“I have been and always shall be your friend.”  Oh, wait…

There have been and always will be people (not only artists) who choose to keep their so-called “trade secrets” on ice, closely guarded, and revealed only to those willing to be hunted down and dispatched by some Ninja assassin.  I have met a few of those in my almost two decades of life within the doll world.  I have also met people who generously give when asked, sharing their tips and tricks without hesitation.  I try to be the latter.

In that spirit, I am now going to impart my wisdom on 1:6 scale ice.  It took me awhile to gather the information as this is one of those tips that was closely guarded.  I had to do my own research, and it wasn’t easy.  Are you one of those people who, as a child, asked an adult how to spell a word only to be told to “go look it up”?  My thought, as I grabbed for the dictionary (not Google), was, “How do I look it up if I don’t know how it’s spelled?!”  The same catch 22 happens when you are trying to figure out what something is without knowing what it IS.

When you Google “1:6 scale ice cubes” or “ice cubes for dolls or action figures” or “dollhouse ice”, you will get a myriad of returns, including some rather unusual links and photos that will most certainly make you double-check what you typed into the search box.  You will find plenty of the stuff used for 1:6 scale ice for sale on Ebay and Etsy, but you will not find out what it really IS in TRW (the real world).  Well…you WILL find out.  Eventually.  I found out after several hours of searching.  I’m going to save you the trouble.

Most 1:6 scale ice cubes are nothing more than pellets and bits of acrylic/lucite/plastic marketed as Vase Filler.  Yep…you can find large, 1 lb. bags of it at craft stores and sometimes in floral shops.  Should you not require a pound or more of the stuff, you can find smaller, doll sized amounts in the OSS Etsy Store and from other sellers online.  The brand I use is Colorfill, and it is made up of tiny, rounded “cubes”.  They aren’t shaped like the ones we make in TRW with trays or the type that fall out of our freezer’s ice maker, but they are close enough, in my opinion.

Another alternative to these cubes, if you cannot find them or choose not to purchase them, is rock salt or “natural” salt in a coarse grind.  Rock salt can be used with some success in the 1:6 scale world.  It depends upon the project.  I use both the plastic and the salt in my miniatures.

Well, there ya go!  OSS wisdom imparted.

Coming up:  “When is a vase not a vase?”