Featured: Laura from 8th Sin Creations and The Heian Princess

Announcement!
We have another contributor for All About Deco! Please meet Laura from The Heian Princess blog.
She will help us in the future with writing articles and tutorials! One of her first articles will discuss the different types of clay and their best uses! Please look forward to these posts ^^
Now as sort of getting to know her, here is she as our third Featured person!

1.     Who are you and what do you do (decowise)?
Hi there! I’m Laura and I’m the owner of 8^th Sin Creations, an online store dedicated to handmade jewellery, accessories and clothing. Accessories include deco items, of course and I offer pre-made and custom orders. ^^

2.     When and how did you discovere deco and started decoing yourself?
I first discovered deco not too long ago, actually, about a year and a half ago. I am obsessed with Japanese street fashion and culture and stumbled upon decoden images on Google Images. After the initial head explosion after seeing all the cuteness, I joined Deco_Den, a community on LiveJournal, read up on materials and started up! I first started the learning curve of decoden by deco-ing my own personal items rather than selling them; I made a compact mirror, earphones, phone case and then moved on from there!

3.     Where do you get your inspiration?
I stumble on Firefox a lot and also check out Google Images and decoden communities and groups. I have a huge folder on my laptop of Decoden Inspiration and whenever I’m feeling a little uninspired, go through and and am up for the task again! I have to say most of my inspiration and images come from blogs, Japanese websites, magazine scans and online communities and forums for the topics – some of the professional images I see, like ones from Rainbow Cream and Candy Colour Ticket, makes my head spin at how amazing and realistic they are.

4.     What are the favourite things you do?
Deco or otherwise? My hobbies include reading, writing, music, anime & manga, fashion, Japanese culture and video games. Deco things I like to do are custom orders for clients as I love tailoring items to their individual tastes and specifications. I also love doing my own deco items as I love thinking of what I want and showing them off!

5.     And lastly, do you have any tips/tricks that you want to share with our readers?
I think I would have to say stay inspired by looking at other peoples’ creations and practice, practice, practice! My biggest tip would be to first make things for yourself; then you’re not stressing out as much about whether it will turn out good or not.


You can follow Laura on her The Heian Princess blog and her shop 8th Sin's Creations 


Do you also do deco and you want to be featured on All About deco? Drop me an email with some photos :)
Or maybe you're also interested in helping All About Deco become best resource for Deco on the internet? Sent me an email with your application! ^^

Featured: Mini Mo - Sweet & Tiny

Second one in our Feature serie is Mini Mo from the blog Sweet and Tiny. 

I wanted to feature her because she makes such lovely miniatures, not only the regular ones but she also uses deco on 'not your usual items' like clocks and plates. Mini Mo tries to discover new and unusual materials to use for deco. She makes lot's of reviews for all the different tools and materials she uses. Read her blog to found out more about this ;).

On to the questions:

1. Who are you and what do you do (decowise)?

My name is Monika but I use Mini Mo as my nickname (I am usualy called Mo by others and I'm realy short person! :D ). I am Polish and currently live in UK.
I love to make fake, deco sweets from clay and decorate various things with them. I'm also interested in other types of crafts, like jewelry making, sewing, resin etc, and I try to incorporate them into deco sweet items. I used to use polymer clay but since I discovered air dry clay I totally fell in love with this medium.
I try to use wide variety of air dry clays, like Fimo Air Light, porcelain clay and translucent clay, because from my experience I can tell that it is impossible to achieve real looking sweets with only one type of clay.

   

2. When did you start working with clay/ to make little desserts and things?

I discovered polymer clay about year and a half ago, but I started properly learning how to make deco sweets in September 2010. I remember this date so well because it's the same time when I started blogging too! :D
Therefore I still consider myself a newbie to deco sweets and I'm still learning new things.

3. Where do you get your inspiration?

At the beginning I was gettin my inspiration from internet and blogs, trying to learn basics and simple things like how to make cookies, ice creams and so on. Everything was new to me and I was surfing through the Internet and passionately reading tons of blogs. I also learned that deco sweets are acctualy inspired by French desserts and patisserie (how amazed I was when I discovered that there are REAL macarons in France!) and after that I became searching for inspirations in real desserts.
I am also a fan of shabby, girly country style and I try my deco sweets to be in this style too.

