I’ve moved this blog to a new blog called One Dessert, Please

I missed blogging, but I don’t have the time to blog about craft and sweets deco because I don’t have any time to do them.

But I didn’t want to do any beauty or life blogging here at Hikaria because it’s been established as a sweets deco blog.

So i’ve decided to start a new one and move this content over there, and start anew .

See you there!

So I have to admit that i’ve been actually trying to ever so slowly not update this site and hope it kind of dies quietly but recently i’ve still been getting questions and comments. I just got one from an old time reader who asked if I was OK, so that’s when I decided that I need to address this!

Uni is… hectic to say the least. It’s 9 to 5 with a ton of placements and not a lot of time for anything else. I originally gave up the blog hoping that i’ll be itching to get back into crafting as long as I had taken a long enough break, but unfortunately that did not happen at all. If anything, my decision to take a break has made me realise that making sweets deco became work for me, and I simply don’t have time to do any more work .

So… i’m sorry to say, I will no longer be updating this blog nor adding anything to it for a very, very long time. I don’t want to say ‘never’ because I might come back, but unfortunately for now I simply don’t want to blog. The domain for ‘hikaria.com’ expires in May but you can still access this site at ‘hikaria.wordpress.com’. I won’t be deleting this site because it means too much to me .

So I guess please treat this as a very, very long indefinite hiatus. I’m so sorry if you have been waiting for updates and never got one, but I really do appreciate the support this site has gotten over the past year. I was constantly surprised by my page views and the comments I got for things. It really became bigger than I had imagined it would when I started it.

Fan-made Super Rollcake Man!

This Super Rollcake Man is a fanmade one that I got in my email ages ago… I know i’ve made it when someone across the world actually sewed a plush version of my site mascot!

Thank you so much everyone, and I hope to see you all again sometime .

Can you tell that I LOVE the colour blue?

Long time no see everyone XD.

I know lots of you said that you really wouldn’t mind if I started blogging about random life stuff. The thing is I wouldn’t mind either; in fact I really want to. I recently got one of these new-fangled techy Android run smart phones from my boyfriend and I wanted to blog from it and use it to its full potential! But no matter how I looked at it, this blog just didn’t seem like the right place for it. Hikaria.com is for serious stuff, like tutorials and important stuff about my crafting life (which is unfortunately non-existent right now). Plus the thought of taking photos, uploading them to computer, cropping them in Photoshop and then uploading them to web is enough to make me procrastinate until the cows have come home ten million times.

So I decided to try tweeting random stuff more, but apparently I have so much to say that 120 characters is simply not enough to convey my thoughts XD. Plus I love pictures, and I am not big of reading other people’s tweets, and that’s just not fair if I want people to read and respond to my tweets and I don’t do the same for them.

So I got a tumblr! I can blog from my phone so I can blog during extra boring lectures at uni the day without an infuriating character limit! Plus it is just the right platform for my random life snapshot-style posts because I think it’s a casual enough little blog, and much easier to upload pictures from.

T-rex is proud of his body and has no qualms with me taking photos of him during bath time.

On a random note, it’s been about a year since David bought me a Kokubo bath mitten (left) and puff (right) off Sasa. I am unable to live without the bath mitten now, so in an attempt to brighten your showers and bath times as well I strongly recommend buying a Kokubo bath mitten seal to cute-fy your showers with his soft, soft belly. Unfortunately he looks pretty darn upset about showering me. His face looks all like ‘whyyy?’

Anyway see you guys on tumblr! If you guys have one or if you guys know of any good ones relating to gyaru, lolita, cute stuff, nail art, tutorials, and Japanese beauty and fashion in general please leave a link, i’m having issues finding people to follow! Thanks everyone .

