by Xarin | Mar 30, 2016 |
EVERYONE WHO KNOWS ME knows that my frustration as a crafter is making and piping fake whipped cream. For some reason (maybe my unsteady hand) it dislikes me, and it can’t turn out pretty when I do it, unlike when when the cake artists or those who make decoden phone cases. Then there’s that making icing to begin with is a pain. You can use silicone caulk from hardware stores, but you need to thicken them first. The ones that come from Japan are expensive, costing about P600.
So browsing through a local toy store one day, I saw Whipple Craft’n Fun Creme, which as the saleslady said, is air dry fake whipped cream, retailing at P299 for a plain “flavor” and more expensive for one with two flavors/colors. I decided to grab one, since at P299 and quite a big box, it seemed like a steal.
It comes in a big box, with, thankfully, big enough content inside. I was glad there there was a lot of whipped cream here! The faux whipped cream came in a sealed piping bag with a seal and screw on cap at the piping tip, so you can reseal it with no problem after you’ve completed your project and not used up all the cream.
The pack, however, does NOT come with a piping tip, so you’ll have to allocate your budget for that. Their craft kits for kids that go for P600+ have piping tips and fake food bases for kids to practice on.
Last week, I made macaron shells with Mont Marte Polymer Clay. (Check out our review of the polymer clay here, or you can also look at our tutorial on how to make your own fake macarons here.) I made them on a 1:1 real life scale, which was best to go with this cream, because I had a very big piping tip.
Sorry that I’m not making anything elaborate like a cupcake–my piping skills are very amateur! Then you’d just be looking at a hot mess.
The cream dries to the touch in a few minutes, but for it to dry all the way through, I suggest waiting for over a day. I thought it would be a silicone, rubbery finish, but it dries to a paper-clay finish, only of course finer.
Actually, it smells a lot like white glue when you pipe it out, so I can’t help but feel it’s just paper clay and white glue, which you can diy if you have fine paper clay to make it into whipped cream. The Whipple cream has the easy of being sealed tight in a convenient piping bag though, meaning you can use it whenever.
Here are the finished macarons!
Have you tried the Whipple cream before for your projects? What did you think about it?
You can buy Whipple Craft’m Fun Cream at toy stores like Toy Kingdom or Toys R Us nationwide.
by Xarin | Mar 20, 2016 |
AT THE BEGINNING of the month, when I was browsing around National Bookstore, I was surprised to find that they finally carried a line of polymer clay in their store! This line is the Mont Marte Polymer Clay line, which currently comes in very limited colors, but however is enough to get you started.
I picked up two colors from National Bookstore Fairview Terraces, and they sell for P95 each for 60g of clay.
The clay itself is very soft, almost like marshmallow, but isn’t sticky to the touch unlike other soft clays. Being soft makes it easy to condition, but it isn’t as densely packed and has holes and such inside, meaning air could get trapped inside, so I’d still recommend conditioning it as much as you can.
Most soft clay brands tend to have supreme flexibility, so I tried baking a thin sheet to test the flexibility of this clay. It’s REALLY flexible, and I was even able to roll the sheet I baked like so. I imagine the clay will be great for making thin flower petals and the like.
To check for the finish when it bakes, I made some macaron shells. The finish isn’t a flat matte (like Sculpey III or Bakeshop) but it isn’t shiny either, just a bit in between.
All in all, I think this is a great clay to work with, and I’ll pick up some more when the need arises! (I have too many clay haha) The only con right now is that these really come in very limited colors, but hopefully they release a full line someday!
xoxo Xarin
by Xarin | Feb 15, 2016 |
One thing I’ve been asked a lot in my craft by beginners is which clay brand they should buy when they’re starting out, or which clay brand is the “best” to use. So finally, I’ve decided to write a blog post about it! Actually this all has been written down a year or so ago in an e-book I was planning to finish but never continued—
There are different clay brands in the market from different brands, each with their own different properties. Not one is superior to the other—I personally think it’s a matter of what project they are suited to. If you make a wide variety of things like I do, it’d be best to keep stock of various brands that will fit your different projects.
Polymer clay is generally priced from 65-130PHP and is usually sold in 50g and 100g bars.
Sculpey Bakeshop
One of the cheapest clay in the market. It is marketed as a kid’s polymer clay, thus it is very soft and easy to knead. Color selections are limited. It bakes brittle and heavy, with sort of a rough surface.
Sculpey III
Sculpey III is easily bought in specialty art stores in the country and comes in a wide array of colors. The clay is soft and easy to condition, which is why it is recommended for beginners. The clay bakes with a matte, bisque finish.
