The Neverending Journey

Red/gold truestone and ebony pedestal platter turned by Thomas Saunders.  Besides the food items, I also made the marmalade serving dish of polymer clay :)

While I was working on the viennoiserie and petit dejeuner pictured above, I reminisced about my miniature food journey, now 26 months and counting.

It hasn't been long, but it's already epic in experiences and memories.  A few examples...  Resented the fact that I'm able to shop at brick and mortar Louis Vuitton or Chanel stores or almost any store you can think of yet there are no miniatures stores and only a handful of art supplies or crafts stores here.  Diligently practiced patience, as I was the most impatient recipient of mailed parcels on the planet.  Felt sorry for myself after learning that the dollhouse miniatures books I coveted are not available at the local bookshops and need to be ordered and shipped (see the comment on patience).  Felt sorrier for myself knowing that attendance at any type of miniatures class requires a flight of 5,000+ miles.  Jumped for joy after locating comprehensive online tutorials by Kiva Atkinson, Betsy Niederer and the late Mary Eccher!  Grateful that I've learned all the basic techniques and more from the best food artists, albeit remotely.  Procrastinated and stressed over creating a blog, then felt like an idiot after understanding that there was nothing to it.  Wasted time getting sidetracked by everything miniature.  Decided again to concentrate solely on miniature food, allowing for the occassional diversion, hehe.  Succeeded and failed in experimentation, developed new techniques, learned to think outside the box.   Discovered that I sometimes need to rely on photos to replicate small details in appearance of food items, even though I've been eating food my entire life, duh!

The journey has also been a remarkable one of self-discovery.  I've succeeded in conquering a few fears and banishing bad habits like preferring making miniatures over sleeping XD  And I've finally learned to serenely embrace life and not sweat the small stuff.  My adult kids wish I had embarked on this journey before they were born, LOL.

To be continued...

Finally, a new post...

I'd like to begin each day with a butter croissant and hot chocolate, a favorite breakfast since visiting Paris years ago.  Of course, this is wishful thinking, as I wouldn't want to become twice the size of me in a year.  Instead, I've tried to create a polymer clay version that may fulfill the craving in a visual sense...not the same but better than nothing.

A shout out to the new readers of this neglected blog!  The long silence was unavoidable...life's priorities have been cramping my online activities since my last post.  I'm also in the midst of a really intense project (croissants are a small part of it)...will dish about that and more once it's done :)

Hope 2012 has been and continues to be a great year for all.