Glitter, Silliness and Nothing

I have NOTHING to talk about.

I promised myself I would not post any more about resin crap this week (even I'm getting sick of myself LOL) but since I have not gone anywhere or done anything more exciting than microwaving leftover pizza for the kid's dinner last night...

I got nuthin'.

Sooooooooo....resin it IS! Yaaaaaaaaaay (or not, depending on your individual resin tolerance level and/or your tolerance for listening to me talk about my obsessions LOL)

I'm continuing towards my goal of making some sample pieces to show off how the finished resin beads and charms look in a completed design:

I loved these coordinating scrapbooking papers in shades of pink and green and I was all proud of myself for mixing the florals and the stripes because that's so hard for me to do.

And then the resin made "grease spots" on nearly every single charm. This was before I learned the proper method of sealing the paper to protect it.

So, I won't be putting this baby up for sale - I'm keeping it for myself. In fact, I'm wearing it today with a pink and white shirt and it looks pretty cute if I do say so myself.

And I do.

Say so myself, that is.

The chain is a small piece of hammered goldtone chain I had left over from another project and I just cut it up into smaller pieces and randomly placed it throughout the design.

Accent beads are white shell, dyed jade in both hot pink and pale pink, dyed quartz in bright green and pale green and a couple of small pearls.

Gaahhh...CURSE YOU grease spots! Also, kills me that a bunch of the super-spendy Patera bezels got used up on these less than perfect results. Especially since my source for them is going out of business. And yeah, I know, I can buy on-line, but it was nice being able to run out and pick some up as needed (and not pay shipping or have to WAIT...because I am offically against waiting. Waiting sucks).

Okay, so...there's that.

Also, since I'm on a roll with writing about "when resin goes wrong," here are a few more of my less than spectacular results/misguided ideas/plain old silliness:

Ummmm...yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, either. Even the fish is trying to swim its way off the pendant. Also looks like it might be screaming for help, too, no?

I do so hate to give up on an idea...no matter how bad it is. It ends up being a competition in which I WILL make this idea turn out GREAT! Except...sometimes I lose. Uh...at least this one is centered?

Better just to let the pink glitter be all by itself in its cotton-candy-sparkliness. By the way, I have to mention that these bright glitter colors in this post are Martha Stewart glitters. Now, I really can't stand her and never really wanted to use her products, but in this case, I was hypnotized by the colors. And I gotta say...they really ARE gorgeous. VERY spendy, though. Well, spendy for glitter. I wouldn't drop the $ unless you are a real glitter fanatic and plan to do some serious sparklization of everything around you.

Or unless you get sucked in the by the colors like I did - they really are quite intense.

Okay, so, it's a bad idea when your internal 12-year-old makes a run through the sticker section AND gets a hold of the glitter. This glitter color is called "Blueberry Slush." I also mixed in some metallic stars just for extra fun.

And here's what happens when I make too much of the glitter/stars/resin mixture for the piece and don't wanna waste the leftovers. I just pour it directly in the mold...and once again, it looks better than the piece with the inclusion in it LOL!

A closeup of the focal.

And the little matching charms - just begging to be earrings. I actually kinda like how the stars are just a "hint" in this mixture.

That's all I've tried so far with the MS glitter set. Lots of yummy colors left to play with, but I think I'll stop with the silly inclusions.

Probably.

I have lots of other glitter colors left over from my rubber stamping days and in most cases, they came from Art Institute Glitter. The "Mermaid" color I've used in quite a few previous pieces is one of those.

This is another of those AI colors - called "Inca." It's a mix of a couple of shades of gold and copper and I've previously used it to back all the chocolate candy sprinkle pieces. This is what I did with the leftovers from those pours.

It looks great on the back of the chocolate, but I'm not sure I'm loving it by itself.

I think the issue may be that what I pour on the backs of pieces never touches a mold so the resin dries with that super-shiny glass-like finish. The molds, however, impart the slightest bit of "texture." You can't really see it, but it makes the finish a bit more matte - still shiny, but just not quite as shiny as unmolded. The solution may be to keep some bezels on hand to pour extra mixture into rather than the molds.

It hasn't bothered me with other colors, but I really notice it with this one for some reason.

This is another AI color - just called "Aqua." Interesting thing about this one is that when dry, it's actually much paler - almost a light blue/turqoise, but get it into the resin and it goes very dark. Almost as dark as "Mermaid" except that it's a single color and "Mermaid" is a mix of 3-4 colors.

More than you ever wanted to know about glitter, right?

Hey, when I am blog post topic challenged? NOTHING is off limits ;-)

Thank goodness tomorrow is bead porn day ;-)

KJ