AiClay - the {really} small things in life

Goodbye rabbit, hello dragon. {cake pops}

2012-01-22T14:42:00.002+08:00

To the Chinese all around the world, you should know that today is the last day of the Year of the Rabbit (okay maybe hare), and the Year of the Dragon is fast approaching!

{miniature bunny cake pops handsculpted by me}

Chinese New Year is one of my favourite festivals, as it is celebrated on a large scale in my family and country. Dragon lanterns of all sizes and shapes decorate shopping malls and red cloth bearing auspicious words adorn the walls.

At my house, my mom has been bustling around buying and arranging flowers and hanging up cute little paper dragons holding cards which say 恭喜发财.

The towering bottles of new year cookies have been distributed to houses of relatives and friends a week ago, leaving a few bottles for our family to host visitors.

Right now, my parents are still wiping dust off the television, fan blades etc, and I've just cleared out my wardrobe. It's astonishing how much dust can gather in just one year.

大扫除 or spring-cleaning is a tradition that most Chinese families abide by, and since it is considered unlucky to throw rubbish out or hold a broom during the period of Chinese New Year, everyone tries to complete their cleaning before the first day of the new year.

There are so many Chinese traditions around this festival, some ridiculous and some practical, but for custom's sake my family tries to abide by all of them.

In a while, we would be heading to my aunt's place for a steamboat reunion, and rounds of games and maybe some gambling. :)

Bambi started play-acting with these little bunnies once I handed them to her. Because of the metal in the cake-pop sticks I included, and the magnets in her hands, she could hold them really well. ♥

Ouch! I just hit my little toe on the rubbish bin and it is starting to swell up. Oh no, I hope you are having a less accident-prone day than me.

To all the Chinese around the world and everyone who's celebrating, happy Chinese New Year to you! May health and happiness be bestowed upon you. ♥

恭喜发财，万事如意！

The Straits Times Interview - best new year's present!

2012-01-16T02:13:00.001+08:00

Wow what a week it has been.

Ever since the newspaper article was published (you can now read it here), emails about workshops and commissions have been streaming in madly, much to my surprise (and delight!).

I've never been much of a newspaper reader, so I must have forgotten about the reach of traditional media because I was definitely not expecting the attention I received.

Also a shout out to all my online and offline friends and family who congratulated me upon seeing my fat face in the papers, you guys are wonderful and made me feel really special on that day, it almost felt like my birthday!

Now that I've cleared all the mails and sold out all the cookie rings (yes you read that right! haha, but they're still available for pre-order), I can't wait to get back on track with the sculpting, fulfilling old commissions and working on new ones.

It has been so long since I shared a photo of my works, so here's one taken of a part of the set-up that I put together for the newspaper photoshoot.

On a little table, I had arranged my handsculpted miniature breads and birthday cupcakes, together with a wooden breadbox I painstakingly handmade but adore so much. ♥

If you look closely at the photo of me in the papers, you will see the little table as well.

For everyone who has been patiently waiting for workshop updates, please bear with me while I try and get everything sorted! I already have your emails on the list of interested workshop participants, and would be sending out more information to you once I have them.

Right now, I am sourcing for the best venue to conduct the workshops, I can't wait to sculpt with all of you as well! ♥

If you would like to be a participant at my miniature food workshops, please email me at buzz@aiclay.com and indicate your interest! ♥

Playing catch-up. (egg-muffin, hashbrown, cookie ring)

2012-01-08T04:04:00.002+08:00

A piece of happy news to share!

I was approached by a local newspaper (The Straits Times) for an interview about AiClay and the craft behind it about a week ago. A few days later, they sent over a photographer for a photoshoot at my house. And today, the article (which also features other local crafters) would finally be published in the newspaper!

It is all terribly exciting for me, and since it is the wee hours of the morning over here, the newspaper men are probably doing their delivery rounds and soon I'll get to see my works (and my face lol) in print! ♥

So to everyone who's popping over here from the article, a warm welcome to you! ♥

Hopefully you'll like my works enough to come back a second time!

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I would also like to catch up on the backlog of photos I have from 2011, all the better to start this year afresh!

A miniature fast food breakfast set - hashbrown, egg-muffin and a drink, all on a tray.
All miniature packaging was also designed and handmade by me.

A closer look at the miniature hash-brown.

A giant chocolate chunk cookie ring - this is available in the store. Miniature cookie is handsculpted by me and is perched on an adjustable, surgical stainless steel ring. It would fit all ring sizes.

Join the ever-growing cookie monsters club! ♥

If you know a friend/mother/daughter/wife who is a true cookie monster at heart, this ring is definitely for them. I have made one for myself which I love to wear out, and it makes me smile everytime I look at it.

Enough backtracking of photos for now, till next time! ♥ Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas is so last year.

2012-01-07T17:34:00.003+08:00

Christmas Day was actually only 2 weeks ago, but the turkeys and logcakes and fir trees feel amazingly far away already doesn't it!

So here are some photos to remind you of the loveliest festival.

Some miniature packaging I made for some miniature food I sent to Aya. ♥
Of course it had to be Christmas-themed! and yes, I draw those little hearts everywhere haha.

a little photo sequence on how to draw a gingerbread man.

a very belated Merry Christmas to all of you. ♥

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Oh, to everyone who participated in the New Year's free shipping promotion for AiMail subscribers, THANK YOU! ♥ It just ended on midnight yesterday, and I will be coming up with a promotion every month, so stay tuned. And subscribe if you haven't!

AiMail - the launch! (and a peek)

2011-12-31T23:00:00.000+08:00

/Edit.

Silly me has forgotten to add this important condition for the promotion. Free worldwide shipping will apply only to orders amounting to at least SGD20. Please forgive all the hiccups with this first issue of AiMail!

*if your bigcartel order is less than SGD20 but you want to commission me so that total order is at least SGD20, the promotion will still apply. Please write me an email before 6 Jan, so that I can make a special listing for you!

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It's the last hour of 2011! But can I admit, I'm a lot more excited for AiMail than I am about 2012. :)

So I finished sending out all copies of AiMail to all subscribers once it hit 31st December 2011, and since it is the very first issue, I think I should show everyone else what a copy of AiMail looks like.

Of course the discount code is exclusive only for the subscribers so it was left out of the copy here. I will only send out AiMail to last-minute subscribers till 5 Jan 2012, so email me or click here now if you want to enjoy free-shipping!

-cue slow, sappy music for emotional rant ahead.

I have always wanted to give back to all of you lovely supporters of AiClay, and I want to do it before the year ended. 2011 was a year when I dived into AiClay full-time and devoted my time and energies into building it. When I'm not sculpting, I'm taking miniature photoshoots, or checking my website statistics, or ~~playing Bejewelled~~ discussing with my customers about their miniature commissions.

Maybe you comment on my Flickr photos, or read my blog posts, or check in my store for updates, or a first-time visitor wondering who is this girl who has giant fingers and makes everything look tiny (what a scam tskk). For all of you, I wish for the very best new year ahead of us, in happiness and health. I felt that the best way to show my appreciation for your support during this year is to give free worldwide shipping! I think a part of me feels like for a while, we could pretend we were all next-door-neighbours and forget if we are separated by sea and mountains. I hope I'm making sense haha.

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I worked really hard at the design of AiMail and love that it has my happy colours in there, but there are many more improvements I can see in future issues. I would definitely include more exclusive, personal AiClay information inside, and hold a variety of promotions for different issues.

I have forgotten to include that free worldwide shipping INCLUDES tracking, so while that is going to burn my wallet, I would rather be assured that my customers receive their packages safely.

So please keep the subscriptions coming, AiMail will only get better! and a happy new 2012 to YOU! ♥

P.S All subscriptions that I receive after 5 Jan 2012 will qualify to receive the second and future issues of AiMail.

December . white rose on silver band.

2011-12-28T00:43:00.000+08:00

I've always thought December was a month of relaxation and fun and savoring the last weeks before the new year swings by.

But I thought wrong, obviously. As we get closer to the end of December, the things I have to do are just piling up a lot faster than I can finish them. And there are useless pursuits I keep succumbing to like Bejewelled and lazing in bed. Very bad joce, very bad. :(

I was whirling with fulfilling all the Christmas orders before I flew to Bangkok, and then it was JY's birthday and then christmas gatherings and more orders and I have an unfinished book to return to the public library by.. (searches for loan receipt and realises the due date is today)

So..

The white rose on a silver band, is quite like what my initial impression of December should be -

serene and calming.

I know this isn't a food miniature, but once in a while I do love to sculpt non-food items (not too often though). Plus it's always good practice for commissions like miniature cakes with fondant flowers on top. ♥

I really like the ring, and would definitely sculpt more next time. Maybe a different flower, a different colour. Some have expressed interest in earrings with the flowers, which I think would look as awesome.

By the way, it's an adjustable silver ring, so it fits all ring sizes.

I hope your December has been less hectic as mine, and you get time to reflect and ponder about what you've done in 2011 and what you wish to accomplish in 2012.

As for me, I'm off to get in a game (or five) of Bejewelled before bedtime. :)

Squawk! (penguin macarons)

2011-12-17T03:21:00.002+08:00

Move over, plain flat round macarons! Animal macarons are all the rage now.

Personally when it comes to real foods, I avoid buying foods with faces. Because I don't think I could ever bear to bite into them!

Wow, just noticed it's past 3am (again!) and I really don't want to delay my bedtime any longer.

So I'm going to let the photos do the talking. :)

If you follow my twitter/facebook feed, you'll know that I've been going a tad crazy working on the christmas orders.

This is so that I can get all the orders packaged and sent to my customers before I leave for Bangkok for a short trip till 26th December! All mails and orders will be attended to then, but I promise to try to check my mailbox everyday while in Bangkok. ♥

A last announcement, the launch date for AiMail would be on New Year's Eve - 31st December 2011. ♥

Which means that gives you exactly two more weeks to subscribe!

the start to a crazy week. (apples)

2011-12-12T00:17:00.001+08:00

I wish I was over-exaggerating.

But let's see, from now till Sunday, I have

four orders due for completion ( totally not complaining about this ♥ )
gatherings with friends
a Wicked musical
a miniature cookie workshop
and a movie event where I get to be Santa's elf haha

That's a lot happening within 7 days. At least to me.

And then I have to pack, ready to leave for Bangkok come early morning on Monday. That, I'm pretty excited! ♥

Maybe I should write less and just jump to the photos then.

Here is an order for a variety of miniature apples I sculpted in 1/3 scale, fits SD-sized (50-70cm) dolls.

with a bite. perfect & whole. bitten to the core. shrunken & wrinkled.

Bambi is helping me with modelling the apples again, her glum expression tells me that I might need to hire someone larger instead. Hm.

