Creativity: Making Your Own Miniatures.

Many figure collectors are also cosplayers, the hobbies easily go hand in hand. I cosplayed for the very first time last month and I had a blast doing so. To complete my cosplay, I bought contact lenses online. They arrived in tiny plastic containers that looked somewhat like tiny jars. After transferring my contact lenses to the appropriate containers for storage, I decided to keep the original containers. At the time I had no idea why, but I often keep little bits and pieces like that in the hopes of doing something creative with them. And that's exactly what I ended up doing.

I attempted to make a little jar of jam with the first one. I can recall making homemade jam as a kid, and instead of using screw on lids, I remember using sheets of some kind of clear cellophane, held on with a rubber band. So for my mini jam jar, I used fake blood left over from a costume party (mmm, zombies!) to look like jam, then I used some clear cellophane, cut into a little square. It is held onto the jar with some thin purple ribbon, tied in a bow. I wanted to use a tiny clear hair elastics that you can buy, but I didn't have any at the time. I have two empty jars so if I attempt to make another jam jar, I think I will use something to add thickness and texture to the jam, and I will use a tiny elastic to hold the cellophane on the jar.

The other miniatures pictured below are made from polymer clay, the modeling clay that you bake in the oven. The second jar is filled with little marbled balls of polymer clay to look like candy. I used this tutorial for the mini sushi and a friend showed me how to make the little cupcakes. I then used an iridescent nail polish on the cupcake with the cherry on top for some extra sparkle and clear nail polish on the cherry, the purple cupcake and the salmon to give them some shine.

I had a lot of fun making these and with practice I should be able to create more complex minis for my Nendoroids and other figures! Making these tiny miniatures was surprisingly easy and polymer clay isn't very expensive. So if you want some minis for your figures and can't buy any re-ment miniatures or anything similar, I recommend trying to make your own. You can find polymer clay at your local craft store.