KFC Bucket: Anyway when I was there I saw a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can't remember who was looking for it but Laura Dubois had it. Her web site is http://www.Minis2.com I checked out the site and it seems like she is trying to get it up and running, but her phone number is on there so if you are still looking for the bucket (It had chicken pieces in it too) give her a call!

Kate in CT

KFC Takeout: How about using one of the white creamers from a restaurant, adding red stripes with paint, and adding a label cut from an ad for KFC? For the box, search for a similar shaped box on one of the printies sites and add words cut from an ad.

Martha Simpson

Writing on cakes: I used a product called Scribbles 3-Dimensional Fabric Writer. It has a nice tiny opening & the bottles are small & easy to work with. Make sure the "frosting" has dried completely before you decorate. It comes in lots of colors.

Pam In St. Louis

German Groceries: The German word for "cookie" is a little tricky. I lived in Austria for almost a year, and it seems you don't see the word "cookie" often, but usually the recipe name, like "Lebkuchen" or "Pfeffernusse". The two words I have seen used are "Platzchen" (with the umlaut--or two dots--over the "a") and "keks". I found "Platzchen" in my German cookbook and think that it is probably the "high German" word, so don't know how many regions use it. Could be kind of like trying to use the English word "biscuit" to refer to American cookies. I would use "keks". I remember when I was learning German that "keks" sounds like "cakes" but means "cookies", while "kuchen" sounds like "cookies" but means "cakes"! Sauerkraut IS the German word for sauerkraut! Means sour cabbage. Pickles are Gurken. Check http://www.germandeli.com for more.

Lynette in WNC

Food packages: We have quite a large selection of authentically labelled food packages at reasonable prices. We are based in the UK but will deliver internationally.
Visit our website at http://www.wood-street-miniatures.co.uk

Maddie

Writing on cakes: I used a product called Scribbles 3-Dimensional Fabric Writer. It has a nice tiny opening & the bottles are small & easy to work with. Make sure the "frosting" has dried completely before you decorate. It comes in lots of colors.

Pam In St. Louis

Semolina: In the USA, "semolina" refers to a flour used primarily for making pasta. I think it is made from durum wheat. You can find it in Italian groceries, in gourmet shops, and sometimes in the imported fancy food section of big groceries such as Meijer's.

Terri in Ohio

Semolina: I saw that someone was having trouble finding semolina. I hope that this helps. One source is King Arthur Flour, Box 1010, Norwich, VT 05055, (802) 649-3881 I believe they have a catalog for mail order service. I used to buy my semolina when visiting my in-laws in South Philadelphia. The shop I went to has the big, old barrels filled with it--and of course, the meats and cheeses hanging from the ceiling. But, my local supermarket now carries it along with some other staples used in Italian cooking--I live in PA Dutch land so these items were foreign until recently. If you have a gourmet cook shop nearby they should have it or be able to order for you. BTW--if you ever get the chance to have homemade pasta (not from a box) it is out of this world.

Kathy B. in PA

Helen's fruit baskets: In one of my favorite classes I learned to take any trashy bits of Fimo, left over from any old color, and mix them together. That gives (usually) a nice dark shadowy nothing-color. Then make tiny balls of that stuff and fill your baskets. Only the fruits and veggies on top need to be realistically modeled and colored since nobody will see the others anyway. You can make lots of baskets this way, and you won't die of boredom (or old age) before they're done.

Rebecca

The differences in roast turkey and goose: Having baked and eaten both, this is a description: a baked goose is flatter and much more angular than a turkey. (The turkey has a high chubby breast, and the goose's is flatter - same problem a lot of us ladies have.) The whole goose, looking down on it, will be shaped more like a rectangle, with the legs being much smaller, closer to the rump, and sticking out straighter, parallel with the table while the turkey's legs stick up at an angle. Hope this vague description helps a little. The goose looks more like a roast duck. (if you've ever seen a roast duck!)

Paulette in IN

Tomatoes: I cannot stress clearly enough the one BIG thing I have really learnt from all this is have an original to look at - it makes a huge difference. Also it has the odd effect of making me feel very secure, especially as regards size. Certainly in my case, once I've made something in Fimo if I feel the need to check the size I can guarantee that size will be wrong.

Tomatoes vary greatly in their colour, so I did a red / orange mix with three different proportions of both.

For the calyxes (the green spider thingies) I ran some leaf green Fimo through the pasta machine till it came out thin as paper and then cut off bits no bigger than whiskers. These I put in a star formation and then added to the tomato. Tragically, for sizing I was using cherry tomatoes, so it was really HARD work - tomorrow I'll try and get some regular sized ones. I baked them for 10 mins at 130 degrees C.