Monday is beckoning. Goodnight everyone, I wish all of you a fulfilling week! ♥

It's a Christmas month.

2011-12-05T22:24:00.001+08:00

Everybody knows Christmas isn't just a one-day affair. Or twelve days.

It lasts a whole month. Once December 1st hits, christmassy songs start playing on radio, the artificial trees go up in malls and you see gingerbread men everywhere.

Okay so the last one is probably true only here at AiClay.

Lately, I have been receiving many orders for these little guys, and people are requesting them to be made into everything - earrings, pendants, even brooches.

Thankfully I really like making them. ♥ Certainly on my top 3 favourite things to sculpt.

Lastly, I still want to thank all of the incoming subscriptions to AiMail, definitely want to get it out to all of you for the new year sales.

And another thing is that I would be travelling to Bangkok in exactly two weeks, can't wait because I do miss that place. ♥

What pretty feet you have - macarons.

2011-11-27T16:51:00.001+08:00

Try saying the title to anyone and you will probably get a puzzled look.

But when you tell that to a tired baker who is bringing out her 294th batch of freshly baked macarons and praying madly they turn out okay, it all makes sense.

I've read enough horror stories online about baking macarons - shuddering tales of shells sinking in the middle, uncooked in the middle, cracked collapsed weird lumps. (google 'macaron fail' and you'll know what I'm talking about)

So I'm sticking to baking miniature macarons. Thankfully they have always turned out picture-perfect so far, hooray!

Everytime I make miniature food, I try to make some kind of miniature packaging for it. Sometimes they are little grocery bags, sometimes burger boxes, this time though it was just a simple white box. I decided that the macarons were fanciful enough to just sit pretty in their clean boxes.

This batch of lavender and rose macarons has a diameter of about 1cm, and was sculpted in 1/4 scale and fits MSD dolls. They are already on their way to Finland, but if you would like your own, just click on the Shop link on the tabs above!

Or if you're lazy.

In other news, thank you everyone for the subsciptions to AiMail! I squeal everytime I receive a new subscription, it is that exciting for me! Please keep them coming, there's still time before the first issue in December! ♥

Crunch. (Cookies in a Jar Pendant)

2011-11-24T08:46:00.001+08:00

And so I can't believe I've never blogged about this before. I keep checking over and over again before I post this, because I feel like I must have shared the photos with all of you, but nope, if I did it was probably in a dream.

Which means I must be going slightly nuts and AiClay-obsessed to be doing work even in my dream! Which is probably another story for another day.

I digress.

Chocolate chunk cookies always remind me of the Christmas tradition of leaving out a plate of cookies for Santa when he comes swinging through the fireplace. (Not practised in my country, by the way. Most of us don't have fireplaces and if there are Santas they are probably taking the elevator.)

And here is the pendant I am ashamed to have hidden away for so long. I do like the thought of receiving this in a Christmas stocking, just a piece of Christmas memory encased in a little glass jar.

Available in the store.

Oh yes, did you notice the panel of tabs at the top of my website? Now you can hop to shop in the shop, find out about workshops available, update about your AiClay order, subscribe to AiMail.. So go click-crazy!

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Announcement: AiMail is here!

Bambi is helping to show off what each issue of AiMail will be arriving with. ♥ It is a monthly issue so do not worry about me bombarding your mailbox, I hate spam as well. All email addresses will be kept hidden from other subscribers.

How to subscribe? Just click on the 'Subscribe to AiMail' tab on the top of this website, and leave your email address in a comment there! Alternatively, send me an email to buzz@aiclay.com using your working email with 'I want to subscribe to AiMail' in your subject header.

Just a note about the FREE SHIPPING coupon codes, they will be exclusive to AiMail subscribers. ♥

Lastly, if you like my work and photos, please support AiClay and subscribe! ♥

A fast food war.

2011-11-22T01:55:00.001+08:00

My little doll hardly has any toys to play with, so she went a little mad playing with her food (and mine).

That's a real life burger by the way, along with a miniature 1/6-scale burger I handsculpted.

The silly girl feels short-changed at the vast difference in size of burgers.

Hope these brought a smile to your faces! Happy Tuesday! ♥

The last time you made something.. ( SMU Artdicted Workshop 2011 )

2011-11-21T01:37:00.001+08:00

.. can you remember when?

As the world grows severely dependent on technology and gadgets, we are leaving behind the most traditional (and sometimes, most fun) ways of making things.

Now when we think of how an item is made, what comes to mind is sweatshops in a rural part of China, child labour and whirring machines. It wasn't always like this.

Since working full-time on AiClay, I have had the opportunity to create with my hands everyday. Looking at the world around me, I wanted to remind people that our hands aren't just good for clicking mouses or punching keyboard keys.

Therefore, I was really psyched when an arts club (Artdicted) at one of the local universities (SMU) approached me a few months ago, and asked if I was willing to teach a miniature food workshop for the students, as the last event they're holding for 2011. I was more than willing, in fact I was tending much towards the extremely honoured and excited end of the spectrum. ♥

So after much bouncing around in excitement, I got down to planning and shopping for my very first big workshop. Logistics was pretty crazy, and I was still buying brushes and needle tools on the day before the workshop! There were 12 students who turned up, a huge number in my books!

Brought down my pasta machine, along with the supplies I usually use and some miniatures to show them the unlimited possibilities of the craft. The students were so cute, they started an orderly queue for the pasta machine even without any instructions from me. :)

I must admit my throat kept closing up and there were some butterflies in my stomach in the first half hour, but we all soon warmed up and the participants were well on their way on making their own basket of miniature bread!

Some of the proud bread-bakers, snapping photos of their first miniature foods. ♥

I also had my good friend D (blue-shirt lady below) and my boyfriend JY come down to help me out and they were amazing! JY had to drive me and my crazy barang (toaster oven, luggage filled with supplies) down despite being on a tight schedule himself. And D, she was kept busy with setting up the many worktables and sending miniature breads for baking in the oven. Both of them also took turns taking photos of the workshop. ♥

I handed out feedback forms at the end of the workshop, and when I got back home after a celebratory dinner and pool session with JY, I got to reading all of the feedback. And they were all terribly heart-warming, so many of them who took time to write a good long paragraph.

There were those who learnt a lot about what goes on behind creating miniature foods, those (the guys) who were surprised at how much they enjoyed it and that crafting wasn't just for girls, those who wanted to eat their own creations (lol), some who were just thankful for the crafting intervention in their otherwise busy lives.

I would be putting up some of the testimonials on the workshop tab (yes notice the tabs at the upper column?) soon!

If you've attended SMU Artdicted Workshop 2011 with AiClay, I need to thank you for joining me and being a part of this great milestone for AiClay's workshops. And the Artdicted team, and my lovely assistants. ♥

Lolli. Pop.

2011-11-10T03:09:00.007+08:00

Part of the order already packed and travelling en route to France. ♥

This is a miniature lollipop, sculpted with casting resin and polymer clay in 1/3 scale.

Lesson learnt, it was a lot easier said than done to mold a circular shape, but with rare determination I shall proclaim that this wouldn't be my last lolly. In fact, I'm hoping to build a mountain of miniature multi-coloured lollies, ala chupa-chups.

Tied on a little bow on the lollipop stem and gave it to Bambi for modelling.

If she looks surprised, it's because the lolly is a lot bigger than she expected. Well, it's hardly her scale so I don't blame her.

{She's a Fairyland Pukifee Bonnie, fits 1/6th and 1/12th miniatures)

I swear in the next post, I will be showing you guys photos from the SMU workshop (and that the next post happens within this year). Die procrastination, die!

Oh yes, I'm also deliberating on setting up a commission progress list, where all my customers and those interested in commissioning can see the progress on their items, and also the length of the waiting period. Anyone else thinks it's a good idea?

Have a sweet Friday, everyone! ♥

Are you a burger-lover?

2011-11-04T01:01:00.003+08:00

If you're shaking your head in reply to the title, let me apologise in advance.

Because there will be many burgers appearing in this entry. I warned you.

Ahem.

Cheeseburger, hamburger, fish burger. Go ahead, pick a favourite.

They are all handsculpted in 1/6th scale. {For BJD-owners, they fit pukifee, lati yellow, yosd-sized.)

How can a burger be without its box?

Imagine this last photo in an old newspaper advert for the newest burger joint in town, and you'll appreciate the graininess. Otherwise, I'll just have to admit that I got a little enthusiastic with the grain meter in photoshop. :)

I still have some miniature cheeseburgers to show but I think I'll allow you guys to digest this first eh?

A rare day of Halloween sewing

2011-11-01T15:36:00.001+08:00

Carve a pumpkin, give out candies, wear a scary mask.

This can only mean Halloween's here! Sadly I didn't do any of the above, I passed on all of these Halloween festivities due to the SMU workshop which happened last Friday.

But I was quite determined to do at least ONE halloween-y thing this year. So, armed with thread, some green felt and a whim of spontaneity, I set about to sew a Halloween outfit for Bambi.

I snapped the photo below while making her boots, borrowed her foot for a while haha.

Remember when I asked you to guess which animal outfit I would be making?

A few guessed a frog, but there were some who were right. It's a turtle! ♥

Wish I had time to sculpt a miniature pumpkin, or some halloween candies! But I'm dedicating all the sculpting time to fulfilling all my commission orders instead.

It was refreshing to be crafting in a whole different area, aside from sculpting. Absolutely loved the fact that I didn't have to care about dust and madly clean my fingers every 5 minutes. (Yes I do that when I'm sculpting!)

Here's Bambi blowing kisses to all of you.

Happy Halloween! ♥

Two hours away.

2011-10-28T14:17:00.004+08:00

SMU workshop begins in 2 hours!

Oh shucks my transportation is here, so I really have to run!

But here are some photos I snapped of all that I've prepared, that's a lot of stuffs all packed in boxes!

(I never knew I was a polkadot lover too)

No time for captions too, but you guys should be able to tell what these are! Wish me luck! ♥

The largest miniature workshop.

2011-10-26T03:08:00.002+08:00

Okay I exaggerate (a lot) haha.

I meant, the largest workshop for me so far (more than 10 students), and it is happening this Friday! - butterflies in stomach.

Which explains why I've been so quiet on the blog front, I'm actually going quite crazy handling logistics and planning. But I am also looking forward to the sense of accomplishment I am sure to feel at the end of the workshop. But the first part about going crazy mostly. :/

For the local readers, this will be held in SMU, and if you're one of the students attending, HELLO and thank you for joining! ♥

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Here is a strawberry cake I sculpted a while back, modelled after L's (in death note) favourite cake.

It is in 1/6th scale, suits Yo-SD sized dolls, and even has its own forkful of cake.

