Apricot Tarts and Mango Blueberry Pastry

In my excitement and rush to get all these packed up, I honestly forgot to take all the process making pictures of these items for a doll event in Malaysia. Since I hold a full-time job, crafting is very much limited to the rare (and free) weekend I have and some of the evenings and nights. I hate working at night under the glare of the lamp - maybe its time to switch to a better lamp. :(

One of the items made for the event are these apricot tarts and mango-blueberry pastry.

                                    

Kind of standard fare! First, the prototypes are made using Tamiya Epoxy Putty. I used some small plastic slides to mold the putty on it and shape into two 1:6 scale pastry cases - a round case and a square case.
You can purchase Tamiya Epoxy Putty (Quick Type) at any local Tamiya goods store or get it online at the Hobby Search shop at http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/ . This was the same method I learnt from Tanaka Tomo's book (better known as Nunu's House) which he also used the same product to mold prototypes for 1:12 items. The epoxy dries after 3-4 hours - so you have some time to cut and sculpt your prototype. Use a plastic slide to mold your epoxy on as its extremely sticky on skin and hard to mold between fingers. Use a metal pick and penknife to pick and pull the putty and roughen up the top and sides.

Mold a ball of mixed silicone putty over the dried prototype. After around 10 minutes, the silicone putty (in pale blue) should be hardened. You can pop them off the prototype easily - if you are worried that your silicone putty may stick to your prototype,  put baby oil or mold release oil over the prototype before molding the silicone over it. Make sure you have enough silicone putty to cover - sometimes too thin a layer might tear it.

I used Resix clay mixed with ochre clay for the pastry cases. You can see them in the front of the photograph below after they are colored with pressed pastels from the Tamiya Baking Master set. Since I was in a rush to complete it - I didn't take many process pictures. Here's the finished product! Each pastry measures 1cm by 1cm, and suitable as a pastry or tart for a YoSD / 1:6 ball-jointed doll or a mini-tart for larger dolls.

 

Apart from tarts, the packages sent along with my friend to Malaysia included tiny cakes and doughnuts and the view of my messy workspace while packing away :\

 

In addition, I folded up Pocky boxes and Kit-Kat in different sizes. And my MSD Juri looks happy with them (too bad, girl - these are gifts for another friend!). 

The end for now! Juri says have a great weekend ahead. :)

About Decorina - How-Tos for Deco Sweets

Decorina, a sweets deco school based on Tokyo has set up a section in their website that pretty much tells in photographs and written explanations about how to make common deco sweets objects. Scale these down and you can get your 1:6, 1:12 items easily too. (The scaler I use is found in the links on the right side of this webpage - there are also hobby scalers on Andriod/iPhone apps if you are a phone-dependent, scale-blind person like I am)

The website doesn't come in English but if you use a translator like Google translator, you can easily make out what are the headings and somewhat, the explanations, albeit broken English.

Decorina will cover basics like how to use whipped cream, how to make and color cookies, macaroons etc. It's relatively easy to follow - of course - some people who are used to looking at fantastic work done by the more prominent and established deco artists like Kisen Rieka (http://ameblo.jp/kisenerika/), Yamada Kei (Milky Ribbon http://blog.goo.ne.jp/milkyribbon) and Sekiguchi Mayu (Pastel Sweets http://love-ribon.seesaa.net/) may blink a few at the rather rough level of artistry shown in Decorina's tutorials. But, the emphasis is always the basics are important and by getting the foundation methods correct, you can modify, idealize, imagine and re-create your own with a few months' of focused practice.

For example : Macaroon Tutorial - http://www.life-d-eco.jp/recipe-macaroon-dough
For example : A way to mix clay colors - http://www.life-d-eco.jp/recipe-colored-clay

For a full lists of all the tutorials
http://www.life-d-eco.jp/sweets-deco-recipe/
(scroll down to click on the icons of the items you want to learn)

Have fun making your own deco sweets! :)