PetitPlat Miniatures by Stephanie Kilgast

Elephant/Tree Hybrid + Come Over the New Blog!

2016-02-23T00:03:00.003+01:00

Just a reminder that I moved my blog a little while ago, so it is fully integrated with my website http://www.petitplat.fr/blog/
Best ways to follow me (pick your favorite!)
Bloglovin
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
I'm pretty sure some of you missed that news, so I might post a few reminders on this old blog, to be sure nobody is left behind ^^

Juste une petite note de rappel : j'ai déménagé mon blog pour l'intégrer sur mon site http://www.petitplat.fr/blog/
les meilleurs moyens de suivre mon travail :
Bloglovin
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
Je suis assez sûre que beaucoup d'entre vous on raté cette information, du coup je fais des petits rappels pour n'oublier personne :)

Hope you're all peachy!
xx
Stéphanie

PetitPlat Blog MOVED!

2015-10-05T22:13:00.001+02:00

Hello!

I moved my blog and got some help to redesign my website.
Now you will find my blog here : www.petitplat.fr/blog

See you there!

xx
Stéphanie

Miniature Haunted Gingerbread House

2015-10-01T18:18:00.002+02:00

Helloooo :)

I've been working my butt off making videos these past days, because it's quite fun!
So, quite exceptionnally I worked on a Halloween miniatures and because gingerbread houses are a big obsession of mine, I went for a tiny haunted house.
It's more cute than creepy, but I seem to be incapable (as of yet) to make creepy sculptures.
But enough blabbing, here the video and a few pictures on top!

xx
Stéphanie

Lunar Eclipse

2015-09-28T09:54:00.001+02:00

Lunar Eclipse

Gooood Morning!

So we got up at 3 in the morning to see the lunar eclipse. Without much hope we also took my camera and the 55-250 mm zoom with the tripod and my wide-angle lens.
We managed some ok shots, so that's good :)
But, frankly, the sky was much more beautiful in real. We went to a spot where there was hardly any light pollution (then again, even in the middle of Vannes, light pollution is rather low) and the sky was breath taking!
You could clearly see the milky way and we met with friends, so we had a nice chat and some cake while watching the stars. Heaven I tell you :)

Stars over the Morbihan Gulf

I never shot stars before, so I had a hard time to get the focus right until we just lit up a boat nearby with our flashlight to focus on that :)

xx
Stéphanie

un focused but kinda cool

too much noise but pretty anyway

the lunar eclipse ending

The Goal is in the Journey

2015-09-24T19:24:00.002+02:00

Octopus Sculpture, WIP, Stéphanie Kilgast

This year I've been fooling around a lot. My mother and many of you keep asking me if I'm changing my route, if I'm giving up on miniature food, or on jewelry and what the heck am I doing sculpting an octopus?

While all these questions may seem relevant to some point, I have a simple answer to all of those interrogations : I have no clue.
I don't know what I'm doing right now, I just follow a creative flow and am enjoying what comes out of it.
This year has been hard on me, but it pushed me out of my routine and I realized how fun it was to sculpt without any real goal or precise idea.

For quite some time, my main focus was to improve my miniature food. It was never good enough, it had to be done better and better. And I focused so much on sculpting the most accurate food that in the end I was driving in a circle. Until, quite by chance, I started the daily veggie challenge. Yes, that was still food, but a lot of unknown food, so a lot of thinking involved and a lot of joy trying new techniques and new approaches. Oh how I had missed the thrill of doing something unknown, without even realizing that hole.
And then came the burn-out and lots of time to work on my daily veggie challenge but also take over my blog again and ponder about life. Suddenly I had time to enjoy myself and not just run after fulfilling orders. So I did just that.
A sudden wish to make a sad face? there I went sculpting one, and a second and then finally the right one. Same for the psychedlic pineapples and my queen whale Valainistima.

All those projects that I would usually put in a notebook and work too little on, I could dive in one after the other, without pausing.
This is also the reason why I started a youtube channel, so I can sculpt crazy unsellable things but still have some kind of interaction on them and maybe some kind of income. (wish me luck haha)
I'd like to grow as an artist and I believe production is the key.

This is my journey, to follow the wishes that unfold between my hands.
Where will it lead? I'd like to know to, in the meantime I'm enjoying the heck out of it.
So please excuse me, an octopus is waiting for me to finish it's tentacles.

xx
Stéphanie

Watch me Sculpt Miniature Apples, A Time-Lapse Video

2015-09-21T14:08:00.002+02:00

Miniature Apples Sculpture

Helloooo!

I've been toying with the idea of making videos for youtube for quite some time now, and finally last week I dived in!

This is my very first video, so of course a lot of things could be improved. I tried and failed at not putting my head between the lens and my work, my hands are not always centered and I should have made a better job on the focus of the lens.
I'm still pretty proud of it :D
For the first video I didn't want to do something complicated as I had no clue how to even make a video, but I plan to make only very complex sculpts as videos. Hence I don't feel like orienting if towards tutorial videos but rather towards "watch art happening" footages :)

Without further blabbing and with some drumroooollll....
here the video!
Be sure to like and comment ;)

xx
Stéphanie

Psychedelic Pineapples

2015-09-17T09:19:00.001+02:00

Psychedelic Pineapples, you can also get the print in my redbubble shop

Creative processes are hard to explain because they're often very organic. They can take weeks, months even years without you even noticing it and suddenly it makes sense and you start.

For the first pineapple of the daily mini veggie challenge, I mixed a technique from Angie Scarr's, which uses caning and made said cane looking closely at a pineapple.

Day 65 - Pineapple

It was long and annoying but the result was cool. I liked it.
So much that I already thought I wanted to make different colored pineapples, just for the sheer joy of making miniature pineapples.
But I got lazy.
Sculpting a pineapple is tedious work.
Life went on.
And then came the black and pink pineapple.
Sometimes it all starts with an image.

Ananas Comosus, image from toptropicals.com

I was smitten.
And also lazy, again!
But a couple of weeks later, I was ready to sculpt it, this time from scratch. Tedious work, yes, but exhilarating at the same time.

Day 204 - Royal Hawaiian Pineapple

I had a blast.
And what happens when artists have a blast? They want more.
So next day I decided to make 3 more color combo.
A quick sketch.
I wanted to make a sort of very tiny wall sculpture. So I started fiddling around with textures for the background, until I found something I liked.

