Apples

I made some little polymer clay apples for Joe; they come to about a half inch across at one sixth scale. They look pretty good in the photos, but trust me they're covered in fingerprints because I haven't figured out how to make something like this without actually touching it. It has to be possible; other people manage, somehow. I'm still ridiculously proud of them though.

I made sure to put some bumps and bruises on them; they're also a bit misshapen, modeled after the ones we had down in the kitchen which might have been locally grown. They're cooking apples, anyway, Macouns maybe, and aren't perfect. I kept finding pictures of all these perfect little (one twelfth scale) tableaux with perfect little fruits, cut perfectly and arranged perfectly in perfect pie-making scenes, and while those are certainly nice, they kind of actually fail the realism test because no one, not even people on cooking shows who have paid stylists, can actually make anything that picturesque. I'm not knocking that sort of thing, mind you; those kind of tiny still lifes are very wonderful. But I know what reality looks like too. And it's waaaay funnier.

They're a bit shinier than I wanted them to be; even considerably watered down gloss acrylic gel medium is still really shiny, which I would not have thought. Well, live and learn.

I should probably make him some more furniture; I have an idea for the couch he's going to get, but that's a bit of a big job. I think maybe he should get a coffee table next, although that's not a type of table you'll generally find as an antique. Though the Arts and Crafts movement was big on these things called 'library tables', basically large tables appropriate for a library that you could sit and read at. I think with a bit of redesigning, mostly involving shortening the legs, I could make something like that work as a coffee table. I do think he probably ought to have one. I don't intend this doll house to be strictly period; it's in the here and now, just an old house with appropriate antiques inside, mixed with plenty of modern stuff.

Just thinking out loud.