Monday, July 30, 2012

Fake Macarons

This photo was taken 2 weeks ago, when I was busy whipping up a batch of fake macarons.

These were to be made into rings for a large order. I'm excited that these will be available in Australia soon. More details will be provided once I have them.

I just had to take a photo as I love the colours. So bright and colourful!


As I get more comfortable creating these macarons in larger sizes, I have new feelings.

I actually love making macarons in larger sizes, including life size fake macarons. I didn't know it was this much fun for me. I get excited whipping up colours and texturing them. Just laying the macaron shells there, looking at their colours make me happy.

As you know I'm mostly working in 1:12 dollhouse scale and really enjoy it a lot, but these macarons made me enjoy creating them in larger sizes too :D How funny is that?

I have a few macarons here waiting for me to fill them up with creams, but I still want to make a few colour variations for macaron shells before I work on the cream filling. :)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

French Macaron Necklace

I completed this cute french macaron necklace this week!

I actually love this colour combination - the french macaron is a baby blue vanilla bean flavour concept :)
and I added a white chocolate bar onto this necklace piece as well.

This colour combination makes me smile!

Strangely enough, the colour idea for my macaron alone came from the Korean "Hanbok" (traditional dress). While watching a period drama recently, I realized their hanbok was a great colour palette to study from as the top colour is different from the skirt. Even though the colours are usually very striking, they compliment each other.

After making that shade of blue, I decided to use it for this necklace idea.

I think I shall make another complete striking colour combination set!

French macaron necklace is now available in my shop under Food Jewelry!





Thursday, July 19, 2012

How to overcome low self esteem for artists

I never thought I would write about this topic "How to overcome low self esteem for artists".

This was purely an coincidence. I did not search for this topic on google, and I wasn't doing any research either.

I was listening to an audio talk online, a habit that I've formed and started years ago. Back then my office was extremely quiet. There were very few of us in that building, or on that storey for that matter.

The silence was something that I appreciated always and I love it too. It was great for working on stuff that requires full attention. But I like listening to music using my earphones while working.

Then came Itunes, and one thing led to another. I could find many channels on the web targeted for specific topics or things that you are interested to learn more about. Sometimes I don't have time to read, but I sure can listen while working on something else.

I still have this same habit now. I love listening to talks, especially if you found a speaker whom you really enjoyed his/her style and the teachings that you hear truly resonates.

Today I was listening to a talk entitled "No-Self Esteem".

At the end of the talk was the Q&A session, and then someone raised a question that totally caught my attention. The question was "As an artist, I've lost confidence in my work and I am not sure how to revive it. Please help me! Thank you!" 

Wow...immediately I tried to recall if anyone has talked about this. I don't remember. But I know for sure this feeling is not foreign to many of my artist friends here.

Why do we lose confidence?


And suddenly everything did made sense after I heard the answer. 


I took some excerpts from the answer, and perhaps you would understand why.


Thank you Ajahn Brahm...:)





Thursday, July 12, 2012

Flower and Garden Show Singapore 2012

The Flower and Garden Show in Singapore 2012 was the first that I've attended. Although this event has been going on annually for a few years now, but this is the first year I actually made it in person!

This post is going to be a photo intensive - as I share with you some of the highlights and a few of my favourites from this year's show :)

Held at Suntec city this year (which meant it was going to be an indoor air-conditioned event), I was quite surprised that there were lots of people who were interested in this show. The turnout was good among locals and tourists.


Even as I queued for the show tickets, I could already smell the greens and flowers permeating throughout the air-conditioned hall - which was really delightful!

They took a lot of effort to decorate the corridor leading to the entrance of the exhibition halls with whimsical statues and flowers, which made me feel like I was stepping into a fairytale garden. 

I like this whimsical carriage - looks so pretty!

These frog guard statues were also scattered all around the corridor. :)


The exhibition was sectioned into 2 parts. One hall was dedicated to local exhibits, competition pieces, scheduled garden/landscape talks, as well as booths selling gardening/landscaping related products. There were also flowers and plants for sale, but as for flowers, they were mostly Orchids.

I first took a walk to look at the competition display pieces. Some were local, and some were overseas. I didn't even realized this particular one below had quail's egg shell integrated into the flower arrangement. Can you spot it?


I was especially drawn into the home section where they introduce innovative, interesting and beautiful ideas to incorporate plants into everyday living. Now, some ideas are implementable whereas some ideas are really just for display purposes ;)

Like this one below, I think it's definitely workable to have terrariums using glass cake stands!