And on to the pineapples I went, sculpting madly and happily.
Putting everything together.
Sculpting the back, so I can hang it on the wall, like my sweet melons composition.

I'm not sure yet if I want to make a serie around psychedelic fruits and veggies or not. I'm afraid it's too much Andy Warhol like, and then again, I suppose it doesn't really matter, you sometimes need to go through different phases to find a fitting path.
What do you think?

xx
Stéphanie

Yes, you can buy it. It's not terribly expensive, but it doesn't fit (yet) anywhere in my shop, so if you're interested, just drop me an e-mail and I'll let you know how much it is :)

sk@petitplat.fr

Queen Whale Valainistima

2015-09-14T15:23:00.001+02:00

Valainistima, Whale Sculpture by Stéphanie Kilgast

Sooo I sculpted a whale. It was really fun! Not too sure why I felt inspired, but I know what inspired me. There's a small, modest, popular art competition on instagram and they have a weekly theme. (@the_art_competition)
Last week was "whales", and I really felt like sculpting a whale with corals so I went for it.
It is nice now to be able to sculpt what i wish, thank you, daily miniature veggie challenge for upping my sculpting skills!

I named my queen "Valainistima", which means "divine learning" in elvish.
I thought it fitting, as natural ecosystems are the only ones to work on earth. We still pretty much suck but change is starting. So be mindful of your environmental impact and let's celebrate nature's beauty, shall we?

Want it badly?
Drop me an e-mail at sk@petitplat.fr and I'll let you know how much she is :)

xx
Stéphanie

Ideals & Life Equilibrium

2015-09-07T15:55:00.001+02:00

Yin and Yang, miniature food sculpture, Stéphanie Kilgast

It is easy to drive yourself insane when you get too emotional.

But balance is everything, so bear with me and read this little tale.

Two months ago, I talked about the impact meat has on the environment. That's not a new topic to me and something I've been thinking about for a long time.

For us, the journey toward a more conscious food diet began about 2 years ago.
One fine day, the reality hit me in the heart and not just the rational mind and I decided three things : to buy primarily local food (preferably organic), to stop industrial meat and to reduce our meat intake.

You must know, we used to eat meat daily, for lunch and dinner. (oops)
Both of us have grown with the illusion that every meal should consist of animal protein (meat, fish or egg), vegetables and grains. So this is how I've been cooking since I left my mother at the age of 18. I would always have some kind of meat along vegetables and grains in my plate. It seemed balanced. I was healthy, taking care of getting all the needed nutrients, rarely sick, I was good.

So when changing our food habits, cooking without meat was a bit challenging, I spend hours on pinterest and the web to find vegetarian meals, learned to simply replace the meat with some sort of beans and acquired new found cooking and baking skills.
I'm not going to lie, it was exhilarating.
I have always loved cooking and I was discovering this huge world of vegetable cooking. My cuisine gained in level and tastiness.
I discovered veggie burgers and was sold. Veggie balls got me wondering how I've ever lived without them.
We still ate meat, but it wasn't much, and I had to order it every week before a certain day, (because it was especially prepared for me) resulting in logical memory lapse.
The once a week became once every two weeks, became once per month.

Now, if you ever went without meat for about a month and go back to meat, you might understand following. Meat is hard to digest. So when you don't eat it and after a couple weeks eat some, your stomach is uneasy. And it felt so silly... So one fine day I turned to JY and told him : "what about we just stop buying meat?"
He agreed and life went on.

But somehow something changed.
And I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but at some point I was watching vegan videos on youtube and there my doubts started to creep up and my ideals to become harder to manage.

More and more I was thinking I should stop it all and go vegan, or at least drop meat, fish and all animal products, especially dairy, which seemed to be the worse. (Forcing cows to have calves so we could drink their milk? That was too hard to bear.)
So I reduced, implemented more and more vegan meals in our diet.
And still I would watch those vegan youtube videos.
And I started to hate myself for still eating cheese, butter, pizza and croissants.
I felt like a hypocrite.
Knowing what would be best for the world and being too egoistical to actually make all the changes.
I started having trouble to sleep because my consciousness would not shut up.

This happened not so long ago, because this is what prompted me to write "The Impact of Meat".
And once it was written I felt better.
I had done more than just changing myself, I had shown the example and maybe (hopefully) others would eat less meat, making it a collective effort.
But I also got harder on myself, more vegan videos, more guilt building in myself ... up until a few weeks ago where I said, I need to stop dairy products.
And I tried.
And I failed.
And I felt miserable.

Luckily I have rational people around me. People who aren't as emotional as I get.
They know the impact our food choices have on the world. They know vegan is the best option.
Yet they still eat cheese, some even meat.
Because it makes them happy. Because they feel balanced like this.

And that's OK.

It is ok to enjoy life and not deprive yourself of everything for ideals.
Because if you feel it as deprivation, you won't be able to keep your diet in the long run.
Because it is your life and you will not save the world on your own.
To quote a very dear friend of mine :
you do what you can and what makes you feel good.
For some, it might be to eat meat 3 times per week, for some it is going vegan. For some it will be to eat chicken, but stop dairy. Some will have 2 vegan days per week.
To each its own.
The key is to question your habits, to reevaluate them and to change them accordingly.
But do not forget yourself.
Or you might have sleepless nights.
And that's just not fun.

xx
Stéphanie

Mexican Food Recipe, Black Beans Burritos

2015-09-03T17:21:00.000+02:00

Mexican Food, Miniature Sculpture

Hello :)

I adore burritos and wraps of any kind. Especially topped with guacamole.
Summer is the perfect season as tomatoes and bell peppers and in season. So I'm a tat late for this recipe, but you can always subside these vegetables with seasonal ones.
The recipe works with any vegetables and a can of tomato in winter too ;)

It's not very mexican I suppose, but this is how I make them and love them.

I use dry black beans and bring them from Berlin, as there are no black beans where I live.
I soak them overnight and cook them for about 2 hours at low temperature. If you have access to cans, by all means go for it. I tend to avoid cans as it's more packaging, but let's be honest, it makes live easier :) You probably could use lentils or chickpeas, but black beans have a peculiar flavor that matches mexican food perfectly. (no wonder ha!)

Since I'm a purist, because it's a lot cheaper and I don't want to eat refined palm oil (ecological disaster), I make the tortillas from scratch. I swear it's easy and delicious. I followed Brooklyn's recipe.

