I’ve been wanting to write a post about this for awhile… I’ve been pretty busy – haven’t gotten the chance.
I’ve been attending art markets for a while now (since 2010) Hey, it’s about 6 years by now! Time really do fly lol
I often hear people liking my work, and criticizing just on everything. Don’t get me wrong – I criticize my own work everyday telling myself I’m just not good enough to improve everyday & everytime. I appreciate judgements and opinions – that’s what makes me better.
But hey, sometimes you’ve got to understand what I do for a living, and how things are get done.
So for a better understanding, I’m going to do a little introduction or a so called walkthrough on how I work on my miniatures. Making a miniature for me is still a pretty tough and tiring job for me. Nothing comes easy to be honest. Those miniature ice-creams you see, and uh those biscuits you see? They took me ages to make.
Well, people often say these:
Q: What, RM35 for a pair of earrings?! Why so expensive?!!
A: Hey, it took me about 6 years by now to improve my skills, and don’t forget I have to count in my material cost (Hey, I use Stainless Steel earrings, not your cheapo metal okay.. And let’s not forget sculpting the miniatures, shading it to give a realistic color, baking it for half an hour, glossing it, mounting it onto an earring post using resin, resin is not cheap… Everything adds up, you can’t just assume that I’m producing things using a machine, pop-pop-pop and everything out there. You can try making it if you would like to experience, I’ll be so glad to conduct a workshop for you! *Shameless promotion* But hey, it’s true! Many students of mine realizes the hard work and they ended up purchasing more miniatures from me :p
Q: Can’t you give me discount? So expensive…
A: Yes I do give out discounts sometimes (Only when you buy a lot…) I’m actually selling my miniatures in a fraction of price in Malaysia compared to my Etsy Shop.. They’re usually 2-3times more expensive compared to what I offer here in Malaysia. I do understand that Malaysians don’t really have much appreciation for handmade items, we are so used to China made factory products, and not to mention our economy is bad thanks to “you know who”… It’s just a little difficult to survive purely on handmade business. I get it, that’s why I’m selling my things much cheaper here. I understand it takes a long time to get Malaysians to accept the fact that we people who makes handmade stuffs invest a long time and we practice a skill to make them into what we sell. The point here is – It’s already at my cheapest rate I can offer, I need to pay my bills and I need to eat too. You don’t ask LV shops or PRADA sellers for discount don’t you? Why can’t you see that I’m putting effort into my things too? Just because they are in a bigger business I’m sure they can afford the discounts you ask for?? LOL Seriously – it kind of hurts me sometimes… Especially rich customers with their branded cars, bags and clothings asking for a discount, like literally begging… I think you’ll have to ask for discount from the richer businesses. I’m just a poor kid (laughs)
Q: Har, why so small? Make it bigger la… So small how to see…
A: (The younger me) Oh okay, I’ll take that into account! (Makes them slightly bigger)
Q: Har, why so big? Make it smaller la… So big not so nice to see…
A: (Still the younger me) Ahh, okay….
See, nothing will ever satisfy everyone LOL. So I carry bigger and smaller studs now, incase you don’t like to bigger ones, go for a smaller one 🙂 I’ve always wanted to standardize my miniature food sizes. For instance, keep it in a 1/6 or 1/12 scale.. But then I soon realise, I’m making miniature food jewelries, which priority is to make the minis look good on our ears / neck… So I just had to make some of them smaller / bigger just so they look appropriately “okay” (If you get what I mean…)
Q: These are handmade? Oh.. so you use mold to make them?
A: Everything I make are made from scratch, I don’t use any commercial molds out there.
I personally am not a fan of commercial molds. Sure they look “perfect” and uniform, but hey, what’s the point of calling it “handmade” if you’re not making it from scratch?! What’s the point in saying: I MADE THEM MYSELF.
I can’t, I just can’t lol. I do believe there are people who just trust what they want to trust again – they just accuse out of no where. But hey! If you want to watch me make my miniatures from scratch, again I’m having workshops upon request! I’ll show you everything from A to Z and you’ll be amazed! (Okay, maybe not amazed….lol)
Q: How long does it take you to make one of these things?
A: I don’t really know how to answer you.. Let me break it down to you..
So let’s say you’re saying how long it took me to make a pair of ice cream cone stud earrings?
That took me about 3-4 hours just to make a perfect looking cone which I’m satisfied…(That’s just a prototype)
Then took me another 2-3 hours experimenting the Ice Cream scoop that goes on the top of the cone (Yet just another prototype again)… Then Bake in the oven for half an hour to check if it’s okay and durable to wear (I have to go through this to check if it’s too fragile to wear, will it break or will it bend.. because some of the food miniatures they have thinner and fragile parts which I want to avoid) Once everything’s confirmed I’ll start producing the “mass production” which I’ll make them into molds which is easier for me to reproduce (YES I MAKE MY OWN MOLD) (I REPEAT< MY OWN MOLD, NOT BOUGHT COMMERCIALLY) That takes about 10ish minutes to replicate including texturing and shading the colour to make it realistic looking… Then baked in the oven for half an hour, wait for it to cool down then glossed… Wait for it to dry then make them into stud earrings which is attached to the earring post which requires about 24 hours for the glue to dry before I can package them….
And there you go ^
My production process all written just for you to read and understand. I feel tired already just typing em out.
Imagine me making them – I feel tired just by reading it again. ._. Again, I’m happy with what I’m making. I love what I do, and I love people understanding and appreciating what I do. LOVE YOU GUYS. It takes a lot….a lot… a lot of try and errors just to get things right.
For instance,
the durability part took me about a few years to figure out. I first started to make and sell my miniatures to my friends in college. My friend came back to me saying that my miniatures broke… Took me awhile to understand (in fact years) – OH i can’t make them to thin! They’ll break! (they’re just clay after all, they’re not diamonds) -OH I can’t bake them under the baking temperature, underbake them and they won’t turn durable… I’ve done a lot of experiments with temperature baking and many other more… Glossing (Took me 5 years to get the right gloss) Texturing (Took me 4 years to find the texturing style I’m satisfied with) Metal for Jewelry (Took me 5 years to understand I cannot use cheap metal for earrings…) And so many stories omg. I feel like I can’t finish everything in a post, I’ll end up with a book man.
Till then,
when I have some time on my hand, I’ll talk more about how I work on my miniatures..
Just a better understanding on how I get my minis done. Takes up a ton of time lol.
Hmm, back to work for now! I have a ton of new stuffs to make and lots of old stock to restock!