Fake Miniature Sweets
While I was on ebay buying those flatback gems, canes and phone cords, I got to thinking about moulds - making all of those charms were horrendously time consuming, so wasn't there a way to make one thing, and make a mould out of it? Or get some basic mould shapes so that I can make alot of basic shapes easier, like balls, or squares. I've been trying to make some cupcake charms but I can never get the base right, I'll just squish the shape to heck when I try to get the ridges in the cupcake base right, or it just doesn't ... So I went off to see if I could get some moulds, or even some stencils to help me out. The shops kind of failed, the craft stores I've visited before - Spotlight and etc, only had moulds to make faces or animals, or chocolate moulds, not what I was looking for, so I resorted to online.
I researched some ways to make my own mould, and there was this really good website:
www.makeyourownmolds.com
But they were in America! And even though they did ship internationally, the shipping rates were almost the same price as the product I was buying! So I had to try see if ebay had cheaper ones, or if anywhere else sold something similar for less of the cost. After a few frustrating hours searching, I stumbled upon etsy, and found this, a listing for Easy Mold:
It was perfect! It makes these food safe flexible moulds, great for clay, and so much cheaper than the other thing, so I ordered it, and I also got some Oyumaru Mould Sticks. Basically to use Oyumaru, you soften it in hot water, and press what the object you want to mould, into it, and it sets hard as it cools, but the great thing about it is that it's reusuable! So I got that too, to make moulds of tiny things, like the strawberries and what not, and thinking I'll use the Silicone putty for larger things that would be harder to get out of a hard mould, so a flexible one would be more suitable
Anyway so that was the DIY moulds done, I also bought Fuwa Paper Clay Kits, since the cakes and sweets that can be made out of the moulds look so adorable! And I can use the basic shapes as a base for my own charms, or even branch out to make fake miniature food. I found a kit that makes the cupcake bases! Pretty happy about finding it, since those things were driving me nuts trying to make a good one *sigh* Anyway, here are the one's I got:
The triangles, circles and squares would be a great help, since it just takes too much time to make sure the clay is uniform thickness, and that the shape I cut out, really is a square, and not some wonky shape. I don't have the steadiest hands in the world, so looking forward to getting this mould.
The cupcake moulds! Goodness it would be easier on me to get that shape right, the ridges I make just look like lines, not like proper rounded ridges. So now just to wait for them to arrive, I wish that shops in Australia sold these things -_-" Then I could have them immediately! The craft shops here sucks a bit sometimes.
Anyway, along the way on searching about these moulds, I came across this crafting technique called needle felting, basically you use merino tops or roving, and you roll it into a shape, and then stab it with this small barbed needles, while using this foam pad as mat, so you can stab through the wool and into the mat instead of risking getting stabbed yourself. And by doing this, the wool gets denser, and packed and you can mould it into shapes, I saw examples of people making little dolls, flowers and animals out of it and thought this seemed pretty adorable and perhaps doable for me to attempt.
So while being on etsy, I bought the tools to do it:
A set of barbed needles, for the stabbing ^_^ Apparently these things break quite easily since they are so fine, and you have to stab at a 90 degree angle else they will break, heh, how dangerous sounding.
A set of 20 very colourful merino tops/roving.
A high-density, antistatic needle felting foam pad, just so I won't stab my own fingers and have a good working area for the needle felting. How all very exciting! I'm planning to take a look at what can be made by this kind of craft, and maybe make some animals or something, I don't know if I can make alot or learn the craft in time to sell at Wai-con, but who knows.
Also, good news, I talked to a few of my friends about Wai-con and they were interested in joining me! One of them will come with me for the convention and sell fanart and her original artwork, she's an amazing artist, and very talented, so I was really happy that she agreed to come, and she will also be making amigurumi, little crocheted dolls based on anime characters, I had a look at some she's making, and as a work in progress they're adorable. I suggested to her that maybe she can also make artwork based on her amigurumi, since I saw some of her sketched designs and thought it would look cute if it was coloured in and everything, so she's doing that now too, and she's considering making plushies.
I would like to make plushy toys, but I don't think I have the time to make any this year, making the hats and charms are pretty time-consuming, and perhaps I'll have a go making it next year, but we are going to be traders! For a half-hatched plan at the beginning of the year, it seems like it will actually happen! Making these things are taking some time, and it doesn't help that I have a job now, but fingers crossed! Hopefully I will be able to make enough to sell over the two days of the convention ^_^
Maybe 10 to 20 of each hat design, and just as many charms I can make will be enough? Heh, at least over 3000 people go to the Wai-con ... I will have to try to make as many as possible >_< Another friend of mine is thinking of making jewellery and giving it to me to sell for her on her behalf, she makes pretty unique looking jewellery, and other traders sell hand-made jewellery too, so hopefully that will also be a hit. It appears that our stall will be pretty well rounded, now just to handle the registration, and getting things to set up the stall... busy times ahead!!