I used to love adding crème fraîche and cheese, but these days I rarely do and it's still pretty awesome.

Easy peasy tortillas

Wheat Tortillas
12 tortillas
- 350 g flour
- 1 1/4 tsp. table salt
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 235 mL water

Mix all ingredients together.
Put a pan on the stove and turn on medium-high heat.
Form about 12 balls of the dough and flatten each with a rolling pin on a flour covered working space.
Place your tortilla in the pan, when bubble form, flip!
Then repeat.
These are best warm but keep about 1 week in the refrigerator.

Guacamole
- 1 avocado
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1tsp tomato paste concentrate
spices to taste
(no idea how much I put it, I always taste until I like it)
- ground coriander
- ground cumin
- herbes de provence
- cayenne pepper (optional - if you like your food a bit spicy)
- salt
- pepper

Cut avocado, crush it and add lemon juice and tomato paste.
Slowly add spices and taste until satisfied.

The black bean goodness

Black Beans Burritos
(4 small servings - we are not big eaters, you might need to adjust)
- 100 g dry black beans (or about 240 g cooked/canned)
- 2-3 bell peppers
- 1 can of tomatoes (240 g)
- 1 big red onion
spices to taste
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp herbes de provence
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional - if you like your food a bit spicy)
- salt
- pepper

If you are using dry black beans, soak them overnight with 1 tsp each of coriander, cumin and paprika. Then cook for about 2 hours on low heat.

Dice onion and sautée until translucent.
Dice bell pepper and add to the onions, let them roast a bit.
Add tomato can and a glass of water.
Add spices, cover and let cook for about 10 minutes.
Check taste and adjust spices if necessary.

Snails get hungry too!

Sides
- lettuce
- tomatoes
- sweet corn can
- parsley
- crème fraîche / sour cream (optional)
- grated cheese (optional)

Dice tomato and parsley, grab the sweet corn can, grate the cheese.
Fill your tortilla to your liking, wrap, enjoy :)

xx
Stéphanie

Help me Continue Sculpting :)

Get the miniature sculpture

Get the Print

Mexican Food, Miniature Sculpture by Stephanie Kilgast

Finally Delicious Vegan Cookies!

2015-08-31T11:57:00.002+02:00

Vegan Cookie Board, find it in my shop

Hey Folks!

I'm quite excited about those cookies. Even though I'm not vegan nor following a plant based diet, I've been trying to make good vegan cookies for quite some time now and so far with mostly disappointing results.
Either the texture wasn't right or the taste meh.
The issue is that often vegan cookie recipe are "healthy" (which makes no sense) or "minimalistic" (which just doesn't work for me taste wise), or they use a lot coconut oil (which is crazy expensive), or they use odd things like chickpeas, beetroot or other veggies, and well. Nope, not working. (yes I tried)

Cookies however need to be fat and sugary, otherwise, just eat fruits and be done with it. I love fruit, but once in a while I want a decadent dessert.

Last Friday, while I was browsing Pinterest for yet another vegan recipe I fell upon "PPK’S Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows", which looked delicious and sounded promising (Cait found the recipe on PPK, so that would be the real original one).
A quick ingredients check and I was ready to go!
The raw dough tasted nice which is a good sign. It smelled nice too, even better!

Vegan Cookie Board, find it in my shop

Hop! In the oven, 15 minutes (I made mine a bit big), about 5 minutes of cooling and I could not resist I had to try.
Oh yes!
More!
Even JY approved! And that's huge, I usually would make real brownies, with butter and eggs and all the vegan baking I've made so far he... let's say he wasn't convinced.
But these cookies? Yup.

Vegan Cookie Board, find it in my shop

So here the recipe I used. I tweaked it a bit and it's in gram as I use a balance and not cups.

Also I have to admit I didn't make the cookies really vegan as I used honey (gasp!), but then honey makers keep the bee population alive, so I actually rather encourage honey consumption, at least in Europe, no clue how it's elsewhere.

The real deal :)

Chocolate dough
- 110 g nut oil (I used peanut, but canola or sunflower would work too)
- 200 g sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
- 5-6 tbsp vegetable milk (I used rice milk)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g flour (I mixed whole wheat and white flour, for frenchies : 80 g of T150 + 120 g of T65)
- 60 cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt

Filling
- 170 g peanut butter
- 60 g honey (for real vegan : sugar and a bit of vegetable milk)
- pinch of salt (my peanut butter was unsalted so well)

For the chocolate dough, mix the oil, sugar, milk and vanilla extract into a smooth paste.
Add flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Mix until you have a moist dough, adding vegetable milk if it seems too dry.

For the filling, mix the peanut butter (+ pinch of salt if unsalted) and the honey (or sugar and vegetable milk) until you have a nice consistency.

Now to the messy part.
If you have the patience, divide both doughs in equal parts, about 20 of each.
Roll those into balls.
Flatten the chocolate ball, put the peanut ball on top and fold in.
You want to have the peanut inside the chocolate dough, but don't worry if it's not perfect.
I even tried a few marbled ones, that worked as well.

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C (350°F) and bake for about 10-15 minutes. Always check, as oven vary greatly.
Let cool.
Bon appétit!
Best eaten when warm but still delicious cold :)

And if you fancy the miniature cookie board, it is in my shop :)

xx
Stéphanie

Our Awesome and Unfinished Home

2015-08-27T11:41:00.001+02:00

Sunshine in our Kitchen

Hello! :)

It is raining here, hence we can't go to the beach sooooo we're working on our home, which is rare enough.
We got the place last year around May, and it was fit to live in (still is) but you always have minor decoration changes to make and also (minor and major) issues to solve.
Right now, we have one (still) unresolved very small leak on the wall in the kitchen. JY has bettered the issue greatly, but it's not quite resolved yet. The floor in our bedroom needs to be changed.
The bedroom upstairs is being painted white for more luminosity and the floor also needs to be changed there...
I could make a longer list, but the rest is really details and not much of a problem.

