Today was a pretty big day. As I mentioned in my last post I've been working with polyester resin all week. I'm working on a Mother's Day project & then making jewelry pieces with my extra resin each time. This has given me lots of experiments to try & each time has been a learning experience.
I'm using polyester resin mainly because it was the first resin I saw a video on, with them making molds using silicone & then using the polyester resin to cast the item. It looked easy enough. Well there are some downers to using polyester resin. It stinks horribly & is toxic so you definitely need a good mask when working with it.
Also any surface of the resin that is exposed to the air will remain tacky & not completely cure. This was the reason for my trip to Hobby Lobby this morning. I tried to do what they showed in the video & place a clear mylar sheet over the back of the molds but this was too hard to do. If I only had a few pieces that I was covering it was fine but when there were multiple I had to worry about I kept getting air bubbles in some & when I'd try to fix that one I'd end up messing up a previous one etc.
So I've been doing more reading on using polyester resin & there is a spray on resin that you can buy that should seal off the tacky part, plus it's great for helping with any blemishes or imperfections in the piece. I needed to buy some worms for our fish/frogs & eel as well & the store doesn't open until 10am so I figured I could easily kill an hour in Hobby Lobby checking the place out.
This was kind of the first time that Piglet & I have gone out shopping alone too. We've made a quick stop at the grocery store one morning but that was it. Everything went great with Piglet. He talked up a storm going through some of the aisles, started to get cranky but then I was making him laugh & then he was hamming it up to some of the ladies in the store. As we were checking out he was really flirting with the lady behind us, doing the head tilt etc already haha.
I was in total shock & awe walking through Hobby Lobby. I texted Jon & said "omg, it's like a crafter's walmart" haha. Because it was so big & had so much stuff everywhere I figured they would definitely have all the resin stuff & hopefully quite a few different molds so maybe I could save some time & pick up a few more molds.
Unfortunately I was kind of disappointed because they had the basic resin stuff that Michael's has but they had a few more molds (for maybe a total of 9?). They didn't have the resin spray that I was looking for & I even asked for help to make sure I didn't miss it somewhere. I did pick up a bangle mold though & we'll see how my bangle turned out when I pop it out of the mold tomorrow.
They had a pretty big beading/jewelry making section though & if I ever get into making clay jewelry they have a ton of clay. I was really excited though to find tons of bezel pieces (it's like the metal backing & you can pour resin or whatever inside to decorate it how you want) & all kinds of other things that make me wish I had more time to be crafty.
I managed to get out of there spending less than $20 because you KNOW I took my 40% off coupon with me. I got the bangle mold, a glass peace sign pendant (I plan to make a mold of it), & two different stencils. I had an idea to maybe paint stuff on some of the bangles that I make (if the bangle turns out).
I was the 1st customer to walk into Hobby Lobby as the doors opened at 9 & it was after 10 before I finally left haha. Then we headed over to the fish store & got the worms. Today was a very productive day. I ended up making a lot of castings (more than I had planned on) & I think I cleaned the kitchen 3 or 4 times haha. The last few times I've bent over my back has not wanted to straighten back up & oh man I sure do hurt. I've had my tylenol & hopefully bed time is soon.
Not sure if I'll get to cast anything tomorrow since "the destroyer" is home. I've been doing my castings on the back patio table & if the sliding glass door is open he will go out there whenever he feels like it & he never listens to me. I had to put my finished pieces I brought in the house in one of my crystal lite containers I saved because he keeps trying to steal them haha. I did give him 2 of my first messed up pieces but he thinks he needs them all.
Anyhew it's time to get ready for bed around here. Tomorrow is a new day!
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