Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Adventures in Resin - Part I

All I can say is, thank goodness for National Poultry Day!


And yes, I can hear you all asking "What the bleep does that have to do with resin?"



Well, I'll tell you. My company, aka the "Crazy Chicken" for those in the know, decided to have a floating holiday this year. And they picked Friday, March 19th for the holiday because it was National Poultry Day.



Which meant I got a day off.



While the kid was in school.



And I didn't tell anyone in my family about the free time because they all usually find ways to fill up any spare moments I might have OR they make me feel guilty about doing something just for fun.



I just stayed home, played hermit, turned off the phone and got my resin Par-TAY on in a big way!



Okay, I did have ONE helper:













"I am NOT poultry, dammit!"

Okay, so, his help was mostly limited to squawking and throwing seeds on the floor. I was kinda hoping for a turquoise feather to stick in a bezel, but nooooooo....

On with the project. I've been collecting "things that might work with resin" for a while now in the hopes of having time to actually doing resin projects:












Uhhh...the collecting may have gotten out of hand. You're shocked, I know. Me? Buy too much stuff? Naaaaahhh....



And yeah, okay, so I did discover that I'd accidentally bought some of the same stuff twice.



Sigh.



I started with an Ice Resin kit from Fusion Beads - includes the two-part resin, measuring cups and stirring sticks. Also in this picture you can see some paper punches, bezels, tiny plastic scoops, a plastic mold (also from Fusion Beads) and some embellishments.














I also pulled out some of my old rubber stamping crap to see if I could incorporate any of it. This is a bag of "holeless beads" that I used to use as embellishment for stamping projects.











Powdered pigment (also a former stamping material) to use for coloring the resin.






I started with some wonderful bird and butterfly vintage prints from Patera and some coordinating bezels. What I liked about these: the prints are pretty enough that you don't have to add much (if anything) to them and they are sized to coordinate with the bezel shapes and sizes. What I didn't like: the bezels are expensive and the store was sold out of most of the sizes and shapes I wanted and they were also sold out of ALL of the coordinating punches so I had to cut everything by hand.











Here's a closeup of some of the images I selected - one has already been glued into its bezel. I learned from a previous attempt at this type of thing (using Diamond Glaze) that I need to glue the images in ahead of time and let them thoroughly dry otherwise bubbles pop up from under the images once I pour the resin in.













Another closeup - I've added a couple of flatback crystals and pearls as embellishments.




I also used some of the bezels I've gotten from Rings 'N Things and filled them with scrapbook paper, colorful brads (that I clipped the metal backs off of) and more crystals:













What I like about the R&T bezels: they are less expensive, they are lightweight, they come with either one loop (pendant style) or two loops (link style) and because the walls on them are thinner, it was easier to trace around them on paper and cut out the tracings and come up with the right size to fit inside. The Patera bezels have thicker walls so that was harder to do on them.











A couple of other techniques I used in some Patera bezels: cut out some scrapbook paper that had a cute circular flower design and some glitter already on it and put in the silver bezel with a pink crystal; cut out some scrapbook paper and glued it in the gold bezel and then used a flower punch to punch out some flower shapes from coordinating paper, glued the flowers down and added a pearl and a crystal.









And here are all my bezels - lined up and ready for resin. But before I pour, there's one more technique I wanted try.


Pouring resin into molds:







In all my "supply collecting", the one thing I forgot to buy was mold release spray. Soooo...I substituted good ol' Pam cooking spray and hoped it wouldn't eff everything up. A little too much came out of the can so I ended up wiping down the molds after I sprayed 'em.


I cut a couple of Patera images to fit in the square molds and then had some bejeweled stickers, brads and more scrapbook paper lined up to go in the other molds.


Then it was time to pour!


Whereupon I promptly totally screwed up the first batch - got the proportions wrong (how is it possible to do this when the measuring cups are MARKED? I dunno, but I managed) and in the process of trying to fix that, I ended up with a TON of bubbles so I gave up and tossed that whole batch.







"Stoopid human! Now bring me a treat!"

