Miniature Stew Board (with Make-along Recipe!)

Hello Reader,

I hope you are all well, healthy and safely home in these trying pandemic times. Sending good vibes and best wishes to everyone who needs it <3

While I was recovering from the virus myself, half the time was spent eating stew and the other half I spent making a mini stew board! And that brings us to this article.

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In this 'ible, I have tried to simplify the process of making of potatoes, carrots green beans and onions and all mixed into a stew so a beginner can also achieve realistic and cute results. You can make a lovely fridge magnet or simply a show piece out of it!

For the veggies, I have divided the making into four segments: Colour mixing, Sculpting the whole, Making the inside/chopped ones and Shading. These adorable pieces will also look great in any other mini projects as well! For the stew, I have a simple no-resin solution that much easier to handle.

If you would like to see how I made the cutlery and stew pot, let me know down in the comments and I will make share the process of that as well.

Bonus: I have shared our home stew recipe that is delicious, nutritious and easy to make in the last step just in case it helps anyone~

Let's get cooking!

Supplies

What you will need for the miniature stew board:

• Materials
  • Polymer clay (specific colours have been shared for each step)
  • Wooden base ( I used a piece of thin balsa wood)
  • Transparent Gel wax ( This is a lovely substitute for resin. But in case you are comfortable/access to resin that works too)
  • Black sand (this is only for fine details. Its all right if you don't have this)
  • Chalk/Soft pastels ( I use a local brand. Nothing fancy)
  • Brushes
• Tools
  • X-acto/ Detail knife ( any paper cutter/ blade works too as a substitute)
  • Roller pin ( any cylindrical tool works. I just use the handle of my X-acto knife)
  • Needle tool ( a thick needle or toothpick instead)
  • A spoon and tea candle (for the wax)
• Also you will need a mini stew pot or bowl and maybe a knife and peeler as embellishments.

Step 1: Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔

I have split up the process in four segments so its easier to follow. While I have showed the techniques of how I make then, the trick to make it realistic is always to observe first hand. So a trip to the pantry will go a long way to achieve good minis!

• Colour Mixing (reference image P.1):
  • For the miniature potatoes, you will need a light dough colour of clay that will be the inside of the potato. I mixed some Premo Ecru, Fimo White and Fimo Caramel to get the shade I wanted. Some white with a little brown and yellow will give you some nice shades as well depending on how yellowish or pale you want your potats to look like.
• Sculpting the whole (reference image P.2):
  1. Roll out small pieces of the dough colour the size you want your potatoes to be.
  2. Shape the pieces into a slightly elongated ball or a fat cylinder. You can do this by starting off with a sphere or ball and then press down in the centre with your finger and roll it back and forth.
  3. With the needle tool or toothpick, make some indents and imperfections on the surface. Just put the needle along the surface, press and roll slightly.
  4. The final picture shows how the base piece will look.
  5. Prebake the ones you want to chop or peel and bake the rest according to the instructions of the clay you are using.
• Shading (reference image P.3):
  1. Shave some brown chalk pastels into a cup or bowl with a blade.
  2. Put the baked/prebaked clay potatoes into it and shake them around lightly so you get some speckles on the surface.
  3. If you feel some parts of the surface are too darkly coated, you can brush some of it off gently with a dry brush. Alternatively if the coating seems too light to your liking, you can lightly wash it with a damp brush with some pigment on it.
• Making the Inside/ chopped pieces (reference image P.4):
  1. For the cut or peeled potatoes, make sure you use prebaked and shaded potatoes.
  2. Treat them like a real potato and cut it in half or quarters as you would like it.
  3. For peeled ones, use the X-acto knife to lightly remove the shaded layer to expose the raw clay colour inside. You could keep some half peeled to make the board look more interesting.
  4. Bake them once you are happy with how it looks.
  5. TIP: Keep the "peels" from the previous step to put around the board later.

Step 2: Carrots 🥕🥕 🥕

Carrots are probably the easiest only because its already so distinctive in colour and form. I think there are few mistakes you can make here. And organic items are all so unique, the mistakes are never mistakes anyway!

