Miniature iced gems.

When my titles get all literal like that, you know I'm in a nua mood. (for non-Singaporeans, nua means feeling sluggish and not wanting to move/do anything haha)

So it's been a pretty nua Sunday so far, headed out for roasted pork and rice for brunch with the family and am back home now. It's my grandma's birthday today (sheng ri kuai le ah ma!) and I'll be trooping over to her house for just a small get together. Probably armed with a cake haha.

Speaking of cakes, I got a bag of iced gems at the bakery just now! Guess the craving kicked in while I was editing the photos of the miniature ones I had made.

Oh yes, it's just 2 days away from Tuesday, which is when I'll close slots for the Rose Cupcake Workshop as I need some time to prepare materials etc. So do send over your registration mails if you haven't! ♥

And look at little Mio enjoying the colourful treats, she's so adorable I couldn't not put this up.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday nua-ing away. ♥

The most delicious way to learn colours.

Do you agree? If I were a kid, I would take eating these colourful treats anytime over looking at boring color cards.

These are called iced gems, and I've handsculpted the miniature versions.

If you're interested to see whose legs those belong to, more photos could be viewed at my Flickr.

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Mother's Day was never a competition of the heaviest price tag on the present, it was a day to show how much you care.

Remember how happy your Mom was when you gave her a handdrawn Mother's Day card, or that wonky handpainted ceramic cup? Let's recreate that moment this year.  

Or if your mom is interested in crafting, why not give her an early Mother's Day present by registering for her! She'll have fun at the workshop and have a pendant at the end of the day to always remember your sweet present.

Want to join us at the workshop? Email me at buzz@aiclay.com by 1st May to register your slot! Grab a friend or even your mom and both of you can have matching pendants after that. ♥

Yes, I'm cutting off the registration slots on 1st May so that I have some time to prepare materials, so that's next Tuesday!

and now I have something important to share! ♥

For all of those who have indicated Attending on the facebook event page for the workshop, but not emailed me yet, the reason why I require an email registration was so that I can give you my payment information as I only confirm slots upon full payment. So if you're one of them, email me at buzz@aiclay.com NOW pretty please, thank you!

I know I sound like a broken radio but I can't stress this enough, and I wouldn't be able to accept participants who just turn up at the workshop without registering.

So yes, for the last time, EMAIL ME! ♥

Burning my tongue. { apple pie }

If there was a list of dangerous foods, the apple pie would probably sit near the top.

I don't mean the ones which come as a whole round pie, but those which are in the packet, hot and toasty from your nearest fast food chain. Usually Mcdonald's.

I used to really like getting one together with my fast food meal, the word apple had me convinced that I was at least getting a serving of fruit in my unhealthy junk fix. hahah, who was I kidding.

But underneath the seemingly harmless crusty top, lies a boiling mixture of sweet apples and sauce which is just waiting to unleash its fury and.. Ok so I'm getting carried away haha.

But it's true! If your tongue has ever been burnt by an apple pie, you would understand my frustration with it. Because of the scalding filling, I had no choice but to nibble carefully around the edges and slowly slurp up the filling. 

Miniature apple pie handsculpted by me. 

I forgot to do my usual finger balancing act, but it's tiny like the rest of my works. 

♥

Damn, and I really just want to bite into that crusty pie without fearing for my tongue.

Update on the Rose Cupcake Workshop, thank you to all the registered participants! There are still some slots left, so if you have a few hours to spare on the 5th of May (it's a public holiday!) and you would like to make your mom smile, do join us!

Send in an email to buzz@aiclay.com to register and feel free to get your friends/family to come along! It's next Saturday so do act on it already! ♥

I love my Mom. { Rose Cupcake Pendant Workshop }

Update: All thanks to a great suggestion by a friend, I'm also going to offer handphone straps to be paired with the pendant at the workshop! Details at bottom of post!

 

I was about to start writing a sappy post about my mom, but she walked in suddenly and I felt all embarrassed in true Asian fashion and deleted the chunk. :/

Guess I'll leave that for when it's nearer to Mother's Day! ♥

So I've finally planned another workshop yay! I've crafted it specially for everyone who would like to give their mothers an unique gift this year. It would be held one week before Mother's Day itself, enough time for you to write a nice card to go along with this special gift! ♥

{scroll to bottom for details of workshop!}

The rose cupcake pendant would be a sweet declaration of your love, and dainty enough to be worn by almost any woman. I'm pretty sure most mothers would love it, because my mom chanced upon it on my table and started gushing over it! Haha, okay that was some crazy generalisation but cupcake + light pastels + rose is some lethal cute combination!

