I've been busy

While at my local Wal-Mart store, I found this silicone ice tray.

 I picked up to practice casting resin in it, just because it was made of silicone. When filled only a quater of the way, they made excellent tiles. I turned the first casting into pendants.

 

I think I may be able to cast my souvenir pennies/dimes from Disneyland in these and make "blocks" out of them. I'd then use those blocks to build the iconic Disneyland castle! A large and time consuming project but one that I think will be worth the effort. A much more dramatic display piece for my pressed coins. I can even add the photographs taken with the characters into it as "windows" in the castle. I'm going to have to pick up a few more of these ice cube trays to cut down the casting times at least. Assembly of the castle is another project in itself. Since we plan on going again for Halloween, I have to make sure to take enough coins to get the newest ones.

 I ordered a Disney mold from one of the Facebook forums I frequent. Originally I was going to make pendants or keychains out of these. I have to remember one of the golden rules of resin casting: Be patient. This mold is shaped to create a dome in itself. I forced the pictures in prior to the dome setting rigid and ended up with air bubbles in most of the pieces.

 This one was the worst of them. At least I learned my lesson. My sphere mold I made with window silicone is finally wearing out. It lasted for about twenty castings. Not too bad considering that the silicone tube cost $4 and I still have over half of it left to make more molds.

 

I finally took my first run at putting real flowers in resin. I think because the mold is so old, that a small amount of the tint from the flower petals seeped and ended up coloring the resin. I thought they were dried enough,but unfortunately they still needed another day or two to dry.

The second attempt left it very cloudy. I'm hoping that dipping it in more resin maybe clear up the haziness, but I honestly don't think it will make a difference. There was a lot of bubbles in the resin when I poured because it was cold when I mixed it.

 This little vaporeon in a bowl is part of my monthly Pintrest Challenge. This was a secondary attempt. I was working with clay and it triggers my asthma when it bakes, I made as many clay items as possible to bake it all together. This one is still missing it's flowers but it's mostly done.