Transcripts
1. Welcome: Hello, I'm Debbie, and I'll be your instructor for the free form of resin Geos class. Here are just a few examples of the amazing art that you will be able to create on. In fact, these two examples Here are two projects that we complete it together in the class the whole way through step by step. Even if you've not worked a lot with resin before, the class really does cover everything so that no prior knowledge is needed. We'll start talking a little bit about resin safety, then go onto the equipment on the materials that you'll need in order to make your moles on your Geo's, we'll have a look also at the amazing embellishments such as glitter crystals, crushed glass on lots more that you can include in your GX to make them either look natural or to make them look. Rt The choice is yours. I'll discuss with you the materials that you need in order to make your moles on, show you two different ways that you can achieve that. Then we'll work through to full projects together on each one has multiple layers, so we'll show you how to create the multiple layers to give your pieces the final look on that you really want. We'll finish off with some line work to really bring out the details in our pieces on. Then I'll show you three different ways that you can finish the edges. Then we'll talk through three different ways that you can display your pieces, including framing, hanging on, leaving them free standing if you like. I think you'll find the class supposed educational on entertaining on. I hope you'll join me soon for the free food or residues.
2. What is a resin geode: Let's start by talking about what is a resin geode. Well, I have a couple of examples here and here Of what typically is described as a resin. Geo is basically a piece of artwork created or coated with resin that looks some similar in style to a geode or gay, or something that draw with the lines and veins and various different colors on their usually accented with three D objects such as crystals, glass, stones, beads, glitters, those kind of things. So that's typically your resin Geos. And if you do want to create something like this, I also have a class for called rest NGOs backed six, and you can go on and learn how to make these pieces of artwork. This one in the middle is slightly different. This is thief Reform Resident Geo on This is what will be creating in the class. In fact, I've waited till the end of the class to show you, because this one is one of the projects that were actually making within this class. So while these pieces are Jiminy created on a board or campus, this piece doesn't have any backing in itself. The whole piece is made entirely from the canvass, the crystals, the glass, the letters on the pigments on you can make it in any shape or size that you like for the purposes of our class I made to your reasonably small. But there's no reason why you have to. You can make the big off course. The larger you go, the thicker they will need to be in order to accommodate their weight without causing any problems with the strength of the resident. But for these small pieces, you can do them in just a few layers, and they're reasonably attractive. Andi, economical to make. So this is the free form resin Geode on. That's what's being created in the next lessons of our past.
3. Safety considerations for working with resin: Before we begin, let's talk a little bit about working safely with resin. Most, if not all, of the craft residents you'll find on the market these days will be certified as safe to use for home use. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't gonna be someone out there who is going to be sensitive to one of the ingredients or, over time, over repeated exposure. People can also build up allergies to products, which they use just fine early on. So there's a few simple precautions that we're going to take to make sure that I will be working safely with all of the materials. Firstly, we don't just need to protect ourselves. We need to protect our work surfaces. So I use this nice, thick plastic on all of my tables on Even I put some sheets down on the floor because the reading could drip on. Once it's dripped and drive on something it won't always come on. Thistle is the plastic that I use. It's a nice fit sheet. This'll one is four mil on is really handy for using a nice thick plastic like this with resin, because if you do get any spills their easily wiped up. If you do get any drips or any spillages or a major puddle or anything, you can actually leave it to cure and set on. Then it just peels right off with this plastic. No trouble it off now we should also wear some old clothing because no matter how careful we are homo, how careful I am. Sometimes I'm always getting just a little bit of a drip somewhere or even worse, I may have something on my hand and then touch my clothing. Onda resin will not come out, so I always make sure that you're