Different kind of food...

Greetings, blogland! I'm Amelia Schmelzer, a 16-year-old who enjoys using her hands for making food, both real and miniature. Along with my mom, I run an Etsy shop selling dollhouse-sized cuisine and food jewelry with retro flair. Each of my pieces is handmade out of polymer clay, from the preliminary shaping of a loaf of bread to the carefully whipped peaks on a pencil eraser-sized deviled egg. I do all the sculpting, listing, and shop management for the Frippery Factory; in exchange, my mom critiques ideas, provides feedback, advises me on business practices, and generally makes sure things don't fall apart and suck.

I'm intrigued by the way food can be rearranged until it's a design element, not just a tasty nibble. Within my food jewelry line, I love to play with the concept of food and see if I can twist it just a little, until it's no longer "just" food. The Exploded Diagram Hamburger earrings are a perfect example of that. I'd always been fascinated with cut-away and exploded diagrams, so I decided to pull the sandwich components apart so they were a wearable
scientific diagram...of a cheeseburger. I also love visual puns; my bow tie pasta earrings are the perfect way to wear noodles on your noodle (heh heh heh). If I'm not having fun with a particular design or sculpting process, something needs to change.

A big part of the Frippery Factory is humor and a certain light-heartedness. I'm a sucker for bad puns, so I use them all the time in my item descriptions. I recently bought a set of ceramic piglets, and I like to sneak them into photographic shots. The subtle irony of a piglet next to a baked Alaska makes me smile. I want miniature food to be cheeky, fun-to-wear (or own), and sometimes even a little self-deprecating. If I can't laugh at myself, I can't laugh at all. 

You can browse my Etsy shop here: fripperyfactory.etsy.com.
You can also stay hip on Frippery Factory news at our blog. fripperyfactory.wordpress.com.
Drop us a line, even just to say hi! fripperyfactory[!at]gmail.com. Hope to hear from you soon!