^_^
I researched some ways to make my own mould, and there was this really good website:
www.makeyourownmolds.com
But they were in America! And even though they did ship internationally, the shipping rates were almost the same price as the product I was buying! So I had to try see if ebay had cheaper ones, or if anywhere else sold something similar for less of the cost. After a few frustrating hours searching, I stumbled upon etsy, and found this, a listing for Easy Mold:
It was perfect! It makes these food safe flexible moulds, great for clay, and so much cheaper than the other thing, so I ordered it, and I also got some Oyumaru Mould Sticks. Basically to use Oyumaru, you soften it in hot water, and press what the object you want to mould, into it, and it sets hard as it cools, but the great thing about it is that it's reusuable! So I got that too, to make moulds of tiny things, like the strawberries and what not, and thinking I'll use the Silicone putty for larger things that would be harder to get out of a hard mould, so a flexible one would be more suitable
Anyway so that was the DIY moulds done, I also bought Fuwa Paper Clay Kits, since the cakes and sweets that can be made out of the moulds look so adorable! And I can use the basic shapes as a base for my own charms, or even branch out to make fake miniature food. I found a kit that makes the cupcake bases! Pretty happy about finding it, since those things were driving me nuts trying to make a good one *sigh* Anyway, here are the one's I got:
The triangles, circles and squares would be a great help, since it just takes too much time to make sure the clay is uniform thickness, and that the shape I cut out, really is a square, and not some wonky shape. I don't have the steadiest hands in the world, so looking forward to getting this mould.
The cupcake moulds! Goodness it would be easier on me to get that shape right, the ridges I make just look like lines, not like proper rounded ridges. So now just to wait for them to arrive, I wish that shops in Australia sold these things -_-" Then I could have them immediately! The craft shops here sucks a bit sometimes.
Anyway, along the way on searching about these moulds, I came across this crafting technique called needle felting, basically you use merino tops or roving, and you roll it into a shape, and then stab it with this small barbed needles, while using this foam pad as mat, so you can stab through the wool and into the mat instead of risking getting stabbed yourself. And by doing this, the wool gets denser, and packed and you can mould it into shapes, I saw examples of people making little dolls, flowers and animals out of it and thought this seemed pretty adorable and perhaps doable for me to attempt.
So while being on etsy, I bought the tools to do it:
A set of barbed needles, for the stabbing ^_^ Apparently these things break quite easily since they are so fine, and you have to stab at a 90 degree angle else they will break, heh, how dangerous sounding.
A set of 20 very colourful merino tops/roving.
A high-density, antistatic needle felting foam pad, just so I won't stab my own fingers and have a good working area for the needle felting. How all very exciting! I'm planning to take a look at what can be made by this kind of craft, and maybe make some animals or something, I don't know if I can make alot or learn the craft in time to sell at Wai-con, but who knows.
Also, good news, I talked to a few of my friends about Wai-con and they were interested in joining me! One of them will come with me for the convention and sell fanart and her original artwork, she's an amazing artist, and very talented, so I was really happy that she agreed to come, and she will also be making amigurumi, little crocheted dolls based on anime characters, I had a look at some she's making, and as a work in progress they're adorable. I suggested to her that maybe she can also make artwork based on her amigurumi, since I saw some of her sketched designs and thought it would look cute if it was coloured in and everything, so she's doing that now too, and she's considering making plushies.
I would like to make plushy toys, but I don't think I have the time to make any this year, making the hats and charms are pretty time-consuming, and perhaps I'll have a go making it next year, but we are going to be traders! For a half-hatched plan at the beginning of the year, it seems like it will actually happen! Making these things are taking some time, and it doesn't help that I have a job now, but fingers crossed! Hopefully I will be able to make enough to sell over the two days of the convention ^_^
Maybe 10 to 20 of each hat design, and just as many charms I can make will be enough? Heh, at least over 3000 people go to the Wai-con ... I will have to try to make as many as possible >_< Another friend of mine is thinking of making jewellery and giving it to me to sell for her on her behalf, she makes pretty unique looking jewellery, and other traders sell hand-made jewellery too, so hopefully that will also be a hit. It appears that our stall will be pretty well rounded, now just to handle the registration, and getting things to set up the stall... busy times ahead!!
^_^