Cats in my Garden Cupcakes

 Making some cat mini-cakes. Created with sugar flowers, passion fruit curd, vanilla cake, buttercream and molded chocolate cat face.

 

First I drew up some plans and sketches to get a rough idea of how big I wanted the cake to be. Then I got some supplies. Casting material, sculpting clay, small silicon molds for the cakes, round cookie cutters, white chocolate, sugar flower paste, passion fruit, petal dust, gel food coloring, and plenty of butter, sugar, and eggs.

After sculpting from clay I then made a mold out of silicone. 

 

Since the sugar flowers need some time to dry and would last a while I worked on them next. I used a pre-made sugar flower paste, but eventually I want to try and create a paste that tastes better and dries a little more flexible.

Testing cookie recipes

 

First I tried a shortbread recipe. The dough worked well in the mold and if I put it in the fridge for a while it released easily. After baking the dough with a higher parentage of butter lost a lot of detail. I added a bit more flour and these cookies ended up looking ok.

Next I tried a Springerle cookie recipe. The first recipe had too much baking soda and the cookies lost their shape after baking. The second version of this recipe worked better, but the shape of the cat head was too thick to cook all the way through. 

I ended up using melted chocolate in the mold as this had the most detail.

 

 

Mixing the buttercream and making the mini cakes.

The cakes were stored in the freezer while I worked on painting the cat faces. 

 

Whitty Gallery 100 SQUARE Feet of Art November 3 – Dec 31 2023

 

I will be showing one of my small acrylic pieces at the

The Whitty Gallery 100 SQUARE Feet of Art 

A show for the holiday season, with all square artwork! 

 

SHOW DATES:  November 3 – Dec 31

SHOW OPENING AND RECEPTION: Friday November 3rd  5:30 - 8pm

30 Ash St. Hollis NH  

 

 

https://www.hollisartspace.com/galleryshow

Travel Watercolor Painting Kits and Supplies

I've always been a little obsessed with kits, travel, and the ultimate packing list. Combined with my love of drawing walking in the woods I've decided to put together a little snapshot of some travel paint-kits.

Over the years I have owned a few travel kits:

An oil pochade box that my mother got me one year for Christmas. Still one of my most memorable Christmas gifts. Never really got as much use out of this as I would of liked due to that I do not really paint in oils much and it is a bit too much to carry on a hike or a quick outing. I did use it for a summer plain air collage class and it was very useful for driving to a location and just walking a short distance from the car.

My second "go to" painting kit is a mini kit I put together for a super light weight, cary-on only travel trip to the Bologna book fair about 15 years ago. We were traveling by train and were carrying all we brought in a bag most of the day. It is surprising how heavy even a small bag can get after a day of hiking about the city.

 

 

This kit consisted of my old beat up Winsor and Newton 12 color travel kit , fig.1 a small container of water and a small container of gel medium. I also brought a pencil case and a cardboard tube of a few brushes.When at the book fair there was an amazing pin-board of artists business cards. For some reason I did not have a card on me at the time and this mini-kit came in handy as I drew a little painting to put my info under on the board. :)

Since thenI have acquired a handful of additional travel watercolor kits. 

 

 

TRAVEL WATERCOLOR
KITS I HAVE

 

Fig. 2. Arts to Embers 3d printed 16 color case. I still need to add paints. This case seems very useful, but I may miss the place to store a paintbrush.

Fig. 3. Micro Portable Painter  this is super cute and compact, but I have not added paints yet :( This is a great size to throw in a pencil case or pocket for easy carrying. It has a fold out section to hold water.

 

Fig. 4. Derwent metallic watercolor kit with brush. This kit contains everything needed to do a quick painting (water, brush and paints). I really like the size of this kit and the palette colors are pretty, but not very useful for painting a piece with a "normal range" of colors

I also really like this water brush. It folds down for easy storage and has a smaller brush then most standard water brushes I have come across.

I currently have my eye on a Schmincke watercolor tin with watercolor blocks. I have tested out some of the colors with a dot sheet and really like the Supergradulation colors. However this brand is a bit pricy so I may have to wait and save up for a kit.

 

TRAVEL PAINTING KITS
TO ASSEMBLE

Recently I've had less of a need for a travel kit for quick sketches in the city as my tablet has mostly taken the place of my mini kit. However, I have been spending more time hiking in the woods and hanging out while my husband fishes. This gives me a great opportunity to work un-distracted on longer-term painting projects outside while being surrounded by nature. How fantastic!

This outdoor painting has inspired me to put together some new kits that more specifically fit my needs for the way I currently paint. 

1. Mini watercolor kit for light travel (to fit in a large pocket)

2. Medium lightweight watercolor painting kit for
painting in the woods and hiking (fits in backpack)

3. Acrylic painting kit that I can carry around the house so that when I move from painting in my "office" to painting in front of the tv, or in the dining room everything is together and easy to transport. (small suitcase size)

4. Large kit for painting with oils
not far from the car

 

 

TRAVEL PAINTING
INSPIRATION

I've been looking into a number of travel kits on Etsy and blogs about Pochade boxes and vintage Plain Air kits.

This research has encouraged me to troubleshoot assembling a few travel kits of my own. In my research I came across some beautiful antique cases a great website for inspiration. I love how some of these old kits have images embossed on the water color blocks.

 

Art Sale and a Quick Update

A quick update.

This year I will be participating in the 2023 Townsend, MA art and craft festival.

Saturday, September 16^th, (9AM-4PM)  

Sunday, September 17^th, (10AM-4PM)

The Arts and Crafts Fair is located on historic Town Common in the heart of Townsend, Massachusetts, at the junction of Route 119 and 13. Food and Snacks are available and there are restroom facilities on site. 

A marketplace of quality hand-made merchandise. There will be over sixty vendors, music, raffles, great food, and plenty of fun.

 for more information please visit:

https://townsendhistoricalsociety.org/artsandcraftfair