My city Brisbane is currently under flood warning and the water is getting closer and closer. Technically the suburb I live in is extremely unlikely to flood because it’s very high up, but you just never know these days and we’re trying to get prepared for the worst. One of our outer towns called Toowoomba was actually hit the worst by what was described as an ‘inland tsunami’ even though it is actually a very high up town, and everyone thought it was extremely unlikely that it would flood. Therefore I don’t know when I will be back, since I anticipate there will be power outages, internet outages and what not.

If you haven’t seen the news please take a look, it’s quite a devastating flood to say the least and the rain is not really easing. I was evacuated from my University today since it is near the river and told that it will be closed for the next two. The river is overflowing, and when I saw it this morning our ferry docks were completely submerged.

Another thing I wanted to talk to you guys about is my blog. As it turns out, I was wrong about my timetable easing up. In fact it did the complete opposite and I am now at uni from 9 to 5 everyday. This isn’t actually the biggest issue though, the biggest issue is I am starting to find deco to be a chore! I never thought the day would come when my favourite hobby would turn into a big chore of mine but since free time is so scarce for me right now, i’m finding that i’d rather play video games or watch tv and basically do nothing because i’ve done so much in the day.  I know this is a phase, I often go back to yearning for craft, but right now I have no desire to do so. So i’m left with school work, gym and video games and i’ve literally got very little to blog, and that’s the reason why I don’t blog, it’s because I really don’t know what to blog about. I know lots of people blog about daily outfits, makeup, stuff like that, but i’m uncomfortable with doing that because I have a set identity for this blog, and that identity is that this is a deco and craft blog.

So, i’ve decided that i’ll try to take easy baby steps into blogging again. The first thing I am doing is shutting down my Facebook. Often I find myself thinking of blogging but then feeling guilty that i’m neglecting my Facebook, so i’ve decided that if I shut one down i’ll feel less guilty.

The second thing I am doing is a huge sale on my Etsy stuff, everything is 70% off with the code ‘70percent‘,. I’m doing this because I need to clear space in my room and also I hope that i’ll be able to make fresh and new stuff eventually, but i’m running out of space for it.

Thirdly, I make no guarantees that I will blog for a while… I don’t have a lot of free time anymore, and I am not willing to eat into my study and uni time to blog because my priorities lie with my studies. I will never give any less than 100% unless I am sick or unwell to my studies so that I never regret anything. On top of that philosophy I will never neglect my need to relax and and take time off, and unfortunately blogging is not taking time off nor relaxing for me, so unfortunately it is really going to take a backseat for now. I will not take down this blog though, I love it and i’ve put a ton of work into it, but for now I don’t know when I will be coming back.

Dear Natania: i’m terribly, terribly sorry about the lack of tutorial about chocolate frosting. If you use polymer clay, here is a really good tutorial on making a whole cake complete with icing. I have to admit I have not actually found a way to do good frosting effects with air dry, so when I need to make a frosted cake I always use polymer clay… i’m so sorry about this .

Group shot!

Hey everyone, long time no see! How has everyone been? I just wanted to say thank you for all the encouraging messages, i’m so sorry I didn’t get the time to reply to all of them before I started my course.  I replied to all my comments yesterday and I am largely back on the blogging track now! Unfortunately due to my tendency to turn into a big, lazy sloth after uni courses I haven’t been doing anything remotely crafty, instead what little motivation I have to do anything have all been spent on the gym so I can become an even better super tennis player. So, for a while this blog may be taken up more by posts of life, fashion and beauty than craft if no one minds. 

Riechan had requested ages ago that I do a post about all my tools, so finally here it is! These are all the tools that i’ve accumulated over my crafty journey, some very useful some not so useful. If you’re just starting out please don’t look at this list and go out and buy everything! You absolutely do not need all this stuff to start making clay sweets. I’ll put an asterisk next to tools that I think are essential.

Glazes, varnishes, coats, sealers, all the same thing!

