PRINTItsy bitsy baking
Culinary treats you can wear and collect — but better not eat
December 17, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Watching Mo Tipton create miniature clay desserts is like watching surgery. The work is intricate; she wields her tweezers and toothpicks with the same skill a surgeon handles a scalpel. Of course, the stakes are a little different. For Tipton, her only concern is properly decorating the penny-size chocolate torte before her with little stars and moons.
“Part of the appeal is this idea of creating a small world where you can control every aspect, which you can’t do in real life,” Tipton says.
A graphic designer, Tipton has been creating her tiny clay goodies for about four months. She’s made everything from salted-pretzel earrings to a magnet that looks like a tray of dim sum (Chinese dumplings for the less cultured). Her mini munchies can also be bracelet and necklace charms or decorations for a dollhouse kitchen.
Originally from Chicago, Tipton moved to Columbia a year ago. Although her items aren’t edible, she has integrated the training she received as a former pastry chef into her miniature food creations.
“I’ve always loved cool, elaborate desserts, and I had the idea to miniaturize things I saw in my cookbook,” she says. Tipton plans to build an entire miniature pastry shop in the future.
The majority of the recipes for Tipton’s tiny treats call for a type of plastic-based clay that can be baked — Sculpey is her brand of choice. To create the fluidness of icing, Tipton adds liquid Sculpey to clay; she uses crushed pastels to color crusts and breads. All together, the process usually takes about an hour.
“It’s a lot more complex than I thought,” friend and customer Keith Chan says. “It takes a lot of precision because it is so small.”
Tipton sells most of her pieces — usually six per week — for $10-20 through an online account at mousemarket.etsy.com. The online photos don’t do justice to seeing a hot dog the size of a thumbnail in person.
Tipton admits her hobby is a little unusual, but she has long had an obsession with miniatures. When she was a child, her dad made her a dollhouse and her mom built all the furniture. From there, she “really got into doll houses and all things tiny.” In third grade, Tipton started her own business selling miniature clay animals, dubbed Zippers, for $2-3 to classmates.
Although Columbia lacks an active miniature community, many people whom Tipton talked with while selling her wares at the local Beaux Arts Bizarre shared stories about the miniatures they used to make. The Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City and the Miniature Museum of Greater St. Louis boast impressive collections, and a nonprofit, the National Miniature Trust, was founded in 2003.
“The more I look into the miniature community, the more I find people that are really into it,” Tipton says.
Need Miniatures?
WHERE: Treasure Hill Dollhouse Miniatures
4746 State Rd J
Fulton, Mo. 65251
CALL: 642-2502
Even a toddler seems like a giant at Treasure Hill Dollhouse Miniatures in Fulton. Owned by Dick and Sarah Klingbeil, the store sells materials for all one’s miniature needs, from shrunken front doors to fully functional one-inch lamps.
Most of the accessories and the miniature walls and windows that make up the two-room store’s “lumberyard” come from wholesalers. Prices vary with how fancy and detailed the pieces are, but furniture can run up to $50.
Several of the Klingbeils’ own creations are also on display. Only a few feet tall, a white, three-story mansion is decorated for Christmas with red garland wrapping its columns and tiny green wreaths adorning the windows. The dining room table of another house displays a doll-size feast complete with a miniature baked turkey and bottle of wine.
Originally from Rolla, the retired couple relocated the store when they moved in 2002. The business sees few new visitors, but the store is a hub for the dollhouse community.
“The whole idea of miniatures is imagination,” says Dick, who also restores dollhouses. “It’s just like decorating your real house except it’s on a one-inch scale.”
When creating her tiny delicacies, Mo Tipton bakes the clay pieces individually before gluing them ...
*points nonchalantly at*:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mousemarket
Posted by K C on Dec 17, 2009 at 10:09 a.m. (Report Comment)