Cassiopeia Magazine Issue 2 by Cassiopeia Magazine

Cassiopeia 2

creative arts & reviews

reviews Short films and fiction

Original writing Haiku and short stories

close-up Macro photography, micro budget

create

Growing and sewing small, plus recipes for the little ones

the small issue

Features 6

A few words

Haiku inspired poetry

89 Square Feet

The Tumbleweed Tiny House phenomenon

10 Closeup

The photography of costume-making

Reviews 16 330 words

Flash fiction online

23 And Other Stories

Book and short stories reviews

24 Short feature Short films reviewed

Inspiration 26 One balcony

Gardening in a small space

30 focal point

A small photography project

40 Something for the smalls Recipes for children

43 Yo! Cutie

Sushi pendant tutorial

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reproduced with the kind permission of Christopher Boffoli - www. bigappetites.net

Welcome

Hello and welcome to issue 2 of Cassiopeia. This time our theme is small. Small it seems is practical, environmental, attractive and entertaining. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be amazed what can be achieved with only 89 square feet, 3 ingredients or 17 syllables. Our dainty offerings include a glimpse into the world of tiny houses, a guide to gardening in miniature and a selection of recipes for smaller people. Thanks on a much larger scale are due to all our contributors for making this issue possible. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re interested in playing your own small part in the next issue please email us at submit@ cassiopeiamagazine.co.uk. Katie

www.cassiopeiamagazine.co.uk submit@cassiopeiamagazine.co.uk

@CassiopeiaMag facebook.com/CassiopeiaMag issuu.com/cassiopeiamagazine 4

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Contributors

Edd Caine is a composer and musician currently studying for a PhD in Music Composition. When he’s not composing he likes to write poetry and sing very deep notes. www. edwardcaine.com

Lachlan Young is a portrait, commercial and fine art photographer based in York who is available for hire to shoot most things apart from weddings. lachlanphoto.tumblr.com

Sarah Peploe was born in Norwich in 1986. She loves to write, read, draw, and maintain vituperative inner monologues while going about her business. She lives in York with a lovely man and a Freecycled Selmer organ.

Owain Paciuszko writes waffle for a bunch of websites, makes short films and music videos for his own amusement and plays keyboards/’sings’ in a band. He grew up in Cornwall, studied in Wales and currently lives in London. When he grows up he wants to be a space captain. quackspout. blogspot.com

Rachel Backa is a (currently) out-of-work medievalist and recent York graduate who resides in Canada. She has an odd fascination with hedgehogs and a newly-found love of vintage radio dramas. She thinks baking is the perfect form of both stress-relief and procrastination, and looks for any excuse to try something new.

Cynthia J. Krieger is a linguist, medievalist and musician. In her free time she reads as much as she can, plays the piano and usually (unless it’s for biscuits) stays well away from the kitchen. She is currently establishing herself as an English to German translator. kriegertranslations.co.uk

Andraea Zambakides is medievalist and dancer living in Bristol. She likes classical music, cross-stitching, baking, dancesport, research, art, blogging and hugs.

Ehren Mierau is an overeducated, under-employed American with interests in medieval liturgy, museum collections management and kittens. He currently lives in Chichester but, as nice as it is, longs someday to return to York.

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Two Summers Ago

waltzing blooms sprung up my feet jumped on the hard earth in fierce thought contrast brambles drooped on thorny offering, high up from my bleeding lips on the searing path through distortion a figure glimpsing a mirage dust covers my knees and stumbling on a beat awakens my thoughts in the sky a beast a bright predator watches I flinch at nothing nothing flinches back a sea of air, a blue bask a towering dome.