4. You have a wide variety of things you make as we can see on your blog, what are your favourite things to make? And what is your absolute favourite?

I don't think I have a favourite thing I like to make. For me it's more of a question what I can or can't make. Most of people say that they like or hate making certain things, but I think that in
reality they can or can't make them. When they can, they love making it, but when they struggle, then this thing is propably one of the things they hate making. And for me it's all about challenge.
It's not fun for me anymore when I know how to make something and then I search for more things I want to learn. It's exciting when you learn and then you see the first results of your hard work! :D
Propably that's why my blog is full of different things! :)
But if I would realy had to choose, then my favourite thing to make would be fruits made from translucent clay, only because they can look so real when made properly :)

5. And lastly, do you have any tips/tricks that you want to share with our readers?

As I said before I still consider myself a newbie to deco sweets, but the thing I could share with everyone is to not to let yourself think that you're worse than someone else who makes deco sweets
(or different things). Sometimes when I make my clay sweets and at the same time I browse and read other blogs/websites, I look at my creations and think that they are not as good as I thought they are.
I get frustrated and sad, and I think that maybe I should stop because I'm not good enough. And when this kind of mood gets you, thet it's the best to turn your computer off or just watch anime or something else,
and stop comparing your work to others. Everyone has their own style and that is the most important thing that differs deco artists. I noticed that some of the most known deco sweets creators on Internet is not
that good at making certain things, but it's their original style and enthusiasm that makes their work so popular. Therefore you shouldn't compare yourself to anyone else but try to put the best of yourself into your work and that's how
you will create your own original style, because everytime you make someting you put a tiny bit of your personality into it. And that's why it's unique :)


You can follow her on her blog Sweet & Tiny, she also has an etsy Sweet & Tiny where you can find her items for sale.

Featured: GentlemanBunny

First up in a series of feature posts: GentlemanBunny,
I have been a fan of hers for more than 1 year. She makes amazing little cute things,
one of her specialties is making little people from different movies and groups.
But I'll let her do the explanation.

1. Who are you and what do you do (decowise)?
My name is Päivi (or Shiri, or Gentlemanbunny as known in the internet world). I create tiny deco items using polymer clay. I usually sculpt miniature foods like cute cupcakes, cakes, sushi and make those into charms and jewelry (earrings, pendants, rings). But the sculptures are so tiny that they can also be used to decorate your phone or camera, for example.

2. When did you start working with clay/ to make little desserts and things?
I first started with real clay when I was a teenager. I made all sorts of pottery items (bowls, mugs and ornaments). But then after I found polymer clay, and saw how easy it was to use (that you could bake it in your regular kitchen oven, unlike real clay) I was hooked. The first items I ever made were tiny little figureens of animals like bunnies and cats. After awhile I begun to make miniature cakes, lollipops and other food related items.

3. Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration from everywhere - basically the daily life. I sometimes browse through cook books of flickr food photo galleries to get inspiration - and to challenge myself into making something I've never made before. I also get lot of inspiration from music and movies. It's fun to make miniature foods but I also love making miniature people, actors, musicians and movie characters.

4. You have a wide variety of things you make as we can see on your youtube channel, what are your favourite things to make? And what is your absolute favourite?
Well, bunnies are easy and fun to make. But they are also very delicate because of the tiny ears. Also, with bunnies you can make them into "sceneries". For example I've made easter bunnies, halloween (witch) bunnies, christmas (elf) bunnies and so on. It's fun to have a simple character which is easy to make and build something (foods or items) around it.

5. And lastly, do you have any tips/tricks that you want to share with our readers?
Love what you do and keep pushing yourself. When I make my tutorials I usually have an idea on my head, take some clay and press record on my camera. I don't reherse my tutorials and sometimes the sculptures end up looking very different from what I was thinking at first. You don't need a lot of clay or expensive tools. Just a few blocks of clay and some tools you could find around the house like a food knife and a toothpick are great to start with.

Thankyou very much for this little interview!

Here are some of my favourite videos of her:




If you want to see more of GentlemanBunny's creations you can visit her blog , her etsy, House of Mishibu and her deviantart.

(all photographs belong to GentlemanBunny and are posted with permission)