Welcome to my life . . . .

This is a blog about my passion: dollhouses and miniatures. This particular blog was started to follow my miniature dream: to create a Victorian Mansion. But work on my Mansion is slow. Very slow. Sloth slow. Ice Age glacier movement slow. Why? Because I am easily distracted by other personal miniature projects (I have 50+ roomboxes and 15 dollhouses in various stages of incompletion) and because I work for a miniature shop and am often up to my elbows in miniature projects that aren't mine! So, I thought, some artists work in a particular medium (woods, watercolors, clay, oils, etc.), I work in progress . . . .

Thursday, December 22, 2016

(Non) Baking Bread

After using FIMO to make my pumpkins (Experiment with FIMO/Pumpkin), I decided I was more of an "air dry clay" type of girl. But I didn't know what type was best. So when I stumbled across some home-made, 3 ingredient, recipes for a bright white air dry clay for making Christmas ornaments I thought, 'why not use that in my mini molds to create breads?'

I mixed the baking soda, corn starch, and water (2 cups baking soda, 1 cup cornstarch, 1-1/4 cup cool water). And plopped it on the stove where it quickly went from liquid to mash potato consistency.
Liquid...
Finished when it's balled up in a clump
Put it in a bowl to cool...
Chillin' for about 20 mins
...and then started playing.

It was fun, but a lot of my pieces wouldn't come out of the molds nicely. They were dusted with cornstarch and releasing from the mold: sticking was not the issue. It was just my fat clumsy fingers were smushing the still soft clay while trying to pop it out of the mold. I needed to practice patience and give the clay 30 minutes to a few hours to set up before trying to pop them out.

Given the amount of time between filling the molds, I needed to store my clay to keep it from drying out. Into a baggie and the fridge for safe keeping! Over the next 3 days I'd pinch pieces off the clay ball in the fridge and fill my molds, let them set, pop the mold pieces, and repeat. Now I had an army of breads and a few other goodies!
My tray is looking full
I also made some eggs and a thin piece to break up to make egg shells to put around my Mr. and Mrs. Killjoy scene (Killjoys).  Also experimented with some pretzels and marshmallows and maybe smores (we'll see how that turns out). Time to color the breads with chalk!
My chalk sticks
Shaved some chalk off

Never having done this before I was annoyed by the q-tip falling apart after one chalk application.
Not working very well

I can't even get one loaf done and my "tool" is toast (no pun intended). So I started to use my fingers to rub the chalk onto the breads...

And they're turning out rather well, in my opinion!  Got to wait for them all to dry (these don't get baked) so I can color them all.  And now to order a few baker's racks to put all these breads on!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Lori - All your "baked goods" look beautiful - and in spite of the unsatisfactory Q-tips, the color on the breads looks just right. I hope you can post photos of the breads on baker's racks - that will be a treat!
    Marjorie

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Marjorie! I will post pics once I get all the breads made (yes, I still want to make more) and chalked.

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