Always Experimenting

As artists we are always experimenting with new techniques and ideas. Some will fail and some actually turn out better than we thought. Sometimes a part will turn out, but to finish it many hours of thought will have to go into it.

I make a lot of cast glass pieces that I make into jewelry (a girl can never have too much). But lately I have been experimenting or trying to teach myself how to use cast resin. The results are good, but for some reason it all reminds me of the play jewelry I had when I was five. The texture and dull shine, just are not the same as glass. Plus, I am not too excited about the toxic smells and waste that is involved.

I have purchased several resin molds that I have been using for my glass shapes. But, I am getting tired of using the same ones over and over again. I decided to test some of the other resin molds to see if they would work for the glass as well.

Only two firings and I am very excited about the possibilities with these "new" molds. One is an oval earring mold. They are pretty large and with the glass they end up too heavy, but they make great pendants (plus I can make two at a time!) The second is actually an old plaster mold that my daughter had. It has several small animal shapes. Again, too heavy for earrings, but they make cute pendants.

The animal shapes I can attach the Aanraku bails that I typically use. But, on the large ovals the top is too thin to attach a bail. My husband suggested wrapping with wire (duh, why didn't I think of that?) So while my son was soldering some glass pieces, I wrapped the glass in tinned copper and soldered the back to finish the ends. I am very happy with the way they turned out and cannot wait to try out some more color combinations and some different molds!

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