1. Left to right: Padico matte sealer, Plaid folkart outdoor matte sealant, gloss sealant, Studio by Sculpey gloss glaze

Sealers are absolutely essential if you work with air dry clay because air dry clay is not waterproof. A sealer will make the item more water resistant, more durable and it also makes the item look more finished and professional. These four sealers are the ones i’ve used and had good results with. When shopping for varnishes, try to go for ‘outdoor’ ones that have words like ‘durable’ in them, and the word ‘sealer’ is pretty good too. Unfortunately some glazes dry tacky and will attract dust which is a big issue, it’s kind of luck which ones will and won’t so always buy a small bottle instead of a big one in case it doesn’t work out. Liquitex acrylic varnish will dry tacky, so steer clear.

Stuff that fits in a pencil case

2. From left to right:

• Clay press with ruler – this was not as useful as I had anticipated. I only really use it to press stuff, but any clear stiff piece of plastic would do. The ruler doesn’t make a difference.
• Mini cutting mat with 0.5 cm grid – really useful! Good for measuring cakes and stuff.
• White tile – a good work surface, non-stick most of the time. You could use pretty much anything though with some baby oil for non stick.
• Clay roller* – you can’t really see it in the photo, it’s white and blends in with the tile, but this is definitely an essential item. It’s just a plastic cylindrical tube for rolling clay.
• Water pen – nifty little convenient tool, you fill it up with water and it has a brush tip that water goes into. I use it to paint for easy clean up, can use it for fixing little mistakes, not essential but fun to have.
• Blades – i’ve got about three different types of knives in this picture, and I say if you’ve got a standard Stanley knife then you don’t need this type of blade. Each is good for different things.
• The three green tools – generic clay tools that you can get from any craft store, pretty useful but not essential. The most useful one is probably the third knife one, but you can use an old credit card as a substitute.
• X-acto knife – good for chopping little things, but could do with a Stanley knife.
• Stanley knife* – essential, you need it to cut things. Make sure to keep it super sharp and have lots of replacement blades handy, cutting with a blunt blade will smear your items and ruin them.
• Paintbrush – for painting strawberries and browning. I just buy a small cheap one.
• Thing with things sticking out the end – don’t bother getting one, a toothbrush is much more useful.
• Tweezers* – essential for precise placement of little topping items, and for moving the item when it has ‘sauce’ or ‘cream’ on it.
• Toothbrush* – essential for making cake and bread texture.

Acrylic paints - cheap ones will do

I use acrylic paints for colouring my items. You can just buy small cheap sets of tubes because you wouldn’t be using many of the colours much. The only ones that I do use a lot of are burnt sienna, yellow ochre and brilliant red (left to right paint tubes). Yellow ochre is most important because it’s the one that gives the yellow brown colour of pastry.

Sponges are useful for dabbing white paint on items to look like icing sugar, and also for browning items. If you don’t wish to use pastels to brown, you can dab diluted brown paint to create a baked brown finish.

Adhesives for sauces and for sticking stuff together

From left to right:

• 2-part epoxy (first 3 items)* – aside from being really damn good at sticking stuff to stuff (like items to earring backs), when mixed with a bit of acrylic paint it makes really realistic looking ‘sauces’. 2-part epoxy comes in two parts, and you mix them together to harden the glue. Really inconvenient to use though and stinks.
• Super glue – kind of useful for when you don’t want to break out the epoxy.
• Super X – this is a Japanese glue that is advertised as ‘one part epoxy’, so in other words it’s like 2-part epoxy without the mixing part. Sweet! Japanese deco books use this for sauces, but unfortunately mine is way too thick to do that (I think it’s because I am using Super XG, I think there is a difference) and it’s also hard to find.
• Modena paste – not strictly a glue, this is resin clay in paste form. It’s really useful for sauces and sticking clays together before the clay has dried. Makes very realistic frosting.

Cookie cutters and moulds

Moulds are essential for saving time. I use Oyumaru for my moulds, but you can use silicon or whatever other types of moulding material may be available to you.

Cookie cutters are useful and nifty and i’d mark it in the essential column for people who plan on doing a lot of sweets deco as opposed to making individual miniature jewellery pieces, it’ll really cut down on time for cookie parts.