gonna wear old clothes. You should also make sure that you're wearing footwear. Don't use resin with bare feet, just in case you drip a little something onto your foot. Of course, you aren't wearing gloves on your feet, are you? So make sure that you use it that you're wearing socks or some kind of enclosed footwear Talking about gloves. These air the gloves that I use these air a latex free vinyl. You can also course use latex and a lot of people use night trial. Which glove you use is entirely up to you. I have read that late latex gloves. Maybe a little bit more porous Onda. Under some circumstances, if you wearing them over an extended period of time, then the resident may seep through night. Trial is also very similar to thieve vinyl. As far as I know, however, maybe it tells a little bit more easily. It all depends. You know, that depends how much you pay for your gloves. The more you pay, the thicker the glove, perhaps on the longer it might last. Then we should talk about the most important thing of all our lungs. Most off the craft resins are gonna be what's called vio si free so they don't have any kind of toxic fumes that you might be breathing in. But please, please do your own research on this. Just check through all of the residents. Look through the safety data sheet for the resin that you're going to use. Read all the precautions on your products because I don't want anything bad to happen to you because I told you it's all gonna be fine on your resin was perhaps one of the exceptions. So this is the master I use when I work with resin. A lot of the time masks are recommended, but not essential. You should, of course, always work in a well ventilated area. In any event, so have all of your doors and windows open. Make sure there's plenty of air throat airflow so that any fumes are from your resin or quickly, you know, moving away from your working area. If you are sensitive, if you have asthma, anything like that or just if you want to be extra secure that make sure to get one of thes masks. Now, this you can get like little dust mass. That isn't gonna work unless you're sounding a resident. I suggest getting a proper respirator. This fits over the mouth and nose, and it comes with cartridges on the side. Now you can get different ratings of cartridges. Make sure that you use one which is okay for vapors. This one I'm using here as an organic vapour cartridge. I always use three m Andi. I will put links underneath in the resources to where you can get all of the equipment that I'm talking through today, Onda. Once the package is opened, this is what the little cartridge looks like on it. Clips on rotates here onto the side of my mask, so I have two of these. When I'm using it, it has a dust filter on the outside, and then there's the filter on the inside. This going to cut down on those fumes on when I'm not using it. I put the cartridges back into a container and just close them off because the cartridges do have a limited life. So just make sure to read the instructions on your cartridge to see when you're working with potentially toxic vapors or any fumes that you want to block out from and breathing. Just check and see in the details of your cartridge what the recommended usage hours are. Remember to change them often. Also, I've got some safety glasses. These aren't necessary, really, for resin, unless you're creating a lot of splashing about their or your, um, act maybe to put your glove in the resin and then rub your face with it. That's something obviously that you don't want to do so you can use safety goggles during the course. I'm also gonna be working with crushed glass on. I'll show you a link to a video where I've got tutorial on how to create your own clutch crushed glass. And if you're going to do that or anything that that you'll definitely want to be using some kind of safety goggles. Lastly, I just got a few cleanup supplies. I've got some alcohol that you can use for cleaning up that works great on your tools on. Also, keep a great big tub off baby wipes on hand at all times. That's good. If you need to wipe something off your surface, just wipe your hands clean in your gloves on. But if you should get any resident on your hands at all, maybe you've taken off your gloves and then pick them up. And then you got a little bit of resident on your hands. You should know. Try and remove resin on your skin with alcohol because that causes the resin to break down , and it can actually then be absorbed mawr easily into your skin. So you better to use a dish soap, something like a dawn dish soap and maybe something grown. You're like a so poor pop salt or sugar or poppy sees on. Just use it dry and rub like this with the soap and then rinse off. Rinse again, wash again with soap, and that should get rid of the resin from your skin. So make sure that you've got all of the supplies on hand before moving on to the next steps and working with resin.
