resin – Page 12 – Sherry Glaab

More (adorable) ornaments

I’m on a roll with the ornaments. Yesterday I spent all day cutting and gluing these together and had every intention of pouring the resin, as well, but I got the idea to make tiny wreath ornaments and all the tiny pieces took an extremely long time to cut and place, so I gave up and poured the resin today.

Wreaths glued in place (though I did keep tinkering after this photo was taken).

I really like these tiny ornaments, I think they are between 1-2″ (have not measured yet). I am using mica chips for the first time under the little cardinals. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Here is everything from yesterday and today, poured and ready to cure.

I used 200 ccs of resin for this batch, which was enough to add one extra coaster to the day’s work. I might have had just enough for the first half of one more coaster, but I wasn’t confident in the amount and didn’t try for two. I will have to pour another layer of resin on both the circle and heart shaped ornaments as well as the coaster.

The wreaths took a long time, but they are cute!

I’m trying out some variations on my past designs for these resin ornaments.

Two more cute winter trees, resin poured and ready to cure.

I decided to try adding all the layers to this coaster in the first half, though there was a time lag between the heavy shells / shark teeth, then the sand and lastly the water layer of blue shell chips, which were last and the resin was pretty thick by then.

Second stage of ornaments

Today I finally got enough time to pour the resin on my next batch of ornaments. I prepped several a few days ago, but it takes a couple of uninterrupted hours to do the resin stage properly, and today was the day.

I had to cut and grind a few more pieces of glass for the red berries and the carrots for the snowmens’ noses. After that I was ready to pour the resin. It’s really more of a drizzle than a pour, then I spread it across the surface of the ornament with a sponge on a stick. After that, there is a lot of scraping of drips off of the backs of the glass. Any drips that I miss will require some sanding after the resin cures, but I really prefer to take a proactive approach and just remove the drips as the form whenever possible. I also use a heat gun at this point to remove bubbles.

How it looks when the resin is poured and spread.

Adding glass flakes for sparkle on the background.

Mistletoe decorated and curing, still gooey.

Tomorrow evening I should be able to get some better pictures of these!

Snowmen and Greenery

To make these snowman, tree and leafy ornaments, I start with white and green glass and cut it down until it is close to the shape I want. I then grind the pieces to smooth them and make them look more like the desired item (snowball, holly, mistletoe). It will be interesting to see how the texture of the green glass looks after I pour the resin. Past experience has shown me that the texture will be mostly lost once the resin is applied, but I haven’t tried it with this glass yet.

I like this green glass for evergreen leaves.

Here is a snowball in the making on my glass grinder. Yes, I do slice my fingertips while I grind the glass – I try to do a quick once around all the edges to minimize the damage to my fingers, but they still get a bit of wear and tear.

Rough Holly leaves before they have visited the grinder.

Laying out / gluing pieces for a snowman.

Once I have the larger pieces of glass ready, I glue them to the clear glass ornament bases. I glued the ornament hooks on the bases yesterday.

Glued down – tree, snowmen, holly and mistletoe.
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I will pour the resin and add the detailed accents and some more small glass pieces for red berries at the same time. I like to add crushed glass “snow” under the snowmen and trees, and clear glass flakes to the backgrounds. I might cut some red berries for the holly from glass (like I did for the mistletoe), as the red balls of glass I have might be too small in proportion to the leaves I cut. I was hoping to pour the resin for these today, but I just ran out of time.

More small things

I needed to finish the second snowman ornament I started yesterday and use up some leftover glass, so today I made some smaller ornaments with Cardinals and some greenery, plus a few resin ornaments.

Next I glued the hangers onto the base of the ornament.

Next I poured the resin, then added the glass chips and chunks for the snowy effect in the background. I always elevate the pieces on a silicone mold so I can wipe off drops while the resin cures. I have tried using painters tape around the edges of the back side, but it’s more trouble to me than doing this and I get better results.

Ornaments raised a bit off the work surface.

Close up view of the snowman ornament to show that it is raised off of the work surface.

I also poured the first layer and decorated a few more resin ornaments. I am using greenery from my yard and some store bought berries, as the ones from my yard don’t look as nice in the resin. Also some shells and beachy items.

First layer poured for two beach-y ornaments.

Park Circle Farmers Market

I’ll be at the N. Charleston Farmers Market every Thursday in September and October (weather permitting). Come check out my booth!

Varying the “waters”

I signed up for a space at a local farmer’s market for the months of September and October, so I have been trying to build up an inventory of small things (smaller glass pieces and coasters) to sell in addition to my stained glass in recycled windows. I also bought some various blue glass materials to use for the water in the beach coasters. I decided to try three different types of glass for this round of coasters. I really love the look of the “Blue Shells” glass, so I used that for some. Additionally, I used some fairy garden glass chips and another shade of larger (but still tiny) fairy glass globs.

Below is how the fairy glass globs looked when set in the resin.

I poured all of these coasters in two layers, one day apart. Since I learned that the type of resin I’m using is meant for thin applications, I went back to my old layering method of pouring. The demolding revealed another anomaly in the resin, however. The coasters with the fairy glass chips warped when they cured, so the tops of all four of them were uneven.