Miscellaneous useful stuff

Misc stuff that are useful:

• Plastic zip lock bags for storing clay and other items.
• Toothpicks* – for mixing paints and glue, poking holes, generally useful to have around!
• Oil* – any type will do, put a thin layer on your work surface to stop clay sticking to it.

Piping items

For piping cream you might have your own preferences over what you use, for example a icing syringe, an actual piping bag, etc. For me I use disposable bags with a coupler (the big thing on the right in the picture). The coupler lets me change tips without changing the bag, so I can just take the tip off and store the ‘cream’ away in a bag for future use, it rarely dries up if you seal the bag tight.

I have a ton of piping tips but the only two I ever really use are my open star tips with 8 ‘spikes’. Six ‘spikes’ would be sufficient if you can’t find an 8-spiked open star tip. The small one is for little items and the big one is for sweets deco. Also modelling paste should be in the picture but I forgot when I took the photo, look here for more details

Storage boxes

Lastly, storage boxes! Stay organised, you don’t want everything all over the place .

Don’t worry I will definitely be back, maybe never as active as I was before but i’m sure when i’ve eased into the normal course i’ll have more spare time. They did advertise this as an ‘intensive anatomy course’ and they weren’t lying.

I will still be around Twitter and Facebook and Etsy will be running as normal.

I’m very sorry but I will be back very soon before your know it. Thank you for your support .

Strawberry millefeuille!

Hey everyone, firstly i’ve got a coupon code for all of you. Use merryxmas to get 40% off everything at my Etsy store and for international customers make sure to order soon to make it in time for Christmas. It can take up to 3 weeks to the US when it gets to Christmas season so order soon .

I start my new uni course tomorrow and I am a little nervous. I’ve been at uni for three years now and I still get really nervous for a completely new course haha… sigh, I hope everything works out . Today I have a mini millefeuille pastry tutorial for all of you. I decided to just teach the pastry so you can fill it up with whatever you want.

I should warn you guys that the pictures are of a shockingly terrible quality though. I have no idea why but my camera just wasn’t focusing and it was bizarre. I tried my best and touched them up a bit, but they’re still pretty bad. Also, even though millefeuille pastry is not technically hard to make steps-wise, to get the flaky texture you must use a paper clay. Well that’s not technically true actually, i’ve seen gorgeous millefeuille made by dollhouse miniaturists by polymer clay but i’ve tried many times and failed. You’re welcome to try though .

Roll your clay out about 2-3mm thick. Cut a rectangle about 1cmx7mm. I should take this time to say that buying one of these cutting mats was an excellent investment for someone like me who can’t cut straight at all .

Using a blunt knife like tool (a credit card, thin ruler or a blade if you’re super careful) make lines all around the sides of the pastry. Make sure to score the corners too. Keep your grip loose on the clay so as not to distort the rectangle shape. The more lines you put in the flakier and more realistic it’ll look.

Here i’ve done one side of the pastry already. Note how I made sure to cut the lines around the corners as well.

Here’s an alternative view of what you’re looking for. Try to keep the lines uneven and not all parallel because it won’t look realistic. Remember to brown your pastry before putting your fillings in .

If you follow my Facebook you may have heard something about a travel mint-choc macaron set but that failed. Macarons aren’t easy enough to make cheap and fast for a checkers set, plus they didn’t look good plain. I didn’t want to drive up the costs of the checkers set, so I decided that with the amount of clay and time needed to make macarons, it wouldn’t really be worth it. So I ended up deciding on donuts.

The game board is a little drawstring bag that you can put your donut pieces in. The board is about 16x16cm big and the donuts are about 2cm in diameter, so it’s quite a small set.

Mmm strawberry icing

The bag is made with calico and fabric crayon heat sealed with an iron so the crayon’s not going anywhere! And of course the donuts are my usual clay miniatures.