Back to the workshop, I'm so excited about sculpting with so many people, yet anxious about speaking in front of the crowd. No matter what, it will be a great opportunity and experience. -breathes deeply and calms nerves.

Now wish me luck for Friday please! I will definitely need lots of that. ♥

If you don't hear from me..

2011-10-16T22:36:00.000+08:00

I'm always grateful for every email that I receive, and make it a point to reply all of them. However, there are a few who have let me know that their mails have gone unanswered. After a futile search in my inbox, it turns out I've never even received their mails.

This is pretty worrying, as it could only mean that Hotmail is slightly cranky. Who knows how many other mails I have unknowingly ignored and how many people I've unconsciously offended! o.O

While I try to figure out what is wrong with Hotmail, I would like anyone who has not received a reply to your mail within 2 days, to please contact me through other ways. (Facebook, Flickr, DoA, blog comments) Really sorry for the hassle, but this is the best solution I can think of now.

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Now that the public service announcement is over, let's see some photos shall we?

While surfing around some craft blogs, I came across this which gave my brain a tiny explosion - blu-tack is really useful for tacking down small items which tend to roll around.

I've been sculpting for 2 years and never has that occurred to me! Oh my, all the needless cursing when yet another apple or cherry rolled out of my hands.

Thus, I put the blu-tack (mine's grey haha) to great use afterwards as seen in the photo. Thank you, craft-blog-that-i-can't-remember-but-will-forever-be-thankful-to!

Usually I only accept food commissions, but lately I started to miss sculpting things with faces (aside from gingerbread men). And so I took on some animal commissions.

This little goat will be made into a handphone charm. ♥

Sunday's coming to a close here, it's 10PM already. Spent all Saturday at my grandparents' and left with a fat envelope of ancient treasured photos to scan and repair with Photoshop. I love spending time with my grandparents, but sadly I don't think I'm doing my best as a grand-daughter. I hope you're not guilty of that as well. :(

It is now 1 AM.

2011-10-14T01:11:00.004+08:00

And I'm still decorating faceless gingerbread men.

Just look at that little random feast at the back, can you recognise the food, as blurred as they might be?

And look, I got a needle tool with my website inscribed on the needle! :)
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Okay no, I didn't. Though that would be nice, a whole set of inscripted tools. ♥ That was just me getting adventurous with my signature! For the first time, I'm not placing it at the corners! Hoho, brave me! Haha, yes I know cheap thrill.

I think I shouldn't blubber too much at night, I say all sorts of funny things when the sun's gone. :/ Please come back and read my posts still?

d r e a m

2011-10-13T01:27:00.001+08:00

d r e a m, a photo by AiClay on Flickr.

I forgot to post this, it was from weeks ago. I hope it motivates you, and I will be reminding myself of this while I sculpt crazily tomorrow!

Post-note: Shortly after painting this on my nails, I dropped the bottle of black polish and it got everywhere. On the floors, table, my lamp, my legs. Sigh. And I was supposed to paint 'focus' (there are only so many five-letter motivational words) on the other hand but I was so irritated after spilling that bottle I didn't bother. :/

Oh darn those fattening, unstoppable potato chips.

2011-10-11T10:55:00.002+08:00

When they say you can't stop at one, turns out you really can't. One of the few advertising slogans that ring true.

How about some miniature potato chips, it's calorie-free!

Sculpted in 1/6th scale, Gemma's (Customhouse Ange Ai Gaby) the one holding all the chips.

She doesn't really care about the nutritional information at the back though. But note the big red sticker which says that Ai potato chips have 0g trans-fat, hooray!

what's left after a good chomping session in front of the television.

You can get a bag in the store now - miniature bag of potato chips!

Comes with 15 chips in a bag!

So what do you love as a snack in front of the television or at the movies?

My choice is Super Rings, and the way I devour them is pretty disgusting. I'll wear them individually on my fingers like a ring, and slowly nibble at them, especially all that lovely tasty orange powder. ♥

Not the least bit cheery.

2011-10-07T16:12:00.002+08:00

Slightly ironic that I'm posting about cherries.

But first let me get this off my chest (if you saw my now-deleted Facebook comment you might know what's going on).

So whatever happened, happened yesterday. Coincidentally it was about apples, but it wasn't about Steve Jobs passing. Since I have communicated with the crafter in question and she has promised me to make necessary changes, I would not comment further on the matter.

All I have to say for now, is for all resellers to please note, I will require you to state that the works are made by me from AiClay. I would also promote your store so it is beneficial for you to let me know you are reselling my items.

Right, moving on!

I have listed the miniature cherries in the store! They are in 1/6th scale, and comes with the little white bowl. ♥ They fit perfectly on little Bambi (pukifee).

Here's wishing all of you a happy weekend! ♥

I finally shot those darn burgers.

2011-10-04T19:10:00.002+08:00

There are some things that is always on my to-do list but also on the Highly Procrastinated list. The lists goes like.

#1287: Repaint walls of room

#1288: Retake photos of burgers

Finally, I can strike an item off the lists (both lists!). And nope, didn't do any painting these days so it's the latter!

~~#1288: Retake photos of burgers~~

And they are also in the shop, together with the tiny burger box. ♥

The hamburger is in 1/6th scale - measuring at 1.7cm in diameter.

What is one thing that has been on your to-do list for a really long time but you've never got to doing?

My first Flickr Explore!

2011-09-30T17:54:00.001+08:00

This photo wasn't due to be blogged for a few days, but I decided it would lose its significance if I didn't blog about this good news as soon as possible.

For those unfamiliar with Flickr, Flickr staff chooses 500 photos based on interestingness every day from the sea of photos uploaded worldwide.

The main thing is, it definitely is an honour to have one of my photos explored! ♥

The photo that got Explored, on 29th Sept 2011. ♥

A really tiny pair of twin cherries, made in 1/12th scale.

A souffle and a tart.

2011-09-29T11:23:00.000+08:00

As the miniature souffle called for a generous sprinkling of dessicated coconut on the top, I had great fun hand-shaving a whole bowl of them and dumping it all on the mousse.

It's really cute how a lot of miniature food techniques mimic the regular workings of a real life baking session.

♥

And here we have the tart with a lot of raspberries and custard cream packed in it. I even cut a golden pastry board for it but I think you can't see it well in the picture.

It's Thursday, and I've been feeling really sick since yesterday. A dripping nose, aching body, sore throat. Not a pretty sight and definitely not comfortable. The one good thing was that the discomfort bothered me so much that I crawled out of bed a lot earlier than I usually do.

But this also translates to more waking hours of feeling sick. -__-

I shall stop whining, and bring you a piece of good news! Guess who finally has a name (and hair)!

Meet Bambi! The little one turned out to be a sweet girl. ♥

I didn't have the right clothes for her, so I just twisted the prettiest hair-tie I had around and put it on her.

Here she is sporting a royal purple look. :)

She seems anxious to go somewhere, to get new clothes maybe. Fret not, I already have commissioned some dresses for her from the talented Aya and Melissa.

I shall go off before I start whining about how sick I feel again. Hope all of you are feeling better than me, please take care of yourselves!

Strawberries and sundays.

2011-09-25T11:42:00.000+08:00

On this bright Sunday, my little brother is leaving Singapore to participate in a military training in Australia for 3 weeks. See you back home in October, bro! ♥

Heard it's getting hotter in Aussie now, some strawberries and cream to cool off maybe?

Just imagine the slathering of cream on these red jewels. ♥

These are made in 1/3 scale, and measures about 1.5cm in length.

I am also proud to say I've been featured on Knotty Bicsie - a talented crocheting/knitting crafter based in Singapore. I've seen some photos of her works, and of her students' when they knit for their little babies, and it's all really adorable! ♥ Do head on over to show some love!

I hope you'll be spending this lovely Sunday with your loved ones, till later!

A one-time shipping charge. ♥

2011-09-22T18:17:00.002+08:00

Today I'm working on many apple pendants for a customer. It is a wholesale order, I count anything above 20 in quantity to be wholesale. :)

Random sales-talk:You will get 10% off for wholesale orders. ♥

For those following AiClay on facebook will know that I have some good news for my customers!

I have decided to absorb some of the shipping & handling charges and make it easier for all of you by charging a one-time S&H fee for a single shipping order.

This means that S&H fee is fixed for a single shipping order regardless of how many items you add on. ♥

========================================================================
For international orders:

Scale: 1/12 to 1/6 miniatures -SGD$6
Scale: 1/4 to 1/3 miniatures -SGD$8.5

For local (Singapore) orders:

Scale: 1/12 to 1/6 miniatures -SGD$5
Scale: 1/4 to 1/3 miniatures -SGD$7

This price is inclusive of registered mail charges, and of packaging (giftbox + bubble mailer).

=========================================================================

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you will also see the same information there. ♥

Back to working on the apples!

The little naked kid.

2011-09-21T01:18:00.001+08:00

There is a new kid in the house! ♥

I've been showing off this little one on Flickr since I received him/her a few weeks back, but I decided (s)he needs an introduction on my blog.

If you haven't realised, I haven't decided if (s)he is going to be a boy or girl yet. And s(he) has no name yet too. I welcome all gender/naming suggestions! ♥

Okay this is getting tiring, let's call the little one J for now.

Sorry for the upcoming nakedness! -blushes.

J is only 16cm tall, and has been employed to model the 1/12th miniature food. ♥

My latest photo of J - I tried to make a felt hat for J (using the glue&water method, anyone tried it?) but it was a terrible failure. But not to fret, it will be turned into an animal costume for Halloween!

Take a shot and guess what animal it will be? :)

Gold and chocolate.

2011-09-19T13:41:00.000+08:00

Another rainy day, but it's interesting how rain changes one's mood.

Last Saturday, the rain made me feel sluggish and bored. Today, the light rain refreshed me and I listened out for the occasional splash as the cars below drove past rain puddles.

Rain's my friend today, but sadly it's stopping and clear skies have taken over.

Here's a 1/3 scale chocolate cake, part of the previous bakery order.

*Gemma's carrying it, which explains why the raspberry looks bigger than it should.

The little decorations on it - raspberry, white chocolate triangle, mint sprig, a gold flake.

Hope your weekend was fulfilling, and it's a brand new week again! I'm off to work on some miniature apple pendants. :)

Strawberry cake on a saturday morning.

2011-09-17T12:41:00.002+08:00

It's Saturday here, the skies look grey. It's been raining so much here!

On a brighter note, I finished a miniature bakery order for my lovely customer! She is going to feed her 1/3 (SD-sized) dolls with them.

I'll showcase the photos one at a time. :)

Gemma is hoping I'll leave the cake for her, but sorry dear! And she's too tiny for the cake, since she's 1/6 scale. The cake is around 2cm wide.

