Summer Cookies

I decorated cookies after almost a month. I don't know why but I didn't feel like it, so I just spend a lot of time watching Netflix and reading...

Finally I decided to make sample cookies for teaching. 

I teach small cookie classes at home, to 5 people at most. Most of the participants have some experience, so I make my classes interesting to them. This time, I put several techniques in the set of 4 cookies (two rectangles, an oval and a heart).

 

First, here's the colour formula.

*Ivory: Wilton Golden Yellow, Wilton Brown

*Coral: Wilton No Taste Red, (a tiny bit of) Wilton Golden Yellow

*Light Blue & Dark Blue: Wilton Royal Blue, CK Black, Wilton Kelly Green

*Grey: CK Black

<for painting>

*Coral (flower petals): Wilton No Taste Red

*Yellow (flower buds): Wilton Golden Yellow, Wilton No Taste Red

*Light Blue (leaves), detailed lines (feathers) : Wilton Royal Blue, CK Black,

I applied Raibow Dust Ivory Shimmer on almost everything, which gives them shiny finish and a bit yellowish shade.

 

 

I know most people outside Japan can get great variety of food colouring, but in Japan, it's very limited. For example, 10 or 12 colours from Wilton are available here. Therefore, I usually mix several colours to get what I want. 

The reason I use CK black, instead of Wilton Black, is Wilton Black is greenish, especially when I make grey. I also use bamboo charcoal powder as black colouring.

For the heart cookie, I painted flower petals and leaves, then piped. This is quite easy and I like how it looks. I used Wilton No Taste Red for flower petals and Wilton Royal Blue and CK Black for leaves.

 

 

The photo below was what I made 3 years ago.

Feathers. I painted detailed lines and add some colours, after the wet on wet feathers were dry. Actually, I'm not good at painting at all and I like piping much more than painting, but I decide to include this in my class because it is NOT difficult, even for me.

Shaved ice is made of white icing and granulated sugar.

For the oval cookie, I painted pale bluish colour and some ivory shimmer, and added tiny icing transfers of starfish and coral.

Last, I'll write about a few of what I watched and read last month.

 

The Serpent is a British crime drama serial developed by Mammoth Screen and commissioned by the BBC. The eight-part limited series is a co-production between BBC One and Netflix. It is based on the crimes of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who murdered young tourists between 1975–2000. The series stars Tahar Rahim in the lead role as Sobhraj.  (From Wikipedia)

He's definitely a psychopath but I wonder if this is a kind of hate crime toward western hippies. He socialized with them but it is obvious that heactually hate them. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he said something anti-orientalism.

Pachinko is the second novel by Korean-American author Min Jin Lee. Published in 2017, Pachinko is an epic historical Fiction novel following a Korean family who eventually immigrates to Japan. The character-driven tale features a large ensemble of characters who become subjected to issues of racism and stereotypes, among other events with historical origins in the 20th-century Korean experiences with Japan.^[1]

Pachinko was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction. Apple Inc.'s streaming service Apple TV+ has purchased the rights for a television adaptation of the novel. (From Wikipedia)

I knew about history and lives of Korean people that immigrated Japan around/after the WWII, but still it's interesting to know how they survived a lot of hardships.  However, I wonder why it's evaluated so highly as to be nominated for American National Book Award. It is definitely a great page turner, but I feel it is kind of melodramatic. I understand there were a lot of dramatic events, but... Also, it is a well known fact that most of Pachinko business in Japan is run by Koreans, but there are a lot of Koreans engaged in other business too, so why did everyone in the family end up in Pachinko business...?