New listings!

I've put a couple more things on etsy. Really I should update the blog with more than my self promotion, but real life has been a bit busy this month!

Fruit Danish Pastries

Danish Pastries 

Raw Beef

Beef Dinner Preparation Board

Tuna Sandwiches

Mixed Sandwiches

Roast beef and potatoes

It took me longer than I thought  to make the potatoes to go with the beef, but here is the finished item.  I've ordered some china plates and metal platters to make the miniatures more appealing and true to life - who uses a paper plate except at a party! 

Meat - an adventure into the unknown

I don't eat much meat. I used to be a vegetarian, but as time moved on I've slowly added meat and fish into my diet but still don't eat a lot of it as I prefer to make vegetable based meals . 

My miniatures reflect my likes - I make a lot of cakes (I like cake!) and not many meat products. I had a week off my job that pays the bills so I decided to use the time to make meat products as I knew it would take me a while to get the colours, texture and technique to a level I was happy with. 

I have some clay and the internet to help me. I decided to start with something 'easy' like bacon slices. The first attempt weren't quite right - not enough translucency, too pink, the bacon slices ended up out of shape and the feeble attempts to get them back into shape failed. I slapped some red acrylic paint on them after they had baked and they did look a tiny bit better but they still ended up in the bin. 

Then I decided to do what I should have done in the first place which was mix up several shades of pink and red and cook them as a test bake to see how the colours came out. Once I knew how the clay baked and with the help of google images I started making things.

Just to remind you these are scale minaitures and non edible. The black boards are 1 inch by 1 1/2 inch to give you an idea of scale.

Black pudding

Salami

Cooked beef joint

Cooked ham 

Cooked leg of lamb

Chops

Sausage and bacon

Steaks

Etsy - again and other stuff

It's been two weeks since the changes to the categories on etsy. By my own admission I'm terrible at the behind the scenes stuff that needs doing to get seen on the internet. On etsy (and google and others) this involves tags and SEO (search engine optimisation) and a whole load of other things. 

I took a couple of days off making to read all the info etsy had about titles, tags, SEO etc and tried to apply it to my listings. I have no idea if it's worked or not as I don't keep a keen eye on my stats but they don't seem to have jumped up or down since I made the changes. 

It's not enough to list an item - you have to use the internet to promote and network too.

The main points I gleaned are:

* use all the characters in a title and make the title use as many tags/keywords as possible.

I don't always do this. I probably won't use all the characters in a title

* in the tags section of a listing use two or three word phrases and repeat the words in the title.

This is what my most recent changes have done. Repeat everything in the title then throw in some extra

* think like a customer - search like a customer

For instance take miniature food in polymer clay in one inch  scale for dollhouses.

I make miniature food - but search miniature food and a lot of food jewellery come up. I'm in the UK so I say dolls house others say dollhouse. I say 1/12 scale others say one inch scale. I've tried to use as many variations as I can think of in my listings. 

* take clear photographs

I don't know what happens when I take pictures of  minis but a lot of them come out with a dark background. I take them on a clear sunny day etc etc but they are a little dark. That's my next thing to look at when I have some time. 

There is much much more info to read and it doesn't help that dolls house collectables are still stuck in the toy section. I'm hopeful this will change. 

I bought a new house ..

In Wilkos they have this which hangs on the wall.

available from wilko.com

It measures 42cm across and 46cm high and 13cm deep. And I love it! 

I do have a dolls house but I have to admit I don't often open it and look inside. I do have several deep wooden boxes which are on the wall with various bits of food in them so it looks like they are being seen as above. I like these because I see them every day - I pass them on the stairs and in the hallway. I also have a room box which is filled with cakes and pastries which lives on my book shelf and again because it has a perspex front I look into it every day. I do have an idea of putting a perspex front onto the dolls house but I haven't yet. 

So back to the grey house as it will be known. It is a display unit but I have the idea of putting miniatures into it. It won't be a true scale house as such due to the size but I thought I could do something with it.

I put a wooden unit in one of the compartments and it looks a bit big! But I think it would work for other things like a bookcase, or a low coffee table, a wall hanging to disguise the mesh. 

I will probably fill it with food. Although I did have an idea of making something different as there is a lot of food on display elsewhere !!