At least once a week I turn into Alice in Wonderland and get sucked down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest! What wondrous ideas live down there! Anyway more recently I found some clever people who make miniature food from polymer clay- usually for dolls houses. Of course I had to try…..
I saw instructions on how to make a roast lamb joint, so with Nieva off hunting deer I thought I’d try making a roast haunch of venison. I have to say it came out better than I thought! Using polymer clay is pretty easy - once you’ve watched enough how to videos! I started out making the “bone” which gets baked and cooled, then I built the colored layers of the meat around it. That gets textured and “sliced” and then baked. Once it is cooled you can paint it. The loaves of bread were made the same way - shaped, textured, baked and painted. I use thin acrylics for the painting.
The yummy roast!
I’m still in knife making mode - so I made a carving knife and a bread knife to go with the food. My husband came home while I was baking the clay and saw that I had the oven on. “What are you cooking?” he asked. He was excited when I said Venison and Bread - but was sadly disappointed when he looked in the oven! However, he soon came around once I finished painting the venison and it looked so yummy. He promptly went off to the garage and soldered me a miniature fork!
Lettuce mold
With that success under my belt I then saw some instructions for making lettuce/cabbage. This introduced me to creating polymer clay molds. Using two flat pieces of clay you carve/scratch out two molds (front and back) for the thing you want to create - in this case a lettuce leaf). The molds get baked. Once they are cool brush them with corn starch so that the polymer clay will not stick to the mold. Then take a small piece of clay, flatten it to roughly the shape you want and press between the two molds. Remove carefully then you can trim and gently shape the leaf to give it curly edges. Make a few, then make a core for your lettuce and attach the leaves. Leave some detached (ready for sandwiches!) Bake, then paint when cooled.
Fruits and veg
I also created a fairly convincing melon. Some apples were made from wooden beads which I painted. Now I have a veritable Thanksgiving feast of goodies!