Hime Band

[aimeekitty]

I'd really like to learn how to make small plastic jewelry items for myself. I'm always buying stuff like this... I want to make my own. Like I want to make a little plastic thing of my cat. Or a plastic cupcakes with swirly-twirly icing.

Does anyone know where I can learn how to do this?
an example is this icing ring I own and this cute site filled with cute plastic jewelry... and these fake nails with sweets on them. guh. I want to have my nails done all over-the-top princess-style at Shangrila in Torrance

I've done some sculpting and resin casting before... but I dunno the best way to go about doing stuff more like this.


1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
My Super Dollfie Madoka is there from yesterday's GLB release party. There's also lots of random art supplies and hair barrettes and bows.

2. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
ashbet who loaned me her elf-porn novel (LOL), clueless-case and kuramew's cute outfits yesterday, my publishers for getting me a translator for my coming Japan trip.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
going through Enchanted Doll Eye orders, petting my cat, drinking diet dr pepper and sitting in the pink robe that Judy got me.

4. What will you be doing 3 hours from now?
working on my fairy tale pinup illustrations.

5. Most recent clothing purchases?
This dress and this Marie A scarf.

6. What's the last sporting event you watched?
I don't watch sports unless forced to.

7. Ever go camping?
Yes, my family used to go camping all the time... in the forest and on the barrier islands in Charleston and stuff. I am going camping at a National Park with some of my girlfriends this year, too.

8. Look to your left, what do you see?
Some of my dolls and some Enchanted tupperware.

9. How many kids do you want?
Probably 1-2.

10. Have you met anyone famous?
Yes. I meet actors and/or other various famous types due to working in animation, or just living in the LA area. I still want to meet William Shatner, though. XD

11. How did you get one of your scars?
Falling in an oyster bed.

12. Three things you are most looking forward to right now.
Making some dresses with the cute fabric I have saved up, meeting some awesome people in Japan, cherry blossom season both here in LA and in Japan. :)

13. TV show or Movie that you FINALLY saw recently that everyone else has already seen.
The new Dr. Who! I like it (but have just started)

14. TV show you are most looking forward to the next season of.
Code Geass.


slightly related, xx_luna_lux_xx posted this cute video on EGL.
If I was a manager-san, this would be my band. LOL. I love that it's Hello Project.

Comments

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

Usually people use polymer clay for that sort of thing. With polymer clay you can get a range of looks from cartoony to hyper-realistic and everything in between.

Look for Japanese craft books on the subject. As usual, Western books tend to be too 'crafty' and the examples are a bit primitive in comparison. The exception might be websites with 'how-to' articles on making dollhouse miniatures. I've seen some fantastic ones that show how to make a perfectly realistic crumbly-looking chocolate cake, etcetc. Those miniatures artists do some incredible work! It's just a matter of taking those techniques and applying them in the style you like.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's a way to make more than one though, like making one and them making five more out of plastic. But I guess you'd have to paint it afterwards. I've never cast in plastic before (other than the average resin, which is not really the same thing...)

do you happen to have any leads for me book-wise? Sometimes it's hard to find what I need in Kinokuniya or online without having titles. :)

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how to go about mass-producing that sort of thing. I know I've heard that having things manufactured in China is actually less expensive than one might think (relatively-speaking, of course). I 'overheard' this when I was researching urban vinyl sites with the thought of maybe making my own figure. So you might look into that sort of site as well. Of course, I'm dumb and don't bookmark anything or I'd offer links. ^_^;;;

Also, you might whip up a portfolio of work and pitch it to a larger company that might be interested in doing the production footwork for you.

As far as finding Japanese books I usually just start poking around eBay. Once I find a title or two I'll go to Amazon Japan and search for them...and Amazon offers up more in the 'you might also be interested in' section. Getting the titles is the tricky part. I often have to spend a bit of time at Jim Breen's to figure out the kanji (though a lot of times there's enough hiragana/katakana to start a search). Also, you'll need to be able to type in Japanese (I think that's easier on a Mac than on a PC...?)

[lizzelizzel.livejournal.com]

Polymer clay is where it's at(fimo, sculpey(not as expensive, not as great). You'd need to get molding tools and liquid sculpey. Look up polymer crafts, it's pretty hard to do it well though!

[kemica.livejournal.com]

I make that sort of thing out of oven cured polymer clay and (good quality) acrylic paint, I'm sure you could too!

Those are some of my recent batch, they're not jewlery, they are actually props for a friend's BJDs.
Polymer clays work well with jewlery attachments, there are even some jewlery bits like earring hooks etc. that may be fired along with the polymer if you want it to be super secure. Otherwise you simply make a hole in the item before you fire it.

Good luck, would love to see what you come up with!

[kemica.livejournal.com]

Found a decent tutorial site: http://www.cdhm.org/tutorials/miniatures.html
This is for miniatures, but this will work just fine for jewlery as well.

[gogolotus.livejournal.com]

Oh my god I want to EAT those accessories! 8D

Waaaaa? I wanted to see this Loli thing that was going on ;_; I'm gonna be in that area today. BOO.