Edd Caine

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tiny houses

s a child Jay Shafer was unfamiliar with the concept of small living. In fact he was brought up in a house over 4 thousand square feet in size. He and his sister were given the job of cleaning the family home, so it comes perhaps as little surprise that Jay decided that he would rather live small. As an adult he worked as a grocery store clerk, and found the price of living prohibitively high. With no construction experience to speak of he decided to design and build his own home, small enough to clean quickly and heat cheaply. In 1997 he achieved his goal. His new home was only 89 square feet, less than a tenth the size of the average American home. It was fitted with wheels so he could move it around like a trailer, and he called it the

Tumbleweed. Interest in Jay’s creation snowballed, and Jay began to design small houses for other people to build. The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company now sells a range of plans, kits and ready built tiny houses, from the minuscule XS (only 65 square feet) to the generous 3 bedroom Enesti (843 square feet). The ‘small living’ ideal has found favour both with the environmentally conscious, and with those looking for an alternative to crippling mortgage repayments. In tough economic times it’s reassuring to know that a home large enough for 2 people can be bought for as little as $99, even if assembly is required. Tiny houses like those made by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company challenge us to imagine house much of

our living space is necessary, and how much of our energy is wasted storing, heating or cleaning unused objects. For more on the tiny house movement visit http:// tinyhouseblog.com/

visual arts

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Photography by Lachlan Young

6th March Costume [2], ÂŠ Lachlan Young

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Costume making 17th May, ÂŠ Lachlan Young

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6th March Costume [1], ÂŠ Lachlan Young

330 M Words

aybe it’s because I’m such a chronic procrastinator and unfinisher, but I’ve got a lot of time for flash fiction, as both means and end. I like that the medium’s brevity compels the writer to get on with it - in such a confined space you’re less inclined to fart around pretending you’re having A Creative Process - and I like what that immediacy brings to the final product. 330 Words is a great platform for these punchy and potent short-short stories. The website’s conceit is simple: take - or find - a photo, base a story on it of no longer than 330 words, submit both. Paradoxically, the limits of a single image combined with a tight word count throw up a huge variation of subjects and approaches, running the gamut from whimsical to brutal. You’ll find magical realism inside an inadvertently captured pocket, the very depths of Hell in a snap of the Racing Post, a funny, poignant encounter with a drunk in the tessellation of the pavement and much more, in this ever-growing anthology of small wonders. 330words.wordpress.com

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Bile Beans Written by Sarah Peploe

asked. I was really curious otherwise I wouldn’t’ve. Any question or turn of phrase can set someone off, make them think on their loss, make them sad and then furious. But he seemed safe enough. He’d given me water and half a packet of Rich Tea and it hadn’t cost me much. Bile Beans, he told me, were a popular brand of laxative. Is that how they lived, those coiffed and streamlined broads people

used to emulate at burlesque nights? Eat stodge by day, take Bile Beans by night, crap yourself feminine first thing in the morning, repeat? I’d first seen it walking up the road from Malton, though it hadn’t been the first thing to grab my attention. There was an upturned truck on the road like a carcass. Picked clean, I looked. They’d taken everything except the driver. Other things had gone for him. A while ago. I turned away from

that and there it was, a yellowy promise from last century. I had also walked past one from what was our time, an hour or two beforehand. Just a charred paper palimpsest, the edges and strips of all the posters that the billboard had held, peeking out one on top of the other. A depilated limb, a puppy’s eyes, the sleek screen of something new, old now. Impossibly old, more dim and distant than Bile Beans could ever be. I used to have one

of the new thing. I kept it for ages, long after understanding the thing became useless, and remembering it became pointless. Someone’ll tear the last scraps of those posters down for fuel. They’ll be gone, really and forever. And Bile Beans will still be there, at the rim of a silent city, pitching vitality to the dead.

Words: 297 44

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microscopic monsters

A US team is in the process of visiting museums around the world to create an online database housing as many ant specimens as possible. hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a few of our favourites...

