The Mouse Market

Nutter Butter White Chocolate Ghost Earrings

This has been quite the busy weekend, and on Friday afternoon I finished the entire consignment order for Assemble Shop and Gallery and promptly started in on Halloween jewelry pieces, completing a couple of pairs of sugar cookie mice earrings with a twist–naughty and nice. I was also in the mood to make more spirited accessories (heh), so I created a pair of Nutter Butter White Chocolate Ghost Earrings and Ghastly Sugar Cookie Ghost Earrings–boo!

Naughty Sugar Cookie Mice Earrings

Today, I’ll be working on more jewelry pieces, and I’ll also be putting together the little scene for my 3D banner. I have the background prepared and the dishes laid out, and now it’s time to fill it in with tricks and treats of the miniature variety, including a spiderweb cheesecake and a little bowl of candy corn (the latter of which, if my initial attempt is any indication, will take for-EVER to make). I also need to leave myself a bit of time to drag my table and risers upstairs so I can start planning out my booth display, and I’m looking forward to sharing some pictures, because I found a neat wire cupcake stand and super cute patterned cupcake liners that will be perfect for displaying small accessories, along with mini topiary sign holders.

Ghastly Sugar Cookie Earrings

And now, on to the free stuff! Green Eyed Monster is hosting a tomato themed giveaway, and one lucky winner will be sporting a pair of my Redfield Beauty Tomato Earrings. The post will go live at 1 p.m. EST, so be sure to check it out for your chance to win. Good luck, and happy Labor Day!

Chocolate Orange Pudding Prep

Augh! I so do not want to report to jury duty this week! I have so much to do before my show, particularly since we’ll be gone for a full five days, and when we get back, I’ll have less than two weeks to prepare for my biggest show of the year thus far. Plus, sales have been a tad slow for a week, most likely because I haven’t been listing much, and I desperately need to have money put away to cover rental car and hotel costs for the show. I’m sure in the grand scheme of things jury duty is a tad more important than miniature cupcakes, but I’m still feeling a little stressed. It’s possible that I might luck out and not be called in, but considering that the group of jurors before mine was called in today, it’s not looking good. Fingers crossed that my brush with justice can be postponed…

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Earrings

Last night, I managed to finish three dessert preparation boards, and today I need to complete two sugar cookie prep boards, a produce basket, and one red velvet cake. I’m also working on a host of new jewelry pieces, including more sugar cookie earrings, rainbow and chocolate cake accessories, rainbow ice cream earrings, and new sushi pieces. Whew! Speaking of cookies, I’ve been feeling a little limited by my choice of miniature cookie cutters, and I might try making one really good version of different cookie shapes out of clay, creating a silicone mold with the shapes, and using those molds for new cookies. When I have time, that is.

Tiramisu Prep

For now, my goal is to wrap up the last few miniatures for the dollhouse show (I’m so close!), and then I can focus all of my energies on creating enough jewelry pieces for the September monster of a show, as well as fitting in a few days of tutorial work so I can release the next issue before the end of this month. Stay tuned, and be sure to take a peek at my Etsy shop and Flickr for more items and pics!

Summer Berry Tart Earrings

After two (very long) days at my mini-making table and in front of my computer, I’ve finally finished my very first tutorial. As time-consuming as it was, it was really satisfying to watch as the tutorial emerged, and it was also interesting to actually think through my work process in such a detailed, step-by-step fashion, something that I don’t consciously do as I’m working normally. My last conventional job involved training personnel on various tasks, and it was fun to tap into the “explain-y” part of my brain again. But enough babbling and on to the tutorial itself!

Summer Berry Tart Tutorial

For this tutorial, I created summer berry tarts, and I include instructions for making both a dollhouse miniature piece and a pair of earrings. The entire tutorial is in color, and it contains over 40 photographs and 14 pages of instructions, plus a supply guide and bonus tips, including pointers on how to use the skills presented in the tutorial for other polymer clay projects. It’s suitable for beginner mini food enthusiasts, but I wouldn’t recommend the tutorial for younger kids due to the use of sharp blades, an oven, and a variety of sharp and pointy instruments!

Tutorial Excerpt

For now, I’m making the tutorial available through my Etsy and Dawanda shops, although I will certainly be selling it on this website once the shop section is up and running. Another tutorial is in the works, but I probably won’t have it finished until after my August show, unless this tutorial is so incredibly popular that people are banging down my door, requesting the next installment. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy making some scrumptious-looking summer berry tarts!