4. Basic resin working supplies: have an assortment of basic supply set out on the table around me. These are the basic things that you'll need for success with your resin Geos on generally, for any resin work that you do, starting with this one. Just a simple roll off masking tape and get this at the dollar store or at your D i Y stores on I will show you when we talk about preparing our surface. How I used the masking tape to make sure that the resident only stays in the areas that we wanted to. But this one is an essential also. I have these. These are tiny levels you can see they have a little bubble in them on. It's also essential to make sure that you're both your workspace on your piece are level. So I make sure that my table is level or more or less level before I begin on. Then also, we will level our artwork because if we carefully set out or resin in the design that we want and it's not level by the time we come back and have take a look two or three hours later, we may find that are carefully centered design is no somewhere off over here, so do make sure that you get yourself a couple of little devils. We'll need to mix our resident. So I've got a couple, all sizes of stir sticks. I like to use theme jumbo ones here when I'm working on a bigger Paul resident on, then these little small just kind of the regular size crab sticks these work for when I'm mixing up smaller amounts of talking about amounts of resin. Let's look at my cups. I've got a teeny teeny cup, a slightly more cup, a medium cup on a very large cup on. All of these are gonna be useful, of course, depending on the size of your resident piece. If you're working on a very large piece, then you'll be needing to mix up very large amounts of resident all in one girl, smaller pieces. Then probably this will be enough to mix up your your clear resident, and then you may transfer it to smaller cups. It's care that the ways he can take a look, this one is a little too ANC's cup. This one has ah rim and slightly flexible, but doesn't come to a point. This one here is one of my favorites. This is like a little medicine measuring cup. It has graduation standard size. Do as do all of these other cups, even including this very, very large one. Eso You could mix up very small amounts in this one. It's a This is a one night's cup. What I like about this one, it's very flexible, so you can see how I can pinch the sides together to make a spout so that I couldn't pour The resident in quite quite directed lines to make sure it goes exactly where I wanted to get, so the same as in previously. I am going to provide a resource is link so they'll be an external link where you can go and find more information about all of the equipment that I'm showing on. There be links to where you can find those equipments in the event that is no easy to find them where you are. So there's all my mixing supplies now. You may also lead some other supplies for manipulating your resident here. I've just got a couple off scrapers again from the D I Y store on. If you're working on a large piece that you would use a larger scraper, perhaps to move your reading around. What I like to do to direct the resin on smaller pieces is to use my stir sticks so much the time you will see me mixing up the resin and then using the same stick to guide the resident around on the surface where I wanted to go, a little tip for were hired. To keep your sticks in order is just to use an old pop bottle. If you hop all of your sticks in this old bottle, then you could just give them a shake. Outcomes a stick and it keeps them only untidy and in order. I used to keep them in cups, and then all the time I would end up knocking my cup over and the sticks would go everywhere. So it's just a little tip for how to keep your sticks organized. Now you'll also need some tools for heating or moving your resident. Here we have a heat gun you can both heat on. Move your resin with one of these because it blows air a bit like a hair dryer. But this is more intended for paint stripping on industrial. I used to say, I'll find something like this in the D. I Y store. I prefer to use one like this. This is just a cheap on simple chefs butane torch. I have a separate video about the functions on features to look out for when you buy a a chef store. So I suggest going over on again. I'll provide a link for Wake and find that on this will be used to heat the resident on remove any bubbles. Also, we'll need some clean up supplies. So make sure that you have some alcohol on hand on also a big tub off wet wipes, which I find really useful. Happy to clean the clean, the reading off my gloves as well as off the surface on any tools on cups and sectoral. While I'm working on last but not least, a little bonus tip that I want to share with you. You might consider getting some of these jewelry molds. I bought these on Amazon. There's a couple of sets off once for making jewellery on other smaller ones, which I use for creating like little gemstones on when I have any resin leftover if I've over mixed because I find it always better to over mix a little resin mother end up short. So any resident I've got leftover gets poured into these on then I can creates a really beautiful colored or even better glitzy, shimmery or metallic just pendants and things on. It's just an extra little bonus, something for resin that would otherwise go to waste. I can use it and may create a pendant, which I can then sell in my ANSI store. So these are some of the basic supplies that you'll need for working with resin.