Fake cake displays featuring plants :)

I had to take more close ups!



Love that lace tray.



I find this adorable :)

Now unless you don't intend to use your toilet, this is only meant for exhibition/decoration purposes :)

These brightly coloured plants caught my eye!

I DID wished I could take this home!

More hanging terrariums!

After browsing the home section, I spotted more interesting arrangements. :) So colourful! 

This has such a special, unique charm to it! I think those were paper spools!!

Then, I spotted these figures. This especially reminds me of some sniper stalking test that I've seen on TV.   

Making a fashion statement with this dress?

All sorts of orchids for sale at the booths.



I did not buy anything and moved to another hall which focuses on more international exhibits for landscaping ideas, resort ideas, spa ideas, wedding ideas. There were also some home decoration ideas. But this is the one I like most.

I like this as the colour was extremely well coordinated. :)

This particular exhibit is my favourite. :) I stood there for a long time just marvelling at everything. This is actually done by Zita Elze Design Academy in UK. They actually teach short and long courses, including flora embroidery techniques, as well as wedding design. Ok, I have officially included this onto my wishlist. Someday, I would LOVE to have a chance to  study some courses there. :) See their beautiful website here www.zitaelze.com


Love all the decorations on the table!



Next, I took a walk along the windows of the world display. These tulips didn't hold up well in our climate even though they are in an air-conditioned hall.



One of the outstanding displays were designed by a local guy. I forgot his name :P But he had such a well thought out design. He made landscapes using fairytale ideas. This particular one is Red Riding Hood. My photo don't do justice to his beautiful landscaping ideas.

This one is Thumbelina.

There were also the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio scenes but these 2 were my favourite.


Table setting in a garden theme atmosphere.

Another interesting dining ambience idea.

In real life, these lights are really pretty.

More orchids for this garden theme :)

It's as if you're walking into a tropical spa ;)

I hope you enjoy this walk with me! 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Experimenting

Spent some time having fun experimenting new ideas. Hopefully they worked ;) But even if they don't, one still learns.


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

A visit to Twilight Bella House

Not me!! But my mini did get a visit to Twilight Bella's house - the famous driveway of course. Although I don't have the chance to travel all the way to there (yet), but it's funny thinking that my creations get to travel around the world, landing themselves in new homes and even get to travel a fair bit :) One of my friends live nearby there and I don't remember why he had my miniature in his car, but he took a photo of this on the driveway. That made me smile :)

I heard there is a signage informing peeps that there are residents living in the house, so strangers should keep a distance.

I still find this picture pretty amazing...


Friday, July 6, 2012

Dream Pink Workspace

It's all right to dream once in a little while yes?

Right now, this is my dream workspace :)

I'm pretty sure I would run out of space to store my craft materials if I have this workspace, but I just love how you can close the shutters and everything is out of sight...

Have a great weekend all!


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Dollhouse Miniature Menu Chalkboard

This dollhouse miniature menu chalkboard was another impromptu experiment that I did one day. While building Ruki's bakery shelf and thinking of the arrangement of things, I had many ideas that came into my mind. But this particular idea of a menu chalkboard was just the last thing that popped into my mind.

When I saw a graphic design of a menu chalkboard, I kind of knew that this was what I wanted to try making.

I don't exactly know how I ended up with a very Zakka inspired menu chalkboard, but I am really loving it as it has this antique charm and feel to it which fits the bakery pretty nicely. This shade of brown breaks away from the overall antique brown concept, and thus giving it a life of its own.

And if you think I was crazy with the trailing english ivy plant on the top, I actually did see it on the graphic picture that inspired me in the first place, so I followed along.

I love plants and this was just perfect for me, as it combines all the elements of things in real life that I so adore.

Boy, I was glad that it did stand on its own!


Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday Experiments - French Chic Dollhouse Miniatures

Sunday was a day of rest and experimenting on some dollhouse miniatures.  I treasure such rest days, and I'm especially grateful that the weather has been a bit kinder these few days with some showers and overcast sky, which makes crafting a lot more pleasurable ;)


(It's raining heavily now as I type this) 


One of the things I enjoy is putting together a few items that resembles a mini scene that I've seen in those home decor magazines.

I've seen similar enamel kitchenware with this french chic label often in magazines and therefore I came up with this of my own.

I can imagine this in your french chic /zakka style kitchen setting.

I hope this makes you smile :)