Make Japanese food replicas at home with the 3-D Dream Arts Pen 【Pics】

You don’t have to stand outside restaurant windows to enjoy Japan’s amazing food displays — now you can recreate the delicious samples at home!

Over the years, Japan has built a reputation for itself as the stationery capital of the world, with decorative rubber bands, pencils that sprout herbs and paper that dissolves around water-resistant ink.

Recently, there’s been a boom in pens that create 3-D sculptures, opening up a whole new world of opportunities for crafty types, and one of the latest offerings to incorporate the new 3-D system allows users to recreate Japanese food samples in miniature form.

The 3-D Dream Arts Pen kit comes in a box with everything you need to make realistic-looking food displays: there are mixing bowls, plastic moulds, four different coloured pens, a blacklight, and an easy-to-follow glossy instruction guide.

The detail in the plastic moulds makes it easy for children and adults alike to create professional-looking food samples. Each design is given a degree of difficulty out of five stars. For those starting out, a simple ice cream in a cone with a one-star degree of difficulty is a good place to begin.

Using the corresponding mould, all you have to do is fill in the top area with a layer of ink from the white pen, and the bottom area with ink from the yellow pen, which actually turns out orange when applied.

▼ Then you shine the blacklight on the area for a minute to solidify the ink…

▼ And then pop the piece out from the mould.

▼ Then simply repeat the process in order to get two identical halves…

And once that’s done, add a little more ink around the sides before heating it all up with the blacklight torch to bind the two together.

▼ Pop it out of the mould and the ice cream cone is complete!

The impressive attention to detail in the cone and on the ice cream itself makes it look incredibly realistic, despite it being tiny enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can use the same techniques to create more intricate food samples, like sushi, which is given a two-star degree of difficulty.

This one involves the same method as before to create the sushi rice, using a mould that’s so detailed you can see each tiny individual grain.

To make the individual sushi toppings, or neta, simply trace the designs from the manual onto the flat plastic sheet provided.

▼ Then it’s time to whip out the ultraviolet light again to harden the ink.

▼ Once you pop the pieces off the sheet, it’s time for a bit of assembly.

First, the maguro tuna needs to be curved over the rice with some ink and set with the light.

▼ Then it’s time to create the seaweed-wrapped egg omelette.

▼ And finally, the ebi prawn.

Once you’ve finished, you’ll have three gorgeous little sushi pieces, which would look beautiful when presented on a wooden display board.

There are more than a dozen designs to create with the kit, including fruit, gyoza pot stickers, curried rice, fried tempura and hamburgers.

▼ There’s also a four-star difficulty ramen noodle dish to make too!

And if you’d like to create the raw ingredients themselves, there’s an option to make adorable little vegetables like leeks as well.

The creative kit is a great way to enjoy the food culture of Japan wherever you are, and it makes for an entertaining rainy day activity for the whole family too.

The 3-D Dream Arts Pen from Mega House can be purchased at toy stores around Japan for 5,184 yen (US$46.30) or from online retailers like Amazon and Rakuten at a slightly cheaper price point. If you’re out of the country, a forwarding service like Tenso will be able to have this delivered to your door so you can feel like you’re in Japan no matter how far away you might be!

Photos ©SoraNews24

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