Summertime Desserts

Thought we'd show a few pieces that will be popping up on Etsy in the next few minutes...

Inspired by the lovely summery weather we've been having, today we made a few "Summertime Desserts" with sorbets, sundaes and a mousse glacée.

Needless to say it's now cold, windy and rainy...c'est la vie!

You'll find them together on Etsy here.

Please Take Two Minutes To Help Save The Rainforests

This is slightly off-topic when it comes to miniatures, but couldn't be more on-topic when it comes to the future of humanity.

We're all guilty of perhaps spending more time online than we should, so today please spend just 1 minute 32 seconds of it watching this video and then use the sign up form at the top of the blog to take another few seconds to sign up for the Prince of Wales's Rainforest Project.

Many of our blog readers have young children, many have grandchildren. Don't let their tomorrows be destroyed by our lack of action today.

We all have tons of online contacts so use them!

Contact your blog followers

Use your mailing lists

Post in forums

Tell your family and friends to do the same

Please do SOMETHING...today

Miniature Paper Cake Cases

We've just been making some miniature pastries (surprise surprise!) and thought we'd share with you one of the elements that we needed to make - miniature paper cake cases!

Some of our miniature cake cases

Shown on a real cake case (love these pink ones with the French writing on them!) and a pen nib

Finished pastries shown on a real cake case

Mad About Teapots Too!

From my last post, where I wrote about my collection of plates, you'll know that I have a passion for tableware.

I also love teapots - a happy coincidence seeing as Miniman is English and loves his tea!

As you may expect, this rubs off on my miniature work too. One of my favourite types of teapot is in the style of a "table" - the teapot is given the appearance of being draped with a tablecloth and the top of the teapot then becomes the surface of a table. It's a style that some people may find bizarre at first, but it does give an active imagination a whole heap of possibilities!

I've made pink ones featuring teeny teapots as the handle for the lid...handpainted too!

I've made black and white teapots with another tiny teapot, baby cup and saucer and a minuscule croissant...

I've even made special Christmas teapots with tiny Christmas puddings on the lid!

That's a quarter scale teapot next to the 12th scale version! It even has a tiny teapot cup and saucer and a Christmas pudding on it - we're talking stupidly small here! All done without a magnifying glass too...

Here is that 1/4 scale version on a British penny...

And this week I was chuffed with the way my new one turned out - it's a picnic table setting...

...complete with that classic red and white checkered cloth, a baguette, pork pie (again in recognition of the "Englishness" of my other half!) tomatoes, a roast chicken, some brie and some hard boiled eggs.

I also painted some grass and flowers around the base to give it a summery meadowy feel!

You can find more pictures of this piece on eBay where I've just listed it!

Mad About Tableware

I love tableware and have a large collection of vintage plates (full-sized) which I've amassed over the years from brocantes, flea markets, family clearouts etc...

When I say vintage, I just mean "old"! Many of them have chips and blemishes, but knowing that some date from the 19th century, regardless of the fact that most are worth next to nothing, it gives me a warm buzz knowing that I'm now their "guardian" and they remain very dear to me.

Sadly many of them are confined to boxes having been carefully packed away in newspaper when we moved house three years ago. One day we'll get them hung up somewhere...right Neil?!

So when I'm not making miniature food, the other great passion I have is for making services in miniature - both complete settings for dining tables and individual pieces, on a whim. (Commissions undertaken - hint, hint...!)

Here's one I finshed today which has quite a vintage, nostalgic feel to it.

I love the decal image of the three happy girls but didn't know what to do with it, until today!

I handpainted the border of the plate in black with with dots and painstakingly added gold beading. I knew just after starting the beading that it was going to be difficult to do, but thankfully it turned out nice and regular and even - phew!

Filled with some cookies, I think this would be great for placing in a girl's nursery...

The cookies helped to keep young Martine busy (the daughter of our neighbour...). Only two weeks into her summer holiday and the poor thing's bored to tears at home. So we let her "help" with the last photo. So here it is...

Bravo Martine!

This piece is available on eBay until July 23

Le Goûter - Yummy French Afternoon Chocolate Snack

The traditional afternoon snack for French children when they return home after a long day studying at school (known as "Le Goûter" - pronounced goo-tay) consists of an energy boosting chocolate sandwich.

A French baguette is sliced longways, buttered and then filled with as many squares of chocolate as you can cram in! It doesn't matter that because of the butter, most of them will slip out when you bite into it - it's all part of the fun!

Many adults have fond memories of this snack and will still indulge today - we do!

If you're out with a party that includes children, it's not unusual for parents to whip out a length of baguette and some chocolate from their bag to feed their flagging youngsters. Even without the butter, they love it!

We had to pay hommage to this simple, delicious treat in miniature...

As well as including the bread, chocolate and salted butter (marked in French "Demi-Sel", just like the real full-sized ones!) we added a jug and glass of chilled milk to add to the pleasure!

