Donna Smolik / Slices: I looked up an email that Donna had sent me back in May, and she included her new website address. It's http://www.flash.net/~wolfes.

Tere Perry

Nuts: I have used pickling spices for nuts in a bowl with nut crackers and also on a gorgeous wreath for the front door in my Canadian dollhouse in 1987 and they are still just fine. I do believe that I baked them on a tray in the oven, but other than that, I just used them as they were, a really nice "assortment."

Debbe Bloom

Nuts on Cakes: Don't use orange peel for nuts, it will draw bugs no matter how carefully you spray it. We have found that chopping gum erasers (which come in varying shades of tan and brown) will make very realistic nuts. Using a couple of different colors works best. Hope this helps.

Kathie

Chopped Walnuts: This is courtesy of Nola of Nola’s Miniatures, B.C .Canada who shared it with me and gave permission to pass it on. http://www.memorybankinc.com/nola.htm

Chopped to go inside brownies or coating the sides of a cake or any neat way they can be used.

With ochre roll a snake 1/16" in diameter. I took nearly one bit of the bar, you know where it's divided into 8 bits. It made about 15 rolls because they are so thin but you need a lot unless you're doing only one item, and each roll was nearly the width of the tile. This was the hardest thing to do, as I went along the rolls got fatter and had to be rerolled. It doesn't matter about the same width right along the roll as long as you're in the ball park. You'd have to use a Sculpy gun to get them all exact. Bake on a tile for 5 to 10 minutes at 265 degrees. Cut while warm or they crumble when cold. I used two tiles, cut one and put the other in the still warm oven for two minutes before cutting.

At first I cut one at a time then I smartened up, looking at 14 more rolls. Put 3 or 4 side by side and cut on a diagonal. This makes a lighter centre. In the container they look light gold, and looked really good on the cut sides of my cakes.

I used the same method for making raisins (golden yellow/brown) and red, green and yellow chopped dri%d fruit for a Christmas cake. Mix them with the cake 'batter' before baking. This would be for a cake with a slice cut out to show the fruit. The bits would have to be quite cold.

Patrica Morrison

Nuts: I have made nuts out of using a beige art eraser. I slice and chop it very fine. It looks very real. Another way to go is to make a long, thin rope shaped in a tear drop. Bake. After cooling paint the rope with a dark brown and slice thinly at an angle, like you would if you were chopping Chinese vegetables. You will have almonds for decorating your cakes.

Barb

Decorating Cakes: Cut dowels for the cake body (or you could use cork if you want). Paint it a base coat color and let dry. Then pick up a jar of "Matte acrylic medium" or "texture medium". It's in the fine arts department of your craft stores, and different brands call it different things. It's a translucent paste that can be mixed with acrylic paint to thicken it. Tint with paint (and the squeeze bottle paints like Ceramcoat work fine) and "frost" the cake with it. Now tint some with your decoration color and load up a monoject glue gun (it's like a syringe) or a needleless syringe and squeeze on your borders, trim, etc. It takes about an hour to dry, and can be painted when dry. The texture medium without paint squeezed onto wax paper to dry makes super spaghetti! Just peel off when dry and paint on sauce.

Beverly Michie

Grapes:  You can make grapes by using mustard seeds.   Dip a wire into glue and then into the mustard seeds and then slightly form into a bunch of grapes.  Let dry.  Then, paint them with a purple paint and dry brush them with a blue for "realism". I did find some leaves that were pretty good in the dried flower area of Michaels that would work for grape leaves.   Don't forget a few "tendrils" too, wrap thin wire around a needle and paint brown. 

Jo A Cohrs

Veggies, grapes, etc.: Jeanetta Kendall, who does paper doilies in miniature, also does grape leaves, and has a kit for grapes with leaves for a vine or arbor.

For carrots, you can use for carrot tops is a tiny bit of orange Fimo with some of that stuff they use in bouquets...it's green and feathery - don't know the name.

For corn, look for wild oats at your local craft store that sells flower arranging stuff. Looks just like corn ears.

If you tear Fimo, it will look more like lettuce or cabbage, so you could make some cabbage heads.

Pepper grass has little reddish balls on it and looks a lot like tomatoes with a bit of paint here and there.

