Ever wondered how your favourite foods would look like if they were shrunk hundreds of times?
Now imagine those tiny ang ku kueh being carefully hand sculpted from clay, piece by piece, with each detail taken care of with the finest precision.
These are the works of Jocelyn, owner and artist behind AiClay. A visit to her website reveals a haven of handmade food miniatures, perfected to look extremely realistic, and sold as decorations or even accessories!
Speaking to Jocelyn, she recalled fondly her beginnings in 2009, when she had just started toying with polymer clay as a hobby. To her surprise, the overwhelming response to her little treasures gave her the opportunity to work on AiClay full-time in 2011. With that, Jocelyn also started AiClay’s Miniature Food Workshops, which ignited her interest in teaching others the craft.
“It’s my pleasure to reintroduce making things with our own hands, back into the hectic lives of individuals whose hands have gotten so used to the cold keyboard. For a good few hours, participants forget about any worries in work or life, and devote all energies into the craft of food miniaturisation. We chat, we laugh, and we craft. It’s always a good party.”
What dedication she must have to be an entrepreneur of a growing business, and to have such patience to craft these miniatures!
When asked about her life motto, Jocelyn spoke with reminiscence:
“Hakuna Matata.In the few years I’ve been building my business, I’m faced with a different challenge everyday. It could be a nasty customer, a sudden shortage of materials I require or just simply brainstorming for new ways to grow AiClay. It reminds me to view seemingly impossible problems as challenges to overcome, and to worry less and simply work on solutions.”
Today, Vulcan Post has the privilege to take a sneak peek into the apps used by Jocelyn to grow her entrepreneurial ideas!
1. Instagram
“I use this to reach out to the rest of the world by sharing pictures of my miniature food works and creative process behind them, and keep my followers involved and excited about my ongoing projects! Sometimes I’ll ask for inspiration for my next miniature food project, sometimes I’ll hold little games for them to guess what a current project is by showing them a closed box or the colour palette of the polymer clay for my project.”
2. WeChat
“I always use this app to keep in contact with my overseas business contacts for my newly developed all-in craft kit, Pocket Kitchen. This project is a combination of efforts from individuals and companies all around the world, and it’s been an entire year of research and development already. Now Pocket Kitchen is finally up for pre-order to the whole world, as we work towards the eventual stage of mass production! :)”
3. Dayre
“Working from home has a lot of benefits. Unfortunately, it also means I am exposed to less people as compared to a normal office environment. Dayre offers me insights into many interesting lives of the other people writing their daily stories on the app, and it also allows me to share more about the daily happenings of a miniature food sculptor. I wasn’t sure if people would be interested to read about my life, but I got featured as Editor’s Pick in July 2014, and my followers have grown to a significant pool since then. Compared to Instagram, I’m a lot more personal in Dayre and use Singlish quite frequently too, as my readers are mostly Singaporeans. ;)”
4. Facebook
“This is poison for the easily distracted, and that includes me. I can while away several hours just scrolling through all the updates of my friends and reading the articles or videos which they share.”
5. MeituPic
“While Photoshop is still my preferred choice when I’m connected to a computer, I go to MeituPic if I need to quickly spruce up a picture before sharing it with the rest of the world.”
6. Etsy
“The amount of talent out there is crazy, and there are many many artists and makers sharing and selling their works on Etsy. It’s always good to keep myself in the loop with current trends and be inspired for my next miniature food project.
Jocelyn has recently also completed Pocket Kitchen — a carefully curated miniature food craft kit that is available for purchase. For those interested in crafting in the comfort of your homes, this is for you!
Thank you Jocelyn for sharing with us! For all who are trying out Pocket Kitchen for the first time, remember that the journey is as important as the destination. And as Jocelyn says:
“I’m proud of small, and I know that many times, it screams louder than its bigger counterpart.”
Should you be interested in tutorials, you may take a look at AiClay’s YouTube Channel.
From now till 31st May, you may key in promo code ‘AICLAYVULCAN‘ to enjoy a 10% discount on all non-promotional items.
Till then, stay small and beautiful!