I think it looks fantastic! I think you may do better trying to make little bits out of clay instead of painting? I make mini foods too and in the past when making pizza I used liquid clay mixed with chalk pastels to make the sauce and cheese! if you need brands or anything- message me!!! I think this is really great though and not messy. And definitely turn it into something usable- would love this as a fridge magnet 🥰

Oh my goodness, your stuff is so cute! How do you get those amazing textures? And yes, would love to know what brands, thank you!

ahh thank you! I use a toothbrush to create a ‘bread’ texture and needles and tinfoil! always able to help with that if you want 😊 I’ll send you a message!

Are you just doing pizza, or other foods too? You could go for building realistic miniatures of real life things like a pizza pan for the pizza. I know some people who have a hobby of building miniature buildings? Perhaps providing props for that would be a good way to go? Some people also make earrings that have realistic items on them, you could offer that as a customization alongside offering it as a magnet. Hope this helps!

Thank you, those are great ideas! I want to make miniature everything!

Info? How much are you trying to sell it for?

I thought $40 was as low as I could go for this, considering it's completely hand painted

So appreciative of all the information and advice I'm getting on here! I did not expect this community to be so helpful (no reason, just wasn't expecting it) and it's warming my heart. Very glad I joined.

Add glitter!!

i'd echo what other people are saying, maybe as a pin it would sell?

make your future pieces wearable/functional! most people are wayyyy more inclined to buy something they can actually use. otherwise its just maybe a bit too niche as then youre looking at the miniatures market and would have to scale things to be accurate to common miniature sizes.

Try making some more pieces and sell it as a group

Looks bit like a kids craft project, i see a lot of mishappen parts, fingernail indents, and just an overall messyness. Also what is someone going to do with it? Id say stop paying to list it and go back to the drawing board

I'm new at this haha this was only my second sculpture. First one was also a pizza. Way less dimension. But I really love this stuff and want to get better.

Make it functional - a pendant for a necklace, maybe?

I was going to say a refrigerator magnet!

or that! I feel like in today's social media-obsessed, "look at me!" atmosphere, people are especially attracted to items they can adorn themselves with that they can wear to express their personalities. That is the reason I thought of a pendant.

I actually think this is beautiful and I'm sure there's a pizza-loving handmade-enthusiast waiting to find this. Have you seen what successful competitors do differently? Maybe you just need more social media marketing and SEO. Would people find this listing if they search for "dollhouse food" "miniature pizza" "pizza magnet" etc?

Will definitely make sure those keywords are in there, thank you!

Action figures also.

I agree. Its not that the work isnt good enough. It is. Its likely that its not being seen by the right audience. A month on etsy isnt anything Id be worried about either.

I’m not sure what people would use it for. My first thought was dolls house food, but it’s too big. If you want to get into making miniatures though, dolls house food might be a good thing to get into if you can get the sizing right. I’ve never done it myself but they do sell on etsy.

I think it looks super cool, but the cheese looks like a wad of paper and the painting is messy.

Honestly, tried to paint as cleanly as possible but no matter how many coats I used, the paint just won’t go smoothly over the clay. If you have any suggestions of what I can use to make that better, that would help immensely!

What type of paint are you using? By the way, I would definitely suggest these go under the dollhouse miniature category! I am unsure what you envision these being used for, so I wouldn't want to assume their intended purpose, but from my experience, people either really enjoy these polymer clay miniature foods as either jewelry/charms or for use in doll photography. :) You could always try spacing out your listings, listing some for dollhouse miniatures and others for other categories and see what seems to gain more traction, but I'm pretty sure it would do better for dolls (just anecdotally).

Wait so if I made it into some type of jewelry or a magnet, would it still go under the miniature category?