• Colour Mixing (reference image c.1):
  • For the miniature carrots, you will of course need some orange clay. But I would suggest you don't use the raw orange right out of a pack as most of them are too bright. Mixing the orange with a very little yellow and/or brown will give a much more natural carrot orange. I used Proto orange mixed with a little Fimo sunny orange and Fimo caramel for my carrots.

• Sculpting the whole (reference image c.2):
  1. Roll out a snake or cylinder of the orange.
  2. Using your finger, press down on one side of the piece to make it a tapering tear drop shape.
  3. Similar to how we made the potatoes, use the needle to make the texture of the carrots. Instead of using the thicker part of the needle, use the tip and make some lines on the surface.
  4. Then with a blunt side of a toothpick or a small ball tool, make a sort of hole on the top of the carrots.
  5. Bake the pieces at this stage.
• Making the Inside/ chopped pieces (reference image c.3):
  1. For chopped up carrots, you can make a cylinder of orange and prebake it before cutting out slices.
  2. You could make proper carrot, prebake it and chop half of it and arrange it that way on the board to make it look as if it was being cut.
  3. You can also make a simple carrot cane by wrapping a thin sheet of light orange around the a darker orange cylinder followed by a sheet of the base orange we used for the carrots. But this is optional.
• Shading (Reference image c.4):
  1. Just run a damp brush with some dark brown along the surface and dab out the extra water to get a nice uneven skin detail.
  2. Darken and detail the heads of the carrots with some dark brown pastels/acrylic paints.

Step 3: Green Beans

Making the beans is quite easy technique wise, but it needs some patience and nimble fingers. Don't worry if you squish some will rolling it, it will get easier! Also, I just realised there isn't a green bean emoji.

• Colour Mixing (reference image b.1):
  • For the miniature beans, mix yourself some dark green. I mixed some local green clay with some fimo olive green and Fimo Windsor blue for the shade of beans. Additionally you will need a small piece of white clay mixed with some translucent and very little green for the inside of the beans.
• Sculpting the whole (reference image b.2):
  1. Roll out a very thin snake or cylinder of the green. While rolling it out, keep changing the pressure you put so its slightly uneven and not equal in width through out.
  2. Cut pieces of the thin snake into the size you want your beans to be. Then press down to make the edges pointed.
  3. With the edge of the X-acto knife, make a light indent on the beans to mimic the detail on real ones.
  4. Bake!
• Making the Inside/ chopped pieces (reference image b.3):
  1. Roll out a thin sheet of the green. Add the even thinner sheet of the white+ translucent over the green.
  2. Carefully roll the sheet as shown in the picture so the lighter shade is inside.
  3. Press and roll it out like the whole bean and chop it into pieces. Bake them once done!
• Shading:
  1. Shade the ends of the beans with a dark green or brown. It's just a small detail that works to bring out the whole!

Step 4: Onions 🧅🧅🧅

The onions will probably be the most complicated of them all. But I have tried to explain it as well as possible. Its not particularly difficult but is quite time taking.

• Colour Mixing (reference image o.1):
  • For the miniature onions, you will need the very iconic onion purple colour along with some white and translucent. I had the colour ready made from the brand Nara but in case you don't have the particular shade it being unusual, you can mix it with some pink, blue and a wee bit of lemon yellow. Remember to add some translucent to the purple as well. Mix yourself some translucent white and tinge it slightly by mixing in veryyy little of the purple. Totally you will need three shades with two being relatively lighter.
• Sculpting the whole (reference image o.2):
  1. For the whole onions, there is no need to work on the inside details because it will simply not be seen.
  2. Start off with a piece of white clay. Roll it into a little ball and then pinch the top and pull to get the fat tear drop shape. Ensure that the lower bulbous shape isn't lost when you pull.
  3. Roll out a thin sheet of the darkest purple (this will be the outmost peel). Wrap that around the white bulb. The thinner it is the better it will look. After the purple is added, reshape it to a bulbous shape again in case it lost its initial shape.
  4. With the needle tool, draw light lines or "veins" on the outer surface.
  5. Bake once done!
• Making the Inside/ chopped pieces (reference image o.3):
  1. To start off, shape out a teeny tear drop of the light tone. Wrap this in the mid tone followed by the darkest shade.
  2. Now roll out the light shade again but dont cover the entire tear drop (this is done to form the bulb shape and have a thin pointy top).
  3. Keep layered the light, mid and dark shades until you have the size of the onion you would like. The purple layers must be thinner than the whites.
  4. Once you are happy with the onion, slice it in half carefully. While doing this the lower side can flatten and squish a little but you can always fix that with the needle tool or the flat side of the blade. Bake~
  5. You can keep a half intact while chop the other into quarters to put alongside on the board.
• Shading:
  1. Well done on the layering! Luckily onions dont need any post bake shadings! Hurrah!!!

