I've started on the cabinet, but was held up in progress quickly by not having the proper grit sandpaper to polish between coats of paint, so I'm putting a pin in that little project. I finally(!!!) got a most exciting package this week & decided to set my sights on working with it instead.
My Sophie & Toffee September Elves box arrived & has the delightful theme of "Creepy Cute". There are several videos from S&T itself showing how to make all the Elves goodies, as well as a number of delightful YouTube vids on making the included projects.
Since this is just meant to be a quick little diversion while I want for my sandpaper, I'm making one of the smaller projects. I decided to use the the resin charm that's used to make a barrette to make a bar pendant instead (I don't know who has enough hair to keep that heavy thing secure & snug in their hair but it's definitely not me!). I didn't feel like working with the 2 part resin for this project, so I pulled out my Sophie & Toffee UV resin set that I reviewed a few months ago, & started mixing all the colors with the white UV resin, to give me the creamy opaque pastel colors that I was looking for.
I started by using a tapestry needle to fill in the tiny faces of the pumpkin & ghost, followed by adding in colors to the deepest parts of the mold first. After curing each layer, I added a new layer of color.
Thought I thought I was working slowly & carefully, I didn't realize (though it is clear in the photo) that parts of the resin started to demold - if you look at the ghost in particular, the lighter color along the bottom indicates that the resin has pulled away from the mold. This was an issue later on, when I added other layers, as the uncured resin ran down into the deeper parts of the mold & covered up parts of the finished object with ugly splotches.
See? This is not what I was hoping to end up with. It started out absolutely adorable but that last layer of clear resin on top of all my colored layers flowed down & created a lot of gunky chaos on top of my design. I tried prying at it a bit, but as I suspected, trying to get it off & salvage the piece is probably way more work than it's worth. I suspect that moving the mold around may not have helped, so I vowed to be more careful about that with my next attempt & also to keep a careful eye on the edges.
Also surprising to me was the degree to which the resin deformed/curled up on the sides - I'm aware UV resin has some shrinkage; maybe my previous projects have been too small to really see it. On this one it was significant & definitely something I'm going to take into account in the future. It really disrupted the shape quite a bit, so I'll probably have to invest more in 2 part resins with their slow cure times to avoid this.
Try # 2 came out much better! I kept an eye on the resin in the mold & was much more careful when moving the mold back & forth under the UV light. I also deliberately built the resin up on the sides of the mold. When the resin started the deform, the higher sides created a nice sort of cup for the rest of the resin I needed to add, so that it (mostly) couldn't flow down the sides & onto the front to ruin the piece.
While there are definitely more bubbles than I'd like, this one came out overall pretty good, especially for my second try at a mold casting that isn't a tiny piece of dishware!
As the inside is indented to add some little doodads, I next turned my attention to the smaller set of molds to make some little bits & bobs to add into the center. While I don't yet have shaker oil, I can at least make this into a shaker as intended & add the oil later, when I get some.
So little charms next! Again, I used a large tapestry needle to paint in the tiniest details of the faces & hearts on the charms. Getting this as perfect as can be takes awhile & I was aided in this tedious work be several episodes of The Originals. If nothing else, it's a good show to be watching when painting tiny bats & ghosts!
The bottom right image shows the mold flipped over; you can see the little detailed parts of the resin charms through the silicone.
I went through about 4 runs of using the mold to get little charms for this project. I think I probably have more than I need, but I like having a selection of them to work from, & not just trying to make every last one work. I think I may make a few more charms tonight as I have some excess resin still to use up & I can always save the extras of these charms for future projects.
Now that I have a nice little collection of charms I'm going to need to decide which ones will go inside the bar. But I'm getting a little sleepy, so I think that'll be a step for another day!
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