Over the last week I have made some of the best paperweights!
I have to start this post with a "I do not recommend doing this message."
These are my molds for making bangles. I was looking at them and thought, "if I turn them over, they are a nice paperweight size and shape." Good idea, but my finished pieces were very hard to get out of the mold, and I did break several. So while my results are great, my molds are not. Next time I will purchase paperweight shaped molds or make my own with silicone rubber.
I gathered all sorts of interesting items that I thought would look great embedded in resin.
I set up a temporary studio in my garage, because the temperature outside is just perfect right now.
You can see in this picture that I poured EasyCast over my embellishments.
I did all my paperweights in two pours.
Pour One was slightly less than 1/2 the depth of the mold. This held everything in place and I could babysit my embellishments.
Occasionally a few of my pieces floated to the top and I had to push them back down again.
The next day I came back to my work table. I checked all my embellishments.
Pour Two covered everything. I let these all cure a full 24 hours.
The best way to pop your pieces from these hard molds is by placing everything in the freezer.
This worked for a few of my paperweight..a few I had to really bend to get my paperweight out, which snapped the mold.
The edges needed a little sanding. I always use a nail file for this work.
When you file resin you can see it gets very dull.
This is easily fixed with Resin Spray. I sprayed two top coats over all my paperweights. The sanded areas are no longer dull.
Here are the first three paperweight.
(The rest, I'll post tomorrow.)
These old cars look great!
This one is my favorite so far. It has all sorts of tiny parts.
The level vial I embedded still works!
Labels: EasyCast, Mistakes, Paper Weights, Resin Spray
