Keeping Busy

Jan is away for a canoe camping weekend with his friends, and he was supposed to be away four whole days.  But an hour after he left the phone rang, and he said he didn't realize it was a five day trip!  Alrighty then. How can someone not know the length of their trip when it's been in the plans all year?!?  

Anyway, now that I have FIVE whole days to myself, I'm focusing on catching up with all my doll stuff. Or trying to, as there's an awful lot. 

The dolls whose birthday's I missed to being ill most of the summer still need their parties, and that means finishing their cakes, so I've been working on them for the last two days. Two cakes are just about done, and there's still two to go. Someone is getting an over-the-top three-tier birthday cake, and it's taken quite a bit of time making all the decorations for it.....

It's been a challenging series of cakes, and I've figured out several new techniques. I needed a raspberry mousse cake, and looked online on how to make raspberries. All the instructions involved rolling out tiny balls of clay and building each individual berry from those tiny balls.  I tried it, and it took forever to make just one, and I needed a lot.  I thought that's WAY too much work for a doll cake - even for me. I contemplated switching to a cherry mouse cake, but I already have a Black Forest cake with cherries on top. And raspberries just look so much more elegant.

Not one to give up easily, I tried another technique. Raspberries have a hole in one end, so I stuck the small ball of red clay onto the end of a small stick, and then proceeded to systematically poke the ball with the end of a small tube. It worked!  The bumps on the berries are still a bit larger scale-wise than they'd be for real, but the look was close enough, and in no time I had enough raspberries for the cake. The glue hadn't dried completely yet when i took the photo.....

The triple tier birthday cake had it's own challenges. I needed wafers to decorate one tier. But how to make wafers with the right texture. It's easy enough to make lines into a square, but to make raised lines with a waffle texture is an entirely different thing. So I made a polymer clay 'stamp'. I cut the end square, and pressed the lines into the end of the stamp. After baking it, it was perfect for stamping wafers out of polymer clay.  This technique would also work for waffles!

I also needed sliced strawberries. So I made a roll of pink clay and formed it into a long rounded triangle shape, sliced it up and baked the slices.  Then painted the strawberry markings with red paint. First a light layer around the top edge, then the actual outer edge, and then the middle.  The only thing that would have looked even better would be if I'd poked the roll with 'seeds' before slicing it, to give it that 'strawberry' texture.

I also needed slivered almonds, so made a roll of beige clay, covered it with a thin layer of brown clay, rolled it some more, then sliced thin slices off with a razor blade.

Now I have to put the cake together.  And then do the last one.

I'm also continuing to work on the fairy costumes.  All eighteen skirts are finished - that's three per outfit. The edges of the bodices are embroidered, and I've chosen the beads for the embellishment. After stitching on the beads, they will need eyelets and cords. Then it will be time for the striped under-bodices and sleeves.  And the wings. So it's still going to take a while.....

And, if that wasn't enough, I'm also trying to catch up with all the computer work. There's a lot of photos just waiting to be posted in albums, as well as several brand new albums needing to be made. The problem is (if you can call it a problem) is that digital photos are so easy to take, and post in my Blog, but then they need to be filed in the proper places, and new albums made, so they are easier to find later.  

​So, lots to keep me busy!