Step 5: Stew 🍲🍲🍲

Hello, mini chef! Welcome to the kitchen. We will be cooking some stew today!

1. Start off with fully baked some chopped veggies. As the vegetables are prebaked before shopping, make sure you remember to bake them all properly before this step.
2. Scoop a little gel wax onto a metal spoon. Hold the spoon over a tea candle and the gel will start melting.
3. Add some scraped brown and ochre pastel (I had some brown gel wax from a previous project which I used here).
4. Stir in the veggies into the now liquid gel. Add a pinch of black sand to make the spices or pepper. Gently pour it all into the stew pot.
5. TIP: Keep aside some chopped vegetables and dont mix them in. After pouring the gel in, you can place them gently on top to make sure the details are seen well.

Once you have this stew pot ready, you are all set for the final step.

Step 6: Assembly🧩🧩🧩

Good job on reaching the final and most rewarding step: the assembly.

• Take a wooden board to place the pieces over. While I used a piece of balsa sheet, you can use popsicle sticks stuck together or even a piece of hard cardboard if you don't have it.
• Before gluing the pieces down, take some time to play around with the elements and find a set up that you like. Alternatively you can craft you stew board similar to how I did it if you like.
• Embellishments: To add small details to make the entire scene more realistic and detailed, you can choose to add some of the following
  • You can position a little piece of waste cloth or paper towel on the handle of the pot or anywhere else you would like
  • You can place a teeny knife with the chopped veggies or a peeler with the potatoes
  • You can add some the peels from the potatoes or peels from the onions and alongside
  • Any other detailing you would like to add! Let me know if you get some ideas to make this better. I would love to hear from you all.

Have a look at this if you wanna see my assembly process!

Step 7: BONUS: Stew Recipe 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳

Simple Indian style chicken (skip this for vegetarian version) vegetable stew:

Recipe:

1. Chop and keep aside the vegetables like potato, carrot, beans or any other you want to add. For the chicken, you can marinate it with salt and turmeric for a few hours. Skip this if you prefer it blander.
2. Put a couple of spoons of vegetable/sunflower oil in the pressure cooker and let it heat up.
3. Add sliced onion and sauté till they become slightly transparent. Add a little crushed garlic or ginger garlic paste and mix it in for few minutes.
4. Once the color starts changing to brown, add the chicken pieces, cook for a few minutes till they being to change colors and dont seem raw anymore.
5. Now add in the cut vegetables into the pot and mix it in well. Cook for a few more minutes.
6. Add cumin and turmeric powder and salt. When spices and ingredients are mixed well, add some broth or even plain water to the pot.
7. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes. or for about 2-3 whistles.

Step 8: Enjoy~

Hey reader,

CONGRATULATIONS on completing this project!

Thank you for reading through this article and I hope you enjoyed and learn something from it. I would love to see how all of yours turn out. Also let me know if you have any doubts and I will be happy to help!

It was lovely to write an 'ible after almost three years! Academic and my miniature pursues have kept me so busy. You can check out my recent works on my Instagram page here. I'm looking forward to being regular and even making some video content to go with it!

Till then, Please do take care of yourself, your mental health, your family and the people around you. We will get through this.

Lots of love and hugs,

Ahona