Pastels and a Puppy.

Hello. 

So here are some miniature works of mine, these are part of something bigger. But I thought the rainbow pastel colours were so pretty I wanted to photograph them separately. 

Can you guess what they are?

Another thing, those who follow me on instagram/twitter would know I'm about to have a new addition to my family next week - a puppy!And I'm kind of in a dilemma about his name (yes it's a boy!), so I need some help.
I'm deliberating between either Taro, or Romeo. 

Taken from my instagram.

Follow me, my username's joceaiwei. 

 (yup I said puppy, not polar bear lol)

What do you think, let me know in the comments! ♥

A pair of miniature chopsticks.

Miniature Dragon Nest bento is completed, with a pair of handmade chopsticks. 

They were cut and sanded from a toothpick by the way. :)

Making a bento - miniature style. :)

Hello! I just had one of the most amazing weekends, to sum it up I'm finally going to be able to get a furry friend in my household. :) You'll know more if you follow me on twitter or instagram!

So, today I wanted to conduct a little pictorial cooking recipe for bento. Okay, so it's actually a miniature bento.. and it's made of polymer clay so it's inedible.

But I reckon the steps shouldn't be that far off from a real life recipe. Here goes!

Step One of making bento.

First, you'll need some colourful vegetables and eggs. Yes, the cherry tomatoes have eyes on them and the carrots are cut in the shape of the ghosts from the game Dragon Nest!  

 Step Two.

Next, you want to lay out some fresh lettuce leaves on the bento box. 

Step Three.

Now you want to cook rice and make it into a ghost shape (following the Dragon Nest ghost!) and lay it on the lettuce bed.

 
[to be continued soon]

Whattt, within a week? :)

Thank you for the support, lovely people! 

Within a week, all slots for the upcoming workshop - Pretty as Cupcakes Earrings, 

have been snatched up! :)

 

For those who did not manage to get a slot, there will be more workshops coming up and more chances to craft together! ♥

For everyone who have successfully registered, congrats and please check your mailboxes within this week as I will send you an email with more details of the workshop! Can't wait for Saturday!! :)
 

The next thing I wanted to announce, is that AiClay now has a YouTube account! And while there is just one video in there now, I will be uploading more miniature food related videos definitely! So please subscribe to the AiClay channel, so that you would be informed when the videos are up.

For my first video, I have some footage of what went on during the most recent AiClay Workshop at Hwa Chong Institution. Do watch it if you have always been curious about my workshops!

Oh yes, I did film and upload the video in Full HD, so do watch it in HD! 

Pretty as Cupcakes Earrings - design your own!

Excitinggggggg news! I have finally organised a workshop where we would make adorable cuppycakes, and you'll get to design your own!  

Workshop details are in the poster below.

As always, it's 10% off (that's $5!) for those who have attended my previous workshops. ♥ 

Head here to see a bigger-sized poster.

Really hoping to have you join me at a fun crafting session! ♥

For everyone who's overseas and can't join us, this is another way you can own this pair of cute cuppycakes (personalised with your own letter!) - http://bitly.com/RAfWG2

Design your own cupcake earrings! ♥

A little teaser for the upcoming workshop - they are cupcake earrings. 

*Btw, this is just my design for the little cupcakes. You will get to design your own!

It will be happening in 2 weeks and spaces are very limited, so look out for the actual poster coming up real soon.

Save the date for an afternoon of crafting with me! ♥ Will you will you? :)

More details coming up very soon!

Biggest craft workshop (so far) !

On 15th and 16th October, I taught and crafted together with two full classes of Hwa Chong Institution students. With 20 students for each class, and a trained assistant in tow. :)

That's 40 miniature baskets of breads made, enough to feed a village eh?

They were absolutely darling to teach, and so polite too! Every time I handed them a tool, or helped them with a question, they would thank me warmly.

When me and Jackie (AiClay Fellow Helper for the day :)) were walking around the school compound, some students even bowed to us in greeting! It did take a bit of getting used to haha.

As usual after my workshops, I have lots of photos to share. So there'll be minimal talking here, just many pictures. Especially love the snapshots of their concentrated looks, bent over their little works. 

And when they're smiling and relaxed, always nice to know they're having fun. 

Oh yes, that's a life-size bread basket in the next photo by the way. ;) This was the first time I brought in the real thing when we're sculpting the miniature version.