P.S. While available, you can also purchase the actual 1/12 scale summer berry tart or the sterling silver earrings version.

Cool Breeze Kiwi Cupcake Earrings

I’ve been thinking recently about a potential new direction for my jewelry: anthropomorphic food. This was, by far, my favorite type of thing to make out of clay as a kid, and I thought it might be fun to return to my mini food-making roots, so to speak. I certainly wouldn’t want to make all of my jewelry with happy, little faces, but I’m definitely considering launching a special line this fall, such as smiling sandwiches and sushi rolls, happy hamburgers, and other cheery treats. Any thoughts?

Twilight Sparkle Cupcake Earrings

Speaking of new directions, I was mulling over business stuff last night, and I think it might help if I were to write some of it out, so here goes…There are three major business expenses looming on the horizon: a $120 tent purchase for my September show, a $100 dollhouse miniatures order, and a $100 jewelry supply order. The latter two are minimum wholesale order requirements, which, once I can afford to place them should keep me in supplies for up to six months, and in the process my profit margin will fare much better since I’ll be buying my supplies wholesale. The problem, of course, is coming up with the money. *sigh*

Brandywine Tomato & Watering Can Necklace

Boring financial whining aside, I’m also toying with the idea of giving my branding a little makeover. I tend to get bored easily, and I keep seeing so many cute illustrations in what I would call kawaii style, and I’m itching to give the Mouse Market a little kawaii makeover. That would work well with my proposed line of anthropomorphic jewelry, and also with the resin jewelry I mentioned in an earlier post with lots of glitter, rhinestones, and cutesy collage elements.

French Baguette Earrings

The weekend of the 17th, I’ll be going to Memphis with Jake for his paramedic exam, and I’ll have an entire day to hang out at a cafe with my laptop if I so choose, so perhaps I can spend that time working on my regular design work, as well as my new kawaii branding. So, what do you think–is the Mouse Market due for a little spiffing up?

P.S. I’ve listed loads of new jewelry in my Etsy shop, so be sure to take a peek!

A Tollhouse Cookie Makeover

After finishing a custom pair of salty pretzel earrings, I got to work on chocolate chip cookie and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich earrings, but not before poring over a handful of real cookie pictures. While I like my earlier cookie earrings (sort of), I wanted to strive for a little more realism this time around, and I determined that my old cookies were a little too brown, and the chocolate chips were too evenly distributed on the surface of the cookie, something that never really happens in real baking, so I played around with different styles until I came up with the version on the right in the photo above.

Cage Match: Egg vs. Egg

While I was working, I pondered the age-old, universal question, is it always better to make food jewelry as realistic as possible, or is it more appealing if it’s stylized and less realistic? Granted, this is largely a matter of personal preference, but I wasn’t even entirely sure what I prefer. For example, I want to replace my stock of sunny-side up egg earrings, and I can’t decide if I should stick to the previous style, which has a very pronounced, yellow yolk, or model them after the dollhouse miniature eggs that I made more recently. For dollhouse pieces, I tend to think the more realistic the better, but I’m still not sure when it comes to jewelry. What are your thoughts?

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

Deep, probing questions of utmost importance aside, I started reading a book this week that might appeal to fellow crafters and/or self-employed individuals named, aptly enough, Self-Employed Tax Solutions by June Walker. I’m loving the author’s style, which is funny and conversational enough to keep the topic interesting (and actually interesting, not just “interesting in a boring tax kind of way”), yet concise enough to cover a lot of ground in short chapters. If you’ve ever wondered whether your craft would be considered as a hobby or a business by the IRS or how to claim as many deductions as legally possible without stepping into audit territory, this book is a must-read. Plus, it’s pretty empowering to have a handle on this aspect of your small business, even if you do decide to delegate it to a professional accountant.

Organic Broccoli Earrings

Yesterday’s jewelry adventures resulted in my first pairs of corn dog earrings and a pair of broccoli earrings for my shop, and I’m excited to begin work on the cupcake charm bracelet that I mentioned yesterday and some new fruits and vegetable earrings. I also started a rough sketch of the bookshelf-turned-hotel plan (more on that later), and I’m really eager to start building some of the components, but it occurred to me that I still haven’t sent in an application for an October miniatures show, so I’m postponing any hotel related supply shopping while I cover the booth fee for that show.

