Another Dream Becomes Reality!

From the time I started playing with resin, my goal has been to produce totally original pieces using my own molds from my own original pendants or bracelets. I've finally succeeded and have pictures to show the results so far. The colorful polymer clay bracelet at the top is the original from which I made the mold(s) and then proceeded to cast it in resin. I made two molds, so I can cast two at a time if I want to make sets. The disc is my own pendant from polymer clay cast in resin and sporting three little polymer clay butterflies. I love butterflies, regarding them as flying jewelry in their own right and for me to incorporate them into my work comes naturally. It thrills me to create totally original work and with resin the possibilities are infinite!

Casting Resin Bracelets Now

These shots show some of what I've been up to in the last several weeks. My addiction to resin continues and these are some of my latest attempts. My goal is to use original art in my pieces as inclusions, which renders them totally unique, even if cast in a commercial mold. I plan to make original bracelet molds as well and look forward to casting transparent bangles in more organic shapes. The red one, pictured at the top turned out so well that I listed in my etsy store at http://www.donnaguiboche.etsy.com/.

My dream becomes reality!

This is my second original cast resin figure of the deer's head. This time the resin I used cured quickly and this one has no sticky residue at all. I wrapped it in silver plated wire and used Swarovski crystals to make a collar. Deer have always been first on my list of well loved wildlife and I've been drawing them as far back as I remember. To wear one as jewelry is also one of the things I have wanted to do and the transparent resin makes it delicate enough to be possible. This is only the beginning. With the ability to cast resin in any mold I make from scratch makes the possibilities infinite.

More Resin Work

These are shots of some of my earlier resin work, (the pink rose) and some of my more recent work, the white roses and butterfly all done in polymer clay and then encased in resin. I love the idea of creating my own inclusions from scratch, as well as my own molds. I love the way you can turn the pendant sideways and see the total effect of the three dimensional flowers or other objects, imbedded in resin. I will be continuing to find new ways to play with this fun and facinating medium.

Little Techy experience For Nerds Only

I found out the other day that if you leave an SD card in your computer when you shut down and forget to take it out, the computer when it starts, will try to boot from the SD card.
That happened to me one morning after a late night photo editing, I forgot the card and when I tried to start up I got an interesting text screen. The first time I just exited pulled out the card and waited....nothing but the black screen with the white blinking "verifying midi pool data" message. I did a hard shut down and waited a few minutes and started it again.
Instead of booting normally, I was again directed to enter the set-up and this time I did. Once in the BIOS I was able to reset it to the default boot settings. Luckily my courses on computers and the interaction between the hardware and the software helped me greatly from panicking. I was able to navigate using the arrows as in the BIOS there is no mouse. A red highlighted key in the lower left of the screen prompted me to exit, and old DOS Y/N prompt came up with the Y highlighted. I hit enter and the machine finally booted normally. In trying to boot from the SD card the boot order had been changed, meaning that the hard drive, holding the operating system was no longer the first in the order making the OS unable to load. The moral of the story is to always remove any cards like that before shut down.
I will admit my heart was beating fast at first, but if that had happened in when I first started using a digital camera before I know what I know now I would have been mush brained with panic and on the phone to a tech rep.

My vision becomes reality! Casting in resin and new beadwork technique.

When I discovered resin, one of my goals was to create original objects from polymer clay and make molds of these objects to cast in clear resin. For my first experiment I made a number of shapes, including a deer's head, snake ring, and butterflies, and took an existing figurine, a cute spaniel,( which used to come in packages of Red Rose tea) and made a mold of that too. The polyester resin has a tendency to remain tacky for a very long time, but anyway, my objects are gradually curing and I was able to take some shots.

I also have been learning new beading techniques. I have always loved native or aboriginal beadwork which we see on moccasins, mitts and other traditional items, and now I am learning some of the techniques. I included a shot of a combination of my own resin cabachon surrounded by beads in a butterfly. I glued white leather to the back and was quite happy with the result.

Results of my first experiments with resin, and some current garden shots.

Here are the promised shots of my first experiments with resin and some of my current garden shots.
I am thrilled with the way the resin brings out the translucency in the soapstone, and my experiments with adding resin to my rings have opened up a whole new potential for "art jewelry". My first results are technically poor due to inexperience, first of all I used air dry clay for the flowers (a poor choice) and I have to learn how to deal with bubbles, but I was still excited to be able to make durable transparent objects.