[kattykinns.livejournal.com]

I make lots of things like that for myself using fimo (I've made a rather cute macaron for myself today) I actually use cake decorating tools to get the cream all swirly XD well it works! It's really fun to do and with a bit of practice you can get them looking just as cute as they make them in Japan ^^

[kattykinns.livejournal.com]

Probably the worst picture but these are what I made today they're only tiny and you can't really see the cream swirls.. but you get the idea :)

[tubbysnuggles.livejournal.com]

why did you post that link? OH AIMEE!! i'm sitting here wondering how on earth a 42 year old in corporate america hell might get away with wearing one of those Mr. Flan necklaces and a giant donut ring.

**shame on aimee** now I wanna buy some plastic food jewelry

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

hahahaha, you could TOTALLY wear a flan necklace with your corporate suit!

[tubbysnuggles.livejournal.com]

mr flan man is so cute! the dribbly chocolate! the whipped cream! with EYES!! i'll never eat flan again.

[joshuaaaaaa.livejournal.com]

Hey Aimee, if you want to borrow any of Series 1-3 of Doctor Who, I'll send them down with Char next week.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

thanks Joshua! we're just renting them from netflix slowly though, it's ok! :)

[jinyo.livejournal.com]

Best band ever!
It makes me sad to realize how limited the US pop scene is, compared to the broad range of imaginative theme bands that exist in Japan.

For jewelry like you describe, I would agree with those above who suggest a heat-setting polymer clay. Fimo comes in a lot of different colors. I wouldn't worry about casting stuff unless you want to go into mass production.

[lauran.livejournal.com]

I've heard that people use silicone for the whip cream/soft ice cream parts, and polymer clay for the other parts. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. I've decided going into making silver jewelry instead though.

[ladyofthethread.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that ring is really cute. :-)

No helpful suggestions here, unfortunately. ^_^; My family is in the plastics business but works mostly with flat sheets like plexiglas.

[clueless-case.livejournal.com]

Fimo/Scupley will work. Some times they use resin like with those pretty resin roses you see in BJD jewelry.For like cream and stuff, i've even seen hot glue used. Cuz on YJ i saw auctions for colored hot glue sticks.

I tried, got lazy, and just bid now. You've probably seen some of the charms i just won off auction.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

yeah, time is short, I'll probably buy them most of the time, but it'd be fun if I wanted to make a specific thing to be able to make it! :D

colored hot glue? *_* how do you get it to be a spiral? using icing-cake tools (like for real icing?)

[clueless-case.livejournal.com]

There was just so many stuff in that category. They have like specially designed tips and stuff. I should ask one of my friends actually. She lives in japan and actually makes a living off making fake food like the ones you see in the window. So she might know.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

if you don't mind, that would be really cool. I'd love to know more. :)

[clueless-case.livejournal.com]

Have you check out the fake food/stuff category on YJ? They have some pretty awesome stuff.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

no, I'm pretty new to all of this! could you hook me up with some links? :)

if you don't want to clutter here, email is fine too. aimeeATaimeemajorDOTcom

thanks for talking to me about this! :D

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

hur hur hur THE Possible XD

[positivespace.livejournal.com]

DOOT! The next time I'm in LA let's go get our nails done! (I've been wanting to get some ridiculous gyaru nails done forever, but no one I knew before was interested.)

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

I'm so holding you to that. XD

[positivespace.livejournal.com]

Well, I just applied to a job in LA so if I get an interview...

hehehehehe

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

wow, that would be cool! :D

[ashbet]

Hehehehe!! You have totally busted me for being a pervy elf-fancier ^_^

Glad you enjoyed it!

*smooches*

-- A <3

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

Totally! I mean it's silly, but awesome.

[jennekohan.livejournal.com]

There's some information on how to make that kind of jewelry here. For the icing if you take a tube of silicone caulk, cut off the end of the tube a little farther up than for normal use and cut little v-shapes into the end of the tube to resemble a pastry tip you'll get results like the whipped cream. I learned how to do use from the book Make Something Ugly For A Change.


(They purposely made this one messy, but you get the fancy swirl by using the caulk)

Also, another cute tip is to make chocolate chunks by shaving off pieces of a brown rubber extension cord!

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

waaagh AWESOME.

[kyubikitsy.livejournal.com]

The POSSIBLE is so cute~ I like all their styles, ranging from 80's pop idol to rockin' out EGL. :D

[kittytreats.livejournal.com]

I was curious how the cute jewelery sweets are made too! I see them in LJ a lot and it makes me want to just eat them *LOL*

[alsonwonderland.livejournal.com]

I've made stuff like that, are you ready for a new addiction? you can mix polymer clay with liquid polymer to get it to that frosting consistancy, then bake it hard. You have to see what people do with this stuff- http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=226481.0

[screamingmiemie.livejournal.com]

I read your book and now I r looking at ur live journal!

Is that morning musume? squee! they are all in baby loli <3

[spritelyredhead.livejournal.com]

I just happened to be trolling J-list and found this item that may be of interest to you:

http://www.jlist.com/PRODUCT/STT053

[spritelyredhead.livejournal.com]

Waaai they have one just for crepes, too!

http://www.jlist.com/PRODUCT/STT052

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

GUH WANT