Ok, so let's dive into what we already did!
The main door used to be a ... a... sort of beige/brown aged mix and recently in London, I finally knew it had to be yellow to fit our terra cotta floor.
The hexagonal mirrors I added a while ago. And also the curtain you see on your left.

the door before

the door after (still needs a second coating of yellow)

The bathroom has been painted white (last year though), it used to be an aged ochre kind of thing. It looked too roman and antiqu-y to me, and I love white walls.
The door you see on the right shelf was broken, so we removed it, the basket were from the people living here before. JY put the curtain rods up about 1 month ago and yesterday I finally started the curtains. The middle rod isn't put up yet.

before we moved in, the shelf door on the right was broken

walls painted in white

curtains being added

The bathroom isn't quite finished yet, but I prefer it. I'm guessing from the picture you might prefer the first one, but again, we had NO baskets and NO door, so it looked meh.
Here another picture to better grasp the color feel of the bathroom now, as it's a bit hard to photograph. The bathroom has no natural light, so the bright yellow curtain brings a lot of cheer into it. Gah now I'm justifying my personal choices...

All that sewing transformed our dinning table (temporarily) into a sewing table

The upper bedroom is being painted white and we'll probably do something fun on the walls there, not sure what yet. We also want to change the floor and the curtains. No real rush though.

And for the sheer joy of it, a global picture of the upper floor.
As you can see on the left, those before us who painted the walls, stopped in mid-track. They did that kind of thing in various places, starting well and then at some point, they must have said "f*ck this, I want to read a book" and stopped :D
The small stairs look awful, we need to remove that old carpet, sand the stairs and put something else there, or just paint. We can't be bothered yet though.
You can also see on the right a blue thing, that's my yoga mat! As I practice sport almost daily, be it exercises or yoga.

Ok, this was a small tour of a not-decor-magazine-fit home :)

xx
Stéphanie

Behind the Scenes of 'Sweet Summer Melons'

2015-08-24T14:31:00.002+02:00

Sweet Melons, Miniature Wall Sculpture by Stéphanie Kilgast

Hello :)

Today a bit of the so called creative process, which really is just how I work :D

While browsing for fruit and vegetables for my daily miniature veggie challenge, (which is a bit on hold right now, but I'll get back to it) I stumbled upon this beautiful picture by Iain Bagwell:

Summer Melons by Ian Bagwell

Needless to say, I went into a melon and watermelon sculpting mode for the daily challenge.
Lots of juicy fun and it also made me eat more melon during summer than I ever did. Watermelon + melon charentais + nectarine has been a (almost) daily fruit salad. Yum!

Various Miniature Melons and Watermelons by Stephanie Kilgast, all part of the dailyminiveggie challenge.

It was juicy (huhu) and fun, and the image of the melon composition kept getting back into my head.
So I made a few melons and put them aside for a bigger composition.

I needed a background and wanted this composition to be able to hang from a wall.
A few sketches for a rough idea how to make this.

The background had to be polymer clay, so the whole piece would be clay 'soldered' instead of glued.
I liked the blue background well enough and so I went for an aged wood.
Btw, want a tutorial about the aged wood made from clay? If yes, say so below ;)

Anyway, so I had the melons, I had the background, I had this beautiful picture of Ian Bagwell, and this is the result.
I put it in my shop, too. Not sure if it'll sell, but it sure was a fun thing to do :)

xx
Stéphanie

Sweet Summer Melons by Stéphanie Kilgast

London Trip

2015-08-20T17:43:00.003+02:00

Big Ben, London

Hello Boys and Girls!

We arrived back from London yesterday night and we've been through our pictures today.
As usual, London was cool, my partner in crime actually really liked the city and wants to go back there already. Yay! I very much like London, mainly because of the brick buildings, the artsy feel and the politeness of the people.

We mainly stayed in the center, as JY needed to see the usual famous buildings :)

Natural History Museum, London

Westminster Cathedral / Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Gherkin by Lord Norman Foster

We also glimpsed a bit of street art, that was around the national theater. The building itself is rather ahem... let's say rough. Lots of concrete cubes, so to speak. But all around on the building, street art!

Street Art on National Theatre London

Street Art on National Theatre London, Grems 2013

Street Art on National Theatre London

On top of the national theater is a lovely garden/terrace, which reminded me of the feel you can get in Berlin. There are a few veggie plots on top and it's kept by volunteers.

Terrace on top of National Theatre London

There also was a guy making a huge sand sculpture. Yes, the Thames has some kind of small beach :D

Street Art, Sand Sculpture

I wanted to go back to the Tate Modern Museum as I very much like the mood there.
I discovered a painting I quite feel in love with from Ibrahim El Salahi, but took a few more pictures of art I enjoyed.

Ibrahim El Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams, 1961-5, Tate Modern, London

Hedda Sterne - NY, NY No. X 1948 - Tate Modern, London

Nicolas Hlobo, right : Lingcamango 2010, left : Ikhonkco 2010,
ribbon stitches on paper, Tate Modern, London

Fun Art Prints, Tate Modern, London

Victor Pasmore, Synthetic Construction, 1965-6

Kandinsky, Tate Modern, London

The shot went well, although it was a bit exhausting on the second day.

Well, that's more or less it :)
xx
Stéphanie

More posts about London:
London Love (2013)
London (2011)

Sunny Pause from my Daily Challenge

2015-08-12T21:18:00.000+02:00

Sunny Pause from my Daily Challenge
Sunny Pause, Miniature Food Sculpture, Stépahnie Kilgast

Hey :)

Soooo... after some thinking, I decided to take some days off from my dailyminiveggie challenge.
Why (you lazy butt)? you might ask.
So far I've been making one fruit or vegetable every day...
even ...
when I'm not home.
(duuuh great idea, Steph, great idea!)

But due to the particular nature of my work, I cannot sculpt miniatures on the go, like one could make a drawing or painting on the go. So whenever I knew I'd be away, I would sculpt in advance all the fruit and vegetables, photograph them and schedule the posts...
Driving myself nuts with stress at the same time.
And this, my dear friends, is just plain silly.

When I started this daily challenge, the idea was to go as long as I felt like it.
I remember thinking 100 days would be a good goal, but people immediately thought it'd be for the whole of 2015, so I went with that.
The idea was also to show how appetizing fruit and vegetables can be.
And last, but certainly not least, the idea was to get a creative push and also to up my sculpting skills.
The goal was certainly not to drive me nuts, finishing in the middle of the night vegetables and fruit in advance.

So far the challenge already brought me lots :
It helped me focus on what I like the most, sculpting.
It helped me not go into january and february depression.
I got rid of the money question, as I sculpt for fun.
It pushed me closer to art.
So it's good. I like this challenge. I'm happy I started it.