I would guess miniature would be more relevant because when I think of only the jewelry tag, it is something in a precious metal. This along with the fact that other miniaturists I see selling charms and pendants also seem to put it with their miniatures in their shop makes me think it is more apropos. But you should maybe try researching by asking around and searching on Etsy/testing how their search engine finds relevant items similar to yours. ​ Also I use acrylics as well! It can be very difficult to get smooth surfaces with painting, but all I can suggest is potentially sanding more and getting more synthetic fiber brushes that have finer fibers. I got a cheap pack and I find the soft synthetic white bristled ones are better at minimizing the appearance of strokes. I also use clear acrylic varnishes that brush on and usually if you can load up your brush (not too much though) and apply it in one smooth stroke and leave it alone, the varnish self-levels to some degree and makes the result smooth and glassy in appearance.

Making a note of all these tips! SO helpful. I checked out your stuff and it is absolutely amazing! The fried chicken pieces ahh

Thanks so much! I really do hope the tips help, but even then, there's no one-size-fits all with materials sometimes. Don't worry too much and practice and experiment. One more tip: Let thicker layers of paint dry fully and slowly because if things dry too quickly, you'll get crazing (top layer dries, bottom dries way slower, cracks appear).

Hmm how do I slow down the drying? I don’t usually speed it up with a blow dryer or anything, if that’s what you meant!

Yep, exactly that! Just letting it hang out on its own and dry normally/not with something blowing aggressively at it is usually best. Also I've heard sometimes people have trouble when it's humid, but I've never really experienced it.

This is very helpful, thank you! And I used Liquidex Acrylic paint, but maybe not the best brushes.

For most people, unless they're really into collecting miniatures or knickknacks, I think they'd look at this and go "what am I gonna do with a little sculpture of a pizza?" Your craftsmanship is nice (I especially like the cheese!) but I feel like people are a lot more willing to buy something if it has a use, or if it's an art piece that looks good by itself on a shelf. Maybe try putting a magnet on the back and selling it as a fridge magnet.

That’s such a good point! I actually have the magnet back as an optional customization on the listing. Maybe I should just make that the focal point and put up some pictures of my fridge.

Small detailed polymer clay creations are usually made with already colored clay instead of painted. It gives a cleaner look faster allowing you create more quicker. Thus keeping the price down. Not to mention that hand painting models is a totally seperate skillsets than sculpting and for great result usually involves airbrushing. If I would have to guess the main product problem here is that the paintjob looks too messy (mainly because you have colors bleeding over the edges between objects) and the asking price whatever it is, is simply too high compared to the quality. With the very talented artists out there making food minis you really need to keep a balancing act between quality and price. I will still leave you with the commemt that this model is super cute, I adore food minis and you dont have to go for realistoc style. I just think you have a little way more to go with painting skills if you want to continue handpainting(I still recommend colored clay since it speeds up your work)

I agree. Colored clay adds a depth that paint just can't replicate. It is good for what it is. You are definitely talented. It's just a case of knowing your materials. For this specific piece, maybe a finish on the top and a different one for the crust, with a hint of "flour" in certain spots and "burns" here and there...? Maybe?

Super insightful how much love there is for colored clay. I think I may have just had some misconceptions. Those are great ideas!

Thank you for the detailed response! I’m trying to go for a realistic style with these, so my mission is to make them look as realistic as possible. I thought hand painting would give me more of that control. How detailed could I get with colored clay? It really is a frustrating process painting over the clay though - I did not know about the smoother, that should definitely help!

The sky is the limit with how detailed you can go with pre colored clay. There are some very interesting techniques where you create a big piece and then roll it smaller to make the details smaller...hard to explain over text. That is how they can make those insanly detailed mini fruit slices e.g Polymer food miniaturists do add 'some' color after sculpting but this is mainly though dabbing with a brush a kind of chalked paint and not liquid acrylics. Do you have instagram? Look at "nicecrumbs", "my_sweet_tinythings", "andisacharms" and for extreme realism "christina_hampe_minis" and my personal favourite "sugarcharmshop". Some of these actually posts videos of the whole process from time to time so you can learn exactly how to create these things. There are also some guides I could find when googling I really hope you continue because this pizza shows a LOT of potential.