Chocolate icing

Because of the time needed to make this checkers set, this is a special order item. The set is $20 and takes 3 days to make and dry.

To order please email me at hikariadeco@gmail.com. I require prepayment for this item so please include your country so I can calculate shipping and your Etsy username if you have one as I prefer to do transactions over Etsy. Please also let me know if you’d like other colours for the donuts. Unfortunately I am only able to make the board yellow at this time . Also, if you desire toppings for the donuts extra charges may apply depending on types of toppings (for example, sprinkles) because of the extra time needed to make and attach these. Please email if you have any questions .

Uni semester starts very soon for me so I am worried about how i’m going to balance crafting, blogging and studying. I promise I will get my millefeuille tutorial and a post about my tools done soon before the uni term starts. I’m not sure if I will be reviewing those craft books I promised to review a while ago any time soon, i’m very sorry about that! If you really wish to see it or if you really want one of the books I had in my photo reviewed let me know and i’ll do it .

Nothing says 'procrastination' like taking pictures while you're studying...

Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while since I last posted! Firstly I wanted to once again thank you all and distribute large, virtual hugs to everyone who supported me through my rejection from Occupational Therapy. The good news is I was given a second round offer into the course, which I promptly took all while jumping and doing my happy dance! Once again thank you so, so much everyone for your support, I wish I could fly to every corner of the world and thank you all face to face and give you all big hugs!

So lately i’ve been studying up to get a headstart on the course and that’s why I haven’t been online much or sculpting much. I’m worried that once I start the course I won’t be able to keep up with my blogging duties so i’m trying to get a lot out of the way now during the holidays to make it easier for me in the long run. I still want to run markets and stuff, but i’m really not sure how feasible it is anymore to do so. It’s a shame because I love running market stalls, but unfortunately I may have to give that up once the course starts. It depends on my timetable of course.

I’ve got lots of miscellaneous news items too before I move onto the actual blog post, so here it is. This Sunday I will be selling at the Suitcase Rummage again, this time outside Brisbane Square and not at KGS, check the link for more details. I am kind of sort of planning to sell at the Valley Laneway Markets, but this was before I got the letter saying I got into OT, so I am not sure anymore, i’ll keep you guys updated on Facebook and Twitter. Also my Etsy has lots of new-ish items listed so do take a look! Right now my favourite item is the heart cream puff.

Phew! That’s done, onto the post

I had no damn clue what to post for the whole week actually. I kept saying to myself ‘I have to write something’ but nothing came to mind! So i’ll just be honest now, this is one of those random snapshot/what I bought this week/miscellaneous craft stuff i’m doing now posts. All the important stuff was before the jump, so if you don’t like random posts, it’s probably not a good idea for you to read on . Hopefully i’ll be more inspired next week, although I don’t see how because all I do these days is read anatomy textbooks.

This is deco tape. I used to be one of those people who said ‘what is the POINT of pretty tape?’, but then for some reason I became really obsessed with this stuff! I bought a roll to seal items that people buy at markets and stuff, but lately i’ve been using this on everything.

This is one of my more creative uses of deco tape. This pencil holder is just a soup can, but I got so sick of seeing it and it was so ugly, I just wrapped it in some scrap fabric I had lying around and taped it up. No sewing, and it was easy as pie .

I also sewed a little pouch. I love sewing these, they’re so easy, you just grab a rectangle, sew a zip on the edges and sew up the sides, done! They take 10 minutes at the most. If anyone wanted a tutorial on making let me know, they’re quite common on the internet though. I’ve been doing a ton of sewing these days, right now i’m working on a somewhat-lolita-but-daily-wear-friendly blouse, and i’ve finished up a big skirt. I’ll show you guys when i’m done .

I just happened to take a picture on the notes on 'sex hormones'... perverted camera!

Millefeuille strap as a zipper pull. I just realised that I haven’t listed my millefeuille up on Etsy! I have to do that sometime…

I’ve also been crocheting my own lacy trim for skirts and blouses because lace is so expensive to buy! Apparently I can crochet lace but I can’t crochet dogs, why?

