I debated for a long time whether to make mini focaccia for this shop, since it’s not a type of bread native to Friuli, where my fictional shop is located. (Actually, they do make a type of bread there called focaccia, but it’s not anything like traditional Ligurian focaccia, which is what I’m making here.) Once I’d decided not to worry too much about authenticity, I then debated whether to make slices cut from a larger sheet pan of bread or individual rounds of focaccia. I knew if I waited long enough, the answer would become clear, and sure enough, it did—why not make both!
I used the same color mix as for all my other white bread projects: Fimo vanilla, Fimo Soft sahara, Premo white, and translucent. For the rectangles, I rolled the polymer clay in my pasta machine to get an even thickness and then cut it to size. I used a tiny ball tool (a.k.a. dotting tool) to create dimples in the top and a toothbrush, needle tool, and crumpled aluminum foil for texture.
I love baking homemade focaccia for my family and almost always add rosemary to my dough, so this was naturally what I wanted to recreate in miniature. For my rosemary potato dinner roll project, I’d previously baked small logs in various shades of green polymer clay, so I grated some of this to simulate the rosemary and pressed the shavings onto the outside surface. Finally, I shaded the bread with soft pastels for a golden-brown baked effect.
After baking, I added some sea salt: flecks of Pardo white translucent (previously baked and then grated), which I attached using TLS (translucent liquid clay) prior to a final bake. I’d done the same thing with one of my cioccolatini, and it had worked fairly well. This time, however, I found that the bits of Pardo sort of sunk down into the liquid clay and disappeared, leaving behind some strange-looking, though thankfully barely visible, translucent lumps. I salvaged my mistake by simply attaching more sea salt flakes with super glue.
Finally, I sealed the bread with Helmar Crystal Kote Matte spray varnish, so that the pastels wouldn’t rub off. Here’s a closeup of a slice of focaccia.
I made the individual rounds the same way, except I shaped them by hand and didn’t need to texture the cut sides of the bread.
Here’s a closeup of one of the rounds.
The tray of focaccia has been added to the shelf.