The whole ensemble is presented on a wooden tray decorated with a reproduction of a vintage French chocolate poster from Menier.

Hmmm, feeling peckish now...

Paris In The Pink!

Looking at the Pink Eiffel Tower cake that we made for our current "Pink Week" Collection (on eBay until Sun 12 July...), we wondered what would happen if we could change the brownish-gray colour of the real thing and slap on a coat of pink paint?

Realising that painting the real thing was going to require between 50 and 60 tonnes of paint, we decided against doing it for real. At 324 metres high, vertigo would have been a major problem too...

So we did it the easy way - in Photoshop!

Oooh la la! It certainly adds a splash of colour to a dull Parisian sky, but I think I prefer the true colour!

Hmmm, but what about other famous Parisian landmarks? The Arc de Triomphe for example?

Oh no! That'll never do! There's so much traffic whizzing round the thing that giving those crazy Parisian drivers the added distraction of a bright pink landmark to look at instead of the road will only end in trouble and another smashed tail light...!

What about somewhere more calm? Somewhere where one can relax and contemplate life and be alone with one's thoughts. A church maybe? What about Sacré Coeur? Swapping its bright whiteness might add a dash of colour to the highest point in Paris, but could you contemplate anything other than the shocking colour if it was repainted in pink? (edit: this is growing on me...!)

So our "scientific" research concludes that the only Parisian landmark that should be offered in pink is the Eiffel Tower....

...and then only when it's in miniature!

To see this item's listing, click here

To see all of the other "Pink Week 2009" items, click here - don't forget, all pink week auctions
close on Sunday 12th July...

Made Some Cherries...

With the memory of Monsieur de la Rue's extraodinarily delicious homegrown cherries still lingering, here are a few of my recent miniature pieces featuring one of my favourite fruits!

Of course there's our classic cherry charlotte, made from lady finger biscuits and decorated with a really fine silk bow. Having a small bow is really important - there's no point putting in lots of effort to make a realistic minature and then spoiling it with a bow that wouldn't look out of place on a full-sized kimono!

The charlotte shown with a bowl of cherries on their stalks. The bowl is made by E. Causeret.

And in turn shown with a cherry tart.

So tiny! Just 1.3 cm (1/2 inch) in diameter...

But I've already got one! So this one is up for grabs...this very one!

You can find it right now in our Etsy store by clicking here

Friday Flashback - Pink Week - 150 Miniatures!

This week we are pleased to unveil our new "Pink Week" collection for 2009.

To celebrate this, our fifth year, we present here a quick retrospective of our previous "Pink Week" collections.

For those of you who didn't know us back then, our first Pink Week collection in 2005 was a fun exercise to see how many miniature items featuring the colour pink we could come up with. A way of pushing our creativity and presenting some non-food items to the world. As you'll see below, there has been an eclectic mix over the last five years!

We enjoyed it so much that in 2006, after we had started to build up an impressive following, we wanted to offer another collection for those that had missed the first.

Since then we have created a new "Pink Week" collection every year. The start of summer sees 30 new pink miniatures listed on eBay and this year is no exception!

So, that's 5 years of 30 items, which means that on this page alone, you're going to be treated to one hundred and fifty pink miniatures!!!

We do hope you enjoy them!

The current Pink Week runs from 2 -12 July 2009 on Ebay and can be found by clicking here

Pink Week Collection from 2005 - the one that started it all!

From 2006

From 2007

From 2008 (pushed for time, we used the same layout as 2007, but the items are all different!)

And so onto this year....

2009's collection which can be found right now on eBay!

So now you've seen all the "Pink Week" collections, which is your favourite year? Use the poll on the top right of the page to vote!

Which is your favourite piece? Maybe you were even lucky enough to win one of our "Pink Week" pieces?

Do share it with us by leaving a comment and we'll aim to post better pictures of your favourite pieces over the next few days!

Happy 4th July - New Miniatures!

After all that pink yesterday, how about some red, white and blue today?!


We've just finished up five new pieces to celebrate the 4th July, all with a patriotic red, white and blue theme and the "Stars and Stripes" in some form or other!

They're on Etsy now - click here to see them in more detail (edit 04/07/09: these items have sold out - but please email if interested in purchasing.)

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! Wish we could be enjoying some of those delicious sounding BBQs with y'all!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!!!

I think we'll be staying out of the workshop today...they're saying that it's going to be the hottest day of the year so far.

Our trusty workshop thermometer seems to agree having reached 53°C (127°F) before breakfast...

We remember those dark days of winter when it struggled to get up to 3°C...there's a sweet spot of about three weeks in the spring and then again in the autumn when it's neither too hot nor too cold to spend time in the workshop. Outside of those periods, it's either scarves or shorts...!

So today we down tools (although, to be honest, we never picked them up to begin with!) and start planning the BBQ for this evening!

After a siesta, of course... :)