0.2 mm

0.5 mm 20 44

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2 mm

About AntWeb AntWeb focuses on specimen level data and images linked to specimens. In addition, contributors can submit natural history information and field images that are linked directly to taxonomic names. Distribution maps and field guides are generated automatically. All data in AntWeb are downloadable by users. AntWeb also provides specimen-level data, images, and natural history content to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org), and Wikipedia. www.antweb.org

Short story reviews Jennifer Egan, Emerald City and Other Stories

t the heart of ‘Emerald City and Other Stories’ is the Midwestern American, yearning to be somewhere else. China, Africa, Mexico or the bright lights of New York. Businessmen flee their poor decisions, trophy wives are carried, almost without agency, over the borders of exotic countries, and children sneak out after dark to pursue their drunken adventures. Egan’s real gift is for landscape. Each story pulses with a distinctive sense of place. ‘Why China?’ in particular works hard to convey the wonder and disgust that culture shock can deliver. The stand-out in this collection is ‘Sisters of the Moon’, in which a group of fifteen year old girls try acid for the first time in 1970s San Francisco. By removing herself from the trophy wives, the glistening sand, broken marriages, deceit and heat haze, Egan finally touches on the reality that escapism is often neither effective nor beautiful. Perhaps, like the mouthfuls of burning tequila so readily downed by her characters, Egan falls into a little to much repetition in this collection. The holiday must eventually end and the hangover begin.

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Albert Camus, Exile and The Kingdom: Stories

he first story in Camus’ collection ‘The Adulterous Wife’ seems almost as if it could be at home with Jennifer Egan’s stories. We follow the wife of a travelling salesman into the desert to where her husband trades fabrics with shop owners. The wife’s estrangement from her husband combined with her alienation in a foreign land gives rise to the ‘exile’ of the collection’s title, but the sand that obscures the horizon is not the beach-sand of an exotic holiday, it is the vast and hostile force of the desert. Already the collections have diverged. Where Egan’s characters chose their escapism Camus’ are forced into exile. Missionaries, teachers and engineers take work far from home and lose themselves in dangerous and intoxicating landscapes. The threat of death or torture hangs over these lost individuals. Camus’ themes are, as ever, breathtakingly varied. ‘The Renegade or A Confused Mind’ explores religious exile, ‘Jonas’ a self-imposed exile. Within ear-shot of his wife and young children and artist locks himself in the attic in pursuit of artistic inspiration. Each story plunges the reader into a unique and vividly imagined universe. As a final flourish Camus’ closing story ‘The Growing Stone’ actively exiles the reader. An engineer named d’Arrast carries us through Brazil to the tiny town of Iguape in São Paulo. The frantic pace of his journey, his visible confusion in the alien country and the whirlwind of nationalities and languages are all parts in this perfect machine of dislocation. Camus’ pithy portraits of exiles demonstrate his mastery of place, but this is perhaps the least of Katie Davies his talents.

book review M

y doctor prescribed me a book. Yes, a book! Even though I was told that it was all about different kinds of love, the true theme is the strong relationship between a sister and a brother. Other themes included starting again, loneliness and silent violence, with actual historical events as the backdrop. The story is split into two parts; first Elly as a girl, then Elly as a woman. She is the narrator, and as I read, each of her inquisitive words, I could hear her voice speak in my head. As a girl, she is innocent, curious, and aware,. Her love is her pet rabbit named God, who seems to speak to her, thus showing her imagination.

This is the most enjoyable part that makes you keep reading. As an adult, she becomes repressed, secretive, and subtle. Many of her childhood experiences give cause for darkness later. I often had to refer to earlier parts of the book to make sure that I understood the novel completely! The genre is hard to describe, as it is a rather dark, and delicate. A fragile, subtle, and confusing book, at the best of times. It is a worthwhile read, if you like to take time to read, to process it intimately, and to challenge your understanding. Andraea Zambakides 44