And my, the reactions from the students whenever I put the miniature version beside the real one were priceless! Definitely would try to do that for my future workshops. 

 I'm the one in the peach-pink knitted top with the weird expressions. Jackie is the one in black. :)

I always feel a tad like a sales promoter during the demonstration on how to use the pasta machine lol.

The lady in teal pants is Betsy, organiser of the series of craft workshops held in HCI. She was wonderful to work with, very responsible and it's inspiring how far she's come with her own crafting business! Head on over to Knotty Bicsie for more of her needleworks. ♥ 

Good for you if you've made it so far in the blogpost. :)

Guess what! The diligent cameraman, Jack (haha) has also filmed some footage of the workshops! So once I've got around to editing and arranging, I'll be putting the video up so you can finally see in action how it's like during the workshops! ♥

If you would like to have a Miniature Food Workshop conducted at your school/event/company, just email me at buzz@aiclay.com and we'll talk more then! Who knows, AiClay's Workshop might be popping by your school next!

Andddddd, I'm hoping to hold a few Christmas-related Miniature Food Workshops this November and December. Yep, I did say A FEW. :) So keeping my fingers crossed and do check back this space for more! Or just subscribe to AiMail and let me do the work for you.

P.S I only had photos of the first day at HCI, as I left my camera behind for the second day. If you're one of the students that day, and have photos to share with me please do! :) Just share them on the facebook page.

Spooky Halloween is here! { lolly cookie }

Hello! ♥ 

So I've been gone for a while now, if you follow me on twitter/facebook you'll know what I've been busy with! I'll elaborate more about that in the next post, but here's a photo to give you a clue. ;)

 

So I've been getting many emails asking for miniature food tutorials and videos etc. And that's definitely a project I'm working on! Yes, I know I say that always and the to-do list is just horrendously long now. :(

But in the meantime, here's a little how-to in the spirit (PUN INTENDED!) of halloween. I actually adapted them from the real life frosting methods, so you can use them for your real baking as well! Just substitute black clay with fondant for the itsy bitsy spiders. 

Enjoy and do share photos if you make them! :)

It's a hot dog, no a sausage, no waitt a bratwurst!

Never mind what it's called, it's just really tasty eh. And I love them meat when it's packed in a bun and with a squeeze of mustard and chilli. Mmmm.

Miniature hot dog/sausage/bratwurst bun handsculpted by me. 

Miniature packaging designed and handmade by me too.

It's about 2cm in length by the way.

 

I put it in the store on Sunday midnight, and I woke up the next morning and checked my email as usual. Somehow I had this feeling that the Paypal fairy has arrived and it really did! And took away the miniature hot dog bun and gave me oh sweet cash instead. (just kidding, I'm not that in love with money haha)

That was the fastest I've ever sold something, got me smiling that whole day. :)

But I've got a few of them hot dog buns, so here's another one in store! 

Today was the first official day I introduced someone new into the AiClay team (hello Jackie if you're reading this!), and she came over to my workspace for a training session and to help in painting some miniature baskets for next week's workshops.

Picture of the mess we made, from my instagram. 

Follow me there, my username's joceaiwei! 

It was really awesome to have someone to chat to while working on AiClay, and I'm already envisioning a bigger workspace next time with a bigger AiClay team. Working on sculptures, marketing, packaging etc. Of course, there is still quite a while to go before AiClay reaches that, especially with the staggering rental cost of a workshop in land-scarce Singapore.

But I can always work towards that right? ;)

P.S The workshops are held by Hwa Chong Institution so they aren't open for the public. To everyone who has been waiting for the workshops, I'm working on conducting one in November! -fingers crossed!

A crumb cake to take away.

One more photo, so that you get a sense of the size! :)

Of the miniature crumb cake handsculpted by me. 

(Read backstory in previous post.)

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Also, I've confirmed someone for my fellow helper for the upcoming workshop. But for everyone else who sent in their details, don't worry because I'm saving all of you for future projects! Definitely hoping to get as many people in the AiClay team as possible. :)

It's my brother's birthday this Sunday, happy 21st bro!! ♥ and I've never remembered to say this, but also thank you mom, for the hours of pain and labour 21 years ago resulting in me having a sibling. :)

Happy weekend everyone!