I will be conducting another workshop in a few hours! We'll be making miniature gingerbread men this time, I can't wait! :)

A mooncake is not like a cake?

2011-09-14T01:10:00.001+08:00

That's why I was debating over where I should file these photos in my Flickr, in the Miniature Cakes group or the Miniature sweet pastries. I chose the latter in the end.

So! It's been 2 days past the actual date (12th September) but still, happy Mid-Autumn festival! 中秋节快乐!

Miniature traditional mooncakes, with lotus paste and salted egg yolk centre.

I made this batch of miniature mooncakes as a commission order, and they are already en route to the lovely customer. :) Commissions have been keeping me really busy these days, so please pardon my empty shops!

I must say that I'm rather proud of Chinese festivals and their traditional customs. There are a few stories behind Mid-Autumn Festival, and you can read them all here. But basically, there is a woman with a rabbit (Jade Rabbit) living on the moon and she is separated from her husband (Houyi, living on the sun). So every year, on the night of the Mid-autumn festival, they reunite thus the fullness of the moon.

Also, if you peer really closely at the moon, you can make out the shadow of the Jade Rabbit!

Personally though, I think the rabbit came about from companies hoping to commercialise the festival. Bunnies are cute and easier to market. :/

One important custom (to greedy ones like me!) during the festival, is to get your hands on every kind of mooncake out there and polish them off.

Mooncake fairs would be seen in every shopping mall during the month of August and September, and it'll boast of snowskin mooncakes, traditional, hongkong-style, shanghai-style etc.

The miniature yellow and purple mooncakes here are snowskin mooncakes, in the flavours of durian and yam. The latter has a generous filling of bean paste and white chocolate truffle centre.

The mooncakes are made in 1/3 scale, measuring at around 3.3cm in diameter. :)

Sweet hairclips.

2011-09-07T18:41:00.005+08:00

I received a request to remake my miniature gingerbread men onto hairclips, and it was a gift from a father to his two young daughters and wife.

It was very sweet when the father requested for hairclips that would be easy for his young girls to wear, and that he knew all of their favourite colours.

I felt all warm and fuzzy inside when I sent off the package.

To the 3 lucky ladies, hope you enjoy wearing them! :)

I listen to the radio.

2011-08-31T11:21:00.000+08:00

So now that we're over the giveaway hype, it's time for me to get down to work.

And can I be honest with you? It's really tough for me to be self-employed, as much as I love sculpting miniature food, I'm also very easily distracted! Sometimes I wish I had a boss breathing down my neck but nope, there's only me. :)

Here are some miniature burger buns, in 1/3 and 1/6 scale.

That is why I give all my customers deadlines where I have to send out their packages by, and that works as a firm guide for me to plan my sculpting around. That keeps my customers happy and me accomplished. :)

Here's a mooncake master mold I designed in 1/3 scale. It reminded me of the freehand doodling I used to do on lecture notes in school. :)

On facebook, I was chatting to Stephanie (PetitPlat), also a full-time miniaturist, and we realised we both liked to listen to radio while sculpting. I feel it keeps me focused as both my hands and ears are preoccupied. And now I'm very familiar with all the radio programmes and its djs. :)

What about you, do you multi-task while crafting too?

What sharp eyes you have!

2011-08-30T01:27:00.000+08:00

And yes, I'm talking about all 54 of you who participated in The Great Deer Search! EVERYONE got it right! :) The answer is I5, or 5I.

I had so much fun reading through all of the entries! Special mentions go to lupusdarkmoon who pointed out there was a watering can in the clouds and Jenn who spotted TWO deers (you're right!). I was smiling to myself the whole week while the entries came in. :)

And now, we have a winner! :)

It was picked out using a true random number generator, and I numbered the entries from 1 to 54 from earliest to the latest entry.

(please pardon the graphics - I was playing around with the sticker function in my photoediting software.)

Congratulations to The Shoe Bunny!

How apt it is that you win the Japanese rabbit! :) I will be emailing you for your mailing address shortly, do check your mailbox!

A big thank you to all 54 of you, this was fun! Definitely planning on my next giveaway whenever a chance to celebrate arises! Till then! :)

{giveaway} A Gift From Hokkaido!

2011-08-22T12:39:00.008+08:00

{giveaway has ended - thank you for your participation!}

Also known as the great deer search. :) (You'll understand later!)

This will be AiClay's first giveaway! I'm excited, I hope you are too!

This is open to readers regardless of where you're living (Singapore, France, the moon) so please join in the fun!

When I was in Hokkaido, I told myself I wanted to share a part of it with my blog readers. And so I purchased some souvenirs for this giveaway, and made it a point to blog about my trip with photos from time to time.

Let's cut to the chase - the giveaway prize!

A giftbox filled with delicious Japanese snacks and souvenirs! All of the items are bought from Hokkaido during my trip there and are all exclusively made in Japan.

Glico Pocky sticks (strawberry), tiramisu almond chocolates, pistachio nuts.

A Japanese fabric bunny! It comes with a little metal chain which you can hang on your bag. :)

and an adorable ribbon bow on the back of it.

So here's how the giveaway will be conducted!

This is a photo I took of a beautiful lake in Hokkaido.

Here's what I didn't tell you the last time I posted this photo. There is a deer hidden within this photo. It is just barely visible, but definitely can be found if you look closely.

I've split up the photo into grids, and every grid will be labelled accordingly to the alphabets and numbers. For example, the first grid from the top and left, is labelled A1, and the one below is A2, so on and so forth. :) The one to the right of A1 will be B1, C1 etc etc.

(click on photo to enlarge)

So the simple rules of the giveaway.

1. Find the deer! Here's a clue - it's not in the clouds. :p

2. Leave a comment on this entry, telling me which box you think the deer is located in, and an email address I can contact you with.

3. Spread the word to your friends and family to participate!

This giveaway will be open for ONE WEEK, and will close at 2359, GMT+8 on Monday 29 August 2011.
One lucky winner will be picked from the pool of commenters with the correct answer.
Results of the giveaway and the correct answer will be revealed on Tuesday 30 August. :) Please only comment once so that everyone gets a fair chance! :)

=========================================================================

For this week, I will be leaving the comments to be moderated so that they are hidden from view, and nobody can be copying each other's answers. :)
All shipping costs will be borne by me. This is a give-away, so you would not have to pay a single cent!

Gingerbread house - the front door and walls

2011-08-11T19:32:00.006+08:00

*Note: A Gift from Hokkaido Giveaway - details in the next entry, and a hint at end of post!

I can't even begin to count how many times I've redecorated and replanned the walls of the gingerbread house! Nothing seemed right, but I think I'm finally satisfied with this design. (more like I decided to just move on. :/)

A heart-shaped cookie dipped in sugar, pink and white marshmallows, mint balls and a chocolate door.

As for the walls, I punched out circular windows and surrounded them with chocolate balls dipped in soft white marshmallow.

Note to anyone else attempting this: do cut out windows BEFORE baking to save yourself the agony of cutting through baked clay.

{ Photos from Hokkaido }

Everyday we ate like kings, this was just a tiny section of the colourful spread prepared for us.

The Japanese put much effort into plating every item, and making sure that the colours were vibrant and the dish used was different from each other.

The beautiful flowers all around Hokkaido.

I've never seen this anywhere else - pretty flower cookies at a flower farm we visited. :)

Trying my hand at making my own cotton candy. I admit I preferred playing with the machine than eating the real thing though.

A huge mushroom in the middle of nowhere, it wouldn't look out of place in a storybook.

I remember how I got this photo. The tour bus was travelling to a ferry where we were supposed to take a boat trip, and on the way I spied on a cute Japanese bakery. So when the bus finally stopped (about 10minutes away from the bakery), I grabbed JY and told him there was this place I HAD to go.

And sprinted all the way to the bakery to take some photos, buy a croissant and ran all the way back before the tour-group realised we were gone. Phew.

Fields of crops.

Where there are flowers, there will be butterflies.

A random photo of me in some woods. Mainly, I'm just trying to show you my french braid (plait?).

Another beautiful lake, the mountains would all be snow-capped in winter.

Hint: This is also the photo that inspired me to conduct A Gift from Hokkaido Giveaway!

Next up - Details of A Gift from Hokkaido Giveaway

Stay tuned, it will be open to local and international readers! :)

Miniature cupcake { f l o r a l . p i n k }

2011-08-07T03:59:00.000+08:00

In order not to bore you too much, I have decided to group the hundreds of photos of Hokkaido (Japan) and share them in a series of entries.

But first, here's one of my favourite creations in recent months - a miniature cupcake named { f l o r a l . p i n k }.

The name came from its swirl of rose-pink frosting and the dainty white flower decoration.

I admit I was quite in love with this series of photos too, I adore the pairing of rose pink and teal colors.

Plus Ai just looked too cute with the cupcake.

This cupcake was later made into a necklace pendant for a dear customer. :)

{ Photos from Hokkaido }

While editing the Hokkaido photos, I realised I have so many that I want to share with you. It was hard to just choose a few, but here are some special ones.

This is Swan Lake. Supposedly, flocks of swans would glide on the lake during winter.

Hokkaido is famous for having the freshest produce, fruits and vegetables. Here are some of the honeydew slices, the flesh was really sweet!

This is a famous highway where the roads steeped up and down at great angles.

The Japanese take their garbage sorting very seriously. Good on them for contributing towards saving Gaia. :)

I was pleasantly surprised to find acorns here, I had thought they would only be seen in wintry Hokkaido. :)

The sunset over Lake Toya, it was a magnificient sight.

Shall end with a photo of me sitting at Swan Lake, bathing my feet in the hot waters dug from beneath the ground. Taking full body or feet saunas is a national exercise in Japanese.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, there is still a lot more about Japan I would share, in the next post! :)

Back from Hokkaido! { raspberry tartlets }

2011-08-01T23:34:00.001+08:00

And so I'm back from Hokkaido after nine days, and desperately trying to regain some sculpting discipline so as to get some headway on my commission list. However, my heart seems more intent on getting all the computer-time I've missed on vacation.

Mind over matter they say. :)

I shall post some photos of Japan in the next entry. For now, I have more photos of Ai with some 1/3 scale raspberry tartlets.

I do wish to be able to bake a tart one day, but for now my oven is still very much a foreign device which keeps asking me questions I can't answer. Anyone else feel that way about their technological gadgets?

I imagine my first tart to be similar to these in the photo - piling on raspberries, chocolate, and powdered sugar. It's just too pretty and doesn't seem that fussy to deal with.

That's my hand holding the tartlets, all housed in a pretty polkadot box.

