It would be pretty nice if it were a Sunday, if only to have more time to make more maracons!
The past two weeks I've been working on 1:12 scale maracons & they've been infinitely easier to make than the 1:24 scale. Double the space & size for detailing, not to mention using far more reasonably-sized bits of clay. The 1:24 scale requires smidges of clay that are about 2.5mm by 5mm. These beauties use bits of clay around 5mm by 1mm.
My main focus has been experimenting with color combinations, since the larger sizes makes interesting details far easier to pull off. My first experiment of that
flavor were these peanut butter & chocolate swirl macarons, which turned out fall more intricately than I expected. I love the intense little swirl. They paired excellently with some simple chocolate with cream filling macarons that I'd made earlier in the week.
On the simple side of these, these pistachio green ones came out the most wonderful shade of green. I can see a great improvement in detail & consistency in these ones, though I do want to continue to improve my technique. Towards the end of the week, I shaped a few tools out of clay that I want to play with next week, to see if I can make more consistant and realistic feet on my macarons.
I also want to try ever more exotic color combinations. My favorites this week were probably these neapolitan macarons with their simple blending of cream & rose color clays.
I adore the way the gentle gradient on the pastry came out & love the way it pops against the darker filling.
The last ones I have to show off now were my most ambitious. Although I loved the idea, I think a few of my techniques were lacking, so I want to revisit this idea later, after some thought & practice.
These are meant to be toasted coconut with a toasted marshmallow filling. The filling came out pretty good for a first try, but the color layering I tried out on the pastry part fell far short of my goal. The brown shade darkened considerably from the raw clay color, so I'm going to experiment first to figure out what clay mix I need for the proper color and then play around with exactly how I want the color to mix.
Next week, I'm going to try more interesting techniques in this size, as well as circle back to the 1:24s & maybe try my hand at some 1:6 scale macarons. I really like the idea of going bigger to get ever more intricacy into my creations. I also hope that doing it on a larger scale will inspire me to figure out ways to translate the detail on a smaller scale.
Ultimately, I hope this practice pays off in helping me to create the most ridiculously whimsical macarons to be seen on this side of Wonderland. Time will tell!