Honey: The best replica of honey or syrup is Gallery Glass in Amber, and if that isn't available try mucilage glue by LePages- should be in any 5 & 10 (do they still have them?) or your supermarket school supplies. I've used mucilage in a bottle with a piece of white or yellow netting to look like honey comb but I don't know what you are using it for.

Gail Spector

Making honey: I recently made a small garden pond using E-Z Water (purchased from the local model railroad hobby shop). I was careful not to overheat it, as the instructions said it would turn brown. Yet, when poured into my pond, it looks somewhat yellow. It is clear enough that the tiny goldfish in the pond are easily seen, but I was disappointed with the yellowish tint. I think that this material, if heated a little more than necessary, might make very realistic-looking honey. It can be ordered from Micro Mark if you can't find it locally.

Mary

Honey: To make very realistic honey, I prepare a little bit of resin and color it with AMBER glass paint. Immediately I pour it where it has to go. If you put less paint it becomes lighter. I use it as syrup which I pour over ice cream, crepes or upside down pineapple or peach cakes.

Mirta Fitzgerald

Liquor in an Old Time Tavern: What kind of liquor would be in a tavern in the 1830's? I assume you mean an American tavern. Besides whiskey and home brewed ale (beer where there was a substantial German, Eastern European population), a well stocked tavern would have had:

hard cider
rum
wine
gin (generally consumed by the "lower classes only")
brandy
sack (a heavy white sherry)

A popular mixed drink throughout the 18th and early 19th century was flip, made from ale, molasses and rum, heated with the tip of a red-hot poker. Another predecessor to the modern "cocktail" was rum fustian: beer, sherry, gin, egg yolk, sugar and nutmeg, again heated with a red-hot poker - no rum, despite the name.

Maryann

Liquor bottles, beer cans: Using mini Christmas tree replacement light bulbs with labels added to them they make convincing wine or liquor bottles. You might have to file the base down a bit to allow them to stand upright, just use an emery board. As for beer cans, a dowel cut to size with beer labels and the ends painted aluminum is all you need. The labels may be obtained from your newspaper ads or circulars.

Marilyn

Mini Foods: I know that Michele Kelly has been wonderful to me and she makes food. You can email her at mminis@hotmail.com very realistic and a wonderful person to do business with! :)

Jennifer

Corn on the cob: Was with hubby at one of his favorite stores, Bass Pro Shop, this week end and found some Squirman Grub bait (Tournament YUM series, Y1SG50-02 1" yellow 50pk). If you detach the tail you have a nice corn on the cob (they also come in a longer size but I didn't figure that out till we were gone). A year ago they had something that looked like a boa in the fly tying area.

Linda Bogue

Fimo foods: There are a number of books out for making food from polymer clay, but I think the key is to work with the real thing in front of you. That's the advice in the video for making food from polymer clay (I don't know the name of it, but I've seen it for sale at miniature shows).

I started out making green peppers, and I think the smell of the pepper helped me get the color right. I formed the clay around Styrofoam so they would be hollow and could be cut. I know, I know. There are a lot of people who are concerned about toxins from the heated Styrofoam. But I'm still here and have no major healthproblems. The amount used in a pepper is exceedingly small.

The other thing I've found is that if I take the amount of clay that I think is the right amount for my carrot, or grape or whatever, I probably can make two or more from that amount. Of course, fruits and vegetables come in a variety of sizes, so whatever you wind up with is OK.

Pick a food you want to make. Start with the real thing in front of you (I bought 3 grapes one time to use as models - didn't want to buy any more at $1.69 a pound) or a really good photo if it's something big and expensive like a ham. Have fun.

Marsha Heeter

Clay Food Tips: Go to the MSATClaylist@egroups.com. Join this list and there are photo albums with food and a food swap is being signed up for now. There are also people who can answer your questions in detail.

Lenora

Clay Food Tips: Go to Lisa Volrath's web site http://miniatures.about.com and she has a poly clay section with food on it.