That being said, why take a few days off now?
I'm going to London on Friday.
It's about my work, there will be an interview and some videos. Not too sure how much I can tell, so you'll have to wait for now.
Originally, I had planned to sculpt 8 fruit and veggies in advance between today and tomorrow.
Alas, this morning I sculpted for a wholesale order for a german shop and this afternoon... I went to the beach :D

So there!
The challenge will have to wait.

I hope you don't mind :)

xx
Stéphanie

Miniature Sculptures of Delicious Plants

2015-08-10T18:48:00.001+02:00

Mexican Food, work in progress

Hello!

These days, I've been working on an art series around edible plants.
After a bit of thinking, I came up with a rather simple idea to hang the arrangements on a wall.
Basically some stainless wire integrated in the clay.
Because yes, the whole composition is only made of polymer clay. Pretty fun. I wanted to be certain the composition stays in place and doesn't fall down.

Jeté de Melons

For the melon composition I went with a faux wood in blue. but for the psychedelic pineapples I tried some textures and ended up with something that looks a bit like fabric. (hence a bit like a canvas)

Psychedelic PIneapples

I have two more planned on which I am working on. Two recipes, one will be mexican food and the other a veggie "bolognese".
Basically just recipes I love doing at home.
Below how far I've come for the mexican food. A few things are still missing, like tomatoes and probably a sort of pan with the cooked food.
So far, food photography is a big inspiration and also my daily miniature veggie challenge.

Mexican food, work in progress

The idea is to make a few more and I'll try to contact art galleries with these.
If you have any good suggestions of galleries who would showcase that kind of work AND also be able to sell it, let me know below. So far my favorite galleries are all in the US... argh. Not a great idea I suppose.
Ah well, this is all so new to me, I'm just focusing on creating things and I'll try to market them in a second step. Exciting new times ahead :)

xx
Stéphanie

Jeté de Melons

Psychedelic Pineapples

Atelier Tour

2015-08-06T10:52:00.000+02:00

Hey :)

Today a little tour in my safe place, the atelier.
It actually also is our living room and where we sometimes eat in front of tv shows. (don't do that, you should eat at a table! ahem...)
Speaking of TV shows we started watching Mr Robot, it's a fresh new show and season 1 isn't even finished yet, but by all means, put it on your list. It is one of the best shows I've seen in a while and I am a big games of throne addict and have also loved Sherlock Holmes. (too funny huhu)
While we're at it, I just did not enjoy True Detective at all, it was just gloom on top of gloom with a dash of depression and bad mood. Yikes. And I can't get into House of Cards, but I'm guessing it's mainly because I despise that part of our society. So I'm totally biased.

Anyway! Atelier!
This place with high ceilings is what pushed us to choose this particular house and it is one of the things I'm happy about daily.
Seriously when I saw this space, I was smitten. Tons of natural light and volume, exactly what I've always dreamed about.
I never actually made a house tour, because well, I'm not a home decorator and I tend to not clean or tidy up to often. But here a little peak at our roof and all the light that comes in.
On the picture you see an open space behind the glass and then another home. Those are our neighbors and we have our terraces back to back.

Just beneath and on the whole wall we have a big shelving unit that those before us build in. Which is great as we're book worms.

Since there is some space, I arranged books with pieces of art. Just beneath you can see three of the rare real art I possess. One mountain sculpture by Frank Duclos, one emotion babushka "Freedom" from Artmind and next to it a tiny cat that Leslie J. Blackford just gave me :)
The boat is a kit JY brought from Korea and made himself, next to it is a mask I sculpted as a teen in a theater group, the abandoned kitchen is still a work in progress and I have a couple of tiny bjds in front of books.

As it is my main creative work right now, the miniature veggies are always out somehow.
I'm still rather unsure what to do with these and I have different ideas that are popping into my mind, so I'll see how that goes :)

My working space itself is never tidy. I try sometimes to clean it up, but it stays nice 30 minutes tops. Unless I go on holidays and have the courage to clean up before leaving. (which, let's just face, is rare)
You can see two tiles I'm working on and two miniature recipes in progress.
I also have too many canes that are taking dust. I need to get a new air tight container to put them aside, as all those I have are filled.
There's also a tile-palette that I stopped bothering cleaning at some point. I used to remove the paint and throw it away every time. Nuts.

Here a peek on how I store my clay, plastic containers that are not eaten by clay (PE5) and classed by color. Some containers only have canes in them and one is dedicated to the very translucent mixes.

Finally two more pictures of my main table. Filled with boxes, drawers and general coolness.
Hope you enjoyed the trip and let me know if you want to see my not magazine worthy, yet still pretty awesome, home :)

xx
Stéphanie

Don't Feed the Trolls They Say

2015-08-03T15:54:00.002+02:00

Totally another print!

Don't feed the trolls they say, I say, turn them into art and make them beautiful again.
Also I'm having too much fun right now making veggie trolls, so that's reason enough for me. :)

Mean anonymous comment on my post "Art and the Sweet Trolls of Internet"
"You whine too much, you have a giant ego that doesn't match your talent, fly down. Nobody would spend 400 euros for a table with nothing. People don't have to pay for your egotistical mania. And now go cry to your mama."

Shall I justify myself? Nope. I know I don't have a giant ego, and I know I don't whine. So pah.

xx
Stéphanie

Art and The Sweet Trolls of the Internet

2015-08-03T11:14:00.000+02:00

Sweet Internet Troll
Hey I made a Print, get it here.

So I faced a troll this morning.
And I'd like to openly speak my mind, because it's kind of therapeutic for me (hey I work alone from home and my cats are cute but not chatty haha) but also (and more importantly) because this happens every day for many other artists, and it's getting a little tiring.

So, an anonymous troll commented following on my "So I cried at the SIMP" blog post :
"You are a piece of shit .. 400 fucking euros for a miniature table? You think you are an artist? Like who? Michelangelo?"

....
Aaaaah! What a GREAT way to start the day!

Beforehand I'd like to state that I'm fine. I actually laughed when reading the comment, especially since I'm not tired, nor exhausted, nor especially sad right. (here to taking long breaks!)
So let's dive in, shall we?
I'll first talk about art, so we're on the same page.

