Free Miniature Food Project: Prawns

As it's National Seafood Week (5th-12th October), we thought we would treat you to a free project straight from the sea! Create plenty of cracking crustaceans in just 11 steps, with this project taken from 'Making Miniature Food', published by GMC (2016). 

We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of keeping your hands clean when working these projects, especially when making the whiskers for the prawns. Just a tiny speck of dust can lead to nasty grey results which are bound to make you feel like a five-year-old, pastry baking with mother!

Perfectly Palletable Prawns

You will need

Single-sided blade

Dental tool No. 5 or a cocktail stick

Very small ball-ended tool

Polymer clay: light flesh pink (combined with clay softener), salmon pink 

Piece of dry spaghetti (optional)

Method

Step 1. Mix together some salmon pink clay colour mix and, separately, some flesh pink. Stack the salmon pink and flesh pink clay in thin, neat layers of equal thickness.

Step 2. Cut the clay in half and stack together once more.

Step 3. Squeeze, cut and stack twice more.

Step 4. Add an extra layer of flesh pink clay to the top. Squeeze down to approximately 3⁄8in (1cm) deep.

Step 5. Cut a thin slice cross the stripes of pink approximately 1⁄16in (1–2mm) thick. From this slice cut several tiny strips.

Step 6. Roll off the sharp edges. Try to make the tail end a little narrower than the head end. The head end will be the one with the thicker stripe of pale pink.

Step 7. Curl the prawn over so that the tail end tucks under and just behind the head end.

Step 8. Using a dental tool or cocktail stick, make an indentation in the bottom of the head section to simulate the mouth parts.

Step 9. Roll a very fine whisker of pale pink. Pick it up with your dental tool (or the licked end of a piece of dry spaghetti). Press lightly into the indentation, bending it in half as you do so.

Step 10. Using a tiny ball-ended tool, make a little eye socket.

Step 11. Add tiny eyes to these holes. While a bit fiddly, this is what gives the little prawns their realism, so it is worth the extra effort.

And it's as simple as that! To try out more projects from the book, including making bananas, bacon and bread, click here to buy the book at a very reasonable price! 

For more fantastic projects, grab yourself a copy of Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine now!