ornaments

Ornaments II

The other morning I glued the metal hooks / receivers that will be used to hang the ornaments with MAC glue. I like to glue them even though the resin coating will hold them in place. The next step will be coating them with resin and decorating the resin with glass chips and mica.

Before I can pour the resin, I have to elevate each ornament on something that the resin won’t adhere to. I usually use silicone cups or molds. They all need to have a bit of space between them so I can scrape drips off with a wooden craft stick while the resin settles. First I pour the resin and spread it around with a sponge on a stick to make sure everything is coated. Then I use a heat gun to remove bubbles in the resin. Once that is done, I can sprinkle glass chips and other decorations in the resin. Unfortunately, once I mix the resin I’m in a big sticky mess that doesn’t lend itself well to taking photos / video. I need to get my husband to help with that one of these days.

Some of the smaller snowmen’s mouths drifted a bit after covered with resin. It’s always a new challenge, sigh. I also dipped the “Dichro-cicles” and hung them on my little laundry line. We’ll see how they come out.

I needed to make some more projects before mixing the next batch of resin (don’t want to waste the resin), so I spent today cutting out parts for snowmen and cardinals and prepping them for the resin.

Cutting / grinding / laying out the glass

After I lay out all the parts, I decorate the snowmen with nail polish for their faces and coal buttons (I did this previously for the cardinals I’m using). Once the glue dries, they can be coated with resin and decorated. Sometimes I use glass for the noses on the snowmen when they are larger, but these are smaller ornaments.

Once the decorations dry, I can glue the glass pieces to the clear backer glass. After they dry overnight, they should be ready for the resin coating.

Dichro-cicles

So I made an attempt at creating some icicle ornaments using dichroic glass and coating them with resin the other day. Well let’s just say that my initial attempt at horizontal curing isn’t ideal and results in a lot of lumpy cleanup in the best case and disappointing results in the worst case. So I rigged up a mini clothesline of sorts to use to hold the next batch while they cure. I’m sure it will need adjustments as well, but it’s an improvement in the making!

Icicle hanging arrangement made with twine and florist wire hooks

Of course, before I can coat the glass in the resin, I have to cut the glass, grind the edges and glue the metal holder on the top that will be used to hang the icicle. Once I’ve done all of that, they are ready to coat.

I thought I might be able to do a coat of resin today, but realized that I need more projects ready in case I have extra resin. So instead I cut and ground the edges of the recycled window glass I use to make smaller ornaments with scenes, birds, leaves, snowmen, etc on them.

Corner Sun

My sister talked me out of adding the glass around the edge of the corner sun mosaic window, so I decided to pour the resin and add the blue shell background today. I prepared about 10ml of resin, which ended up being about 2-4ml too much. I poured the resin a bit too thick at the top of the window, so hopefully it won’t migrate too much while it is curing.

I also decided to experiment with some dichroic glass ornaments. I need to figure out a way to let the resin cure nicely on these, which is a challenge for me because they are small. I might need to find a way to let them cure vertically (hanging) instead of horizontally.

Dichroic glass “icicles” coated with resin

Multitasking

Yesterday the friends who will be the recipients of the big Frank Lloyd Wright window came over and we decided to do another layer of resin. I decided that I really needed to move it to the garage for the final layer so I could access all sides of the window, despite the space being more prone to dust / humidity. Luckily it is an unseasonably warm day and the temperature in the garage was 75, which is perfect for my resin (Envirotex Lite).

This took a bit of planning as I had to mix up a lot more resin than usual and keep my family out of the garage (next to impossible today for some reason). However, after pouring, spreading and using my heat gun to clear the resin, everything looks good so far. Hopefully we can move it into the mud room later in the evening so the temperature remains a bit more consistent while it continues to cure overnight. In the meantime, I had a few smaller projects in the works I wanted to continue / start. Unfortunately this included repairs on a holly suncatcher I made yesterday. I had covered it with some wax paper to keep dust out while it cured and the paper made contact with the resin and made a giant mess. I had to carve some lumps off of the suncatcher today when it was cured enough, reinsert it into the mold and sort of “top it off” with another layer of resin. We’ll see how good it looks tomorrow (hopefully). I don’t think it will look as good as it would have had it not needed the repair, but I can likely keep it to use at home.

After chipping off the bumps and reinserting in the mold, prior to repair layer of resin

So all in all, I poured a second layer on three beachy coasters, first layer on two more beachy coasters, repair layer on the holly suncatcher / ornament and the first layers on three snowman ornaments.

Today’s Little Projects

I’m on roll with the holiday ornaments. I only have four molds, though, so I can only make four every other day, and that’s if I actually don’t skip any days, which I do. So it’s not a high output production, but it is a labor of love. 🙂

I poured the second layer on the fourth “Holiday Confetti” coaster and the first layer on the other five pieces. In addition, I poured the resin and decorated a small (though big compared to the other items) Snowman panel.

The yellow on the glass is actually painters tape I applied to the underside of the glass to make cleanup a bit easier. I pour a small amount of resin over all of the stained glass, then spread a thin layer over the rest of the backer glass so I have a substrate for my decorations to adhere to. In this case, I used crushed stone for snow, clear glass chips and blue shell chips for sparkle and interest. I dusted a bit of fine glass glitter over the snowbank and bottom area as well, but I’m finding that the glitter doesn’t seem to show up very well / as I would hope.

I also popped out some finished products from yesterday’s time spent creating.

I used some of the fine glass glitter in the Cardinal and Snowman suncatchers / ornaments above and it didn’t turn out as I had hoped. The glitter is sort of cloudy instead of sparkly. It still looks ok, just not the way I expected it to look. It might be better on the surface of my non-mold resin projects, so I will keep experimenting.

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!

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.

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

More Holiday Fun

Started a few more ornaments today, poured the second layer on one coaster and started the first layer of a few more coasters.

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!

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