All the other coasters turned out to be fine, only the ones using that particular glass warped. They will obviously not be particularly useful as coasters with the tops so warped. After further inspection, I realized that one of the new molds I just purchased for coasters is defective, causing the warping. Unfortunately I wasted a lot of materials before I realized why the warping was occurring.

Coasters with fairy glass chips – warped.

Another lesson learned. Luckily my new resins arrived today, so I can start using the proper resin for thicker molds going forward. The type I normally use is good for thin coatings only. I must just be fortunate that my previous coaster creations turned out fine using it!

Latest coasters – reveal

Here is how the latest batch of coasters came out. I was trying different colored pigments and also some new glass called “Blue Shells”. I *really* love this new glass. I bought it from Meyer Imports. By the way, I get no payment or promotion of any kind from any of the vendors whose products I use. I just share the info in case it helps someone.

Beach coasters using the Blue Shells glass chips for the water.

I probably should have used more of the gold pigment in these, but I didn’t mix up enough. I can try this one again.

Trying new pigments

Since my coaster molds are a bit out of shape, I thought I would experiment with a couple of new colors of pigment I haven’t tried before while I wait for the new molds. I also wanted to make some other accent beads, so I thought this would be a good chance to try the colors in those molds as well.

I used the purple pigment last week, and I wanted to make some additional beads using it. However, I hadn’t tried the Bronze or Gold pigments yet. The gold pigment is extremely light and flew all over the place when I was trying to mix it with the resin. I piped the colored resin into the bead molds right away. I wanted to do this quickly, since it is difficult to get the resin into them when it starts to thicken. I made several with the gold and purple and one with the bronze pigment.

After pouring a thin layer of Envirotex Lite resin into eight of the coaster molds and removing bubbles with a heat gun, I added the pigmented resin on top. I then swirled them around a bit with my craft sticks. I also waited about 20 minutes before adding shells to two of the molds.

I also have some new material to try using as the water element in the beachy coasters. It was very expensive, so I will likely limit using it to particularly special projects after today.

I waited until the resin was starting to thicken before adding the shells, and waited even longer (maybe 20 minutes) before adding the sand and the glass chips to the resin in the mold.

I decided there wasn’t enough of the gold pigment in the gold coaster molds, so I mixed up another medicine cup full using some that was left over from the initial batch of resin and added it to the molds. If all goes well overnight, I will add another clear layer of resin to the coasters tomorrow and demold the beads to see how they turned out. I am a bit leery of pouring another layer of resin today after the experience the other day with the resin turning yellow during curing. The manufacturer got back to me and recommended I use a different product, EasyCast, for molds / thicker applications. I can continue to use this type in 1/8″ layers, though. I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Well that’s never happened before!

Over the past few days, I made a batch of coasters using a method I don’t usually try. I split 16 ounces of resin between 9 molds, then decorated four of them with glass chips and four of them with some seed beads. I also made an experimental one with white and black pigments for my eldest child in an attempt to create a “galaxy” look. I also made a few beads while I was at it. I normally wait longer before I decorate, but with this batch, I decorated within 20-30 minutes of pouring and then topped off all of the coasters with another batch of resin. Maybe that’s not a long enough waiting time.

The resin yellowed as it cured. I’m not sure if this was because of the amount I poured (I normally use smaller layers) or the amount of time I waited (or didn’t wait) between layers of resin. I’ve only had this happen once or twice in the past.

But that wasn’t the worst part. After demolding, I noticed that the molds where the seed bead coasters were now have little indentations anywhere the seed beads were. That pretty much ruins the mold, so I had to order some new ones.

I’m guessing the resin got too hot when it was curing. The type I have been using (Envirotex Lite) thickens pretty quickly, which can make it difficult to get into the tiny bead molds if you’re slow. I sent an email to the resin makers to see if they can tell what I did wrong. Hopefully it’s something straightforward.

Note: I heard back from the manufacturer of the resin a couple days later. They recommend a different type of resin for molds/ thicker applications.

“Our Envirotex lite is intended for coating table tops, bars, chairs etc… We do not recommend for filling molds. Envirotex can be poured at a max depth of 1/8 inch, any more than that causes a heat reaction. We recommend waiting 6 to 8 hrs in between coats. We do have a two products that we recommend for molds, Easy Cast. Polyester casting resin. Both products can be found on Amazon, Michaels Craft store, Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics. I hope this information helps and if you have any further questions please feel free to ask.”

A few things completed

Here is some of the fruit of the labor of prior days. The sun mosaic is complete, and I have 8 coasters and some beads ready, as well.

I had a new request for some memory beads, but I’m not yet sure what type she will want. Since I had some resin handy, I just made a selection of beads. They turned out pretty well!

Rondelle (6 mm hole), rondelle (5 mm hole), ball beads.

The coasters I made with the quick layering technique turned out OK. I think next time I will swirl the water pigmented layers a bit. I was hesitant to do that because the layer underneath wasn’t cured, but I think the pigments need to be moved around a bit more. I also think the look of the bubbles at the edge of the water are improved with this technique.