ART?
What is Art? Wide subject, isn't it?
After a lot of thinking about it, (since I studied art in university, so about 10 years ago) I define art in two ways. It's my personal definition, you are most free to think otherwise. Frankly defining art would take writing a book. But for me it is something created by a human with some kind of skill and has at least one of these two characteristics :
1 - It makes you Think
The art that will make you think and that is the point of view of the artist on our world.
It is about story, about pushing the viewer to reflect on his choices or the world.
Ourdays a lot of street art actually falls into that category. As it's often an open critique to capitalism or our society.
This is what I'm (very modestly) trying to do through my latest work on the impact of meat and also my daily fruit and veggie challenge.
2 - It is beautiful
The art that is skilled and has a visual impact on you, it makes you happy or emotional but just because it's visually striking.
Kandinsky and Vermeer are good examples for me, but I'm sure you have others.
Again a lot of street art is "just" visually striking, but also yarn bombing falls in that category.
In a way that's most of my work, as I just try to sculpt in the most realistic way and well... make it pretty.

Artist = artist?
Now, now... Is really a Kandinsky and little old me to put on the same shelf?
Heck no!!
There are all kind of artists in the world, some will have a huge impact on the world and future generations, like Michelangelo, Picasso, Vermeer, Rothko, Marcel Duchamp (yikes I totally dislike his work btw), Malevitch (White square on white square from 1918 anyone?), Dali, Pollock, Yves Klein, and so on.

And then there are all the popular artists that will cheer up your day with modest pieces of art, sometimes colorful, sometimes gloomy, sometimes abstract, sometimes realistic. Nobody knows if these will have much impact on the world or future generations, but it's likely the impact will stay in the present and quite small.
And this is where I put myself along most street artists, illustration artists, jewelry artists, miniature artists and actually most artists I'm following right now on IG.

PRICE?
Creation takes time (no kidding!) a lot of time to be precise.
But time isn't all, you also need skills and let's just say it out flat... talent.
I have been teaching now and again and no matter how precise your explanations are, some people have more ease to sculpt in miniature than others. Maybe it's because they like it more, maybe it's something else, fact is, not anyone can do anything with the same amount of skill.

But let's get back to Michelangelo, shall we?
Michelangelo Artwork sells of for hundred of millions.
This one sold for an exact 300 million $, and I actually think it's a bit cheap haha :D
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8057148/300m-Michelangelo-painting-found-behind-sofa.html

I'm following a lot of small artists right now, so I have a fairly good idea of their pricing, and let me tell you it often ranges between 500 and 10.000€
I'm talking here about small, relatively unknown (as of yet) contemporary artists.
Because if you look at the stuff from Damien Hirst, Lullaby Spring sold for 11 million of pounds (and it's basically just a stack of pills) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/hirstonomics-how-damien-hirst-became-a-cash-cow-again-8874714.html

Now, now, do I resent Damien Hirst for selling for so much money? Of course not. I mostly don't care really.
But sure, I'd love to sell my stuff for so much money. I take that and change the world in a heart beat. I'd invest money in education, in helping people change their habits, cleaning the ocean and what not.
AND I would not have to wonder if I'll ever be able to reimburse our house loan.

But I digress.

Price is just the mean to say :

"So I worked on this and it's my job, it took time and skill and I settled on (insert your fair price) so I can continue making what I do best : create"

Too pricey? I know the feeling, I'd probably be swamped by art if I had limitless money. Heck I'd have a full Kilgast Foundation of popular, colorful art. *dreams*

But really now :

Art is pricey? No it's just another job.
Artists also need money to eat and live.
And most art you can enjoy for free, by only viewing it online.

soooo...

WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY?

I recently saw a very good serie on youtube about trolls and what the author calls "angry jack".
If you have the time, I strongly encourage you to watch it, as I'm pretty sure most of you have encountered angry jacks in your life.
To make it short, it says that people get angry when they are faced with people who made tough decisions that are better (or at least feel better) then what they do themselves, thus placing them in the position of the "bad guy".
For instance, if someone says "I'm vegan", as a non vegan carnist, you might feel like you are a bad guy and instead of reflecting on your own choices or on what other good things you do or could do, it makes you angry as (most likely) you are not a bad person, but the simple "I'm vegan" from the other one makes you feel like you were.

Anyway!
Back to our trolls.
When someone tells an artist "you are a piece of shit, this is too expensive", why do they do that?
Here are some possible answers.
Trolls rarely self reflect and go into a rational argument, so I really have no clue if these apply or if there is some other mysterious reason.

Product vs. Making of said Product
Some of my followers tell me it's because people our-days are not used to think about the making of a product but just the product itself and it's immediate use. They don't wonder, where does my dress come from? Who did this? Where children involved? Is the milk I drink from a happy cow? Who made the pair of earrings that I just bought?
Society has involved into a society of supply. People want something, they go in a shop and buy it. Everything is done to cut the link between the actual maker/producer and the one who is going to use it. Hence why people, unless they stop and think about it, never realize what it takes for a bottle of milk, a cotton dress or a pair of earrings.

Jealousy
Some people tell me it's jealousy, be it jealousy from a fellow artist who doesn't do as well, or jealousy from a random person who is unhappy with its own life.
Jealousy is powerful because it's often irrational. You resent someone else's success, instead of focusing on your own life. You see that someone makes a living from something you think is silly and you shout how unfair it is, that you totally deserve as much if not more success because what you do has meaning.

Righteousness
Probably the worst of all and the first step to any kind of extremism. Some people see the life through a particular lens, and so everything that doesn't fit their scheme is wrong, and thus people who don't fit that scheme must be blamed over and over again until they change their mind and behavior. You see that a lot against homosexuals but also in most religions, you'll always have a handful of extremists that will tell you how you are supposed to live.
Here I'd like to add that some behaviors are wrong no matter your point of view. If someone or an animal gets harmed, beaten, abused, that is always wrong, and that should be addressed. But if someone prefers blue over pink? Heck, let them live.

That's all I can think off.
I realize the post has gotten a bigger dimension that what I had initially planned, but that's me all blabbing my mind aloud!

To keep it short and sweet :

If you don't like it and it doesn't harm anyone, just pass your way.

Be nice, so people can be nice to you as well.