Short Features

he short film has a tough life, often over-looked by audiences at large. A lot of shorts wind up being ‘expanded’ into feature length films, whilst this does often bring a larger audience to the story, some shorts don’t quite stretch to an extended running time. For example, compared to the breakneck trilogy of shorts that preceded it, Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the WereRabbit is a little thin on thrills compared to, say, the Wrong Trousers and it’s brilliantly, tightly constructed plot. However, there are plenty of short films that have spawned rather wonderful features, maybe you weren’t even aware of their ‘humble’ beginnings, so here are a handful of shorts that wound up becoming longs... Speaking of ‘long’, Paul Thomas Anderson originally gathered together a bunch of his friends to make the short film ‘The Dirk Diggler Story’ which later became his second feature film ‘Boogie Nights’. Designed as a spoof

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mockumentary based upon a real doc about John Holmes, the film contains the seeds of the ideas would crop up in the feature. Similarly Sam Raimi and some buddies cobbled together their short ‘Within The Woods’ in 1978, it became the basis of Raimi’s debut feature ‘The Evil Dead’, a cult classic caught up in the video nasty controversy, that ultimately bore two superior (in my opinion) sequels that turned the gory horror tropes of the original on their head thanks to a bonkers sense of humour and the magnificent ham of Bruce Campbell. Not all shorts get adapted by their original directors, screenwriters David and Janet Peoples took Chris Marker’s experimental ‘La Jetee’ and twisted it into Terry Gilliam’s magnificent ‘12 Monkeys’. Using the film’s sci-fi time travel pandemic concept and creating one of the most commendably nutty studio pictures of the 1990s. Neill Blomkamp was all set to make his directorial dèbut an adaptation of the videogame ‘Halo’, but the studio baulked at the potential $250 million budget, so Blomkamp (urged on by producer Peter Jackson) turned his gritty sci-fi short ‘Alive In Joburg’ into the masterful ‘District 9’. Undoubtedly one of the finest directorial débuts of all time and a truly brilliant, comical, tragic and schlocky sci-fi treat, it’s almost a relief that the studio got cold feet. Sometimes though it’s success that brings a filmmaker back to their early works, Tim Burton has decided to remake his 1984 liveaction short ‘Frankenweenie’ into a stop-motion 3D animated feature that comes out in time for Halloween 2012. Hopefully it’ll be a return to his quirkier, darker roots and a welcome break

from another Johnny Depp vehicle. Alongside that and the aforementioned Wallace & Gromit, animated shorts have been a good proving ground for filmmakers, Sylvain Chomet’s short The Old Lady & The Pigeons saw him developing some of the characters that would later populate Belleville Rendezvous, though the plots of the two films couldn’t be more different. Beavis & Butthead creator Mike Judge turned his quirky short Milton into the cult classic Office Space, the plot of that film using Stephen Root’s brilliant portrayal of the short’s titular character as a brilliant aside from the feature’s tale of workplace malaise. I used to work for a short film company in Central London and whilst there I saw a handful of films called ‘Panique Au Village’. These demented and hilarious little films are probably most well known as adverts for milk, but they latterly became the totally manic and utterly hilarious feature ‘A Town Called Panic’. Finally, Wes Anderson got the funding to make his dèbut feature ‘Bottle Rocket’ by making a short of the same name, both starring Owen and Luke Wilson. Anderson has continued to play with the short film format, releasing ‘Hotel Chevalier’ alongside ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ and a series of animated shorts to accompany ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. The short film is a great proving ground for a lot of filmmakers, but it’s a shame it’s not as widely appreciated as features, whilst there are plenty of good short film events and festivals, it would be nice to see more shorts screened in mainstream cinemas as a nice little prologue. Owain Paciuszko