5. Mold making supplies: There are some supplies that you will need which are specific to making the freeform rest NGOs. First of all, you'll need something to make a mold on. I suggest getting the 100% silica. I've got a couple of examples here. This is the trade version, just the kind of thing that you'll see plumbers used to waterproof around the side of your bath or your shower cubicle. One thing to look out for is to make sure that anything you buy is 100% silica. You see here will purpose silicon on it doesn't include any other ingredients. If you find anything that says sealant or paint herbal, those are probably best avoided because you might find that they don't come away from the side of your present very well, if it all. So watch out. No ceiling, no. Nothing is painful. Only things which are 100% silica, so you can buy them in the larger troops. I actually prefer to buy them in the smaller tubes like this. Now, this tube in this tube both about the same price for me where I come from, but having bought one of these on then find that I could only use it once. Most of it went to waste. Anyway, I find using it with the gun is actually really quite difficult to get the silicon out. So I prefer to use these ones. These are much more handy again. It comes with a little built in nozzle on again. It says 100% silicon, and I find these a little easier to use. You can still get a couple of reasonable size ones, have something like this so it doesn't work out too expensive. So what? You have your silicon In order to make a mold, you'll need a surface to make the mold on. Let's look at a few examples here. The first thing I bought thinking it was gonna be genius was one of these silicon baking maps. They are lovely. They've got fantastic, smooth, glossy surface. And I thought that I know that silicon doesn't stick to rub to residents of this will be perfect. However, what you will find is one thing that does stick to silicon is other silicon. So what? You make your mold and you put your silicon onto the silicon mass hopes the resin will come out beautifully, but the silicon mold fuses to your silicon map on if you want to make a lot of things that are the same. So, for example, you want to make a permanent mold for a set off six coasters, then go for it. Make your six silicon molds on a silicon baking sheet, and he will be able to use that over and over and over again because silicon mold will stick to the sheet. If you want to be able to remove it on, reuse it, then a silicon baking that it's not gonna be ideal. The next thing I went, what using was this plastic sheeting? This is actually the same plastic sheeting that I usually use to cover my work surface on. I know that resin doesn't stick to it, because when I create resin, Artnet drips off the side. The next day, I'm easily able to pick those little bits of president of the shooting. I thought this would be ideal. It's nice and thick. It's four Mills who can use it over and over and over again on a silicon doesn't stick to it. Taken, moved silicon. However, although it is very smooth. It does have, or it does get a slightly matte finish to the back of your rez NGOs. Now, if you are not too concerned about what the back's gonna look like, we don't mind just that slightly mapped finish. Then this is definitely going to be the most economical, I think. Get a big sheet, small sheets, lots of different size of sicknesses. You can even use things like bin liners like garbage bags if you want to, but you may find with those it's a little bit more difficult to get a perfectly flat, smooth surface. Sometimes they can drink a little bit, and you might get texture on the back of your piece that you weren't intending. Well, I like to use these days is this. I'm doing it over and see. It's in a great big, long pole. I think it's about 54 44 54 inches. I'm sure on what this actually is. Paper thin again sold in my D. I. Y store. What typically is used for is clear plastic table covers. You can also get in various thicknesses to use as drapes over furniture and storage antiques. All these kind of savings decorating, but I've got the medium one here, so medium thickness, we use it here in Cayman over the top of our tablecloth, as you can see, is extremely glossy. It's flexible, but it's not too thin. It's thicker than my role of plastic. Here on this makes the perfect perfect base or making always NGOs because when they come off, there are gonna be slick, super shiny on Dorsey. Now, the everything with this piece is I had it in the back of my car here on this extremely hot on when I came back to my car. Although it was rolled, it kind of got too hot and it flattened a little bit. So it looks flat. I can feel if I put my fingers over it. There are just a few slight ripples in the plastic. Normally, I don't need Teoh. Stick this down normally so flat I just roll it out on. I could make my GOP straight on the top without any problems, because this would go a little bit overheated in the car has a soy war, but I think that's good, because what I will do it show you when it doesn't work compared to one. It does work, so we'll go on user anyway. But most of time using something like this, and it's nice and thick and smooth on flat. You want me to tape it down? If you are using something thinner, something with the potential ripple, then if you get aboard, forced first of all on, make sure that you take your piece down. I don't aboard or onto your working surface. On that way, you'll make sure they have a nice flat. So those are a few tips for things that you can make your role with. Andi use as your surface for your three former resin jeans.