Anything to add about art or angry people? Feel free to comment below :)
xx
Stéphanie

Prints & Posters

2015-07-29T12:24:00.001+02:00

Hello :)

I've been asked for prints for quite a while now, so I've uploaded a few of my favorite pictures in my redbubble shop.
I ooicked a couple of days from my daily miniature fruit and veggie challenge but also a few compositions.
It is likely I'll add new compositions and artwork when I do new things.

Prices are very different depending on the quality of paper you choose or if you go nuts and get a huge canvas print. I'm assuming most people will stick with smaller versions, as it's just easier to deal with in a normal sized home :D

I would totally see a trio of veggies in a kitchen and I think I'll order the 200 days picture for myself soonish.

Anyway!
I hope you are happy with these and let me know if there's a picture you'd like as print and I'll upload it to my redbubble shop :)

xx
Stéphanie

Be Fair, Buy Fair or With Power Comes Responsibility

2015-07-27T12:16:00.001+02:00

Happy Cow

Yesterday I saw an Arte film about Murat Kurnaz, a turk who spent 5 years in Guantanamo although he was innocent. A very tough film that needs to be seen.
But what brought me to tears was a peculiar moment of the film.
In his cell came daily a little lizard.
Murat starts to tame the lizard which becomes his friend.
And this is were it becomes really devious (as if it wasn't already enough) as the US investigator commands Murat to kill the lizard because you are not allowed to have pets in the prison. After this follows a very long scene where Murat basically is tortured in an isolated cell and goes on a hunger strike.
The strike and the isolation takes about 2 months and the investigator brings the lizard for Murat to kill it. Which eventually he does, crying (as I did and actually still do right that moment when writing this) as he has no other chance of survival.

And I just can't grasp my mind around this. You torture humans, which is bad enough, but killing another living being just to torture another one? I mean, how bad can humans go?

I'm aware that people kill each other because they disagree (religion wars, hello!) or because they want more stuff (territory, money, heck humans) and I do wonder if humans all have a psychopathic tendency which allows them to stop caring at some point.

Which is a paradox, as the more power you have, the more you should care.

Humans have never had so much power, be it on other humans, animals or the very ground we are standing on.
Yet responsibility is still lacking.
Slaves still exists, women and kids are oppressed, humans and animals are exploited to get low prices.
How is this relevant?
Because you partially do have a power to make a change.
Be the change you want to see by checking what you buy, what you use, where the stuff you want comes from, be it the eggs, the milk, the sundress, the bag or your car.

No, you don't want a cheap shirt that has been made by exploiting a kid on the other side of the earth. Because that kid should go to school. Knowledge is power and knowledge can help better human's conditions.
And no, you do not want milk or cheese that comes from a factory farm where cows are badly treated as objects and seen as a numbers with a percentage of losses. You would not want to hurt a cow, so why encourage such farming?
And nope, you do not want that cheap chocolate, that probably was made exploiting humans into only work, no play and bad pay.
And those cheap eggs you buy per dozen? Putting chickens in a a small cage where they suffer their entire existence, never seeing the outside world, their feet cramped onto grills? Nope, you would not want to live like this, so why impose it on others? Get some local eggs from a farmer you know treats its chickens with respect.
You don't beat your pets either.

Fair wages you say? Yes, that should be the rule, but it sadly isn't, so we have to actually check if it's "fair trade". What an absurdity!
Every trade should be fair and it is not, it's not even in France.
Right now farmers are striking as they are not paid enough for their produce.

So please buy fair as much as you can.
This should be the rule, not the exception.
Too expensive you say? I know, I have cut dramatically my intake of cheese as I can't afford as much fairly made cheese. I stopped meat partially because of that (and also partially because meat is the worst for the environment).
And yes, of course some people just can't afford buying fair. Why? Because they themselves are not paid fair...
The sooner we start caring again about humans, animals and the earth again, the sooner we can straighten our course.

read more :
The impact of Meat
Slavery footprint
Ecouterre (fair fashion)
Fair Food Matters

and if you have more articles that are relevant or any rotten tomato to throw at my face, be my guest below.
xx
Stéphanie

Emotions and Business

2015-07-22T09:40:00.000+02:00

Exotic Fruit

I've been fairly busy this last Christmas, and by fairly I mean exhaustingly too busy.
So I needed a break, a big one, bigger than I thought, since I took a month of break. I still sculpted almost daily for my daily miniature veggie challenge, but that was good. Sculpting is fun and it helps me recover.
I think I hit a low at the SIMP miniature fair when I cried.
That also made me realize I wanted to push my work in another direction and put some meaning into in, so I talked about something that has been on my mind for a very long time : meat production.
On a more joyous note I also turned 30 on the exact same day when I sculpted my 200th miniature veggie/fruit sculpture.

BUT! Now I feel much better and I'm ready to tackle selling and sending again.
I've revamped my shop a bit, added a multitude of new miniatures as well and overall changed a few pictures and have started changing some description.
I'm actually not quite ready, but what is left to do are mere details.
And today, after I've been working for a good week, my shop is back online! :)

Below a few pictures of my new miniatures.
xx
Stéphanie

30 years and 200 days of the Veggie Challenge

2015-07-19T11:33:00.000+02:00

200 miniature fruit and veggies

Hello!

It almost seems to good to be true, but today marks the 200th day of my daily miniature veggie challenge and also the day I'm turning 30!

The Daily Miniature Veggie Challenge
During the year of 2015 marks, I started to sculpt miniature veggies and fruit daily.
This picture shows the 200 mark.
All sculptures are made using polymer clay.

I started this challenge for mainly two reasons, first because I wanted to make a daily art challenge for years and hadn't found any good subject yet.
Secondly, and more importantly, because people often state they don't like vegetables and I wanted to show the sheer variety of edible plants found on Earth.
I shoot photographs of every single vegetable and fruit and post them on dailyminiveggie.tumblr.com.

30 years old.
That's two times 15.
At 15 my life was ahem... How shall I put it? Pretty boring. No real passion, no love life, and friends? Well, most kids would only stay 3 years at my school, because it was a french school in Germany and most parents 3 years contracts. Not fun, I gave up making friends at some point and got extra picky. If you are my friend and I told you I love you, be sure that means something. I don't love friends easily.
Frankly I was a bit miserable. No point dwelling on that part of my life.
When I turned 20, I was scared because I wasn't feeling "adult" (whatever that means) and thus I felt it was about time to behave like one. I gave up trying since then :)
I was also scared because I had no clue what I'd grew up in, no idea what I would become or what I'd make with my life.
It was ok, but still not great.