Premo! By Sculpey
Premo is more pigmented compared to Sculpey III, and is a tiny bit more expensive. The clay bakes with a slight sheen, and has slight flexibility when baked in thin sections. Color selections are limited, and the complete colors are rarely carried in stores. This is a good choice for metallic-colored clays, and those with “special” colors (eg., marble, granite, glittered) The clay is a little firmer, making it suitable for detailed work. The clay cures to a slight sheen.
FIMO Classic/Accents
FIMO Classic, manufactured by German company, Staedtler, is a very firm clay that requires a bit of conditioning, and in most cases, a clay softener. Despite that, this clay is still a favourite of many artists due to the great color selection, and the fact that the clay’s vibrant colors are retained very well even after being baked. FIMO Classic also cures with a glossy finish, almost like hard candy.
FIMO Soft
FIMO Soft mostly has the Classic’s properties, except it’s (obviously) much softer and easier to knead. I find the colors from Soft have less shine when baked compared to Classic.
Nendo Polymer Clay
Nendo is a locally-available clay that is noted for its supreme flexibility. The clay is easy to condition and is elastic. Once baked, the clay has a slight sheen, and is very flexible. As with flexible clays, the clay may be a bit sticky to work with for those with warm hands.
Flexiclay 3 Polymer Clay
Another local brand, Flexiclay comes in a wide assortment of colors and, as the name suggests, has good flexibility. Flexi3 is firmer than Nendo, and is not as flexible, but it is easier to handle as they clay is not overly sticky or soft. To try out this clay and order some, you can check their facebook page here.
Sculpey Ultralight Clay
Most, if not all polymer clay has significant weight once they are cured, especially if you intend to make big pieces. Except Ultralight clay, which is almost like marshmallow to the touch. It only comes in one color (white) and is mostly used as the core or filler for bigger clay projects.
Liquid Clay
Different brands carry their own lines of Liquid Polymer clay that come in different colors. They become firm when baked, and are mostly used for adhering two pieces of clay together in the baking process, or as decorative “sauces” or paints.
Which Clay should I Use?
As I’ve said before, no clay is truly superior, each clay has its properties that makes it suitable for different types of projects.
Matte polymer clays that bake with a dry, “rough-to-the-touch” finish are ideal for paintwork. The rougher surfaces of these clays once baked make them ideal for being painted. Clays with a shiny finish will resist inks and paints unless they are roughened beforehand.
Firmer clays are ideal for detailwork such as engraving or carving out shapes or tiny details. Soft clays are easily distorted with a simple nudge, making them unideal. Firmer clays are recommended for making canes for the same reason.
Soft, flexible clays are ideal for making thin pieces pieces that have to resist breakage (ex. Flower petals). While soft, matte clays could also do the same thing, they bake hard and brittle, making thin pieces prone to snapping and breaking.
Hope this post helps you out if you’ve been trying to decide which brand to buy! Soon I might make a youtube guide so you can better see the qualities of the clay and their differences!
by Xarin | Jan 17, 2016 |
One of my new favorite jewelry craft stores in Quiapo is Chains Beads Components. It’s a great store for vintage lovers, craftsmen, and costumers. They have a great array of chains by the meter, pendants, filigrees, lockets and findings in different finishes (antique, gold, silver) and cords, suede strips, etc.
The store is easily located in the same lane as other jewelry craft stores in Quiapo, along Villalobos Street.
There’s rolls of chains and cords in the center aisle rack, in different finishes. They also have a lot with rhinestones if you wanted to make sparkly costumes~!
Part of my haul from it the last time I went there; I bought a lot of antique finish keys for a costume that I was making. They also have a lot of different lockets and cameo settings, and they also sell those in bulk.
They have a lot of different sizes of O rings, which I use to buckle straps and such when I do make armor pieces for costumes.
I make sure to drop by the store whenever I’m in the area! It’s a great find if you’re into vintage charms and pieces, and you’re into a lot of different sorts of metal hardware for your jewelry or costume making hobby~!
by Xarin | Jul 2, 2015 |
HELLOOOOO KITTENS!! We’re finally back to blogging, technical issues with our internet connection and our website provider are now solved. *tears of joy* We’ve acquired quite the backlog, so let’s start and get our DIY ready right now! Today we bring you a polymer clay tutorial on how to make a “cookie sandwich”–a chocolate filling sandwiched between two crisp cookies… except it’s in clay and isn’t edible. xD
While you can’t eat them, they’d be perfect as keychains or phone charms, right?
Our materials are as follows: Tan, white, translucent and yellow clay. Texturing tools like an old toothbrush and a pointed tool. Brown acrylic paint (i suggest something that’s not a dark muddy brown and instead is like a burnt or acorn brown), and your usual claying tools, like your roller and oven. We’re making cookies, so you also need cookie cutters in the shape you prefer.
