better especially when other students could create such elaborate art work out of clay! But I've always adored those sweet little fake cookies, and macaroons, and since it didn't require me to move from bed I wanted to try it!

I had read on some tutorials a long time ago about being able to mix regular artist pastel shavings into Sculpey clay to create different colors and textures. So I started with a white clay, scraped off some shavings with an X-acto, and began kneading the pastels and clay together---mixing in a little water here and there since the pastels dry out the clay. After I had gotten a sort of cookie dough color, I went about cutting out the heart shapes with my blade.

At first I was like, "Eeeek, this looks really terrible" because it was just the beginnings of a really crude clay cut out and didn't have any shading or texture! >.< I sliced off some more pastel shavings: light brown, dark brown, caramel, and peachy pink. With a little round paint brush, I began swirling an assortment of the colors, dusting it on the edges and finishing the sides. Once I applied the lighter color, I would mix in the darker and so on. It still looked super crude, so I whipped out an old tooth brush and went to town on the surface of the cookies, which not only gave it a really cute texture but also continued to blend the pastel colors together! I used a lighter pressure and then added more to make the cookies look more baked and textured, like they had just come out of the oven.

Next, I had always wanted to try those itty bitty macaroons that are so popular in the decoden world! So after coloring the clay like I had done with the cookies, I rolled it into a nice little ball and with a teaspoon, I pressed it into the clay dough to get the basic ice cream scoop shape. With my fingers, I carefully peeled off the edges so it would be more raw and get that fancy edge they have on real macaroons. With flat edge, I squished the clay a bit and then with a tooth pick and toothbrush, went ahead to create that bubbly air texture.

I don't think they turned out too terrible! At least, not for a first attempt. I would like to learn more techniques to get better! I even bought one of those Sculpey Mold Making kits, so I can try to make my own little molds to produce more pieces. : 3

More jello jewelry necklaces!

And of course, as always, I've been playing with my whip cream, cabochons, and dessert sauces! 

Well, while I'm gathering back my energies... Why don't you give me some topics you'd like to read about? A tutorial? A guide? Anything! ^-^ <3