Elizabeth

Angie Scarr Videos: I have the Angie Scarr videos, and some of her work. I have watched her demos at fairs...she is fantastic. Plus she visited a club I go to for a workshop day ( I couldn't go) and everyone went home with peeled oranges, fruit, vegetables and the enthusiasm to go on and make more things. Angie is in a UK magazine each month with a 'Challenge Angie' page...you should see her lobsters! So if anyone can think of something in the food line that hasn't been done, or you can't do...I think she could.

Hazel

Food Instructions: Please go to my clubs web site - Miniaturist Enthusiasts of Kingston - and see the great food instructions and pictures under workshops: pies, cakes, bread, cookies. There are past workshop instructions also. We are having a draw for a bakery that we made - I am quite impressed. The pictures are under Show then Raffle. http://post.queensu.ca/~readel/MEKA/MEKABase.html

Marlene

Bakers Clay - This is a recipe from the Morton Salt Co. back in the '70's. At that time it was "crafty" to make a large lattice bowl for rolls at the dinner table. You mix 2 cups of regular flour with 1 cup table salt and 1 cup warm water. Knead well and store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. If it gets sticky while working with it, add a little flour as you work on a ceramic tile. I make all my miniature bread, rolls, bagels, etc. with this. Bake in a toaster oven at 300 degrees until you get the desired brown color. It makes a very realistic sour dough loaf (cutting the slits in the top before baking). Bake bagels for different lengths of time for different colors. Naturally, the longer it is baked, the darker it gets. Can't give a specific time, you just watch it. Anywhere from 10 minutes to a half hour. Since it doesn't have all the properties of "bread clay" and no other additives, it keeps well. I have pieces over 20 years old and have never had bugs or any other problems. After the items are baked, I brush the top with cheap clear nail polish for a finished look. It does look like real bread.

Ruth Mazur, Grass Valley, CA

Wine Glasses: I have some glass wine glasses on my website which I think are nicely done and "reasonable." Of course, the definition of reasonable is subjective. They're at http://www.spminiatures.com/glasscrdecan.htm

Carol

Spice Jars: You could use tiny bugle beads or find some small cocktail straws that you could cut down. I don't think they make "clear" straws, they are usually colored. But you could repaint them with white glossy paint so they appear to be ceramic. I just don't know how you could make them look half-full because even the bugle beads are too thick, and that "thickness" would show up more if you filled the beads with something. Maybe your best bet would be to roll a piece of thin clear plastic into a tube. I guess you'd need to glue it closed with glue that is made specially for plastic. That at least would be clear enough to see through, and thin enough to be in scale. Pin-heads, of course, could be used for "stoppers."

Viola Williams

Spice Jars: Melinda was asking how she could make spice jars. I've been chewing over this very problem myself. The best method I could think of was to use a clear plastic tube. Over here we can buy it by the meter in plastic ware stores in several diameters. Chop it into pieces of the required size. Seal off the bottom with a splodge of clear glue. Fill with colored powders to represent spices and top with a clear or colored bead.

Elli in NZ

Potato Chip Packaging: Look in magazine ads and coupon sections for small pictures of chip logos. Cut a small bag out of a larger plastic bag, glue the logo to one side, fill with green pepper seed "chips" and glue top shut. Or, some mechanical pencils have refill erasers and leads that come in tiny plastic cylinders that could be cut shorter. Use a Pringles logo from an ad and fill the cylinder with "chips."

Loretta Sniarowski

Liquid for mini coffee: The "liquid" can be tinted resin, clear candle wax (tinted), the meltable water which, again, is tinted, or Gallery Glass.

Tom Berkner

Little Teapots: They can be found in the Oriental Trading Co. catalog.  www.oriental.com. Two styles: flowers $9.00 per dozen and Vegetables $6.00 per dozen.

Mary Kay

Mini Casserole Dishes: I found 16 brown mini casserole dish-shapes in a box of Belgium chocolate sea shells today. The chocolate seashells are by Aimee pralinerie and I think that I bought them at Walmart before Christmas. You know the hard plastic that the shells sit in --that are the exact mold of the chocolate. Well when you turn over the container, on the bottom jutting out are tiny shapes of casserole dishes that you can cut out! They are just the right size and shapes as those ceramic dishes you cook in with the fluted edges.

Marlene