Corn Dawg Earrings

I also have a book about resin jewelry waiting for me at the library, and I can’t wait to see what sorts of things are possible and think about how I might combine the resin with my mini foods. I used to love the solid resin bracelets filled with glitter, beads, and other fun stuff when I was a kid–the kind that are pretty thick and you have to wiggle your hand around to slide them on, because they’re one continuous piece of plastic–so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make my own version eventually. (Alas, I no longer have my favorite jellies to pair them with, but I still have my fond 80s memories–and embarrassing photos.)

Rough Sketch of the Hotel

As for the hotel plan, I’m pretty happy with the way the initial sketch turned out, even though I left out a number of elements that would have been too time consuming to draw, but to give you an idea of what else I have in mind, the rooftop garden will obviously be full of veggies (and a beehive), but I also plan to put flowers and herbs along the cob wall in the front and hanging off of the brick wall that wraps around the back of the garden level. The penthouse floor is totally empty for now, but that will eventually be transformed into a pretty swanky bedroom/living room/dining area for high rolling mice. The middle level is the cocktail lounge, which will give me a place to showcase the vintage cocktails that I’m planning on making, and a full-scale restaurant.

Finally, the bottom floor will contain the front desk area and the cafe/pastry shop, along with a mezzanine level with doors leading to guest rooms. Throughout the hotel I hope to add plants and other eye-catching details as my schedule and budget allow, but I’m so excited to have new settings in which to photograph my minis and the Nutmeg family!

Roast Beef 'n' Cheddar with Soda Earrings

It seems that the little Mouse Family is a hit. I’ve actually gotten a number of very sweet messages via Etsy from people who enjoyed seeing the mice in my newest item listings, so it’s official: My indulgence in adorable little toys is completely justified, even though I’m almost 30 years old. Next task is coming up with names for them, and I think I’ve decided on Nutmeg for the surname, Mama and Papa for the parents (original, eh?), Mira and Pippen for the sister and brother, and Peep (my gerbil’s name) and Scooter (my old bunny’s name) for the twins.

Buttermilk Pancakes and Syrup Earrings

Oh! I nearly forgot: my friend, Lisa, shared the most brilliant idea yesterday, and I’m so excited to start working on it. In response to my food inspiration binder, Lisa suggested that I put together a mouse family album with little pictures of them doing their mouse-y thing. How cute! I’m wondering if I might be able to combine the two binders and show the real-life food photos as something that one of the mice clipped out of a magazine to use as a guide for their mini meals. Could be fun.

Last but not least, in response to readers’ requests that I offer some way for them to follow my mini-making adventures beyond a boring RSS feed, I’m experimenting with Google Friend Connect. I’m awfully lonely so far, so if you’re feeling friendly, use the pink box to the right of this post to share the love! Finally, if you want to see more pictures of my new Mix and Match earrings, visit my Flickr page, and be sure to check out the newest food preparation magnets that I’ve listed in my shop.

Creamy Chocolate Mint Cupcake Earrings

I can’t really blame the weather, since summer has already made itself comfortable, but I’ve been struck with a spring cleaning urge, and I’m eager to clear out my inventory to make room for a new line of summer pieces. To start, I decided to put a bunch of things on sale–some holiday items, but also an assortment of jewelry pieces (visit the sale section)–and I’ve started renaming and tidying up a few of my shop sections to allow for easier browsing. I’m also going to hunt through my stock drawers and look for earrings that would be good candidates for mixing and matching.

Rainbow Sparkle Doughnut Hair Pins in Creamsicle

If you took part in the flurry of comments on my previous post, you’ll already be aware of the new ideas for combining a stack of pancakes with a bottle of syrup, a tomato soup can with a grilled cheese sandwich, or a jam jar with toast, etc., and I’m eager to see what earrings I already have that could be used in this fashion. For example, I know I have a couple of pairs of Sunnyside Up Egg earrings that could be combined with bacon, and I’m pretty sure I have Golden French Fry Earrings just waiting for a ketchup bottle mate.

Purple Passion 'n' Lime Cupcake Earrings

In bigger news, I have to give myself a pat on the back for my shift in attitude this week. I have a huge jewelry show next weekend, which we’ll be leaving for on Thursday night, and despite the fact that I would ideally like to have about twice the amount of jewelry pieces in my inventory, I’m not working myself to death in a fruitless attempt to making that happen. Sure, I’m putting in fairly long days, but I’m enjoying spending more time on each individual piece, coming up with ideas, and maintaining my Etsy shop. I’ll still have over 100 pieces to bring, which may or may not be enough for a three day show, but it is what it is. I’m not sure I even recognize the strange person who’s typing these words.