Mix all your clay colors in the proportion pictured in the materials photo. You can actually just use one color of your preference, but I decided to mix colors because I really wanted to get the pale cookie dough look. Feel free to experiment with what colors you have available or what proportions you want. I want a classic cookie, so I’m using these colors.
Mix all the colors into a uniform, even sheet, and then take your cookie cutter out and cut out two cookie bases.
Using a pointed tool, poke out holes in a uniform pattern that’s usually seen in cookies.
Roughen up the cookie and make it look imperfect/not so smooth by dabbing an old toothbrush all over it.
The textured cookie should look like this. With that, you can bake this cookie in your oven according to your clay’s instructions. Don’t worry if it looks like it’s still raw and doesn’t have that golden-baked color! We’ll get to that after the baking~
After the cookie is baked, take your brown acrylic paint and dab it onto the corners of the cookie, where the color should be more concentrated.
Spread the color from the corners towards the center. Looking more edible now huh?
If the color has become too strong for your liking, you can use a wet cloth to rub off the excess color to desaturate the color. After this, you can embellish the cookie by using some liquid clay/deco glue stick to make fake icing or such.
The cookie is perfectly fine as it is now, and I can imagine you can make pretty things like bracelets and earrings with a flat, one-layer cookie.
Oooorrr you can make a cookie sandwich!
Simply roll out a log of clay in whatever “filling” you prefer, and use some liquid clay to attach it. And then sandwich it between two cookies, and bake again using your clay’s instructions.
Yum yum!
Happy crafting!
by Xarin | May 19, 2015 |
MACARONS ARE FAMOUS worldwide not only as a tasty treat, but as a fashion statement and an absolute staple when it comes to fake sweets crafting. Today I’m going to show you how to make a macaron out of polymer clay, a project easy enough for beginners and still enjoyable for crafters of all levels. Here comes our polymer clay macaron tutorial!
Materials:
- Polymer clay for the macaron shell. I’m using Mint from FIMO Accent, but use any color you want!
- Polymer clay for the macaron filling; I’m using Flexiclay 3 White.
- Polymer clay template. Optional, but helps a lot. You can easily substitute it with a circle cut-out from paper. Cut out a circle that’s as big as you want your macaron shell to be.
- Craft Knife
- Chalk Pastel, preferably a color darker than the color you’re using for the macaron shells. Optional, am just going to use it for a more realistic look.
- Toothpicks, needles, or other pointed tools for texturing
- Old toothbrush. Optional.
- Any object with a flat top that can be used to press your clay. Can be your own acrylic roller.
Condition the mint clay and then roll out an even sheet with your acrylic roller or pasta machine. Thickness depends on the size of the macaron you are making, ideally 1/3 or 1/4 thickness of your shell. Cut out two circles of the size that you want your macaron shells to be. I use 3/4 inch diameter. These disks will be the “feet” of your macaron. Set aside.
Prepare two balls of polymer clay of the same size. Using any object with a flat, smooth end, press each ball down into the same size you made your flat disks earlier. Make sure the clay is conditioned well so there are no cracks when you press them down!
Layer this flat-top dome and the flat disks you made from earlier like so.
Using pointed items, like toothpicks or needles, add texture to the flat disk part (the “feet” of the macaron) by swirling your needle/toothpick around and just making random movements. It will make “crumbs” in the surface, to imitate what the feet of a macaron look like. (yes that part’s called the “feet”)
To add texture, you can take an old toothbrush and roughen up the top shell, for a more realistic look. If you’re going for the smooth look though, you can skip it!
I like to bake my shells after this step, to preserve the texturing on this feet. Too much handling can make you lose the “crumbs”, so I like to bake it as soon as I can. I also like to just make many shells in one go and store them, adding the filling later.
When it’s baked and cooled, again, for a more realistic look, brush on some sealer/gloss (I use New Future gloss) onto the shells and scrape some chalk pastel with a craft knife onto the macaron shells. The still-wet sealer will help the chalk powder stick to the shell. When the first coat is dry, brush with it another layer of sealer gently, as to not rub out the chalk pastel. I find real macarons sometimes have darker sections in them and are rarely as smooth and perfect as decoden ones, so I decided to add “spots” to mine. Some macaron flavors also intentionally have this look–say, chocolate orange macarons. But if you’re going for the smooth look, feel free to skip this as well.
Roll out your white clay into a long, thin log. Make it as thin/thick as you want the filling to be. Take this log and cut it up just enough to go around the macaron. This will be the “filling”–it’s ok if it’s hollow inside since no one will open it up anyway! Finally put the two shells together sandwiching the filling inside. Put in any metal findings like eyepins at this step.
Apart from clay for the filling, there are alternatives like silicone icing, or air-dry decoden icing that are available in specialty craft online stores.
Bake again~ And you’re done!
Have fun!
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