Can't wait to share Hokkaido/Tokyo photos with you! Hmm it was a lot hotter over there than I expected, and I saw a parade of naked women almost every day. But that's a story for another entry. :)

A quick goodbye! (and tarts)

2011-07-22T12:08:00.001+08:00

Another hasty goodbye (I seem to write a lot of these last minute goodbye travel posts) before I leave for Hokkaido.

Leaving you with a photo of tarts.

A trio of 1/3 scale berry tartlets, with a heavy sprinkling of powdered sugar.

See you in August! :)
P.S I might not be able to check my emails when I'm overseas, I'll respond to all emails once I'm back! :)

Gingerbread house - the roof.

2011-07-15T19:21:00.001+08:00

Guess what, I actually sat on that paper prototype minutes after I typed the previous entry. :/

Anyhow, here's the gingerbread house skeleton, made of miniature gingerbread now.

And here's the roof, all decked in miniature pastel disc sweets. :)

Moving on! :) Feel free to throw in inspiration for the house, I know I need them!

Gingerbread house - prototype

2011-07-14T18:54:00.000+08:00

Wow I'm surprised by my patience for this gingerbread house project.

I actually made a paper prototype before making the actual house.

Coincidentally it is sitting on a chocolate box from Hokkaido (yay!). :)

It's for a gingerbread house workshop by the way. I shall head back to work on it! :)

P.S I asked for feedback on my independent store in AiClay's facebook page. Please leave any feedback regarding appearance, ease of shopping, etc for the store, either here or on the facebook page. Thank you! :)

Miniature bread basket workshop.

2011-07-11T18:57:00.000+08:00

Such a beautiful Monday.

I managed to drag my lazy self to run this morning, and received wonderful news later in the day. I'll reveal it at the end of the post.

For now, here's a miniature bread basket I made for one of my workshops. If you'll like to learn to make your own, do contact me at buzz@aiclay.com! :)

Hot cross buns studded with juicy raisins.

Freshly sliced crispy baguette.

Croissants drizzled with rich chocolate sauce.

As for the good news, here it is.

I will be travelling to Hokkaido, Japan in 2 weeks! It is an extremely last minute decision, and I am beyond excited! It will also be my first time travelling with my grandparents without my parents, definitely going to cherish the time with them! :)

Just look at what came up on Google images when I searched 'Hokkaido in summer'.

Can you blame me for being overly-ecstatic?? :)

Gingerbuddies, and a tea party.

2011-07-10T02:18:00.000+08:00

This will be a short one. Shorter blog posts, but more frequent, how about that? :)

Gingerbuddies! 1/3 and 1/12 scale miniature gingerbread men. :)

The bigger one used to look like this, when it was still unfrosted.

I just attended a birthday tea party, and had the chance to taste many items which I've made or seen in miniature, but never in real life! A couple of photos to share.

A section of the teatime spread. For the local readers, this is the Ritz Carlton teatime buffet. :)

After 2.5hours of gorging down our money's worth of desserts and pastries, we had a messy, but colourful table.

It's been a few hours since the buffet, and my stomach is rumbling now. That's the cue for me to sleep my hunger pangs away, goodnight! :)

Craft with me. :)

2011-07-02T23:41:00.001+08:00

Today..

{cues drumroll}

..was history in the making.

{dramatic pause}

A milestone for this humble site.

{deep breath}

A reason for euphoric celebration.

Let's go straight to the point, shall we?

Today, AiClay held its very first crafting workshop ever, with the lovely Fereen. I snapped some photos of this joyous event with her permission. That's Fereen in the photos below.

The three hours sped past, with us cutting, texturing, shading. I shared my tips and methods, she shared her stories of school and life. :)

I've always gotten lucky with my firsts. I remember my first AiClay customer to be a French lady who was simply the sweetest customer yet, I won grand prize at a lucky draw at my first exhibition, and now Fereen - really my pleasure to have at my first workshop.

Are you keen on peeking behind the curtains of the miniature food-making process. :) I know we'll have loads of fun as I craft alongside with you. Plus, you'll have a darling creation to bring home. :)

Please email me for rates and include your project of choice!

Snow White's apple.

2011-06-25T18:56:00.000+08:00

Everytime I see a splash of red in a sea of monochrony, something in me screams 'Snow White!'. Of course when the red in question comes from an apple, there is almost no doubt what comes to mind.

If you think about it, there are many fairytales that are a lot darker than they appear. Much so like that famous lullaby 'Rockabye Baby', I've never liked how it ended. :(

On to happier colors.

When you can't choose, don't. At least that saying applies here, those apples are well bitten into. These are miniature apples in 1/3 and 1/6 scale.

Blue eyes, blue skies.

Ai's doing a good job of balancing that apple, now just for someone to shoot an arrow right through it (the fruit!!). :)

I'll be listing the miniature apples on etsy and the independent store soon! Now it's time for a good Saturday dinner. :) Hope your weekend's going well!

P.S I know I've been working on large scales recently, due to TDA and post-TDA commisions. I'm not forsaking 1/12th though, it's just enriching to learn to sculpt in all scales. :)

The Doll Affair 2011

2011-06-20T14:14:00.001+08:00

By 5pm on 18th June Saturday, I was a happy, overwhelmed and extremely sleepy woman.

Throughout the last three days leading up to TDA 2011, I was running very low on sleep, maximising my waking hours by sleeping late after midnight and waking up around 7am. However, I still did not have much stock to display at the event itself, but I blame that all on my crappy organising skills. :(

I have loads to learn from my mom in that area, she was amazing when coordinating her biscuits sales during the crazy Chinese New Year period. But that's a different story for another time. :)

I didn't sleep a wink on Friday night, it felt surreal and slightly scary to be sculpting and see the sun fall and rise in a period of hours.

This was the set up of my booth at the event. I had to photoshop the sky backdrop to be wider to hide the event chairs and bags that were strewn about at the back. Whoops.

I felt the turnout at the event was pretty good, although it did start to dwindle down around midday. Especially when people were settling down with their buys and having little photoshoots around the event hall. :)

Sadly I only had photos of my own booth as I didn't get a chance to walk around much at the other stalls. :( So much for lugging that heavy canon 550 to the event.

Due to the little stock I had, I decided to conduct my sales in a preorder fashion instead and use the booth display as a showcase instead. To encourage intererested buyers to confirm their orders with me at the event, I gave them a 10% discount and free shipping. :)

Thank you for all the support, you should be receiving all the confirmation mails in your mailboxes by now! :)

That's JY at the back, he was sporting an eyepatch from an eye operation just a week before. Thanks for accompanying me. :) And thank you my dearest babu, for heading down to help and bringing me gongcha, which was a lifesaver during those hungry last hours. :)

Whims, I don't know if you're reading this but here's your lovely dollhouse! It fits perfectly as a dollhouse for Ai. :)

And it's amazing how things fall into place sometimes in life. I bought this cute bicycle from overseas a few years back as a surprise gift for JY, never knowing it'll come into use as a booth prop one day. :)

There were so many people asking me where I bought it, and I was struggling to remember the country. It's Kuching, Malaysia!

The last TDA was 2 years ago, and I must say it just keeps getting better. I had a lot of fun chatting with the lovely people who dropped by my booth (some of whom I've not gotten their names, please leave a note here if you see this!), somehow TDA just attracts the nicest people. Some of the things they said about my works made me blush furiously, and I could only thank them profusely for their kindness. :)

Also, to all those who were photographing the booth and Ai, thank you. It put a smile to my face, knowing my efforts would be preserved in frozen digital memory. :)

Thank you to the organisers, read from Cindy's blog that it's a 2-women team this year, wow! Kudos, Jamie (thank you for coming back for those chips too), and Sharon! :))

Hope to see you at the next TDA, and I'm glad to be able to wind down and get my life back on track for now. :)

I'm toast.

2011-06-13T11:10:00.001+08:00

Sometimes I get so carried away, I forget to stop and think about what I'm doing.

This time, it was toast. I started making a loaf of toast (toasts?), and by the end of the day I had a whole basketful of them.

Just don't ask me what I'm going to do with them. I was going to leave half of them as white bread but I was on an unstoppable roll with my dark brown pastels.

I know I can spread jam or butter on them, but I'm hoping to leave them less covered so that I don't waste my efforts in texturing and shading. Suggestions? :)

The forgotten pictures.

2011-05-28T02:36:00.000+08:00

I would like to say it's been a mad rush getting ready for TDA 2011. But in all honesty, I'm a huge procrastinator and youtube is evil. From recent personal experience, I highly recommend banning this site when you have deadlines to meet or assignments to complete.

And if there's one sense I'm sorely lacking of, it's a sense of urgency. The event is only 3 weeks away! Repeats 2324028374X to get the panic mode on.

A random photo of packaging for sold orders - tarts.

Sesame seeds, and yet another of burgers.

A few days ago, it was getting unbearably hot in Singapore.

The sunrays were beating down on me, even in my room! I felt like I was developing a tan just by sitting at my worktable and crafting, so I finally put down my tools and took out my camera.

wink. ;)

Oh yes, if you're a BJD-lover and resides in Singapore, TDA just posted their grand prize for their photography competition. I don't think you'll want to miss that, so send in your entry quick! :)

I'll be exhibiting..

2011-05-23T20:26:00.002+08:00

.. at The Doll Affair 2011! :)

If you have been following since 2 years ago (please allow me to kowtow to you, loyal reader. :)), you might remember that I also exhibited at TDA 2009 and won this lovely doll, which I've since renamed Ai, at the lucky draw then!

Two years have whizzed past, and her luscious locks have gotten messy, she's still wearing the same white dress, well nothing about her has really changed. Oh wait, I did change her eyes though. Now they're a pretty blue.

I feel like I'm intruding on her having a advertorial photoshoot for a burger chain, just imagine a small set of shooting equipment at the side.

Here she is, weighing her ~~options~~ burgers. A regular hamburger on the left, a double patty on the right.

"I can't decide which to chomp down on! What do you think?"

Here she goes showing off her fish burger, posing at phantom photographer.

I think she's made her choice. :)

These are 1/6 scale burgers (Ai measures 26cm in height and is a 1/6 scale doll), measuring 1.6cm in diameter, and they'll be on display at TDA 2011 itself.

Check out details of how to get there here, coming 18th June! It's a ticketed event, but a wonderful eye-opener. I know many attendees put in extra effort to dress up, and golly, some look like dolls themselves!

P.S I am also slightly freaking out because I have a whole table this time which is the size of a single bed, and I have no idea how to fill it up. I'm considering getting my assistant to lay on it as a desperate last resort. :/

A gleaming red apple.

2011-05-18T03:20:00.005+08:00

It's 3am right now.