30 though? Awesome.
I have the coolest job on earth, a pretty cute and nice partner in crime, two lovingly annoying cats and heck, I live in the most amazing home. Oh and I work from home too! There's also the sea nearby. Sometimes I think this is just too much luck for one person, but you know what? I'm enjoying the heck out of it!
I am content with my life, I know my weaknesses and strengths and I have probably never been as beautiful and confident as I am right now.

Mark my words.
30 is perfect.

xx
Stéphanie

Photography and Composition

2015-07-15T11:36:00.001+02:00

One thing I realized about myself and my work this year, thanks to my daily miniature veggie challenge, is that I loooove using all the fruit and vegetables I'm sculpting daily to compose images for various occasions.
My mother (and many of you as well) is convinced I could sell them, so maybe this is an opportunity and I'm just too lazy to make it properly.
The pictures I made so far were shot with my phone and posted on Instagram, so I can't use these to make prints yet, but I feel it's an interesting turn of my work. Another one that was unexpected.

Actually, photography never was something I was interested in, but working on my own photography for years now, I learned to enjoy composing.
Another point which is very enjoyable is the "no glue" factor of my compositions. I sculpt single vegetables and fruit and I just put them into place before photographing them. I don't have to wonder how to make them stick together and also don't have to actually glue them to place.
I have what you could call a mild glue-phobia. I don't like when my work is set into place, one of the main reason I'm very slow at composing anything because once it's set it can't be undone.
We could dive into my dark psyche to understand why I don't like to set things in stone and also why I will never marry, but hm, nope, maybe another time, maybe never.

Not gluing my sculptures also gives me the ability to re-use them over and over again, so I can take hours to make just one pineapple, but it's ok as I can use it several times in photography.

Actually writing this makes me realize I probably ought to clearly send my work a little more along those lines :)
So be prepared to get prints I suppose!
I'll leave you with the pictures I made so far on my Instagram account,

stay healthy,
xx
Stéphanie

Women's Day, view on IG

20 days on miniature veggies, view on IG

International No Meat Day, view on IG

Easter, view on IG

World Environment Day, view on IG

Tour de France in Vannes, view on IG

French National Day, view on IG

The Environmental Impact of Meat

2015-07-11T14:27:00.000+02:00

"Heavy Meat"
Meat has more impact on the environment than vegetables or grains.
Eat less or no meat and more veggies.

Oh boy.
There we go.
Let's shall dive in without any kind of introduction, as I don't find the right words for it anyway.

We eat too much meat and dairy and this has become unsustainable for our environment.

Why do we eat so much?

Mainly two reasons.
1. We have never been so many humans on earth : 7 billions. That's a lot. (So much I'm considering not having kids right now. There I said it. Not today's debate though.)
2. As countries became richer, the place of meat and animal products in our diet raised.
More demand in meat resulted in so called factory farming, where the animal density is high and production of meat fast mainly due to growth hormones.

The Impact of meat production on the environment :

1. Land Use
In order to produce meat we use land. Lots of it. To be exact 30% of the world's land is solely reserved for meat production, that's about the size of Asia.
Whaaat? How? You might ask.
Well for one, livestock needs some space to stand and graze. But it also needs to be fed.
From all the arable lands on earth (so all lands specifically meant for crop production) 33% are just to feed the livestock.

2. Global Warming
- Carbon Dioxide, aka CO2
Aka the bad boy, the most known and most spoken of. Carbon Dioxide is produced when burning fuel. Feeding the animals, slaughtering them, processing the meat, but also the related transport of feed, animals and meat and finally the storing of meat needs energy.
Also... Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars, yup.
- Methane
is a real problem here. Sorry what? What is methane anyway?
Weeeeelll animals poop (tadaaa) and they fart as well. (unicorns would too if they'd exist, it'd just look like a rainbow because unicorns are awesome, but I digress)
All that pooping and farting comes with a specific gaz : methane, which is created when digesting food.
All well and good you might say, but humans do as well. This is true enough but 1 cow produce 120 Kg of methane per year when a human only produces 0,12 Kg.
Methane traps heat 20 times better than Carbon Dioxyde CO2, thus placing meat production as the number one cause of global warming... (aaaand a huge round of applaaaauuuuse!! ahem...)
- Nitrus Oxide
The meat and animal production produce 65% of all Nitrus Oxide emissions on the world through manure and urine and although the fertilizers used in their feed.
That gaz traps heat 300 times better than CO2
Yes... no wonder the UN wishes the world to go vegan.

3. Water
Did you see Mad Max : Fury Road? Water there is scarce and thus power. This is already the case in some parts of the world, and if we don't change a thing, that fiction might not be as fictional in a couple of years.
The US have suffered from water drought this year, meat production is not innocent in that matter.
To get an idea :
To produce 1 Kg of meat, you need 15.400 L of water
The production of 1 Kg of wheat or potatoes needs 1.000 L of water
Oh and while we're at it... chocolate is pretty bad too, requiring a whooping 17.000L of water to produce just one Kg. Yikes, right?
The water we eat
Why care about your water footprint?

And I haven't even touched pollution, ethics and health yet...
Did I forget something? Comment below and add to the discussion.

Conclusion : reduce your intake of meat (especially beef), eggs and dairy products.

I actually have so much more to talk about vegetarianism, veganism and what not. I'm reading and watching so many different things right now regarding the most eco way to live while still enjoying life (and being healthy) and I wonder if and how to bring it to you.
So yeah this is just a baby step toward the twist in my work, following the twist that happened in my life.

Stay healthy
xx
Stéphanie
p.s.: une traduction en français? oui j'y songe, cette fois-ci elle a une importance.

Sources

Visual graphs :
Veganism and the Environment
Facts & Graphs about Food Production
Food Math

Read more
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN : Livestock a major threat to environment (2006)
FAO : Livestock's Long Shadow
Stanford : Consequences of increased global meat consumption on the global environment -- trade in virtual water, energy & nutrients
How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture
The Guardian : We're Eating too much Meat (2012)
Smithsonianmag.com : Is the Livestock Industry Destroying the Planet?
BBC : The Methane Makers

How does eating meat harm the environment?
Meat and the Environment
Is Meat Sustainable?
10 Scary Facts About Meat and the Environment
How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?