Friday, November 26, 2010

Cute & Quirky Creations from Hikaria Mini Sweets!

Over the past few months the BrisStyle team has been busy compiling interviews with some of our talented artists and crafters. This week, the BrisStyle team caught up with Tiff from Hikaria Mini Sweets!

How would you describe your work?
Really, really sweet and really cute! I absolutely love desserts and I often think that half the beauty of dessert is how it looks. Unfortunately, desserts don't last forever, either they melt or they find themselves in my stomach (much more likely!), so I have had this bizarre wish to immortalise desserts so that they don't melt or disappear and I can just look at it forever. That's how I ended up making clay sweets jewellery and accessories.


How did your Etsy shop come into being?
It actually came to being many years ago when I started making mini polymer clay earrings. I decided that I loved working with clay, but I always ended up with way too many items for myself to wear, and my friends and family don't like my style of items! Left with a lot of items but nothing to do with them, I decided to try my hand at selling on Etsy. Unfortunately I couldn't find a theme for what sort of items I wanted to make, one minute I was making miniature ducks and the next minute teapots, there was just no theme. It was only recently that I decided that I will stick with clay desserts and I'll make jewellery out of them.


Who or What inspires you?
Mostly French patisseries or Japanese bakeries, both of these stock breads and desserts that are real works of art! There's also a lot of modern Japanese influence in my items, more specifically from a cult fashion movement called 'lolita fashion' (it's not what the name implies, I promise!) where the general premise is that you dress like a beautiful, ornate Victorian porcelain doll. There's a love for pink, frills, bows and macarons in lolita fashion, and these things feature a lot in my work too.


Can you describe your studio/work area?
Absolutely chaotic! It's just my own bedroom, with a super cramped desk with boxes and boxes of clay all over, and another box to keep all my glue and paints, and a tile and a cutting board as a workspace. It's all really dark.....I prefer to work in the dark with only one lamp on, and I know I sound like a crazy vampire saying that, but it's just a bizarre preference of mine!


What is your favourite thing in the shop at the moment?

The green tea swiss roll cake.....I remember making it feverishly wishing that it would turn into a real cake that I could eat! And the little cherry blossom petals on the top took a lot of time, but it was well worth it. You can see it here.


Do you have any other places that people can view/purchase your work?




Thank-you to Tiff for taking the time to chat with us!

3 comments:

Noogal Creations said...

Oh almost edible!!! Love it xx

Helen said...

amazingly cute :)

Hot Fudge said...

I'm amazed at what beautiful creations you produce under the light of one lamp. They are certainly good enough to eat!