Here are some snapshots of my latest batch of winter themed pieces / suncatchers / ornaments. This week’s beach-themed ornaments are still a work in progress; hopefully I will be able to finish them over the weekend.
Winter Reveal
Tag: snow
Pouring resin
Yesterday I poured / decorated the resin for the winter scene and snowman, as well as added a second resin layer to four molded ornaments. Hopefully I will be able to get finished pictures of them this evening!
Prepping for the Charleston Holiday Market
I’ve had a lot going on the past couple of weeks and I haven’t been able to make as many new small items as I expected for the Charleston Holiday Market that is starting on Friday. It’s a pretty big event, much larger than any I’ve ever done before, so it should be a learning experience! If you click on the link, you can get advance tickets for $2 off, or a coupon for $1 off admission. I was able to finally pour the resin on several new ornaments as well as the second layer of resin on a few resin ornaments and a coaster today, though.
I use stained glass for the leaves, berries and snowman and clear glass that is recycled from old windows to make these festive ornaments. I cut the glass for these ornaments and glued it down yesterday, so today it was time for the resin layer. After mixing, I pour a blob of resin on each ornament. A little goes a long way, and too much makes for more difficulty with drips, so it’s better to use too little and then add more later. I went a bit overboard with a few of these and had to wipe away a lot of drips. That also causes some of the resin to form on the underside in such a way that I have to scrape it off with a razor blade later, which is tedious and a little dangerous if you’re clumsy like I am.
I used a sponge on a stick to spread the resin around so it covers all of the top surface of the ornaments. The resin will settle itself down and look smooth once it cures, so I don’t worry about the streaks left by the sponge. I do have to use a heat gun a few times during this stage to remove bubbles. They are worse in the deep molds for the beach themed resin ornaments and coasters than the thin layer on the stained / recycled glass ornaments, though.
After the resin is spread, I place the glass blobs, chunks and chips I like to use for decoration in the resin. I also poured a little leftover resin into three new coaster molds that I decorated for the first layer of some more coasters.
Some finished ornaments
This post is just photos of the glass ornaments I’ve finished over the past few weeks. Enjoy! I will have these at the N. Charleston Farmers Market this Thursday (Halloween!) and at the Charleston Holiday Market at the N. Charleston Convention Center November 8-10.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.