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The miniature garden

he Shippam Street windowsill garden started life in a rather inauspicious manner - with a miniature “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” planter from the British Museum, complete with what can only have been defective seeds. It did, however, directly lead to the garden’s further development; upon realising that the manufacturer’s estimated time to visible plant growth was nearly two months, we grew impatient and decided that we needed vegetation which promised more immediate action. Our flat has a south facing sitting room with large windows, but not a proper balcony. Mark and I searched high and low at Homebase to find planter baskets which could be hung over the railing but didn’t see anything suitable, so instead we bought some small terracotta pots which we expected to fit on the outside ledge. (They didn’t.) Fortunately the windowsill is more than wide enough to accommodate some small potted residents, so we bought some propagator trays and cautiously 44

planted some coriander, parsley, rosemary, thyme, basil, tomatoes and cucumbers. With the appearance of every new speck of green I grew increasingly obsessed, until finally in a fit of madness I galloped through the aisles of Homebase, shovelling seed packets and excessively large planter bags into my shopping basket. Soon every spare inch of our little windowsill was crammed full of plants and some of the pots were even forced to retreat to the bedroom window. Considering the fact that we planted everything at least a couple of months past the ideal time, we were more successful than we had any right to be. With that said, it was clear that some plants take better to these living conditions than others. The herbs, of course, were (mostly) predestined to thrive, although we did run into problems with our grown-from-seed rosemary, which is apparently much hardier when grown from clippings. The real surprise was the triumph of the cucumber plants, which germinated instantly and then swiftly developed into ravenous water-guzzling monstrosities which threatened to engulf the nearest armchair and, from there, the entire world. Until we provided them with some climbing poles (which they largely ignored) we actually feared sitting in that chair lest they should entwine their little tendrils into our hair. Unfortunately this particular variety requires pollination, so even though they flowered with gusto we didn’t get any viable cucumbers. But the windowsill garden champion is undoubtedly the valiant wild strawberry which Mark’s mother sent to us through the post as a fragile seedling with its single root wrapped in moist 28

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“...in a fit of madness I galloped through the aisles of Homebase, shovelling seed packets and excessively large planter bags into my shopping basket” kitchen roll and stuffed in a small plastic tube for safe transport. We frankly doubted whether it would survive replanting, but our prosperous little green friend has not only cheerfully grown new leaves on an exceedingly regular basis but also obligingly presented me with two (admittedly tiny) strawberries. Not all has been sunshine and rainbows, however; we have also been compelled to share our flat with maddening swarms of fungus gnats. These little devils look similar to fruit flies and cause comparable levels of

irritation to their human cohabitants, but their larvae live in potting soil and feed on the roots of plants, which can cause significant damage. Crowded conditions help to complicate the problem, so reluctantly we thinned the population, clipping any of the useable herbs before binning them and the increasingly woebegone vegetables. Having also spent many of my unemployed hours trying to hunt down and squash every last fly, I then travelled to Germany to ring in the new year, confident in the insectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eradication. Upon returning, I spent

a blissful month enjoying my fly-free flat before reclaiming the three remaining plants from their caretaker. Needless to say, when I woke up the next morning I was horrified to find a fresh horde of gnats which had enjoyed their holiday away but were as ready to come home as I was. With our flat now liberally adorned with yellow sticky traps and my bottle of organic insecticide at the ready, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now time to begin planting anew. The herbs will definitely be back, but who knows what might arrive in the post from Markâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents... Ehren Mierau 44

macro shots micro budget 30 44

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bulb filament

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gentlemanbird & ladybird

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macro screen

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comic print

o you’ve got a nice new camera with an interchangable lens, maybe an SLR, maybe a new mirrorless body, and of course this means you have no money left for a decent macro lens... what do you do? Well for around £30 you can produce the images you’ve just seen over the last few pages! I first came across this method after seeing an incredible picture of a spiders eye. It transpired that the photographer used his standard 50mm portrait lens attached to his DSLR using a series of tubes and adaptors. The principle is that the further the lens is from the sensor the closer the focal point will be to the lens. Extension tube can be found on eBay for all makes and models of camera starting from around £8. You may need adapters to fit your lens to the tube, these cost pennies. So this method is simple and cheap right? Well there are a few disadvantages you 38