6. Crystals, glass, glitter, gemstones, and more: Now let's have a bit of fun on. Look at the glitz and glam, the glitter and the sparkle that we can add to our rose NGOs. Let's start with glitter. There's a dazzling array of blisters that you can get in every shape size on color imaginable, and I've just got a few of the ones from my stash just here. This one is perhaps what you would call a regular letter. It's reasonably large size, and if you take a look, you can see all of the individual shapes off the letter, so that's like a regular one. This one would then be a fine glitter, much, much smaller in terms of the glitter flakes. I thought that was just my regular craft store. Then this one you might find is an extra fine, sometimes called an ultra fine Victor. I really like this one for adding into my whites on my clears on anything which is kind of pearl or crystal color. It's very, very fine, has a slight holographic effect on that's an extra final ultra fine. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, we can find things that are chunkier again. This one is a crushed glass glitter, this oneness Spice Tom Penders on again. You'll find it in craft stores or Amazon places like that. It's a crushed glass glitters. It was not the same as these. Other Glitters doesn't have the same kind of off sparkle. It's a little bit larger. You see that one. And if you want to go up in size again, this one is an iced ice resident product. Again, it's a glass litter. This is German glass glitter shards on. This one is larger, so you can see it's much larger Schaars than the other crushed glass litter this one could look really nice to. And then, if you want to go back to a regular kind of plastic litter, I've got this one, which is one of my favorites on about it. So favor, I know, even under then used it yet. But this one is a chunky glitter. It comes in various different shapes and sizes within the park, so if I could get the top off back taking it everywhere you see, it's got much larger pieces, and this could look really nice in your gox, too. So that's just a few off the glitters. Now let's go on. Have a look at some of the larger pieces you might want to use. Let's start first of all, by looking at acrylics. I got a couple of examples with clinics here. Here's one of the larger ones. I tend to use these ones in. My larger GOP sees the ones on canvas or board, but because he's air particularly chunky. But you can also get them in smaller sizes, which are ideal for use in your smaller free phone freeform Geo's. You get these in craft stores on florist places like Amazon on their recently inexpensive, and the good thing about it is because they are acrylic. They are really light, so I also have some in a smaller size. I got these in the face figure section off my local D I Y store. So again, Amazon crafts stores, florists. We'll have this kind off, smaller sized, critically a critic vase filler. There we can take a look back glass. Of course, you'll recognize these ones. You see these a lot again crap stores, florists, even your dollar store. They just see simple glass nuggets on. Of course, you get them in a lot off from colors on if you wanted to, you could use these straight in your geo's and they would be fine. But why do is crushed? This is what they look like. Here's an example. Crush their very sparkly. Very, very nice on these. Look really good again in your GOP on whether it's a free form or one, creating all campus aboard on. I have a separate video which are linked to it shows you have to take these glass nuggets on quickly and easily crushed them to make your own crushed glass. It's, ah, nice and affordable way are making them on. You can crush them up into the sizes that you like. That's always a good option. Talking also about glass, you might find something like these. I actually got these in my local beating store. These are dying glass chips. They tend to be tumbled so they're smooth on much smaller on. Then you could get died in an assortment of colors because they're dying to glass rather than natural minerals. There much, much more vibrantly colored a huge assortment, and you could get them with over that holes most the time. If you're looking in your beating store. You will find them with holes, but you can also look online, especially speed suppliers, etc. Amazon places like that on you. Confined, dying class chips are on drilled while we're talking about things that are published. Let's have a look at these. These are really rock crystals, but they've been polished on tumbled, so they are smooth on glossy, shiny. I got these on Amazon quietly Backs was full up on a bull tech for about 12 to $15. I really like these ones. Please look lovely there about the right size because their natural they look good energy because they look so natural. Variety. They're not the same as the acrylics, where they all kind of the same shape and size thes have a lot more variety to the. So I suggest looking at for something like these, either the Polish rock crystal. Now what we're talking about Crystal. That's how I look at this next election. The's ones are unpolished, so they're a lot more Matt on Natural on. You'll get a lot more variety in the shapes and colors. Thes winter known as crystal points, they are more elongated. Seymour. What you think hope is a typical, naturally occurring crystal thes. They're really nice in your pieces. Two and again you can get them in a variety. Sometimes they'll be more care. Sometimes they'll be more Matt, and sometimes I even have a slight coloration, normally a slight pink or a brand to them. So those are crystal points, then the last option. Show you These are really am a thesis chips. So again you buy them online, Zach, to say, as the tumble rock crystal these tend to be tumbled to, so they're slightly rounded slightly polic look a little bit shiny and glossy on again in a variety of shapes and sizes are normally, as you see here. They will come in a variety of different colors within your backs, or some will be a little clear, so it would be kind of gray on. Some will be a lot more purple, so if you want to add riel, amethysts or real gemstones or real crystals to your GF those really cool a selection of some of the ones that I've got my stash