Strawberry Banana Cupcake Earrings

Two more random tidbits, before they completely slip my mind…I found a coupon for 40% off Martha Stewart craft items at Michaels, and initially, I didn’t think that I would be able to use it, because I doubted any of the things on my boring supply list would be a Martha Stewart item, but lo and behold, as I was hunting for a paper cutter I found one in the Martha section, and it was the very last one in stock. It might sound silly, but I am so in love with this paper cutter. I can vividly recall all of the days that I put off cutting new product tags, because it was such a monumental pain in the butt to do with a blade and a straight edge, and new products would be piling up around my work bench impatiently awaiting tags. No more! Now, it takes me mere seconds to slice off perfectly straight cards, and I’m in heaven.

The second tidbit is that I’ve started putting together a little binder of photos (yes, they’re mostly from Martha Stewart Living) of food preparation scenes, finished food dishes, and other inspiration, and my plan is to take the binder to my miniatures show in June, carefully label the pages with tabs, and place corresponding tabs next to the miniature items in my display, so if shoppers are curious to see where the idea came from and/or how similar the miniature piece is to the real thing, voilà! It’s all in the binder.

Carnival Candy Apple Earrings

Whew. The show is nearly here, and I think I might be reasonably prepared. It’s a miracle. I ran a ton of last-minute errands yesterday, picking up a few more books of sales receipts (fingers crossed that I go through all of them!), candy for my booth’s goody bowl, and some random craft supplies. I still need to make two or three dishes, since we’re bringing most of our own food to save cash (and to avoid late night pizza binges), but overall, I’m feeling pretty good about everything I’ve been able to accomplish this week.

Cherry Chocolate Oreo Earrings

To top off my inventory, I completed ten pairs of candy apple earrings with a variety of toppings yesterday, as well as Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake Slice earrings/charm, Cherry Chocolate Oreo Cake Slice earrings/charm, Summer Strawberry earrings, Concord Grape earrings, and a few more pairs of Scarlet Nantes Carrot earrings, because I keep selling out of them. Hopefully, I’ve chosen a good selection of items that will be popular with the St. Louis crowd! If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by the Indie Craft Revolution and say “hello.” (Visit my shop/shows page for details and directions.)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Earrings

My Etsy shop will be closed starting Friday morning, and I’ll reopen it as soon as possible on Sunday evening, March 14. In the meantime, don’t forget to enter the Lolita Charm giveaway, which ends Monday, March 15, and use the special coupon code “LOLITA” to save 10% on Mouse Market purchases through March 31, 2010 (enter coupon code into order screen message box; discount amount will be refunded via PayPal). Have a great weekend

Tentative Booth Display

This weekend, a great deal of my time was spent on readying my booth display, and I successfully finished everything on my to-do list, including painting and attaching the little wooden strips I’ll be using as mini shelves for my earrings, sewing the table skirt, cutting poster board to cover the unsightly underbelly of my display, and other miscellaneous tasks. The picture above shows the booth without the poster board side covers attached to the table risers, and, obviously, with none of my pieces displayed, but you can still get an idea of where I’m going with this.

Mermaid Lagoon Doughnut Earrings

My tentative plan is to fill the white cork board area with earrings (propped up on the wooden shelves) and necklaces and bracelets (pinned to the cork board and allowed to hang). The very top shelf of the table risers will showcase the small selection of dollhouse miniatures I’ll be bringing to the show, and the green area to the right of the table risers will house the mailing list/business card station, adjustable rings, which will be propped up in little ramekin dishes filled with white or green sand, magnets, and maybe some hair accessories. I still haven’t decided what I’ll be hanging in the little white tree, but I’m sure I’ll find some odds and end pieces to display there.

Orange Sherbet Doughnut Earrings

I spent a good amount of time at the craft store trying to decide on an appropriate glue for affixing wood to painted cork out of the eighty billion or so options, including special glue for sticking crap onto rubber flip flops. Really? We need a special glue for that? I finally opted for Elmers’ Super Duper OMG! Glue or something like that, mainly because it had a picture of the Elmer’s cow, which normally looks rather sedated (or perhaps high on glue fumes), only it had been transformed into a blue, steroidal monster with rippling muscles that was snorting fire out of its flaring nostrils, all of which did wonders for inspiring my confidence in its supernatural gluing abilities.