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have to deal with when using extension tubes. 1) With the lens separated from the body it’s likely your camera will not automatically focus on it’s subject. You’ll need an older manual focus lens. I picked up a Canon FD 50mm for £20. 2) Exposures will have to be longer to compensate for the fact that less light will reach the sensor due to the tube. You’ll need a steady hand or an extra bright light source. 3) The closer you get the focal point to the lens the narrower your depth of field will become. This means that the area even a couple of millimeters from the focal point will look blurred. Use this to artistic effect. The fun really comes from experimenting with different setting and shooting in varied environments. I’m still chasing the illusive spider’s eyes! Enjoy.

standard focal distance

with extention tubes the focal distance is closer to the lens allowing the image to reproduce lifesize or larger on the camera sensor

macro skin - all pictures by Alex Terry

mazing macroÂ shots can also be achieved using your camera phone and the best thing about this method is itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free! The small size of the camera phone lens means that a small change can make a massive differents to it ability to take pics. In

this case we are using a single droplet of water. Just touch your wet finger onto the lens to allow the surface tension to form a lens. It may be a little blurry around the edges but the photos achived are suprisingly sharp! 44

recipes

Chocolate Rainbow Cake I

have the cutest niece and nephew in the entire world. Even though they may be roughly 1500 kilometres away from me most days, that doesn’t mean I don’t make plans for fun things to do and share with them the next time I see them. Baking is one of those things that’s very fun to do with small children. It may be messy, it may take eight times as long as you want it to, but it’s always great to see how excited they get when they realise that not only are they going to do something fun, there will be dessert at the end of it. So, here are two recipes that are going to be busted out the next time I’m visiting family. The first is a much-loved recipe from my own childhood, the second something new to me. The best thing about this dessert is it’s lack of superfluous dishes to wash. Everything can be done in a single bowl. In fact, if you’re not using a non-stick pan, you can mix everything in your baking vessel. The cake is good all on it’s own and the extra candy and decorative touches are optional, but well worth the effort. The cake recipe is vegan, but the end result may change depending on what you add to it.

40 44

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In one very large mixing

three ingredients:

bowl (seriously, the

2 tablespoons

biggest one you have it

white vinegar

probably what you want here), combine:

3 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup canola or

3 cups all purpose/

other neutral-

plain flour

flavoured oil

2 cups white sugar Ω cup cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking soda a dash of salt

Over the whole mess, pour 2 cups of very cold water. Mix everything thoroughly with a fork or whisk, until the batter’s reasonably smooth.

Make three ‘wells’ in the

Dispatch into a bundt or

dry mixture. In each well,

ring pan. Feel free the lick

place one of the next

the spoon, since there’s

Extremely Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Cookie

hese peanut butter cookies take simplicity to the next level. I don’t know where the original recipe’s from, but I’ve been seeing it all over and figured it was time to give it a go. Three ingredients. I didn’t even know you could do cookies like that. Consider my mind blown. With a baking time of ten minutes, the most timeconsuming part of the whole process is waiting for the oven to heat up. Also, since they lack flour, these cookies are good for the gluten-free crowd, and also cut down on mess (I don’t know about you, but I always manage to get flour everywhere. Generally when I’ve just cleaned the kitchen and am wearing dark clothes.) 1 egg

no raw egg to be worried

they’ve been very patient up

about.

until this point, and there’s

1 cup peanut butter

Bake at 350 degrees

still some work to be done.

(I used the chunky kind,

Fahrenheit/ gas mark 4 for

Or feed them carrot sticks

but I’m sure whatever you

about 55 minutes. Check it

and hide it away for later. I

have to hand will work.)

at 40 minutes, since some

won’t judge.

Preheat oven to 350

the cooking process.

ovens are more reliable with

Slather your arch with your

degrees Fahrenheit/ gas

Bake for ten minutes. Let

their heat cycles than others.

favourite thick icing. Then

mark 4.

them set for a few minutes

One it has cooled, remove

decorate it in a rainbow-like

Mix all the ingredients

before transferring them to

from the pan and cut in half.

manner using your favourite

together into a thick paste.

a wire rack to finish cooling.