It was one of those unproductive days where you start out preparing to check things off your to-do list, and end up checking out every single youtube link, updating every friend's statuses on facebook, reading every available blog.

And getting nothing else done. :(

It's a constant love-hate affair with the internet.

Although I must share that one of the few good things that came out of this unproductive day, was this pair of beautiful Korean singing birds. And no, they're not really birds.

Before I let myself sink into total unproductiveness, I decided I needed to check at least one item off the list.

Thus, I have here, (if you're familiar with the old adage) a very affordable and adorable health charm, which doubles up as a pendant.

The apple is 1cm in height and will come with a jump-ring, perfect for necklaces or bracelets.

For the ill-informed, I meant 'An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.' Do remember to eat your recommended portion of fruits today! :)

Also in my Etsy store now.

P.S As with all other accessories in my stores, for hygiene reasons, the pendant is the model's own. You will be purchasing a never-worn piece. :)

My new shop (and fish burger again.)

2011-05-14T11:45:00.002+08:00

Firstly, thank you for all the compliments on my miniature Mcdonald's meal, I never expected the feedback to be that huge! I received more Flickr and blog hits than ever, and I must thank you for all the kind words you've showered. :)

I get all warm and fuzzy inside everytime I wake up and see a new comment.

And not because I want to dig for more compliments, but I've been hard at work designing AiClay packaging, and now the fish burger meal is AiClay-fied and ready to be bought! I dressed it in shades of ochre and red.

And since I don't think anyone would want to hear me ramble on about fast food for 2 entries straight, I would like to explain more about my new shop.

The shop is independent of Etsy, which means you do not have to be an Etsy member to purchase any items. The store takes Paypal, or credit/debit cards, so you don't even have to be a Paypal member!

Everything would be conducted via Paypal, so it remains an entirely secure process. I'm always for reducing hassles of online shopping. :) This deserves a good HOORAY!

I have always absorbed all Paypal and Etsy charges, so prices would remain the same between the Etsy and independent shops. I'm still deciding if I should keep my Etsy store, maybe I should move the higher-priced items to my independent shop. Advice, anyone?

Please pardon the shop for now, if it looks incomplete. I am not good with coding and this is my best effort before I can hire someone to give the shop a make-over. -coughs and mumbles incoherently about lack of funds.

Please let me know if you spot any glitches in the store, whether it be navigation or during payment. :)

A customary photo. The tray measures 4cm by 2.5cm, or 1.6inches by 1inches.

It's the weekend here, and it looks like a really lovely day with heaps of sunshine. :) I'm off to enjoy it!

P.S You can contact me straight through the store, without having to open up your mail! Try it, ask me questions, talk miniatures, tell me about your day! :)

My high school fast food tradition.

2011-05-04T22:03:00.001+08:00

In my secondary/high school days, fast food was on the menu from Monday to Friday.

There was an entertainment centre near the school, so me and my friends will troop over after lessons, and happily choose our guilty pick of the day. Long John Silver, KFC, Mcdonald's..

We had the tradition of bagging our food, and bringing it to one of the secluded corners of the entertainment centre (our favourite was near the noisy arcade, who knows why!), and everyone will sit down in a circle and set their heavy schoolbags at the side.

Bags of food would be hastily torn apart, chilli packets and fries shared, tall cups of Coke passed around the circle. Passer-bys often gave us weird stares, this whole group of school girls sitting cross-legged on the floor.

But we didn't really care, we were too busy indulging in our gossip for the day.

Once, the security guard of the building walked past and gave us a stern look. "Hey, behave like a girl and sit properly!" It was quite a shock to us, and we hurriedly got to our feet.

But once he was out of sight, we were back sitting down and ranting about that man who would later be known as the-guard-who-had-too-much-time.

That was back then, a little less than ten years ago. -recovers from slight shock after calculating how long it's been since high school.

Today, the media is constantly bombarding us with nutritional facts about fast food - calorie-filled soft drinks, oil-dripping fries, unhealthy burger patties. Even pre-packaged chilli sauce wasn't spared!

So, the fast-food binging had to stop, and my waistline got a bit happier. :)

Once in a while, I still enjoy dunking fries in sauces, and downing them down with an icy Coke. Especially at Mcdonald's, there's just something about the heavenly scent of their freshly fried potato strips. I'll like to know, what's your favourite fast food? :)

P.S The miniature Mcdonald's set was handmade as a gift, but I will recreate a new one with AiClay's own fast food packaging due to copyright concerns. :)

Happy Labour Day!

2011-05-02T17:24:00.001+08:00

I can't believe I actually wrote "Yes, I work all year round." on AiClay's facebook page on Saturday. And guess what, I totally played the weekend away. Pretty ironic that it's Labour Day hur.

Oh wait,I did sneak in a bit of work. I made a colour chart by mixing up fixed amounts of clay. This will come in handy especially when I make colorful food like macarons and cupcake frostings.

I've always found Labour Day to be a rather interesting public holiday, do you celebrate it in other countries as well? And do share about other unique public holidays your country celebrates! :)

Crunchy apples.

2011-04-30T00:20:00.000+08:00

Remember those apples in the last post? They have their stems attached now. :)

The name of this bear is Pinkerton, made lovingly by The Magic Hour. It came along with the BJD (Ai) I won at a fair in 2009, and it is adorable, ain't it?

Speaking of fairs, I have just registered for a booth at TDA 2011(The Doll's Affair). For all those who will be in the country, I really hope to see you all there on 18th June! :)

A little apple for Ai (that's her basking in the sun). The apple's about 1cm in height, not counting the stem.

Just an update on the cookie ring, a friend of mine just bought one for his wife. After so long, I'm still thrilled everytime a friend appreciates what I do. :)

My mom who loves to bake.

2011-04-25T02:50:00.003+08:00

I love my mom. I also love baked goods.

Coincidentally and fortunately, I've got a mom who's very much into baking. :)

We are nearing the end of April now, and with May comes Mothers' Day.

I'll like to thank my mom for teaching me how to whip up a dough mixture ("move your mixer one way, never in both"), cracking eggs the right way ("always crack it in a bowl first, you don't want a bad egg to spoil your entire mix"), and providing me with countless baked goodies all these years.

And I've found the perfect way to show my appreciation, and to remind her of our shared memories in the kitchen. It's this cookie ring.

Our mothers deserve a sweet gift. The ring is in the shop, so get shopping already! :)

The cookie is perched on an adjustable, surgical stainless steel ring.

The Perfect Chocolate Chunk Cookie - Ring

{SGD$9 or approximately USD$7.50}

Prematurely wrinkled hands.

2011-04-24T00:54:00.000+08:00

and they are not what I want you to focus on, ahem. These are my hands, really.

Actually I'm looking at them (the hands) right now, and they don't look half as wrinkled as the one in the photo. I guess the many lines and creases just show up a lot clearer on these close-ups, how unflattering for them haha.

So now that we've got it all cleared up that I didn't coerce a grandparent to model my products, how was your Good Friday weekend?

Friday was a public holiday here, so hooray for those on salary and it's just another usual week for the non-salaried (aka me).

I did get busy though, and here are some miniature apples (without stalks yet). Those of you who've been asking for apple earrings, watch this space!

The background (below) is of blocks of flats which are right across my building, so close I can totally see into each of their houses. That is how it is in land-scarce Singapore, we make use of our land by building upwards (tall flats!) and as packed as architecturally possible.

I am so fond of wearing my cookie ring everywhere now. I never used to be a fan of rings, but the wide ring band makes wearing this totally comfortable. Sometimes I even forget I have it on, until I look down and see the chocolate chips smiling up at me. :)

I also have some matching cookie earrings to show, but that shall wait till I get better photos. Shoo dark skies!

Wow, I just saw the posts for April and hey ho, this is actually my 4th post, a drastic improvement from my singular post a month statistic before! Now, that deserves a real pat on my back. -twists arm round to perform the feat. :)

a cookie and a yellow brolly.

2011-04-21T01:34:00.000+08:00

For the past few weeks, it's been crazy weather in Singapore. It would swing from extremes, from cheerful (sometimes too cheery) sun rays beating down , to dark skies and booming thunder a few minutes later.

Since I'm mostly home working on AiClay, I can't say I've been affected much, except that grey skies equals bad lighting which equals to no product photoshoots. Oh, and that I amuse myself by watching from my dry abode on the 12th storey, at how unfortunate umbrella-less people behave when the thunderstorm hits.

There's the smartly-dressed executive performing a brisk rain-walk in her newest heels, the teenager who's just reached the awkward age where he feels everyone's staring at him and decides to suavely strut in the rain with head bowed, the aunty carrying her daily haul of groceries and running clumsily to the nearest shelter.

But once in a while, I'll have to head out myself. And then I'll remember the above-mentioned people and reach out for a brolly. Today, I was feeling all HIMYM and chose a yellow umbrella.

And I put on my freshly-made cookie ring, I love how they exude warmth paired together. Much needed from all that gloomy rain.

May the skies be clear in your side of the world. :)

P.S I'll be back to post more on that cookie.

Little red ruby raspberry tartlets.

2011-04-16T02:11:00.002+08:00

They do resemble little clusters of ruby gems, don't they.

Especially when the heap of raspberries are drizzled with some sugar glaze, the red simply glows.

I'm often wondering where should I place the photos where my finger makes its grand appearance.

Not in a crude manner of course, ahem. I used to leave it till the last, but decided to put it in the middle now instead. Do let me know if I should revert to the old positions, or maybe they make no difference at all.

These miniature tartlets measure around 0.9cm, or 0.35" at its widest.

Somehow these photos are hauntingly familiar, although I swear I just took them this afternoon. If I've already blogged about this or posted similar photos, do let me know so I can dig a hole and shove my head in there.

This entire set of tartlets and cake stand is available here in my Etsy store, or at the sidebar. :)

A celebration with candles.

2011-04-10T01:37:00.001+08:00

When I see candles, I think - birthday wishes, pretty cakes, party hats, celebrations.

Which is exactly what this post is about.

If you've been following me on twitter/facebook, you would already have known this. But for the rest, remember this post, my longest rant on the site ever?

Fast forward a year later.

Yesterday, I bade my lovely colleagues at work goodbye, as I decided to leave the working world and return to AiClay, full-time. Instead of writing a novel about it, this time I'll keep my thoughts short. :)

So I've said this entry's a celebration.

To celebrate me returning to what I love most, where I know best, and for having the courage to give up on what I've grown to get used to in the past year. The last part has me shamelessly clapping myself on the back.

Of course there are still times when I've let worry got to me, or gotten discouraged by careless words, or allowed doubt to obscure my dreams. But for every hurtful remark, there are twice as many supportive comments, twice as many do-us-prouds, twice as many inspiring stories. :)

So for now, I'll make an earnest wish for all good things, and blow out the candle in one big puff.