Of course if you would like to make this for yourself or anybody else, I'll be more than happy to have you at the workshop as well! ♥

As suggested by a friend, I have decided to offer free handphone straps at the workshop. So now the rose cupcake can hang off your handphone or bag strap too! ♥ And it can easily be taken off and paired with a chain for a cute necklace when desired.

Hope to see you at the workshop! ♥ Maybe I'll get my mom to go as well hmm.

Friday and flowers.

Fridays seem to be reserved only for partying, chilling at the most happening pub, shopping at the hippiest mall. Just check out whatever all your friends are updating their facebook feed with and you'll get what I mean.

Sometimes I feel that facebook is a giant competition for who has the most happening life.

If it is, I must be one of the biggest losers. This Friday (it's the thirteenth too btw ooh.), I spent it sketching flowers. Yes you read right. Of all shapes, sizes. 

After a while I realised how tiresome it was just to fill a small part of the paper with flowers and sucuumbed to using photoshop to 'clone' the rest.

I wasn't sketching it just for fun though, they were designed for miniature cookie boxes. And just like any of my other miniature packaging, I really did not want to infringe on any copyrights by lifting from the net. So despite my shoddy colouring skills in photoshop, I had to design my own.

Score 1 for my conscience, score 0 for spending too much time on packaging.

That sums up my unhappening Friday. And that I was sneezing and hacking the whole way through. I feel so bad for Mother Earth because I used up so much tissue. :(

But I have a barbeque happening tomorrow (which doesn't bode well for my sick throat bah). Now that sounds something worthy of posting on facebook hah.

Christmas is early this year.

Side announcement: April Commissions are now closed, thanks so much for your support! Hope to sculpt for you in May. ♥

Yup, 8 months earlier haha. I finally decided to post this photo of some Christmas earrings I made last December, the backlog of photos is just crazy!

You may laugh at the ugly snowdrops, I lazily photoshopped them in using brush only so the effect leaves much to be desired.

And then I decided, heck since I'm backtracking till Christmas, it wouldn't be a bad time to introduce a treat from Chinese New Year. So here you have it, a smiley pineapple tart pendant.

If you're not familiar with Chinese customs, pineapple tarts and cookies are the usual stars of the festival, because of it's auspicious sounding name - 黄梨 if you read it in Hokkien dialect it means to welcome prosperity.

and lastly..

Posted this photo on the facebook page (which you should really check out if you have facebook!), and everyone managed to guess that it was actually a miniature camera perched on a actual DSLR.

I'm beginning to have a collection of miniature cameras, it's time for a group shot soon!

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personal rant ahead.

Yesterday was an extremely low day for me, nothing worked out and I was kept waiting for a long time for dinner, and you know what they say about hungry women. The low blow came when I was finally served a half-assed effort at wanton mee, by a kitchen assistant who was clearly at her first day at work.Very unsatisfactory dinner, and way to end the day to say the least. Tried to make up by ordering a nice dessert which was more expensive than the dinner, but the damage was already done.

For the rest of the night, I was also thinking hard about AiClay (when am I ever not?).

Ultimately, I realised whatever plans I had in store, they were all going to require discipline and hard work. Both of which I sorely lack.:(

random photo of a breakfast place in taiwan, just to break up the verbal diarrhoea. :)

Someone once told me about the struggle for a lot of craft businesses. Simply put, crafting and business require a very different skillset and few possess both qualities. For the few craft businesses which have taken off successfully, I'm forever in admiration of those behind it.

But unfortunately, it is not the case for mine. Without going into too much details, I just wish I was more focused and able to juggle many roles at once. Being the sole person behind AiClay, I'm the one who liases with customers, accepts orders, sculpts, sends out packages, takes photos for marketing, listing in online stores.. the list goes on.

That said, it is also why I fully appreciate every comment or like on my flickr/facebook/blog, it's a wonderful boost and makes me work harder. So, please keep them coming, and I can never thank you guys enough if you've managed to read till this point. 

Ending off this depressing post with a happier photo of me and JY riding on a swan boat in Taiwan.

April Commissions are open!

This is the poster I've been fussing over since I returned. 

Although it was supposed to be Bambi planting a kiss on the other one, but I figured it looked like she's trying to tell her a secret too. :)

And this secret can now be shared with everyone, since it's April already!

(click here to view larger)

Head over here for answers to any questions you might have regarding the limited commission list.

♥