Monday, April 12, 2010

It's Hard to Pick Just One

It's official. I have too many things to blog about this week.


I suppose this is a good problem to have when I think about all the weeks when I have NOTHING to talk about and just overload everyone on beady porn pictures out of sheer desperation.


The problem now is, though, WHICH thing to talk about first. There are more "adventures in resin", there's a really cool collaboration that I'm doing with Lorelei, there's jewelry I finished over the weekend (yes, I do actually MAKE stuff - I'm not ALL about the buying), there's the big political mess going down in my community this week...


And I choose (closes eyes and randomly throws dart at the "Board o' Blog Topics")...


Resin.


Which is good because this topic also involves another favorite topic of mine...candy. I know, you're thinking Candy? WTH? But, watch me as I make the magic happen (or at least I get you high on resin fumes so you THINK there's magic happening)...


I am so into this resin thing now that if something holds still long enough - I coat it with resin. I shop with only one question in mind: Would X look cool if I resin it? Which is what happened on a recent trip to the grocery store where I bought:






Mmmm...candy.






Oooohhh...look at the rainbow wheel o' candy! I bet I can custom mix my own candy color combos with this.






Eh...voila! I'm not sure why pink and yellow were calling my name, but they were. I also did a multi-color mix with two sizes for some different texture.


Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of it, but I had a jar of chocolate sprinkles, too. And what goes better with chocolate sprinkles than...GOLD GLITTER! Right? C'mon, who's with me?


Did I mention the second half of this round of experiments involves glitter? Lots and lots of glitter. Because I am 12 years old and if I could make EVERYTHING pink and glittery with unicorns and fairies, I sooooo TOTALLY would.






You can't see it because they are face down, but these flowers have GLITTER on them.






And here are my molds and bezels filled with candy and glitter goodness. Just waiting to dry and be popped out.





Oooooohhhh...sparkley and glittery.


Okay, so, part of me wants to wait and post the results tomorrow. After all, the resin takes 36 hours to cure completely so y'all should have to suffer with me, right?


Yeah, I can't do it. Despite the fact that the kid claims I am the "meanest mom alive" sometimes, I'm actually very, very nice.


So, here are the results:






Butterfly stickers with clear glitter and then pink glitter behind them. Hey, I TOLD you was 12 years old. What did you expect? Anyway, lesson learned here is that the transparent glitter wasn't dark enough. This design will work if I just use a darker glitter color behind the butterflies.






This is that same transparent glitter and it actually worked okay behind these scrapbooking brads because they are a strong enough color to stand out from the lighter background. Sadly, the one on the left had a bubble in it. I haven't solved the bubble issue when I do these inclusions in the molds...yet.




Still not happy with my color combos on these. Gotta get that particular kink worked out. It's so hard to tell what's going to work until after it's all dried and you can un-mold it rather than trying to peer through the plastic mold at it. But, that's why these are "experiments." I'm learning what's working and what isn't and what not to do next time.



Yeah, I have a LONG list of "not to do next time" stuff LOL!




Okay, now this combo? Me likey. The dark navy blue glitter makes the pink flower stickers just POP. But again with teh $A#()@&&!! bubble on the one on the left. Darn it!





Pink glitter mixed into the resin and poured into Patera bezels. These look great!




This is my favorite so far. Navy blue glitter in a silver Patera bezel. It was hard to get a picture of, but in real life it's really gorgeous. Dark and mysterious-looking with just a hint of sparkle. In future, I think I might do this again, but punch a small heart or star out of silver metallic cardstock and float it on top of the blue glitter and then cover in clear. I'm thinking that would look uber-cool.



And now...for the candy results!







In this group - not happy with the yellow pigment powder that I used on the backs of the large and small oval cabs, but otherwise? I think these look awesome and so much fun!








This is my favorite. You can really see the texture differences between the large and small candies and the back is green glitter.





Even the chocolate one came out pretty well. Next time I will go easier on the gold glitter, but other than that, I think it's awesome. It kinda reminds me of the groom's cake at my wedding - it was this gorgeous chocolate creation with real gold dust blown all over it. Did y'all know that gold is actually edible? Well, it is. That was one helluva cake, I have to say. I shoulda kept the cake and ditched the guy at the altar LOL!




Okay, that's it for today. I'll throw the dart at the wall again tomorrow so come back and check out the next topic!

KJ


5 comments:

TesoriTrovati said...

I am all about the chocolate glitter one.
As for the bubble...throw a flatbacked crystal over the top and call it done. A little more bling never hurt anyone.
I accidentally put wayyyyy too much glitter in a batch once. It was by far my favorite. It was a dark color and looked just like drusy. Wish I knew what I used back then to do it so I could mess it up happily again!
Enjoy the day!
Erin

EB Bead and Metal Works, LLC said...

Love the idea of using candy in the resin. I seriously love the navy blue pendant, AWESOME!

Marie Cramp said...

Wow! you have been really busy! I experimented a little with resin and glitter and did ok, I want to try some new things but need to order some stuff first. I guess I better go sell something :)
Amanda could use the support so if you do get a chance to visit her shop, it would make her very happy :)
http://seashoreglass.etsy.com
Hugs
Marie

lunedreams said...

me too! LOVE the navy/bezel glitter one, and the pink one too! The navy one makes me think of blue goldstone. very cool.

lisaoram said...

I LOVE getting to hang out on the sidelines of your resin adventure, and I LOVE how much you are having! Carry on!