Tag: window

My least favorite thing

Today is a prep day. I have to do a little cleanup / painting on this window frame, clean up my resin measuring cups and pour a base layer of resin in my next batch of coasters before I can do the fun, creative part.

I’m thinking about doing a mermaid in this window.

When I started using resin, I used disposable cups for measuring. That seemed wasteful, so I switched over to these silicone cups that I can clean and reuse indefinitely.

I use old gift wrap to cover my work surfaces when I work with the resin.

When I’m done pouring the resin, I just leave the stir stick in place to dry for a day or two. Once the resin cures, it is easy to just pull the stick out of the cup, bringing with it any leftover resin in the bottom.

I then cut off enough duct tape to fit two fingers in and use it to pick up the rest of the cured resin from the inside of the measuring cup. It comes right off and leaves a nice, clean, ready to use surface.

In the above photo, you can see the little drops of cured resin stuck to the sides of the silicone measuring cup. Below is how it looks when I use the duct tape to remove the drops from the cup.

I decided to pour another base layer of coasters while I was at it. Now I just have to wait for the paint to dry and the resin to cure before I can continue.

Back to windows

I set this window aside for the past several weeks while I was focusing on making memory beads. Now it’s time to get back to something fun. I found these bright glass nuggets and they just screamed, “Valentine!!” at me. For this window, I used glass nuggets, diamond dust glass chips, tiny red glass globs and some chunks of clear shiny glass.

Laying out the basic design.
Resin is poured and blown with the heat gun. I used 8 ounces of resin for this window.
Filling in the background after pouring the resin.
Putting on the finishing touches with smaller glass.

After posting this, I realized I meant to make some swirls in the background with the tiny red glass bits, but forgot. I guess there’s always next time!

A word about displaying an old window like these

Once you have one of these windows of your own, how do you display them? My favorite way is to just display them over the inside of an existing window. Most of them fit the space (being old windows themselves). The down side is you have to go through some hassle if you want to open the covered window. However, there are many situations where this is just fine or even desirable. For example, in my bathroom, I have two windows that both happen to be on the front of my house, so if you are standing on my front porch, you could peer right into the bathroom. Not much privacy. So I mounted this Clematis flower in the window over the tub. We can still open the top half of the window if we want, but we usually just open the other window that is in the same room if we want some fresh air. It couldn’t be easier, either – just get a couple (four is really probably best) of inexpensive mirror mounts at the hardware store and screw them into the window trim. The window sill provides support, as well. See below.

There are other ways to do it, but this is my favorite way – easy and very sturdy / secure. Another way is to use eye screws and put them into the wood frame. This method is better if you need to open the window behind the mosaic, but can be tricky with old windows that might not have the best frame.

Starting another beach inspired window

I found some sea glass I like a lot better (at Bed, Bath and Beyond, of all places!) and couldn’t wait to start the next project. This is all I’ll get done on this one today, though, as I 1) need to wait for the glue to dry 2) don’t have enough resin on hand to pour this and 3) I haven’t figured out what I want to do in the background – or if I want to add shells or not!

A break for a beach inspired window

I see these online and decided to try one myself. I used seaglass, shells, sand and “pool-riffic” fillers, along with glass chips for the background. Love this filler for water. I just poured the resin in these photos – now it’s time to keep the bubbles at bay while it dries.