?

Aaaand I bought this Scotty dog cookie jar. Isn’t he adorable? His face is so confused!

Anyway that’s all for my post today. I’m so sorry it’s one of those random posts, I try to avoid them because I feel like no one likes them but I was really stuck, I felt like posting something was better than posting nothing at all! I’ve still got those other books to review, look forward to that .

Before I start my post I just wanted to thank Gastronomy Gal for writing up a little feature about my items. She’s got a lovely blog featuring real, edible food, so do take a look .

Yesterday was my last market at UQ for this year, so now i’m on the hunt for another market. While i’m doing that, it means i’m free to do some other crafting because i’m not in a mad rush to make enough stock for the next market. I was going through my craft books thinking what I should do, and I figured i’ll show you guys a few of my favourite craft books. Today i’ll just be showing you some of the Japanese ones. Be warned, this post is quite pic heavy!

Title: Ami Ami Dogs – Ami inu no mainichi

ISBN: 978-4-579-11212-8

I got this two years ago when I went to Japan along with my very first sweets deco book that introduced me to my main craft now. This book is filled with little dog amigurumi projects as you may have guessed. Every dog in this book is mini and super adorable, and somehow every dog just looks like its breed.

What really convinced me to buy this book was how heart-meltingly damned CUTE these mini schnauzers were…

:(.

… but HOLY MOLY I cannot crochet. This is how my schnauzer turned out. I made it for Mothers’ Day, and to have my mum ask ‘what is it?’ and then laugh after you tell her what it’s supposed to me shows how bad my crocheting skills are . It’s ok, I still love you schnauzer! But to be serious this book is pretty darn advanced crochet, and putting the dog parts together is really hard too! I’d only suggest this book to either advanced crocheters or people who are really patient. I’m neither!

Title: Amigurumi de yururi

ISBN: 978-4-05-604880-3

Ahhh this is more my book. This is a pretty old amigurumi book actually, I think I got it around four years ago. Either way it contains crochet and knit projects, and they range from basic to difficult and from mini to pretty darn big.

I’ve found that this book is really good to have around to make gifts for people. It’s pretty packed with projects, and a lot of them are pretty easy and don’t take much time to whip up. I made an onigiri plush for David and rest assured, it looks like onigiri and he immediately identified the item correctly!

Cute pudding! But what the frick is grey pudding supposed to be?

The book is divided in crochet and knitting sections and also in size of projects. I’ve only ever made items from the mini crochet section and they’re as easy as pie really, so i’d say the book is pretty beginner friendly if I could do them! The other crochet did get kind of hard, and I didn’t attempt any knit projects because I can’t knit to save my life.

Title: Youmou felt no doubutsu oyatsu mascot

ISBN: 978-4-309-28198-8

If you can get this book, get it. Even if you don’t felt. Even if you didn’t even know what the hell felting is. Because this is the cutest darn book i’ve ever come across! I mean look at the cover! Turtle melon bread, sheep cream puffs? Have you died from cuteness yet?

Look! The cutest little roll cakes you could ever find in sheep, rabbit, frog and bear form! Every time I look at the pictures in this book, I just want to meeelllt.

Unfortunately I don’t think I could get my hands on any felting supplies, and I don’t really want to start another craft. But it looks like the directions are pretty self explanatory. They have a colour photo step-by-step on how to make one of the projects to start you off, and then the rest are black and white like this, but they all look pretty easy with a bit of basic Japanese knowledge. Personally i’m just holding onto this book for the pretty pictures.

Both the crochet books use Japanese amigurumi patterns. They’ve become pretty popular in the Western world now so with a bit of googling you should be able to decipher the patterns in no time.

If you guys enjoyed this post I will review my other books another day. I figured i’d do the Japanese ones today because for most of you it would be an online purchase and it’s good to know something about it before buying it.