And Now For Something a Bit Different

Having been a lab tech for most of my working life I have a real appreciation for science and the way experiments can make you think. Recently I was helping out at my old workplace and came across an article about resin casting - and this was followed up with an email discussion with Mo Manning about me trying to cast some of her gorgeous Christmas images into resin like the bugs and "other things" that are lying around the lab.

I chose Mo's adorable Christmas elves - Lil Elf Pipa and Lil Elf Mim to create some resin ornaments for my Christmas tree. I found the casting resin at my local hardware store - and you need to get some catalyst too. And here's a word of warning - this stuff may look great but it's pretty smelly and ate through the 3 layers of plastic cup we mixed it in - so TAKE CARE!!! Before cutting my images out I backed them with some Christmas DP to hide the ink splotches on the back. You also need to seal your images with a couple of coats of matt mod podge on both sides before casting. I added some star dust stickles to the elves after sealing for some Christmas bling!

For a mould I found some oversized silicon muffin pans - you can see the ridges on the side from the pans so be aware of the patterns if you're looking for moulds. I also had to get my moulds before printing off my images so I'd know how big I could make them! Luckily I placed my images face up as the silicon had a slight texture to the surface making the end result look like frosted glass. I also have a couple of fingerprints in the surface of one thanx to he who shall remain nameless touching one too early. They take a good 48hours plus to dry! And DON'T cast on a rainy or humid day as your resin may end up cloudy! I also think I could have made these a bit thinner but it looked like the images were floating up to the surface and we wanted them embedded - in fact we did push them down with a stick a couple of times - live and learn!

Once done I simply hot glued on some gold cord, a bow and a little flower (to cover the glue) and there you go - 2 glass like Mo Manning original Christmas ornaments! FYI this are about 3"(7.5cm) in diameter across the top.

Copics used as pictured plus skintones E08, E00, E000, R20, R11. Ciaos in picture are YR23, R37, R35, R32

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