Happy Thanksgiving

My grandmother passed August 7, 1959, when I was in fifth grade. She was only 67 years old. She would have been graduating from high school in Washington, Kansas during the Spanish Flue Pandemic. I can't help but wonder exactly what she knew at the time about the world around her. Today we are profoundly aware of what's going on. As I have shut myself away from the world, I've been able to entertain myself by learning new tricks. One which has been to master polymer clay. I certainly do not claim to have any artistic ability whatsoever ever, but I can manage very simple skills with good instruction. So here then is a chronicle of how I've kept myself from going stir-crazy.

In the beginning I did not set out make a Thanksgiving Day dinner inspired by my grandmother's holiday feast, but my food making has sort of morphed into a traditional Thanksgiving dinnerThis Charming Stuff tutorial to build my roast poultry.

.  I made the roasting hen first, but then thought that I could do better. The wings aren't even and the drumsticks are too short and the sprig of what is supposed to by thyme looks more like a haphazardly placed weed stalk. (To be clear, the garden variety), so I decided to make another hen which turned out to be larger, more turkey size. I used

The steps are easily followed with little description necessary, except to point out the difficulties that I had so that perhaps you can avoid them. Best to check out the Charming video, too.

Getting the correct amount of clay to make each piece is tricky. For me it is pretty much a guesstament. 

Nor does is my brain able to communicate to my fingers to tell them exactly what to--therein lies the difference between an artist and a novice--the ability to visualize then to translate that visualization into a coordinated muscular movement to get your hands to replicate what your eyes see. Anyway.

Using pastel dust to color the clay is brilliant because I doubt that I would get the same results if had to paint the turkey. When I compare my turkey to the video's hen, it does lack the detailed texturing that the artist adds. She is very good. 

Ready to roast. 

The glaze gives food items a sheen that makes them look more life-like.

I am quite pleased with my turkey. Next sweet potato with marshmallow topping and pumpkin pie topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

Again, the instructions are pretty clear. There are dozens of pie tutorials on youtube. Pumpkin pie was just so easy. 

Next potatoes. Again several artists show how make potatoes. So easy. Blend white clay with a bit of yellow added since potatoes are not purely white inside, shape them, prick them with a sharp point to make eyes, and dust them with pastel, first with a brown then with dark gray or black for dirt that clings to freshly dug potatoes.

I was on a roll now, realizing that I could make sweet potatoes since I had just fixed sweet potato fries for supper. Again so easy. I used the pumpkin pie clay, rolled a small snake, cut off pieces that I shaped as sweet potatoes.

I mixed liquid polymer clay with translucent white to create the fluffy marshmallow and whipped cream.

I baked everything for 30 minutes a 265 F. degrees

Grapes are really easy. Fatal Potato is another great polymer clay artist. Before I baked the sweet potatoes, I lightly dusted them with light brown pastel to give them caramelized look on the marshmallow topping. I followed her tutorial to make a bunch of grapes. 

Since grapes in the bunch are not all exactly the same color, the tutorial calls for two different shades of green created by adding more white translucent to the green. It took forever to get two shades. I think I was working backwards by trying to attain the lighter shade by adding white to the green when what works more efficiently would be to add green to the white, that is to say to start with more white and shade it with green instead of trying to lighten the green. 

 

So I would roll out a out rope of green and add white. Work it together, then roll another rope, cut it in half and add more white, and again and again and. . . . It took a long time. Finally I ended up with several shades and far more clay than I needed for on tiny punch of grapes. Lesson here: It is hard to imagine just exactly how much clay you will need and then once you begin blending clays to get desired colors you end up with a lot more than you really do need.

My inspiration piece is a commercial bowl of fruit.

Grapes are so easy to make and fun. Later I made a bunch of purple grapes. That's a whole other story on trying to blend colors to get magenta. 

I did accomplish making a very nice fruit bowl, even with a bruised peach.

And I made fried eggs and back from Sugar Charm Shop, another very talented artist who produces great miniature food tutorials. 

I showed my bacon to my daughter and she make keep the ones that I thought were took dark, saying, "That's mine; I always burn the bacon."

Pie number 2 can be any flavor the that you choose because it is filled with left over scrap clay. I used tiny bottle caps found in the jewelry supplies section at Hobby Lobby. Last time I looked HL didn't have any in stock.

And there you have the beginnings of Thanksgiving dinner complete with peas and carrots.

A nice collection vegetables from peas to peppers to potatoes.

My grandmother's Thanksgiving dinner always include a Jell-o salad. My aunt was jell-o salad master. So I decided to try my hand at making molded jell-o salad. Angie Scarr another Youtube artist has a great tutorial for making jell-o

As she demonstrates, I diced up some random clay scraps for fruit, scrapped some red pastel into the jell-o mold, and added liquid polymer clay with what I considered fair results. I would have preferred clear jell-o, which I think can be accomplished by using resin, instead of the liquid clay.

They come out of the molds quite easily.

Still determined to make magenta colored grapes I tried again to blend colors to make another cluster of grapes.

Blue grapes? 

I decided to try to add orange.

I was getting close, but still not the magenta that I wanted. So more red.

Finally I have two shades that will make a nice bunch of not magenta grapes.

A nice fruit bowl with lovely grapes. 

So far I have made a very nice Sunday Brunch complete with biscuits and cinnamon rolls, toast, eggs and bacon, jell-o, fresh fruit and hot tea. 

The purple grapes turned out perfectly. 

Floor update: The new floor has been installed, but now we wait on the dry-wall guy to come to see how much it will cost to fix the drywall that got wet. The room is still a mess. I've set aside my food making to work in the garden and get caught up. Finally it is beginning to warm up. I'm still staying close to home. I've ventured to Hobby Lobby a couple of times and to the garden centers. While HL has all the supplies I need, the local garden centers are very skimpy having either sold out of my favorite plants already or perhaps they didn't have a great variety of plants to begin with this year. 

What have you been working on to pass the time? Is your city beginning to open up? 

Thanks so much for visiting. 

God Bless our Veterans. Happy Memorial Day.