Today was the day for starting my fourth season panel, autumn, and it had to be a pumpkin! I spent the afternoon cutting / grinding the pieces for the pumpkin, stem and leaves. I may even include some floral wire tendrils, but the more I think about it, the less likely I will include them. They’re too likely to be squashed and lose their shape over time.
Pumpkin (Autumn)
Seahorse (Spring)
Wreath (Winter)
I still have to pour the resin on Spring, Winter and Autumn, but I am going to wait until the glue dries on the pumpkin panel to do that. I also want to put some masking tape on the backs of these panels before I pour the resin, as it is a big help in keeping the back side of the glass panel clean.
Fireworks (Summer)
The resin I poured on the Fireworks panel the other day has cured and it turned out better than I expected. In person, it has a lot of sparkle and it looks pretty cute in the display stand!
I got to the point where I needed to pour some resin today. However it’s been quite a while since I’ve used this resin and I wanted to make sure it hasn’t gone bad, so I decided to test it out on a couple of beach themed ornaments I’ve had sitting around partially completed for awhile. I mixed 100ml of resin and poured it and it looked ok, so I went ahead and covered the fireworks panel for the “Seasons” project since I’m not that happy with this particular panel anyhow. I won’t cry if the resin doesn’t cure properly for this piece.
Heart Starfish
Circle Starfish
Fireworks
Hopefully the resin hasn’t gone bad!
I also prepped the wreath and seahorse panels so they are ready to pour if the resin passes today’s test. If not, I will need to order some more resin!
I’m working on this changeable display for various holidays / seasons. Still just the beginning stages, but I’m making progress! There is a sparkly stained glass wreath, a seahorse, and some fireworks in the works so far. I plan to make at least four panels (hopefully more like 6-8). It really helps me to take pictures and look at the pieces on my computer so I can see areas I want to enhance in later steps.
I’m gearing up for hopefully my first booth in forever. Even though it’s not until late November, it takes time to make some things to stock the booth, so it’s Christmas in July here! My plan for this project is to make several seasonal panels that will fit in the same display base so you can switch out the glass for the appropriate season. The first panel I’m making is this wreath, which is just in the beginning phases right now.
This sparkly dark green glass is one of my favorites! I still need to fill in the gaps and add some texture to the wreath greenery.
Today is Thanksgiving, a great day to make some progress on small projects! Today was second layer of resin over the two heart / mica rainbow suncatchers / ornaments and also for the first mica rainbow coaster. I liked the first mica rainbow batch so much that I decided to make a round mica rainbow suncatcher / ornament and three more coasters to match the first. Next up will be the second layers on those. I also made a medium sized stained glass snowman suncatcher that will need another layer of resin and some decorations tomorrow.
Small projects in progress
I was able to pop out a few finished projects from yesterday’s batch, too!
Continuing to try and make some new things for the small, outdoor, masks required pop-up craft fair I signed up to do at 3 Matadors for December 5th.
First I needed some more snowballs for snowmen, as I used up all the ones I had on hand. Back to the old grinder so to speak. 🙂
Making snowballs – rough cut then grind down to roundGetting the “big” snowman ready for resinLaying out all of my small projects to work on today
Before I start mixing my resin, I lay out all of my projects and needed supplies. Today was the second layer of resin on the holly suncatcher and all five coasters, though one will be a new coaster design and the other four will be sandollars in the sand. I like to elevate the larger projects like the snowman panel so I can reach any drips that happen. I sometimes tape the underside edge, but forgot this today.
After resin and decorating – ready to cure!
I’m trying out some new colors of mica for the rainbow projects. I think they will be really pretty!
Close up of the rainbows / snowman suncatchers and coasterSnowman panel curing
Now everything just needs to sit overnight to cure.
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).
Making sure it is level
Layer 4 in the process of curing
Adding a final layer of resin.
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
Coasters of the day
Suncatchers / Ornaments
Today’s small projects
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.
I finished this guy yesterday and he cured overnight. Measures approximately 6.5″ w x 9.5″ tall, stained glass on recycled window glass coated with resin and decorated with glass chips, ground stone, glass glitter and blue shell accents.