Please stay and share the cake, won't you? :)

Sunny side up.

2011-03-04T01:17:00.002+08:00

It's a beautiful day.

A crack against the metal pan. The sizzle of the grease. Egg splattering on the hot surface.

A gentle twisting of the pan. Taking care not to break the yellow goodness and stain the egg whites. Concentrate.

Grab a fresh loaf of bread. Pop into toaster.

Ding. Perfectly brown. Crusty edges.

Wooden spatula. Lift and slide. Marvel at culinary creation.

Resist urge to devour. Repeat as many times as there are hungry mouths.

An early bird chirping. Gather used kitchen tools. Throw in sink for later.

Wake sleeping loved ones. Breakfast table. Laughter. Messy egg yolks dribbling. Washing up can wait.

It's a beautiful day. :)

Bring your sunny side out.

A miniature toast measures at 1.1cm in average length.

two zero eleven! :)

2011-01-01T16:07:00.001+08:00

Let us usher in the new year of 2011 together with a loud cheer, shall we!

Hip hip hooray! :)

And apart from making a thousand resolutions we can't keep, chomping down on cakes and greasy party food, dancing the hours away, let's focus on making every second of this fresh start a happy one!

It's been said that everything that happens in this new day of a new year, will replicate itself for the rest of the year.

So, make sure you laugh a lot, eat good food, and keep wearing that beautiful smile today. As for me, I shall clear up my unfinished business for 2010, and get down to posting the rest of my Christmas photos.

There are twelve days of Christmas anyway, and I know I won't be complaining about any prolonging of Christmas celebrations.So do bear with me as I carry my Christmas pastries forward to 2011. :)

Cupcakes ready to wear a thick, rich coat of chocolate.

A Christmas chocolate tree, decorated with butter cookies and fresh cream frosting.

Inspired by Muji's christmas catalogue of 2009. It's a habit of mine to flip through old books for inspiration, there's a treasure trove of knowledge in them!

Macarons in festive colours of red and green.

All together now. :)

And with that, pop your crackers, pull on your party hat and wave your arms around wildly!

Happy New Year to all of you!! :)

A hasty Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T23:02:00.000+08:00

and I mean it.

I'm going mad not wrapping Christmas presents, but packing for my flight in a few hours!

I wish I could post all the photos I've prepared for Christmas here at AiClay, but my empty luggage keeps calling out to me.

So here are just some Christmas pastries for now - some tarts and a raspberry wreath cake.

Merry Christmas to all of you lovely readers! :) Eat some turkey for me, while I get my fill of pho! (can you guess where I'm going yet? :))

An army of gingerbread men.

2010-12-20T01:52:00.000+08:00

It's less than a week from Christmas Day itself!

Being the pessimistic me, I feel a little down that the season of giving would be over pretty soon. But for the sake of keeping with the jolly Christmas spirit, I shall refrain from being Miss Half-Empty-Glass.

I must admit it was a real joy painting the faces on these gingerbread men, and giving them round little buttons and pastel stripes for sleeves.

The tiny bit of feminist in me is screaming, "Gingerbread MEN, really! It's almost 2011, bring on the ladies in the gingy world!" I guess that prompted me to use softer colours for their piped on decorations.

So now they're, well soft-mannered gingerbread men. :)

I had my first (and only) gingerbread man on a cruise vacation when I was really young.

I remember seeing it on a cart stocked full of christmas goodies - striped candy canes, little red and green cakes, packs of chocolates. But I only had eyes for the gingerbread men, with their wide grins, colourful buttons, and long biscuit hands outstretched as if waving for attention.

It took some begging, crying, and probably a fair bit of sulking, before my mom bought me my very own gingerbread man. And what a surprise it was for this little girl, who had imagined the biscuit to be sweet and delicious, when she bit into a whole gingerbread arm mix of ginger and spice.

Now that I'm fairly grown up, I think it's time to give ginger biscuits and my tastebuds another chance. And even if I don't eat them, I've decided that I should at least wear them!

Paired with a bronze filigree hair pin, this is sure to bring a smile to anyone's faces!

Add a dash of Christmas jolly into your hairstyle ! :)

Cute Christmas Gingerbread Man - Bronze Hair Pin

The hairclip measures at 5.5cm long, and Gingerbread Man measures at 1.1cm in length and 0.9cm at widest.

You can get yours at the shop now! :)

Yikes it's almost 2am here, and there's no snow vacation for us living here in the tropics. :(

I will be back with more gingerbread, stay away from the mistletoe in the mean time hohoho! :)

Putting the red in christmas.

2010-12-12T00:30:00.001+08:00

You will be seeing red in this entry - the festive type, not the angry kind (I hope). :)

It's 2 weeks to the jolly season of the bearded old man, Rudolph and gingerbread. And trees strung with pretty lights of course. What can I say, I've been heavily influenced by the omnipresent commercialism of the season.

Elp! I've got weird red dots growing on my palm!

Oh wait, it's just the miniature drupulets for the raspberries I'm sculpting. This was a lot funnier when I imagined blogging about it, in the dead of the night rolling those drupulets. Ahem.

Each raspberry is about 0.2cm in length.

Cupcakes, naked without their papers.

Cupcakes are 0.8cm at top diameter, and 0.6cm at bottom diameter.

A basket of naked cupcakes.

I think I've found my blogging style, it's 'stating the obvious'. I'm so boring when I blog after sleeping hours, it's not even funny. :(

I'm sparing you all the pain by ending it here.

And in keeping in line with my blogging style, here is what I call - can of raspberries spilled with spoon at side.

Macarons in pastel shades.

2010-11-17T17:43:00.000+08:00

To everyone who voted for the macaron design, thank you! Unfortunately my printer is out of ink (again!), so I can only show the finalised design when I manage to get it up and running.

I didn't want to leave the blog stagnant till then though, so here are some photos of the macarons, without the boxes.

Macarons in baby colours are awfully pretty, don't you think?

I imagine the flavors to be raspberry (light pink), rose (pink), vanilla (white), purple (lavender).

You know how pretty food items always turn out weird-tasting. And I used to think rose-flavored macarons would taste strange too, but after having the luxury of biting into a Pierre Hermé's rose macaron (courtesy of my good friend who brought back a box from Paris), I knew I was wrong.

Mmmmm, it was so good. That wafery crunch, and the sweet taste of floral goodness. mmmm.

Here is my favourite item to make - a bowl of melted chocolate. It's all I can do to not lick that tiny spoon.

A fat glass jar of assorted macarons - there's green tea and chocolate in there too, can you spot them?

Each macaron is 0.4cm in diameter. :)

cursive, or straight?

2010-11-08T02:20:00.000+08:00

My oh my, it's been a month since my last post. -frowns upon self.

I know there are still some of you (namely me and some very bored people :P ) who come back in here almost everyday, because I check my hits regularly. You're probably thinking that I should be devoting time to blogging instead of checking my page hits, and you're probably right. Enough of the self-chiding, just know I really appreciate all of you who bother to pop in AiClay once in a while alright? :)

Although I must say I was a good girl this weekend, and churned out lots of miniature macarons, and am itching to share them with you all!

BUT, I have a problem.

You see, I went a little wild making macarons, and decided to make a little baking-macarons scene, along with macaron boxes as well. And then I got stuck while designing my macaron packaging.

I can't decide on the font for the macaron box packaging- cursive, or straight! 30 minutes into looking at all the different font samples for 'macaron' (try it at dafont), the word ceased to look like itself, if you get what I mean.

You know. How words look all weird and foreign when you've looked at them for too long? Or is it just me?

Anyway, so I really need you all to comment and tell me if you prefer the cursive or the straight font (left and right respectively in photo above) on the macaron packaging. Pretty please? :)

In the meantime, pardon me for keeping all my macarons in hiding for now. Oh wait, some frilly feet (of the macarons) escaped in the first photo, oh well. :)

Holes can be beautiful - miniature doilies.

2010-10-10T22:53:00.000+08:00

When I help my mom pack her cookies into a bottle, she'll instruct me to place these laced papers - one on the top, one at the base. And it's amazing how much prettier the cookies look with them.

And because the doily papers often come in thick stacks and are often priced so cheaply, I've never really thought much about them. That is, until I tried making some miniature ones myself.

A little behind the scenes, though I believe a lot of steps could be eliminated with the right instruments. I didn't have that luxury, and had to settle for making the most of everyday items around me, like bottle caps and the good ol' pencil and ruler.

After hand-sketching the little curves, I had to cut around the edges - all 20 odd of them for one single doily!

Find me a miniature serrated edge scissors, pretty please!

I know the design is awfully simple compared to the real life doilies, but I'm satisfied for now. :)

Pretty doilies ought to be packaged in pretty colours like a soft pink, don't you think? (I'm such a girly at heart!)

Here you can get your own pack of a pair of doilies, sealed with a matching rose ribbon.

Each doily measures at 2cm, or 8/10th of an inch in diameter, and they're for sale - packaged in a set of 2 doilies per envelope. :)

Mid-autumn festival and its cakes.

2010-09-28T01:24:00.003+08:00

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention, that the chinese character you see on the mooncake is "艾", which is the Ai in Aiclay if you write it in Chinese. :)

The Mid-autumn festival (or some call it the Moon festival, or Lantern festival, or Mooncake festival. Let's not bother with technicalities shall we?) was always one I remember fondly from my childhood.

Durian snowskin mooncake with durian mousse filling.

There is a hill beside my house, which my mom would bring me and my brother to when the sun went down on the day of the festival. It was a really pretty sight from far, with colourful, brightly-lit lanterns dotting the hill.

There was a certain air of excitement, especially when it was a particularly dark evening, and everyone's faces were hidden behind their lanterns. I would hold out my animal-shaped lantern (I believe rabbit was my favourite) happily as I joined the parade, with my little brother in tow.

Yam snowskin mooncake filled with sweet bean paste, and a white chocolate truffle centre.

When we got tired of showing off our lanterns, we would sit on the ground and play with candles and fire. I remember that was when I first learnt how to use wax to make a candle stand upright.

Strawberry snowskin mooncake with lotus paste filling and a salted yolk centre.

Burning your fingers with the hot wax was a necessary risk, and we would write words and draw cartoons with the dripping wax. It was the one day that mom actually approved of us handling naked flames, and me and my brother made sure to take full advantage of it.

Snowskin mooncakes measuring at 0.8cm or 0.3inches across.

Now that I think back, I feel sorry for whoever had to scrap off all the dried (but colourful) wax from the ground the morning after.

