Charleston Snowmen

Today I poured the second layer of resin on several small projects and then spent some time making several small snowmen. I am experimenting with some abstract red and green coasters too, though my son says his favorite is the holly leaf suncatcher. My current favorites are the little snowmen. This is as close as you can get to making snowmen here in Charleston, SC. It’s 80 degrees outside and it’s well into November!

Resin curing!

To make the “snowballs” for their bodies, I use glass nippers to rough out a generally round shape, then I use my glass grinder to smooth the edges. My fingers are pretty sore after making so many snowmen in one day! After the “snowballs” are ready, I paint on their faces (on the tiny ones). I use glass for the detail on the faces of the larger snowmen. Since these tiny ones are destined to be in two sided ornaments, I painted both sides of their faces / buttons and the little birds that will perch on their stick arms.

Lots of snowmen!
One “big” snowman

I also cut some backer glass and glued the pieces of this “big” snowman in place. I will pour the resin and decorate it another day, after the mosaic adhesive has had a chance to fully cure. This piece will be table top sized as it’s slightly smaller than a standard sheet of paper.

Cheer!

Today’s little ‘cheer-full’ projects! Second or third layers poured on the beachy coasters, first layer on all the others. I got some new colors of mica and other types of flitter / glitter from meyer-imports this week and I can’t wait to try them all out!

White molds are coasters, aqua molds are suncatchers / ornaments

In the holiday mood!

Suncatchers / ornaments are between 3-3.5″ across. Handmade suncatchers are $20 each. Handmande coasters with stained glass are $50 for the set. Contact me for delivery / shipping options.

Holiday Suncatchers

Poured the second layer of resin on four Cardinal coasters (one needs a third layer as I ran out of resin) and the first layer on some new holiday suncatchers / ornaments!

Coasters, suncatchers

Also took some better photos of the past few weeks worth of ornaments, though I’m no photographer with my phone, ha!

Birds and Holly

Shifting gears into holiday mode with some small projects now that the Frank Lloyd Wright Waterlilies 31″ x 48.25″ window is done (at least, I think I’m done with it). I’ve poured three layers of resin and each time there is some imperfection I’m tempted to address with another layer. There are still some imperfections; the third layer cleared up the worst, but contributed a few more. For example, I was trying to keep the texture of the flower petals visible, but the third layer covered a couple of the petals a bit more than I wanted it to. I can also see some edges of the third layer where it didn’t blend / flatten well. However, if I pour a fourth layer, I might mess something else up. Best to set it aside and get a second opinion.

Waterlilies – should I add a fourth layer of resin?

In the meantime, I am moving into holiday mode and working on some small projects. I made a flock of cardinals and some holly leaves / berries. My fingers are torn up from grinding all the tiny pieces of glass.

I love Cardinals and Holly!

I will likely use these in some resin ornaments and coasters.

Touch up, etc

I decided to rotate the large Frank Lloyd Wright window I have been working on, and upon closer inspection of the “far” side, I decided to pour another thin layer of resin to address a few coverage issues. Since I was doing that, I mixed some extra resin to finish off a couple of coasters I’ve been working on and made a few new ornaments using mica, glass, sand, shells etc. I still have to pour a second layer on the ornaments, but the coasters should be ready to pop out of their molds tomorrow. The picture isn’t very good, but hopefully I’ll get some better ones once these are out of their molds.

Four new ornaments and two coasters