Continued adventures in resin…

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I decided to make resin coasters for a housewarming present for friends who just bought a house. I laid out all my supplies (resin, silicone moulds, sand, transparent and opaque dyes, glitter, paint, stir sticks, cups, my Martha Stewart heat gun, gloves, a table cloth, kitchen scale, and smock. I mixed up the equal parts resin and hardener, and mixed in some gold glitter and real sand) and got to work. I’m not nearly patient enough with this craft, and need to learn how to slow down and let things sit a bit first, but that’s a lesson for another day!

I mixed up some resin with sand and a bunch of glitter, and poured it into the mould. I should have let that sit for several hours, but of course I didn’t. Then I mixed up two batches of resin with opaque blue dye and paint, and one with white paint. I layered it into the mould and used a heat gun to mix it up and create the lace effect I was after. I was pleased enough with how it looked on the back, but realized the mould wasn’t full, and I wanted to add more resin.

I let it harden over two days, and then couldn’t leave well enough alone. I mixed up some resin with transparent blue and green dyes, and a batch of resin with white paint. I should have used transparent white dye instead of opaque white paint, because it obliterated any lace work I had achieved. Whoops.

I used the rest of the resin to make two little trinket boxes with the same ocean theme. I still need to trim the raw edges, but then they will be done.

I was happy enough with the end result, and will probably make another set of three coasters for a full set of six. This time, I will try letting it dry between layers. I found the sand mixed with the surf, which is fine, but the sand is not opaque like I wanted. We’ll see what happens this weekend. They move at the end of May, so I’ve got time.

Posted on April 7th 2021 in Resin

Medal holder

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Earlier in the year, I completed one of those My Virtual Mission challenges. The deal is you pick a challenge to do (each with varying trail lengths), and pay to sign up on the website. You track your progress via fitness app or manually, and along the way, you are sent virtual postcards and can see your progress on a map with street view. When you’re done, they send you a shiny medal. I fell in love with the medal for Mt. Fuji, and signed up. I wasn’t really sure how long 74 kms would take me considering I wasn’t walking much in the winter, but I managed to get it done within 21 days. Anyway, they released these medal holders (which were too spendy and sold out quickly anyway), so I decided to make my own. 

I found plans online and we headed out to Home Depot for supplies. I spent about $200 on materials, including a router and bits which I’d always wanted to get anyway. 

My friend reprinted the plans in CAD and we got them paper printed at mom’s. Then it was a matter of transferring the design to wood. I managed to get a scrap piece from HD to practice on first. SMRT. And awaaayyy we went!

We had to account for different routering depths in other to make room for the ribbon to be tucked inside. The little holes were for magnets to hold the lid in.


It turns out, freehand routering is hard, yo. We built a little guide that had to be reset after every cut, and it just took forever. 


Also, I don’t have a tablesaw, so cutting a straight line with a router is not the best way to do this. 


Much sanding needed to be done.


Which, of course, made the top uneven. But I managed to jam it in there without magnets. Which made a lot of that routering moot. 


In the end, it turned out okay. Now that we’ve made one, it’ll make the next one easier. 

Posted on April 3rd 2021 in Woodwork