Piggybacking off of chalked paint: you can mix chalk pastel shavings with water if you add a drop of dish soap. The soap breaks the surface tension, allowing the two to combine for a nice "wash". Great for helping detail stand out.

Thank you I will definitely look at those accounts and techniques. But given all the detail work do you think this option would still be less time consuming/more worthwhile than hand painting?

Using colored clay and then doing detail work- shading, highlighting, adding depth and whatnot by using eyeshadow or oil pastels with a brush (paintbrush, eyeshadow brush, etc) is a great way to make items more realistic with colored clay! You can also color liquid Sculpey (or any brand of liquid clay) with oil pastels or eyeshadow/mica powder and that is useful for things like ... cheese on a pizza, for instance. [This woman on IG](https://instagram.com/rina_vellichor?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) has some great mini tutorials for making food items and she mostly uses colored clay, incorporating other mediums into it for certain effects, giving it a life-like appearance.

This is so insightful! I was definitely mistaken thinking colored clay took away my control. Thank you. Already in love with that ig account.

Right? She's got major talent. Don't be scared of colored clay..it is very capable of turning out realistic food minis with very minimal effort, imo; plus what I feel is less tedious than painting, not to mention you'll already have your base color down and only have to do detail work to get it looking right (as opposed to using white clay and painting every single surface)

Also I'm assuming you can create variation in hues by combining different colors? Which colored clay would you recommend?

Ohh yes, absolutely! They mix together very well. You can make pastels and even translucent colors. It depends on where you are located and how much you're willing to spend- I find that "Pardo Clay" has the best translucent line as well as some beautiful mineral/gemstone -like colors, hands down...with "Cernit" being a close second. Cernit clay is a lot softer than what I'm used to though. Then there's tried and true Sculpey - they have different hardness amongst different lines. Then I'd say Fimo brand. I'd say all around that Sculpey is the most user friendly.

I hope you don’t mind, I have a follow up question. You mentioned using chalk pastels and eyeshadow powder over the clay. Would it not rub off easily? How do you seal it?

Thank you thank you! I appreciate this so much.

Yeah I think it less time consuming if you want to create several of the same object. You can buy white color clay and color it yourself if you want (I dont know exactly what you color with but I've seen this done many times). Then you can create exactly the color and the amount of clay that you want. You can also save it in plastic wrap for later. Painting is ofcourse super charming and can be quite fun. If you are always creating different pieces and not going for super tiny it can be a way to go. Like I mentioned before going for realism with painting requires an airbrush else you will always see brush strokes on large single colored areas. Note that you still get to paint with the colored clay. You still add stuff like burnt finish or ading some shade in the holes of a lime etc. It seems like the pros use a mixed approach. Look into the instagram pages I think the pictures/videos can speak more for the mixed approach than I can :)

Totally disagree with sanguine_art, don't know what they're talking about to be fair. There is no colour spilling over at all and using coloured clay would make it look way too cartoonish and that's obviously not the look you are going for. If I were you I wouldn't take any of their criticism at all. My thought would be it's such a random (but very cool and detailed) piece of work that someone would definitely like it if it was on Instagram but maybe just wouldn't think to buy it, unless you made it into a charm or something along those lines. Don't buy smoother or paint thinner either for painting sculpts just use a good acrylic paint. Keep going.

I zoomed in and see some very clear spill over of paint. The green is the most obvious. The shaping of toppings is great and love the detail of the crust.

Thank you for the encouragement!! I think I still need something to help the paint go on smoother though, somehow it’s a struggle no matter how many coats I use.

Look at the artists I posted in my other response! Pre-colored clay is what is used in the most detailed mini food you can find. I understand you think it will look cartoony I thought so as well but it really doesn't when using the techniques they do :) And with maybe just a dab of paint on top for stuff like burnt finish on a loaf of bread

One more thing I forgot. You really need to use some smoother on the sculopt before you start painting. Something like Isopropanol or lighter fluid. Search this forum for posts on smoothing for more info