The joys of warm resin!

A long time ago, when I was younger and still looking for my place in the world, I attempted to fit in at the local card and comic book shop. Square peg, round hole. There was definitely some "Oh my gods and overlords, there's a girl in the card shop FLAVEN!" going on. I played Magic the Gathering, not well, but I tried.

I was enamored by the black cards. They had rats. I liked rats. Apparently, the mono-black card scheme that I played exclusively had its limitations. I was not good at Magic. Perhaps my deck just wasn't good.

I begrudgingly sold my cards, and moved on with my life.

While packing for my move last year, I found a few packs of cards that had not made the journey to the card shop. Well, they weren't worth anything, and they didn't take up much room, so I kept them.

I had a hankering the other day to create some resin cabs for my bead work. Those cards sure had some pretty pictures on them...Thats right nerds! I have defiled several magic cards! Mwahahahaa! Really, they were just 4 basic lands, swamps...not foreign, foil, or rare, its cool, don't light sabre me...but if I ever find a beta black lotus, I will SO make a cab out of it, out of spite! HA!

So out came my 2 part resin, popsicle sticks, cups, etc, and I startd my adventure. I poured the entire cab with one go, with room temperature resin. BIG MISTAKE(S)
The bubbles completely obscure the images. The top 2 are from Magic Cards, the bottom are a couple acrylic flowers I got on clearance at Pat Catans a week or so ago.

Crap...So I started over. I warmed my resin bottles in warm-hot water, until they were warm to the touch. I swirled the products around in the bottles, then warmed a touch longer.

Then I mixed slowly and carefully, avoiding bubbles at all cost. I only filled the selected molds halfway, let cure, then filled the rest of the way, and carefully placed my cutouts, trying to remove all bubbles as I went. Much better eh?

This is a photo of the flower cab against the light. They flowers take on a true sublety that I really kinda dig.

I think my next resin adventure with Magic Cards will be a Power Nine tile-style bracelet.

Quilting

I finished piecing a quilt top recently, and it has gone off to live with my mother, because she quilts things. And I don't.

Here are a few pics before it went off...

It'a a star pattern with a partial star inside each arm

I'm willing to bet that this one would have been the perfect quilt to try the fancy "quilt as you go" technique, but I didn't learn of that until after it had been completely assembled. Not so 'to go', when your quilt is like 7.5' square...

The latest

I've been pretty busy lately, being home from our latest road adventure has left me unlimited time to sit and create!

With no more ado, I give you stuff!

First up, a bracelet. This came from a project in the latest Bead and Button. I substituted freshwater pearls for the crystals, and changed up the clasp.

I am super proud of the clasp.

This was the first project in a long time that I sat and worked on start to finish.

This next one, I am calling the tube sock twist...

It started out prettily enough, with japanese seed beads in sizes 11 and 8, and black bugles. (The beads aren't really blurry, they're quite nice in real life.) They were worked up in a russian spiral, alternating 8s and bugles as the "big bead"

I initially intended to add a drop to the center, but the necklace decided otherwise. I hate when they start givig advice. I may add a few purple Swarovskis to the clear netting just for a focal.

Then it got...interesting. Trying to figure out how to end it all, I started some herringbone stitching then some peyote stitching in a few different sizes. I ended up with a beaded tube sock cuff and a magnetic clasp.

Last one for today is my newest obsession.

Laura McCabe's "Crown Jewels". I purchased the pattern from Bead Pattern Central and set to work on making one of my own. Well, I had to go to the bead store first, I had to pick up Rivolis.

The pattern is pretty easy, set the Rivolis in peyote then connect. The bear is in the connecting. I am actually working on making another, using 15mm Paua Shell cabs, except, during the final embellishment, a flinging flanging cab popped out of its setting. I almost got it back in, and its neighbor popped out. My beads are now grounded to the craft room until they can learn to behave themselves

So, here I sit, with a brand spanking new blog. It's interesting how one can have so many ways to surf the internets.

First there was myspace, which really starts to feel like a swimming pool swamped by high school kids. You can't even really check in on your friends without mobsters and all that stuff getting in the way.

Then there were the Yahoo Groups, but the one I participated in died. It seemed like before I left there were lots of posts, then a few months(hell, it could have been years) later, it was dead. Automated messages still scroll through with random birthdays and the odd poster peddling patchy pants...

Next there was Facebook, which is ok, and a fair networking resource, but I really have used that lately for little more than farmville and the occasional quirky thought.

Then came Livejournal. Oh my god. That place seems a little full of looneys. It's also hard to speak your mind without flame wars.

Somewhere in time, I had a website. It is(was) http://www.spyderjewels.4t.com/ . It is rather out of date, with new stuff not being added, but pretty much all the stuff posted there still lives in a box in my craft room.


Anyway, perhaps you, shiney new blog, can help me talk about my crafts, and perhaps you, shiney new blog, will help me to find some creative people to share with.

I sure have high hopes for you, shiney new blog :)