You can have your cake (or your ice cream, a breakfast, or even a Sunday roast) but you certainly can’t eat it, when it comes to the deliciously realistic-looking creations made by Kerry Samantha Boyes. The professional sculptor and taxidermist tells Carol Hogarth how she has carved out a colourful new career making fake food, that’s being served up to a host of prestigious clients all over the world including filmmakers, museums, and stately homes
A simple walk round a supermarket can prove challenging for Kerry Samantha Boyes, whose head fills with ideas of how to create exact replicas of everything from cakes and jellies to bread, fish and sausages.
The Kirkcudbright-based artist's ice creams found fame in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie (starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling), and her pies have been flown out to the Hobbiton set in New Zealand.
Kerry moved to Kirkcudbright last August and is delighted with her spacious new harbourside studio, which has allowed her to expand her replica food enterprise.
“I started making fake food at my kitchen table in Edinburgh during lockdown,” she says. “I was going stir crazy with three kids and needed something new to do.
“I then moved it into my front room, but now, since moving to Dumfries & Galloway, I have my own dedicated workspace, which has opened up new possibilities for what I can do.”
Kerry began selling her products on Etsy and started to attract the attention of photographers, film makers, museums and National Trust properties.
“I have orders tumbling in all the time now,” she says. “At the moment, for example, I am preparing a high tea to be shipped to Canada, and a banquet for a historic property in Northern Ireland.”
Among Kerry’s prestigious clients are the Guggenheim Museum, Walt Disney Imagineering, the National Trust, Heinz, the BBC, Jo Malone and Selfridges.
When she was asked by Warner Bros to send some samples of ice creams for a movie they were making about Barbie, she says: “I didn’t really think much of it. They made two orders.
“Then, when the film came out last summer and my kids went to see it, we were all so excited that the ice creams were in it.”
Kerry has more than 30 years’ experience as a professional sculptor. She trained in fine art in Yorkshire and one of her first jobs was creating replica ancient artefacts at Vindolanda Roman museum on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
“I had been working on the dig and was then offered a job as artist-in-residence for the open- air museum, painting frescoes and carving facsimiles of alter stones.”
Kerry later trained in taxidermy, which she describes as another form of replication.
“These skills have all been so useful. Understanding the anatomy of animals, for example, helps me create lifelike roasted meat.”
Kerry’s main material for her creations is Jesmonite, a fairly new acrylic stone product. She combines it with other substances including resin, metal, light weight plaster and acrylic paints to create texture and colour.
Although there are other bigger companies who produce fake food, Kerry believes she has the edge when it comes to her peculiarly British style. “It’s in the small details,” she explains. “Tiny things like cucumbers cut straight instead of on the slant.
“One of my big interests is historic menus. I study illustrations and paintings and recipes, too. If I know what ingredients are in something I can get a better idea of texture.”
Kerry’s daughter Primrose, also a talented artist, is currently working with her in the studio and together they have created the Fake Food Shop which will be launched for Spring Fling. Describing it as “a whimsical mix of Willie Wonka’s magic and Mrs Beeton’s vintage charm”, Kerry says: “For me it’s a place to store items and build a display for photographs. We have shelves full of bakery items, jellies and ice cream and an old-fashioned till. It’s a little bit of fun.”
Photography by Colin Hattersley and from KSB's collection