Helen from York, England

Mushrooms
For the bodies I followed Angie Scarr's recipe of 50% white/50% translucent with a dab of ochre. First I rolled very fine long sausages of this mixture for the stems which I baked alongside the mushrooms.

For the bodies of button mushrooms make a teeny ball of mushroom mix and poke a bit of stem into it - this makes the body bulge convincingly round the stem.

For what we English call 'field' mushrooms, where one can see the gills. ....After much brooding, I mixed 65% rose du bois Fimo (a deep duty pink) with 5% dark brown and 30% black. This mix matched the sample from the fridge. Hurrah!

I layered mushroom body mix and mushroom gill mix once, ran it through the pasta machine, then cut little discs with a Klemper cutter, poked a stem in the gill side and formed the cap around the stem.

Using the finest toothpick I scraped lines in the gills. I baked the mushrooms for 10 minutes at 130 degrees C.

Helen from York, England

Potato Chips: One of my "Hint a Minute" tips on my video "Tips and Techniques for the Miniaturist" is potato chips. Take clean seeds from a bell pepper and spread them out on a paper plate. Let them dry for about a week and they will turn beige and curl a little, voila. . . potato chips. For smaller scales, use salad peppers (pepperoncini) or any smaller pepper.

Ruth, Grass Valley, CA

Potato Chips: I was cooking dinner the other night, and happened to use a pinch of dried red pepper flakes...also noticed that the white pepper flakes are intact, and looked just like potato chips! So, if you happen to have a jar in your spice cabinet, take a close look at it. (Rather than go to the trouble of drying pepper seeds, or even buying seeds at the nursery...next time you are in your local market look at the jars of spices...plus, you will have some left over to actually use in your food.)

Kaye in L.A.

French Fries: For French fries take a piece of thin cow hide leather 1/32 to 1/16 " thick and cut 1/2" & 1/4" wide. Then cut very thin 1/32" to1/16"strips (so they are square). After the strips are cut they curl a little and look just like French fries with the texture to go with them.

Brooke

French Fries: My granddaughter loaned me an adorable little book called "Tiny Treasures" - it's an American Girl book. Has some really cute & very simple projects in it. Simple because it is written for young girls to make. But I have made several things & they are all cute as can be. I have not made the French fries but this is how the book says to do it: cut square sided toothpicks into pieces. Aim fries into a towel or shoe box to keep them from flying. Cut a tiny square from a napkin & lay the French fries on it. For ketchup, pour a drop of Elmer's glue onto wax paper. Let dry. Paint the glue red. Let dry & peel off lay beside the fries. Can't get much easier. And it looks really good in the picture.

Carbomax

Easy to make Coke sign: I was drinking a can of diet coke yesterday and realized that there are two mini signs on the can. Look on the side and there are two "Enjoy Diet Coke" slogans, with the little picture of a coke glass. I haven't tried it but it should be pretty easy to snip those out in squares. Flatten them out a little and you have an instant sign for your soda shoppe or ice cream parlor!

Lynn in Gainesville

Chrysnbon plates: I've seen clear Chrysnbon plates done with lovely acrylic painted flowers and you really didn't need to know how to paint flowers! The suggestion of flowers using dots to represent the petals and leaves were all that it took. They really were charming.

Marilyn, MI

To whomever mentioned Rub & Buff as a way to make metallic minis---THANK YOU!! I have been looking for a way to make "silver" dishes, and though I have a great chrome spray paint from Krylon, it reacts badly with the plasticizer in polymer clay. But Rub & buff works wonderfully, is cheap, and works on just about any kind of surface. I was so excited I went a little nuts and colored MANY things silver, from wires to carved wood to random plastic pieces.

This was a good mini day. I went to Michaels and got the Rub & buff mentioned above, plus LOTS of 28 gauge wire for making mini flower stems and wire whisks, etc. I made 2 kinds of whisks and a potato masher... I'll post pictures soon. AND I found iron on transfers on clearance at the computer store... so I am going to try a mini quilt.

Celeste in Boston

Jello: You can also make Jiggly jellos from Scenic Water and color them with dyes that you order extra. It's a lot safer than working with an open flame like with gel candles; you heat it in hot water. And because you use as much as you need you cut costs of buying several candles if you want only a couple jellos. The rest of the Scenic Water can be used on other projects as needed.

Deanna