In the present day, the festival is celebrated mostly the same way. Of course you've got much more sophisticated animal lanterns, with electronically-powered moving paws and music blaring out from their battery-stuffed tummies.

Call me traditional, but I very much prefer the paper lanterns with the soft flame flickering through. Knowing that your lantern could be burnt to papery ashes by a toppled candle just added to the fun of it all!

As I grew up, I started to remember and celebrate festivals mainly with the food it is associated with, more than anything else. :(

Baked mooncake with sweet bean paste and yolk centre.

Now, Mooncake festival is a lot less about lantern-carrying or drawing wax cartoons, and a lot more about heading down to the city's Mooncake Bazaar and sampling all the mooncakes they have, from the wacky (caramelised cheese, peanut butter, roasted pork) to the traditional (lotus paste, bean paste).

Now that can't be good for the Chinese culture (or my tummy).

Baked mooncakes measuring at 0.8cm or 0.3inches across.

Next year, I will abandon all worries of looking like an overgrown lantern-carrying kid and burnt fingers, and rediscover the childhood joys of the festival.

For now, I should really finish up the mooncakes which are still sitting in my fridge. :)

Cakes as round as the moon.

2010-09-23T00:32:00.002+08:00

Wow, I really am cutting it close to getting this blog entry up with just 15 minutes to spare to the end of Mid-autumn Festival (中秋节).

Here is a sneak peek of some miniature mooncakes. In case you think I've totally lost it with the bad focus of the photo, I've applied an oil painting filter on it. :)

I just wrote a long essay about my fond memories of the festival, but let's leave it for the day I post the rest of the photos of the miniature mooncakes,shall we? My long stories are usually a lot more digestible along with photos to distract you haha. :)

Happy Mid-autumn Festival to all who celebrates it! :)

中秋节快乐!

Pass those chips!

2010-09-05T02:26:00.001+08:00

(skip to the shop!)

I wonder if it's just me, but I always have this insatiable craving for a bag of potato chips after a hearty meal. And that is just crazy! It means on top of the calories just consumed, my stomach is telling me to feed it another load of fat and salt. :(

Before I launch into a lengthy rant about my eating habits, let me show you some pictures from Bangkok which I just returned from! :)

Ahem, so that wasn't just some photos eh? -sheepish.

Now here's a story behind this last photo.

Me and the boy were walking along the crowded street near the train station, where many vendors had laid out blankets to display their goods on. Amongst them were usual items like clothes, toys, keychains and the usual touristy fare. And then around the corner, this gem of a stall appeared.

The man wearing the red-white cap is the maker of all these fabulous miniature leather shoes. Spot the ken modelling his shoes! Awesomely cute! :) The guy was incredibly humble, and he smiled widely when I asked if I could take some photos.

Knowing that we were from Singapore, he revealed that his shoes are also for sale there (brought over by a local Singaporean), and they are selling for SGD$12 each. If you see the handpainted sign, one shoe is selling for only Thai Baht 29, which translates to less than SGD$2! The profit margin of the Singaporean 'importer' is crazily huge! Being a fellow crafter myself, this made me feel rather sad for the Thai maker that someone else is making so much money off his creations.

But he seemed so happy-go-lucky just to be surrounded by his creations, and genuinely seemed more thankful that his shoes were seen by more people around the world, than about the vast price differences. Such is the power of passion for creating. :)

Oh, and of course I purchased a pair of shoes from him! :)

Now back to those chips.

When I was exploring on Flickr for images of real-life potato chips for inspiration, I chanced upon many photos of home-baked chips. Now that's interesting, and definitely sounds a lot healthier than manufactured, mass-fried chips.

How unrealistic that there isn't any oil stains huh?

Each potato chip is about 0.5cm in average diameter and is too thin to be measured for thickness. :)

Available in the shop.

Now seriously, pass those chips already! :)

A dollhouse.

2010-08-21T16:03:00.002+08:00

Do you own a dollhouse?

Or did you used to, but it's now abandoned and packed away in a dusty old box? Or given to a younger relative. Or maybe chucked away since long ago.

When I was still in my primary school years, my parents would bring me to Toys R Us on special days, and I would always head straight for the Sylvanian family section. Such a stubborn little girl I was, as I didn't want to waste any time playing with other toys. I was in awe of the little animal families, complete with their houses, furniture and clothing.

During one of the major school examinations, I did particularly well and my mommy promised me a present. Guess what I chose. A Sylvanian dollhouse of course! I was all smiles on the car ride home, the tiny me sitting beside the huge box.

Today, that same dollhouse (well-played with and much dustier) still sits in my room.

The one pictured below, is not that. But it's my adult dollhouse, if I may say so. :)

I bought it from the lovely Whims for my birthday this year, and it is actually my first actual online splurge.

It is a dollhouse for a dollhouse, and fits comfortably in my palm.

and extremely pretty!

And I was so delighted when I realised that Whims included an itsy bitsy grandfather clock!

(sorry for the slight off-focus, it is really too tiny!)

Whimsy's works are extraordinary, just like her customer service. I was throughly impressed. :)

Thank you, Whims!

Please visit her site for more of her works - Whimsy Cottage Minis

all about the chocolate chunks.

2010-08-03T00:44:00.000+08:00

First it was tarts, now it seems like I can't get away from them chocolate chunk cookies. :)

A few weeks ago, I baked a batch of CCC for a colleague who was leaving. And somewhere during the sifting of flour and cutting of chocolate chunks, a small (no pun intended!) voice was screaming "mini cookies!". So while the dollops of cookie dough were baking and heavenly smells were wafting from the oven, I settled down for some miniature baking.

Side-note: I keep slipping into writing 'chocolate chip cookie' instead! Darn, so much for wanting to be particular about chunks/chips.

When the real cookies were all baked, I grabbed them and arranged them in pretty little bags, to give away to the said colleague, the boy, and to share with the rest of my colleagues. We have a little shelf at the back of my department where anybody can drop off food from trips, self-baked, or bought, to share. And then you send out a mass email to tell everyone about the new addition. :)

It's a pretty sweet office culture.

About these miniature cookies, if anybody noticed, it's quite different from the last batch. While munching on my what, hundredth cookie, it dawned on me that the chocolate chips did not sit bare on cookies like the way I made them previously. Instead, they are often hidden partially or fully under the biscuit. And so I tweaked the way I sculpted these. Hopefully you'll find them more realistic! :)

Cookie accessories have been sitting on my to-do list forever, and finally I've gotten down to having some in my shop!

I really need a ear/hand/neck model for AiClay's accessories. I remember in the past, when I was at my wits' end, I actually used a magazine page with a model's head on it, and displayed my earrings on them.

:( That was one desperate attempt.

Grab your pair (bitten) over here!

If you're wondering why don't I just use my own ears, well simply put, it's just too damn hard! It's an extremely awkward angle when I try photographing my own ears since they're on either sides of my eyes (i hope yours is too) which makes it tough to look at the viewfinder/screen and press the shutter at the same time.

I hope you will like the new photo layouts, I've been wanting to show bigger photos for a long time now! :)

OMY Singapore Blog Awards 2010

2010-07-11T03:46:00.002+08:00

I hardly ever write such straight forward titles, except on ~~nights~~ early mornings (2am) like these when I'm all bleary-eyed and dying to crawl into bed, and the turning wheels in my brain are significantly slowing down. -chug chug chuggggg.

Let's go straight to the pictures, shall we?

So the blog award ceremony which I was pulling votes for, happened earlier this evening at St James Powerstation, a huge night entertainment hub. The finalists of each category were invited, and what an eye-opener it was for me!

I didn't really know what to expect, but was definitely blown away by some of the oscar-deserving outfits dorned. I almost felt underdressed in a simple LBD (little black dress) but was comforted by the boyfriend who was wearing jeans. Heh heh.

So there was the customary red carpet and interviewing of the handpicked finalists by the media..

Spot AiClay! :)

This is the boyfriend at the buffet tables. Is this his first appearance? I haven't kept count, hmm.

This was my view for most of the time, behind the official videographer and his bulky video-camera and tripod. The throng of people made it hard to find a good standing spot (seats were all taken really quickly, sigh), and certainly didn't help that I'm all of 150cm! :(

Blogo is played pretty much like Bingo, except that blogs' names are called out instead. And look at who was in the middle (most crucial position if you know how Bingo's played!) spot for some of the cards! :)

In case you're wondering, no I didn't win at Blogo. Hardly filled any of the squares in fact!

Smart-aleck me decided to slap the yellow myblogis sticker on my arm. Now my arm has a star-shaped cleanly-waxed patch of skin.

All thanks to the misty fog produced at almost all nighttime avenues, most of my photos came out smoky, like the one below. I will choose clarity over mystery anytime, thank you very much.

Don't whoop for joy yet! I didn't win the award, this was just the host going through the top ten finalists of each category. :)

This is turning out to be one narcissistic post, ain't it! I promise, less of me, more of miniature food in the next few entries! :)

Also, I want to thank everyone that has voted for me, and those who had wanted to but couldn't because you weren't Singaporean. It meant a lot, and even though I didn't win, I now honestly understand it isn't just well-concealed sour-grapes when the non-winners (i refuse to call them/us losers) say "It doesn't matter if I got the award, to be nominated is to already have won".

Okay, the wheels in my head have officially stopped turning. I'm off to bed y'all, good night! :)

The 3 sacred alphabets - P, B and J.

2010-06-20T14:34:00.004+08:00

One of the things I enjoy most in the entire process of crafting miniatures - is when I get to create molten, liquid items. It's utmostly satisfying to beat the crap out of both solid clay and liquid clay, and watch the ugly lumps miraculously form beautiful swirls in the end. They often resemble the real-life items so much, I just want to lick them off my work-slab. (But PLEASE don't!) Such items include liquid egg white, cream soup, cupcake frostings and of course, sandwich spreads.

And what spread would be more notorious than the almight duo - Peanut Butter & Jelly.You can almost smell the delectable fusion of nutty and fruity, can't you!

I was mad hungry while slathering on the spreads on the miniature toasts, and I worked late into the night. Oh, how I craved for a PB&J at that time!

Food manufacturing giants have long latched on to this delicious concoction, and came up with the convenient bottle of peanut butter and jam, readily mixed. I too, have a bottle in my house, having succumbed to the fast-food world we have now become. But as most good things are, the old-fashioned method usually produces the best results. That's why I made mine (minature ones) with a thick slap of peanut butter, and an equally generous spread of jelly.

Measurements: 3.2cm (longest side of halved sandwich), 0.7cm in height.

And if anyone's missing this bright-eyed cutie, here's a bunch of photos showing Ai, munching on her teatime treat.

That's it. I'm digging into that pre-mixed bottle of PB & J now, ciao! :)