I finally made, baked and mounted the second batch of charms. I can’t wait to turn these into necklaces and earrings.
I redesigned the cat because I wasn’t happy with my original design and they turned out much cuter. Also they’re black cats just in time for Halloween!
I upgraded a bit from my stencils and made some custom cookie cutters. This speeds the process a bit, but also helps me keep them all a little more uniform. I’ll be posting a blog describing how to do this yourself in the next few days.
Here all the charms have been put into a bottlecap and I’ve applied a thin layer of varnish.
You may be wondering why I need varnish when I plan on pouring the resin over the pieces and there are a couple of reasons for this. For one, it seals in any colors or pigments that may try to bleed into the resin. The last thing I want is cloudy resin! Another reason for this is that is helps me fix any smaller bits into place without fear that they will jostle around or accidentally break before the resin can keep it safe.
For example: I now have cats. This duplicates the crafting learning experience several times. My lovely kittens decided that my first batch of charms looked like a wonderful plaything and knocked them all off the counter before they had completely cooled. The results of this? A couple of my frogs lost their tongues. Snapped right off (I will also note that three of my mermaids are still missing in action and I suspect they may have slid under the cabinets). I was able to save a couple of my frogs by sliding the tongue back into place and using the varnish to hold it there.
Yes I could have re-baked the piece but I didn’t want to run the risk of burning or further damaging it since the resin will hold everything safely in place.
I can’t wait to have them all resin-y and ready to go. Really looking forward to turning two of the bunnies into earrings for myself.
Here are the culprits for the curious:
