Ikebana, chopsticks, tables and food

What I did today was more successful than what I did yesterday. I built two tables, made chopsticks, and tried my first attempt at ikebana, as well as playing with my fimo sushi. I tried adding rice to the sushi I made yesterday using liquid sculpey, and tried to make some of the sushi shiny with the liquid sculpey. The rice didn't stick, and the sushi didn't get that shiny, wet look that I see on the internet, so I made the sushi look wetter using a paper glaze stuff that I use on my greeting cards. The sushi I tried to stick rice to was so tiny that it didn't matter that the rice didn't stick.

I made the chopsticks using some really really tiny sticks left over from the kits. They look better than they would with toothpicks, but they are still heavier than I would like them.

I don't know a lot about ikebana, but I like the looks of what I made.

I am really glad I always save the punchouts from the windows when I build other dollhouses, because they are the perfect size for table tops, and saved me a lot of time.

This photo shows the ikebana in the dragon room tokonoma, as well as showing that the dish has more to eat in it than it did yesterday.

This room has one of the tables I made today, and the other ikebana. This one has the most artistically arranged food in it, with vegetable sticks and chopsticks, but I forgot to take a close up of it in my food photo lower down on this page.

This shows the kitchen table I made today. I tried to simulate marble for the top of it. I also added a couple of tiny paring knives, and some sushi being prepared for guests.

Another plate of sushi with some chopsticks in the irori room.

More sushi in this room.

This shows all except the best plate of sushi. All the food is only in there with wax so I can change it out if I want to later. The first dish is not artistic at all. I am going to change that one. The second one is the sushi being prepared for the guests. The third and fourth ones are more artistic.

Those big pieces of sushi are supposed to have salmon on top. They aren't red like it shows in the photo, they really are salmon and white, but I used too much white and not enough salmon color. Oh well, I guess we learn from our mistakes. :-)

This is my first attempt at ikebana. I've been trying to think of something to use for vases, then I saw some vases in the books that came with the kits, and they reminded me of some lampwork beads I have, so I used those.

The blue one stands on it's own, but the green one, I had to stick into a crystal button that is shaped like a dish. It does look like a vase in a saucer in the ryokan. I made the flowers from some kits I bought years ago. They are really incredibly tiny! The other flower things are florists wire dipped in glue and then into flower soft that I had for my card making, and some Woodland Scenics turf. The leaves are slivers of scrapbook paper.