When I walked into Orange Gallery recently, I immediately was drawn to Laura Rehorst’s miniature food sculpture jewelry. The teeny taco, the bitsy burger, the wee Chinese take-out container are all so dang cute I almost conjured a squeal that's usually reserved for whiskey tastings and images of baby monkeys riding on their mother's back.

Part of my awe over Rehorst’s work comes from knowing how tough it is to pull off realistic-looking tiny food pendants.

"Food sculpture can get ugly really easily," says Rehorst.

Exactly.

Last year, I attempted to buy a gift for a friend – who is a pickle fanatic – a piece of "pickle jewelry." I looked on etsy.com and various other web sites and I found a slew of necklaces and earrings featuring lil' pickles made from polymer clay, but unfortunately, few of them actually looked like a pickle. Granted, pickles are one of the less handsome veggies, but most of the polymer versions looked more like a part of the male anatomy than like a pickle.

However, Rehorst's tiny food sculpture – created under the business name Naked Without It – is both adorable and realistic. 

Rehorst grew up in Milwaukee and both of her parents inspired her art in different ways. Her father, a model railroader, appreciated the small scale world, and her mother is passionate about arts and crafts – particularly beading.

"I always liked little things, little worlds, little terrariums," says Rehorst. 

Rehorst earned a bachelor’s degree in metalworking from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a masters of art from Cardinal Stritch University. She has taught a number of design courses focusing on various techniques to jewelry design hobbyists as well as college art students.

Naked Without It designs are available at Orange Gallery, Sparrow, online and a gallery in New York called Maiden Long Island. Rehorst will soon co-own a gallery in Wauwatosa with friends and fellow artists, Jenny Leigh and Michele Ripp. (Stay tuned to OnMilwaukee.com for more information about this once it's solidified.)

Rehorst says the gallery will be used for work space, to sell artwork and to conduct workshops, including jewelry making and metals. 

"I look forward to having a space where I can use my torch again," she says.

Rehorst, who also makes tiny food sculpture jewelry on consignment, recently crafted a mini plate of calamari with a lemon wedge. She says concocting the right texture for the fried breading was the toughest part and required her to invent a mixture that included sand, shredded clay and liquid.

"The key to sculpting realistic-looking food at any size is to remember that food is not symmetrical. It’s never perfect," says Rehorst. "The fun and the challenge of it is getting the right appearance and texture. There’s a huge difference between toasted and regular bead, for example."

Often Rehorst buys the real version of the food item to examine before attempting a smaller version of it. Consequently, she makes a lot of foods that she likes to eat, but also edibles that her friends challenge her to make or those that she thinks would be tough to pull off.

"Mastering ice cream was tough. Clay is a completely different consistency than ice cream," she says. "I realized it’s the scooper that affects the texture and appearance, so much so that I had to find something to use as a tiny scooper to achieve the same look in miniature."

Rehorst says the Milwaukee art community, for the most part, is supportive, but that the closing of indie shops like Artist and Display has made it more difficult to buy art supplies locally.

"I have to order more online now, which means I can’t buy them from a local shop and also that I have to plan ahead – order it online and then wait to get it," she says. "But I’ll do it because I really can't imagine my life without making things."