But the next batch I was more careful and it came out okay. I poured and poured and filled all my bezels and most of the molds, and I even attempted to cover a couple of wooden butterflies, but I still had some resin left over. So, in true KJ fashion, I ran out to the store, bought more bezels, filled 'em and poured more resin. Still had some left over and I used that to mix in the blue mica pigment and poured that into a mold, too.















And now, here are all my goodies drying under their protective shells.


Stay tuned for the big reveal in Part II to see if any of this worked.


KJ

13 comments:

TesoriTrovati said...

Squee! I can't wait for the big reveal. I love the little protective domes... I would agree about the Patera and R&T bezels... but I still like the feel of the metal on the Patera ones. I am usually not creating enough to pour my ICE Resin, but I have wanted to try molds... I will have to look into that.
I remember when I added some pigment to the stuff that I put too much in, glitter makes it look like drusy... I should find those first experiments (I did it at Bead & Button with Susan Lenart Kazmer back in 2008). As for the bubbles.. here is what works really well... get one of those candle lighters and wave the flame over the top of the poured resin. The bubbles rise to the top and pop! Looking forward to Part Deux.
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Lorelei Eurto said...

when!??! i wanna see now!!!

Pretty Things said...

Very informative (and the bird's "feed me" is hilarious!)

Jacaranda Designs Jewelry said...

That looks like a lot of fun. Definitely something I'd like to try. Can't wait til the big reveal!

mairedodd said...

good luck with all of this! you certainly put a lot of time into it... so i hope you get some good results... do remember, that as soon as the resin begins to warm (about 45 min) you cannot use it anymore... if you are going to do a bigger pour, do a few of the cups and do not mix the others until you are ready to go(let the mixture sit separated)... and ice resin has a website www.iceresin.com

cjvierow said...

Hi KJ--How very funny! I thought I was the only one who bought things in "duplicate" and had entered into almost every "hobby" out there. I've managed to not start the "scrapbooking frenzy" but who knows how long that will last. I even had a parrot! A blue front Amazon--he got very territorial of me and mean to any one who tried to get close to me (husband kind of objected to this) sooo he found a new home with other bird lovers--they had lots of birds so he had new friends. Your experiment with resin seems to be going well--umm after a few setbacks. I look forward to seeing your next "results" blog. CJ

Do Be Do Bead Do said...

First of all I have to say, I love your work and your blog -- every single thing. Ok, that being said, there is no such thing as stamping or scrapbook "crap." If you don't want it, throw it my way!!! Your faithful reader, Sandi

Unknown said...

This looks like serious fun. Yay for you getting a day off! We drove right next to a Crazy Chicken last week in Phoenix. Todd wasn't very pleased when I punched him in the arm and yelled "KJ works there!"

Jen Judd said...

You're hilarious! I'm eager to see how they come out! I have the ICE resin sitting in the kitchen, the empty bezels in the dining room, and the scrapbooking crap waiting in its little storage containers. haaaaaaaaaaa

The Joy of Nesting said...

KJ,

Can't wait to see partII, it looks like you had resin central humming like a well oiled machine!!! By the way WD40 will work really well as a mold release. Although one must have a can at home to be at all handy. I always had WD40,duct tape, zippy ties, and super glue in my single Mom's survival
kit. Boy I could handle any kinda emergency!! That kit was the best gift I think I was ever given! A single mom friend put it together for me,and I've blessed her ever since:)

Pattie ;)
Mazatlan Mx.

Michelle said...

I'm liking the peep show. LOL I would love to take a day to play! I like that you had National Poultry day off...you had a pluckin' good day!
Bead Happy!
Michelle

Cynthia said...

I can not wait to see your results! I have all the resin stuff, but have yet to try it.
BTW - Ornamentea has a free pdf template for all the bezels they sell. So, if you bought bexels from them, you could print out their templates. (that's my plan, if I ever use my resin)

Anonymous said...

What fun you're having... We have so much trouble with dog hair in resin (2 greyhounds, 1 Dalmatian) - and maybe some cat hair, too. So we can't do it here.

Can't wait to see the final product.