Always Seal Papers For Resin Embedding

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-26-2012

Here's a quick post to show what happens if you don't properly seal whatever paper you want to embed in resin with mod podge or glue layer of about 2-5 layers:




These aren't as bad as you could get, true, and I didn't do a whole lot of embellishments in them (thank goodness!!) but it is still a little sad to see the soaking. It's so bad, I almost wish it'd soaked through the whole thing because it'd just be that liiiiittle bit more, yeah? Oh well, lesson learned, and hopefully these plus all the other examples out there will remind you to completely seal whatever projects you work on!!

Careful Selection of Resin Molds Required

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-26-2012

I got this awesome mold for unicorns a while back that I was very excited to use for clay and resin. I used one slot for a clay unicorn that turned out ok (should have used different colors or not as many since it was a little too much to see the details of the unicorn) but a couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make a whole bunch of glittery resin unicorns!!

I got out the mold:


And I proceeded to put clear resin in each hole (except for the dirty clay one, oops! forgot to clean!) and got this (will explain the missing chunk further down):





This was all well and good......until I attempted to push them out. I decided to try with this orange one I'd poured as it was near the edge (the missing chunk you see in the first picture). I tried popping out while it was still part of the main mold, but that didn't work so I cut that piece out and tried cutting into the plastic around it, halfway through.

No matter how hard I tried however, this thing would NOT come out! I am so very sad that these didn't work as I was just so excited to use these for little kid's charms and to give a couple to a friend of mine! **sigh**

Lesson learned : choose your molds very carefully when working with resin. Make sure that they are able to be bent and folded enough to pop these guys out and/or use mold release! I might try to clean that last spot and spray with mold release and try one more time just to see if it's the mold or the fact that I didn't use release with the others, but I'm betting more towards the mold wasn't quite the right one to use.

ACEO Art Trading Cards

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-25-2012

My friend at work recently got me into ACEO Art Trading Cards. I think they're a neat way to do sampling as well as sharing and collecting of artists work! Therefore, I have gone ahead and created 2 using first my pastel pencils and then my oil pastels with a woodblock stamp of trees in black acrylic paint on the foreground and added glitter to the pastel pencil one.

Here they are:




I think I'll actually try to make a whole set of these to see what variations I can get, but only 1 of each exact coloration and design!!

Anyone have any specific color/pattern requests for these?

Skinner Blend Method - Pink, white, blue and silver

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-16-2012

I have had my pasta machine for playing with clay for about as long as I've had all my clay but had yet to properly do the Skinner Blend method to get a really good color shift going...until yesterday!


Colors used : pink, blue and white


This is after about 7 or 8 runs through the pasta machine.


This is after about 15 or so runs through the pasta machine.


All done!!!

I brought out all my cutters and wanted to do a good variety of shapes:





The 2 ovals missing were pieces that stuck in the cutter at first so I set them aside on my silicone baking mat.

As you can see, I did a good deal of cutting, as well as using my zig-zag blade and getting a few strips in the middle.



Look at all the awesome pieces I got!!! Most were from the original strip of blended clay, but a few I got from using silver with glitter as a base (for the broken hearts and the circles with swapped flower inserts) and then I used the silver for its own pieces bc it got a little blue and pink on the edges and when I ran through the pasta machine to ready for more backs, I saw the pink and blue stripes in there and couldn't resist them being their own pieces!

The butterflies on the bottom left as well as the squares were used with the silver base and broken pieces from the original rollout and pieces of the zig-zag cuts I'd made and then rolled into the silver using the pasta machine.

The top left section has a few free-form cuts I made just to see what they'd look like.


Junk pieces on silver.

Swapped flower inserts.

Friendship heart necklace pendants.
Ice cream cones and free-form.
More free-form.
Totally outrageous Jem earring pieces? ;)


Regular cuttings.
Kind of weathered looking pieces I might put floating sand/beach related floaters in under resin coating?

I can't wait to get some of these framed/sealed in resin, some maybe with a layer of filler as if they were in a bezel!!