My Critique From IGMA

My critique on the Fellow submission arrived this afternoon so I thought I'd share it with you. You never know, it might help any future candidates out there to be successful! Reading it gave me an even greater "High" than the email telling me that I'd made it! OK...enough prattling on...here it is:-
Positive:
Outstanding use of accessories.

Some of the most realistic food I have ever seen. Thoughtful & powerful variety & presentation.

Truly exquisite work. The pastries are making me hungry-fabulous crust on pie & the croissants are amazing. Love the asparagus.

Lovely to look at. Colors re unbelievable.Shading is perfect.

Clams are well done & love the sea urchin.

Absolutely love the cherry pie-cherries with pits! Very nice asparagus. Wonderful variety & presentation.

There is a sense of scale with the tiniest details that I don't often see in foods. Delicacy of berries, cherry pits, croissants-wonderful!

Beautiful shading & colours on most-lovely food choices/variety. Catch of the day-nice choice.

Areas of improvement:

Leaves in the fruit basket need more variation of shape & color & are too thick. The blackberries are a little large compared to the apples & the apple stems are too fine.

Diameter of the asparagus is large in scale, but borderline to the largest we've ever seen. Lemons on asparagus crown are too bright.

The fish seem to be an odd color. The fish are poorly detailed compared to the other pieces. The lobster is too bright blue & the body seems too narrow.

The seafood is the weakest part of the submission.

All the pastries, though lovely scale, look "burned" in the oven. The pastry dough seems too dark brown.

When you read the areas of improvement it's amazing that I ever "made it"!!! The committee have obviously never seen my homemade croissants!!!!

Time for some 'Fun'!!

I know I'm going to regret this in a week or two when the family all arrive for Christmas, but now that the pressure of making pieces for Kensington is over, I've been enjoying myself in my mini 'sweatshop' by actually making something that I wanted to do rather than what I Have to do! A couple of months ago,while flicking through a cake decorating book (cake decorators are SUCH talented people!) I came across a cake by a lady called Karen Goble that she had called 'Santa's Sleigh Ride'...I just couldn't resist trying it in miniature!...I LOVE the result! It measures 40mm x 25mm x 25mm




The photo just doesn't do the cake justice I'm afraid (& if you look carefully you'll spot the deliberate mistake on this one..yes, Santa is facing the wrong way!)AND, instead of the traditional 9 reindeer pulling the sleigh, there are only 3....the others must be taking a day off! LOL. I made 2, one for my own collection & one to sell but I'm still trying to decide whether or not to list it on eBay as I'd hate to see it sell for less than I think it's worth! A dilemma!! LOL

My submission!

I'm still patently waiting for my Fellow submission to arrive back. It was apparently posted last Monday so I've got everything crossed that it arrives soon...I just don't trust our postal services too much & despite asking for it to be sent insured so that it could be tracked, it was sent ordinary airmail! I was cleaning out some old files on my comp today & came across pictures that I took to send with the pieces...I had forgotten all about them! What it is to be going senile!




If I could only learn to work with Photoshop, I'd have put them all together in one photo...one of these days I'll get round to it, but at the moment I try, swear like a trooper when it all goes wrong & then bin hours of work that's got me absolutely nowhere!
I know I've said it before but Zara Thomson Ribeaud http://www.zarathomsonribeaud.com/ makes the most fantastic baskets, 2 of them are pictured here( & I might add, the pics just don't do them justice!). The plate displaying the asparagus was handpainted by Christopher Whitford & supplied by http://www.swanhouseminiatures.com", the beautiful crystal cakestand was made by Jim Irish, a former master cutter at Waterford Crystal & the cooling rack for the cherry pie by Carol Lester in UK.
It was an expensive business applying & I'm not sure that if I hadn't succeeded, I would have been submitting again! :-))
Keep everything crossed for me that this parcel is not one of the thousands that go missing!

We are Jolly Good FELLOWS!!!!

Whey Hey! Sorry no photos with this posting..I'm so snowed under trying desperately to make stock for Kensington...but I just had to let you know that both my GF Kiva Atkinson & myself are now Igma FELLOWS!! While she's celebrating with one or two beers..I have to console myself with a coffee as it's only 9.30am here...but when tonight comes.......
Congratulations Kiva...so very well deserved!! :-))))

Feathered & Furred!

OK, I shouldn't be here doing this, I've suddenly realised that I've only got a week & a half before I have to be ready to up sticks down to Kensington! HELP!! So I'm going to have to work my butt off from now on!
Last year as soon as the doors opened a lady came literally running across to my table looking for a gutted & furred rabbit or hare &, guess what...I hadn't made any!! Oh dear! Sooo, this year I was determined that I would have some to sell...what's the bet she's not there this time :-)). The following is a photographic record of ONE WHOLE WEEK of down from mallards & pheasants & fluff from rabbit skins flying all over me & my kitchen! ...I can't possibly do it in my workshop as the fluff would be all over my UFO's & that would be no good at all....far better that it gets into everything that we eat! :-))...I've been doing a whole lot of sneezing as well as feathering & furring!!

Feathered & Furred!



There's one thing that's for sure & that is that I won't be making any more of these for a good while!!

If I have to think about it...so do you!!

OK..If I'm being forced to realise that Christmas is on the way, again...& too quickly for my liking... I thought you should all be made aware that, once more ....IT'S on the way!!
Don't get me wrong, when it actually gets to Christmmas eve, I LOVE Christmas, I just can't stand the way we have it forced upon us earlier & earlier every year...for goodness sake, time goes quickly enough as it is! Bah Humbug...LOL
So..here is my 1st mini, a little bundle of sugared snowflake cookies, acknowledging the rapid onset of the seasonal nightmare of trying to get organised for that 1 day...all the presents to buy, cakes & puds ("real" ones!!) to make, turkey etc ordered...& all that before the arrival of the family necessitates more food shopping, more cleaning, more washing & worst of all..LESS time in the mini sweatshop!


I love Christmas......really!! LOL

I think this has put me off chocolate!

I have spent 3 WHOLE nights & 2 days rolling thousands of little balls to make these truffles ( well it seemed like thousands, maybe just the high hundreds!) I had a request to recreate a chocolate parcel that I had made a few years ago & like the nut that I am I thought, "well if I have to make one, I may as well make a couple & then I've got one to take to Kensington on 21st!" Then, as always, I'd mixed too much of each colour clay & I thought "NO! I'm not going to waste that".....so there I was, rolling these damned balls until I was nearly blind!...It was enough to put me off chocolate for a while! Happily though, I'm now back on it(the "real" thing, that is!)..I don't really think I could survive too long without it. Well,maybe for a day.....half a day...perhaps!! LOL





So then I had enough of those blasted little balls to fill a couple of jars too!