Set one half upright, so it

colourful candy.

Portion out into about two

You can eat these

forms an arch on a plate.

This cake may be time-

tablespoon balls. Place

straight, or, if you want to

You can either place the

consuming, but every step

on cookie sheet and press

do more fun things, I have

second half behind it, to get

is simple and child-friendly.

down with a fork to make

a feeling these would go

a very thick arch, or dispose

Depending on

nifty designs. Be sure to

very well sandwiched with

of it in some other way. I

they are, the child could do

leave an in or two between

vanilla ice cream or some

recommend a small slice as

everything but transferring it

cookies, as they will puff

nice fruity jam.

a reward for the help, since

to and from the hot oven.

up and spread out during

Rachel Backa

how old

1 cup sugar

recipes

Snowflake Biscuits T hese biscuits were my favourites as a child. They are sweet as sin and as unhealthy as they taste, turn to dust in your mouth and are unforgivably addictive. Snowflake Biscuits were made exclusively by my great-grandmother until the year she died – only then was the recipe passed on to me. Beware: These biscuits are incredibly messy to make (and thus even more fun!) You’re dealing with lots of butter on your hands, flour dust everywhere and a reasonably sticky dough. Children (and, of course, childish adults like me) who help during the making of Snowflakes will therefore enjoy even the work stage.

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Ingredients for 60

smooth batter.

biscuits:

4. Put the batter into the

150g self-raising flour

fridge for at least 1 hour.

250g cornflour

5. Preheat your oven to 180˚C

100g icing sugar

6. Form little balls on a baking

1 pinch of salt

tray lined with greaseproof

1tsp vanilla sugar

paper. Make sure you leave

300g unsalted butter

enough space between the balls as the dough will rise

Total time from start

and the biscuits will grow in

to finish: 2 hours

the oven. Make a pattern in the balls by pressing them in

Preparation:

with a fork.

1. Mix flour, cornflour, icing

7. Put the tray in the pre-

sugar, salt and vanilla sugar

heated oven and bake for 10-

with a spoon in a large bowl.

12 minutes without browning.

2. Add the butter in flakes.

8. Take the tray out of the

This can take up to half an

oven and put it somewhere

hour depending on how hard

to cool off. Do NOT try to

the butter is!

pick the biscuits off the tray

3. Mix until crumby with

straight away as they are very

a hand mixer. This will be

brittle and will break if they

messy ñ prepare to clean

are still hot.

your whole kitchen of flour

Enjoy!

dust afterwards! Then knead this crumby dough into a

Cynthia Krieger

craft tutorial

Teeny tiny sushi pendant

little craft project for a tiny issue. This pendant can be made using the little white buttons that always seem to come with sewing kits, the kind that go missing from the cuffs of white shirts. Add a strip of black felt and some colourful beads and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have a tiny sushi roll that makes a big fashion statement.

You will need: 2 white buttons A scrap of black felt 2cm x 12cm 6-8 seed beads in bright colours A metal chain or leather cord

1. Roll up the strip of felt as you

2. Next add your rice. Place a

3. Repeat, and as you do so

4. Finally sew your chain or

would a sheet of nori. Secure

button on either end of the roll

thread one or two seed beads

leather cord into place using

by sewing the open edge

and sew into place with white

at a time to your needle. Pull

black thread.

to the side of the roll with a

thread by passing your needle

the thread tightly and tie off.

blanket stitch in black thread.

down the length of the roll and through the other side.

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C a ss i o p e i a â&#x20AC;&#x153;She whose words excelâ&#x20AC;?

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@CassiopeiaMag facebook.com/CassiopeiaMag issuu.com/cassiopeiamagazine Cassiopeia Magazine aims to promote original writers and artists. We consider all contributions although we are unable to pay for them. Reproduction of the magazine in part or in full without the permission of Cassiopeia Magazine is strictly prohibited.

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