Newest Wedding Cake Topper

I made another cake topper, and this time for my beloved friend and mentor from college.

Two things I loved about this project:

1) I started hating the idea of making these because they were so time consuming. The first and second figurines I made took me 2 days each time. The third one I made took me 7 days. I decided to change things up or I would never want to make them again. The part I disliked most was making the arms and legs. Not only was the creation of the limbs difficult, but molding and baking the clothes onto the limbs was an even greater challenge. So, I decided, why not go limbless? :) Problem solved! And, I personally think they're cuter without arms and legs! My time was cut in half. Now, it only takes me a day!

2) I love art because you create, even out of your mistakes. I was ecstatic with the heads for this one - they came out perfect! ...and then the bride's face cracked in the oven, so I decided to go with the new button eye look that I tried for the groom. I love the new look! ..and it's easier and cleaner to reproduce than the happy eyes, although I do still like the happy eyes.

One sadness:

1) I went to glance at the cake before I sat down, and someone must have grabbed the bride by the face because her (the figurine's) lipstick was smeared on her face! I didn't realize it would smudge just like real lipstick, so I quickly leaned over and wiped the rest of her lips off. She's still cute w/o the lips, but I still wish her lips hadn't come off. :(

First bride's face.

Eyeball craze.

Sad!  Cracked in oven!

Second bride's face... with new button eyes!

Workspace

Playing with groom's hair

Playing with bride's hair

Before styling hair

Up-do with my friend's earrings as "hair pins"

Back view

Found this cute paint can at Michael's to use as packaging

1st Cake Topper

Thanks to Howard, a random fellow artist I met in LA, I got a chance to experiment with a new medium - Sculpey (or Polymer) clay. This stuff ROCKS my SOCKS! It never dries out and bakes perfectly (without a kiln!)

So, I was sitting at home staring at this clay that Howard gave me as a gift (two days before I had to head down to Haemin and Howard's (different Howard) wedding in LA). Suddenly, I came up with an idea to make a cake topper as a gift for the happy couple. Since I was handling all the flowers, including floral decoration of the cake, at the wedding, I knew they didn't have a cake topper yet. So, I thought I'd give it a shot, and if worse comes to worst, I could just place it on their table as a standing figurine. The end result was more than I ever imagined! The picture above is before I fully finished it, but it was such a nice shot (courtesy of Daniel Lee), I had to put it in.

I had never really sculpted before, so the whole process was an adventure! It was fun coming up with alternative methods, especially when I didn't have the right tools. Like, at one point, I was smacking the clay with a wooden rice spatula I found to flatten it out. My brother looks over and says "Heyy... that's my spatula. I got it as a gift." And, I laughed and said, "Heyy.. thanks!" as I proceeded to slap the clay.






















This was one of my absolute favorite details. I wanted the shoes to have texture similar to real shoes, so I ran over to the pile of shoes in our apartment, found a pair of my brother's actual converse, and rolled it over the clay to make the treads for the clay converse. It worked great!














Here, I was fooling around with different hairstyles for Howard before actually making his hair. It was quite entertaining.

This was the quick sketch I did before starting the models. I started with the idea on the left, then changed it because the faces looked too flat and expressionless. I also didn't want to make arms, so I was initially going to make them arm-less figurines.








For a final touch, I called up my friend, Jiun, who can create custom-made earrings, and asked her to make a pair of earrings for the figurine. I left her ears pierced so that it might be easier for Jiun to get the earrings through.

Unfortunately, it ended up being much more difficult than I had anticipated because of the fragile nature of the doll. Jiun sat for 6 hours just trying to thread and build the earrings. 6 hours!!! She did an amazing job!

My picture below sucks because the earrings themselves are out of focus.


Here is a final shot of the bride and groom, and the cake topper. Do you see the likeness?

It was eery how much they looked alike, considering I had only a vague idea of what their dress and hair was going to look like.













Here's the gift, all wrapped pretty and ready to be opened!



















Finally, here is the teary-eyed bride that made all the work worth it.

1st Time Wedding Flowers!

My friend, Haemin, commissioned me to do ALL her flowers for this past August at her Los Angeles wedding. You may think.. hey.. no big deal. But, being that this was my very first time ordering and arranging flowers, it was a HUGE deal. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

Needless to say, the flowers were a big success, and most importantly, Haemin was happy about them to the point of tears (which, I guess, doesn't say much since brides cry a lot, as you'll see in my next post). I have to give a gimongoid shout-out to Caroline Nguyen, without whom none of this would have been possible. She's the flower guru who gave me all her wisdom, ideas, and time from her own past experiences to help me get going and get through with this huge project. You're the BEST Caroline!




(All above pictures are from Peter Park Photography)

This is my AMAZING floral team who worked tirelessly day and night in order to see this thing through. These girls made the experience so enjoyable! I was so lucky to have some crafty hands to help me out as well as persevering spirits that did all they could to keep the energy level up! Sue, Jiun, Angela, Carol, Emily.. I'm forever grateful to you. (Oh, gotta give a shout-out to Monica too, who helped me with pre-prep! She designed the gorgeous invitations!)