Karen Isaacson

Grapes: I saw some adorable grapevine with grapes on it at Joann's fabrics, in the craft section. By the small things that they sell for doing shadow boxes etc. They were flat and could be spruced up easily. The grapes could be made three D by using glass beads. They were only about $1.99 a pack. I am trying to remember.... they also had sunflowers and strawberry ones too?

Leslie

Grapes: SueAnn Thwaite (LadyBug) has the neatest, finest, and tiniest grapes made of glass beads. She blends colors of purples and blues to make them look very realistic, and they are WONDERFUL! You mix the beads with white glue and put them in clumps to dry. Then you attach green cotton floral wire for the stems and even spiral some for curlicues. I did these once with her at a roundtable at Sweet Briar's Back-to-College Weekend in
Virginia. SueAnn's website, where she sells the blended beads in packets: http://www.ladybug-fairies.com

Anita Myers

Grapes: Regarding the grapes, I have done them in a workshop with Lisa in Australia, and the way she showed us was to use Thyme from the garden, and if you notice, the stalks get very dry, and are nobbly, just like a vine, thus giving an authentic look, break off a piece, stick into glue and roll in the mustard seed. Then paint the purple / black look or green whatever suits you. They look wonderful laying across a platter of fruit. I think this method is much better than using unnatural products especially if you are looking for an authentic look.

Pauline

Eggplant:  Those working on veggies might start saving the ends off cherry tomatoes. Turn them over and insert into clay made eggplant, bake and paint. Very realistic

Gail

Sawdust: Cake makers use fine sawdust for toasted coconut or the sides of cheesecake.

Gail Spector

Victorian Food: A GREAT book for Victorian food and eating habits is: Mutton & Oysters - The Victorians and their food by Sarah Freeman. It was published in 1989 by Victor Gollancz Ltd. There are only a couple b&w illustrations in it, but it is a wealth of information and one of the most entertaining non-fiction books you could ever curl up with!  You finish the book wondering how the human race ever survived.

Beverly Michie

Coloring / Tinting Jell-o:  Resin dye works well and stays transparent, you just need to be really careful adding it.  I usually put some in a container and use a toothpick to add.  The candle gel will sort of "boil" when you add it so be careful.  We have stopped using the gel candles for the Jell-o that we sell because eventually it will shrink and get sticky.   Spraying the finished Jell-o with a fine spray of sealer will prolong the life.   Keeping it in a dark cool place will also help.  We are now using a modified rubber for our Jell-o, which looks the same but does not deteriorate (at least the ones I made last year are still perfect!).

Kathie

Canned Goods: I use cut up dowels for making canned goods. I just glue on the label and use silver paint on the top and bottom and draw a circle with gray to make the lip of the can. Here is a URL for antique labels: http://www.sover.net/~oldlabel/unframed.html It has really beautiful labels of all sorts.

Parisa Javidi

Gingerbread "frosting" Besides joint compound, another easy-to-work modeling clay would be Sculpey brand. (The regular type.) You can get it in 8 lb bricks in white, and it's very soft and smooth. Too soft for most miniaturists' taste, but would make great icing.

JJ

Gingerbread houses: I have done those mini scenes inside the clear balls for Christmas ornaments and they suggested using bathroom caulk. I believe DAP was the brand they recommended since it dries snowy white.

Cindy Smith

Goodies: Yesterday I was trying some different methods to make goodies. I discovered that lentils are the perfect size for cookies. I put brown dots on them for choc chips and you can even ice them. I also have some beans that look like lentils only they are kind of a peach color (I don't know what they are called) and they look like some real cookies I make called orange white choc chip. I made the white dots for chips with my 3D fabric paint and found out that you can do all kinds of things with the 3D Fabric Paints. They have a tiny tip so it comes out small and if you swirl it a little you come up with great divinity (my mother always made divinity at Christmas time in different colors). I do them on a ceramic tile and when they dry you can scrape them off. Or you could put them on a little piece of waxed paper for use in a kitchen scene of baking cookies.

Rebecca in Vegas

Frosting! Gosh, this depends on what type of frosting you need to replicate. Glass stain white (or with a touch of any color for pastels) is great for a glaze icing. Caulking, 3-dimension paint or puff paint are good for frosting cakes. Used with an EMBOSSART TOOL, which is like a syringe, more detail can be attained. Also, Sculpey, kneaded to a very soft consistency, can be used,"fluffing" up with the tip of an X-acto knife.

Mary Eccher