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An expert in Digital marketing for over 20 years, my experience has centered in tech start ups, retail and service industries. I love to shop and eat local.

I was a Marketing Manager and Product Owner at Cakemail for five years. There, I honed my digital marketing, data analysis and communication skills to create unique brands for the different retail and tech start ups I worked at, from Daikoku for five years, to Le Support (and a few freelance contracts here and there).

These days, I’ve been learning about Answering Engine Optimisation. Because one thing about me is that I’m curious and always learning. I ask questions because I seek to understand before I strive to be understood. 

I’m also an active listener who’s attentive to details. In my spare time and to unwind, I listen to audio books (I’m a fan of fantasy – you can read a few of my book reviews to get a sense of my writing style) while I work on my latest art project.

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Want to get in touch? Shoot me a message! Do give me some details, like what the project you want to work on is, and what your timelines are.

Musings

A few musings that come to mind that I felt people could appreciate. These include book reviews, location reviews and other lessons learned with time.

Stay a while and listen!

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Review: The Orc who saved Easter

Darryn and Karla are back again and ready to save… Easter! To be quite frank, I am mildly terrified of rabbits, which is why I’m particularly impressed by the protagonists’ courage! The cast of Orcs is fun and loud. They remind us that fren shapes are many and varied. And sometimes, rocks can be friends.

Miniatures Gallery

The miniatures start as kits that I proceed to customize with unique layouts, new printed paper materials and polymer clay sculptures.

Daikoku Themed Miniatures

Daikoku was an indie cannabis store in Edmonton Alberta. In alternate universes, however, it was an apartment, a bookstore, a coffee shop, a baked shop pizzeria, a Lewisian Garden, an office, and an onsen. Some of the extra books became accessories I dangled on my ears.

Photography and videography by Alexis Zarchako.

I kind of, sort of fell in love with the egg-carton method of creating natural stone. It's why I reused it in this miniature. I mean, how could I not? The material for the sofa was an old employee uniform (cleaned!) that i repurposed.
I always included the names of the cultivars and the brands that I had consumed while I made the minitures in question. The small catalogue was also representative of our rotating menu.
At daikoku, each employee used an emoji to identify themselves. Each employee had a book with their emoji. The team had fun trying to find the Easter Eggs when the store wasn't too busy.
Simon's library became Daikoku's Bookstore. At the time, I was listening to quite a bit of Pratchett, which is why you'll spot so many Discworld references.
Simon's Café became Daikoku as a coffee shop.
Printing to scale, then sticking to polymer clay shapes.
Pineapple on pizza optional
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the garden is chockful of references to Lewis Carroll's books.
Created at the height of the 'Work from Home' phase, this was pretty much my ideal office set up. Minus this desk which nearly caused me to meltdown. The backsplash also has a mosaic of 0.5cm squares. That no one ever sees. Because there is so much stuff in front of it.
To provide scale, a cut out of a nug was used in the various miniatures. This nug in particular was very dutifully sitting at its desk. You can peek at the mosaic in the background. It's almost visible. If you squint.
A catalogue and a rendition of 'How to smoke pot properly' are appended to earring hooks to create lightweight high fashion jewelry.

Book Inspired Miniatures

Without including my editing work and research for copywriting, I can consume hundreds of books per year. In fact, I do four annual rereads of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

This is only possible with an extensive audiobook library.

When I can really see scenes, I try to recreate them in a variety of scales (also known as Rolife Kits). Here are a few of my favourite completed projects.

Legends and Lattés and
Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

A view behind the counter of the coffee machine and grinder. In the books, they are not Gold coloured. Oops.
View of the front of Viv's coffee shop where we see a croissant, huge cinnamon roll and a couple of coffees on the trestle table. On the counter, we spot a couple of huge biscotti chilling on the pan and an iced coffee, paid for with two bits.
The Rolife Kit used to create the Legends and Lattés scene was Dora's house. It was extensively modified to suit the needs of the scene. On the top floor, we see a roll and a dirty bag, as well as a few construction materials.
Thistleburr's booksellers from Travis Baldree's second novel, Bookshops and Bonedust. The focus is on the front view, the wood weather beaten and ocean wind blanched.
We see that the back of the miniature opens, and glimpse at books lining the walls. There's a hint of a red coat on a hook, and several maps and sea charts on the ceiling.
Thitsleburr Booksellers is in the foreground, at a 1:16 scale; in the background, we see Legends and Lattés as it was towards the climax of the novel.

Mother of Learning by nobody103

Xvim Chao's office may not seem to be a critical location, but to the best of my knowledge, it's one of the few location that the main character visits throughout the series.
Xvim trains Zorian through a variety of tools; I always imagined the office being something of controlled chaos, if rather cramped.
I glued the beads down to prevent anyone from throwing them. This is one of two desk drawers that open and shut.
The paper strewn around are printouts from an Etsy store that I love, since they're less Lorem Ipsum-ish than the standard papercuts included with the Rolife Kits. The paper is also sepia toned, and I'm such a sucker for sepia paper.

The Misadventures of Myndil Plodostirr and other works by Michelle Franklin

Myndil is magical, and obviously attracts quite a few friends. Sometimes, they're hard to spot unless you look closely...
In some instances, good friends can be found under the bed.
A sleeping cap (with a little Good Book as a tassle) and the huggable pillow in a quaint and quiet room, lit by a (functional but not real) torch.
The inside of the pillow, as well as its sides, has a caption that reads 'GOD LOVES YOU' If you know, you know.
Michelle Franklin has written over thirty books. Pictured are some of them rendered in 1:16 scale.
If you visit Michelle Franklin's Patreon and Facebook page, some of the decor may be familiar. Of course, I had to include the scythe and the porcelain cat.
The miniature is lit with a single floor light, and none of the books are glued into the book cases, so it became a bit of an anti-stress exercise when I handed the miniature over to the author, along with a pair of tweezers. Unfortunately, the chair is glued down, so it makes the back shelf difficult to update.