Fruit and vegetable market stall

Inspired by my miniature baking, I decided to try making other food stuff from polymer clay and, perhaps not surprisingly, chose vegetables. 

I made vegetables a long time ago, when I was a beginner, and I made them from air-drying clay because I thought it was easier. Now I know it isn't, and the results are far better. Air-drying clay dries quickly, it often crumbles after a while, you have to paint it. Having now tried both I clearly prefer fimo.

Back then, I even made a fruit stand that I filled with veggies and fruit, that I was quite happy with at that time. I also made fruit and vegetables for my large Victorian dollhouse and for my retro house (the Tudors didn't eat vegetables). Here are some of my old groceries. 

 

 

Unlike bread and cakes, I didn't attend any classes on making vegetables. (I was enrolled in one that was cancelled because of the current situation). There are zillions of tutorials on YouTube, some more helpful than others, and in the end you just need to decide what suits you best or merge the various techniques according to your tools and skills. I also have several books - yes, physical, printed books - on making fruit and vegetables, not all of them from clay. 

I started with something that felt easy enough and followed one of the tutorials closely, to understand the principles. After you have done that, you can start improving and improvising, but it is important, I believe, to master some basics. A good thing with fimo, unlike air-drying clay, is that it doesn't dry, and you can start all over again as many times as you need. 

I didn't use any sophisticated tools, practically only toothpicks and a blade. I do have a special rolling pin, but you can also use a bottle or a glue tube or anything round and smooth.  

 

So to begin with, I made tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbage and carrots. First rule, that I had already adopted when making bread, is that no commercial clay is quite the colour you can use directly - you need to mix and mix and not compromise. For instance, I should have added more yellow to carrots. You also have to work a lot on texture to make veggies look realistic, and every now and then I had to check my fridge to see, for instance, how exactly bell pepper stalk sat. I had never really considered that every vegetable has a different shape of stalk, or how the indents go in tomatoes and bell peppers, and so on. The cabbage was the most time-consuming, since you had to make 12 separate leaves in three different shades of green, shape them, add texture and carefully layer upon each other. It took me three attempts to feel satisfied. After baking, I applied fimo varnish to peppers, tomatoes and carrots. 

Just to give you a sense of how much better your minis are when you take the time to develop your skills, I took some "Then and Now" pictures.

 

 

The bottom row is cucumbers, and the new ones I made from a tutorial I wasn't very happy with, so I found another one, and you can see the difference.

 

 

For cucumbers and quite a few other veggies I made later, you need to blend two colours of clay to create a smooth, gradual transition. Again, I had never considered that there are no sharp colour borders in nature. Blending is done by folding and rolling out clay until you drop dead. It can be done in a pasta machine if you have one. I don't so I did it all manually. No shortcuts. It took me a long time to understand and then practice, but it makes such a difference. Just look at these leeks.

or radish, or rhubarb.

You cannot get this effect by painting. 

So I went on, from more simple and straightforward veggies to more complicated, learning as I went.

 

 

Cauliflowers were quite demanding, as were broccoli - they had to be assembled one by one; but the patissons were just a joy to make, as were pumpkins. I only used toothpicks for shaping.

 

For pumpkins and patissons, I used chalk pastels before baking, just as with breads, layering from the palest to the darkest. After baking, I used varnish.

Aubergines and butternut squash were easy. 

But for courgettes, that are the same shape, it was necessary first to make a cane of two colours to create stripes. 

 

Artichokes and asparagus were very demanding. First, you had to pre-bake the stalks, then add the teeny tiny leaves one by one. Then paint with pastels before final baking.

Beans and peas were relatively easy, but because they have to be very small if they are in scale with the other veggies, it was exacting work. I used a magnifying glass.

 

Beetroot, fennel and onions needed colour transition again: 

And garlic, in addition to colour transition, also needed to be arranged in a braid. 

For corn on cob, I found a tutorial with a very smart technique using mesh for texture. 

 

Here are some more Then and Now pictures: 

My self-esteem has soared. I now know that I can make anything from polymer clay, it is just a matter of practice - like with everything else. I am not in a hurry and can spend hours on just one vegetable until I am fully satisfied.

Now you may wonder how I am going to display all these vegetables in my little market stall. Come back soon, and I will show you. 

To be continued.