7. Which resin should you use?: a question that comes up time and time again in our Facebook group for creating both free form on the resin Jews that you see behind me on the boars is what is the best present for use with your rest in jails on there is no one best answer. There are a number of things that you want to consider when picking a resident. The 1st 1 is availability just because I say that I use X Y, said resin or someone else whose work you admire, they use another Tucker president. It doesn't mean that you have to use that one if you can easily find it where you are. Remember, of course, that you can always order resin online, and that's where a lot of us will generally find it. If you look locally, you may find some in your D i Y stores. But just bear in mind that once in your D N Y stores are not necessarily intended for artwork on. They might not have the necessary UV state stability to make them suitable for use as geo presents, so availability definitely has to be a concern for you. Don't go out your way on order in something from overseas just because your favorite artists happens to be using it, you also need to consider your budget. Know. Everybody necessarily, perhaps wants to start with the most expensive residence. When you're learning, you may want to start, perhaps with more a budget brand, something that's a little bit cheaper just so you can practice with that until you're feeling more confident, more comfortable. And then you might want to up Teoh Mawr expensive, perhaps higher quality products Now that you're going to create artworks of perhaps you want to sell, I have a handy list, which is kept up today of all of the most common brands off resin in all of the available sizes. And I'll provide a link for that so that you can go on check and see which residents were present within your budget. Which ones are a good value for you? You may also have heard the phrase open time when it comes to resin. Open time is generally the amount of time that you have to work with a resin between the time you mix it on, the time it starts to stiffen up on become less workable on. Residents will typically be in the region around 20 to 45 minutes of open time. If you're working on a small piece on, you get it done in 20 minutes, then that's fine. But if you're working on a really large piece and you plan to makes a large batch of resident worked with there over a longer time, then you need to work with a brand of reason that has a longer open time in order that it's not going to start to stiffen up before you've completed your artwork. I mentioned earlier. So about UV protection on for me living here in the sunny Caribbean. This is something which is really important because I want my artworks to look good a year from 95 years from now 10 years from that. But I know some of the residents that I've worked with some of them have a tendency to amber and go yellow, and therefore, any whites that I might have in my gears will start to look a yellow color. If they are, they don't have the necessary UV protection, so do check carefully to see which residents are available to you on what you be protection that they have, and you may also want to carry out your own test by pouring a little piece, leaving out in the sun and seeing what happens. I think you re protection is one of the the most critical things that you'd want to consider if using her and epoxy resin for your artwork. Ease of working on safety of working is another thing that you would want to consider. Ah, lot off. The residents, intended for use with artwork are all certified by the appropriate bodies as safe for home use. Providing used Um, obviously in well ventilated areas on according to the manufacturer's instructions. But that's just something else to take into account. You should probably choose to pick a resident that has been certified as safe to use without a respirator rather than one where it says a respirator is absolutely essential. Of course, I still recommend that you use a respirator, but I suggest this is one of the factors that you might want to consider. When you do, check which resin to use on. Lastly, viscosity, viscosity is how thick, or how running your resonance over the brands that I have here, There's quite a variety. I would say that of the residence I've used, that our resident tends to be the one which is the funniest on. Therefore ever want to do a Cure co. Or a flood coat over a piece of art are raising would be my choice for that because it's nice and thin and smooth, and it just runs. Oh, it runs easily. However, for doing my resin geos, I find that a much thicker resin one that doesn't move as much is is easier to work with, because then I can choose exactly where I want my lines to bay on when and where I want any blending to occur. So for this one, this is why I tend to use Master cast 1 to 1. It fits all of the criteria that I have discussed earlier. It has excellent UV protection, is nice and thick. So when I put my resident of place, I know it's going to stay where I put it on No run all over. So though I've tried a lot of brands, Master cast 1 to 1 is my favorite for making resin Geo's. But again I think about all those points I've disgusting considered earlier on. Just because this might be my favorite, it doesn't mean it has to be yours. So I hope those tips are you sport, there really is no one resident, which is right or wrong. So please just pick from what's available on within your budget.
8. Piping a silicone mold: So in this example, I'm gonna make lead mold for the GOP, using only silicon out of the tube on, then moulding silicon, smoothing it with my finger. So you need to get one of these little tubes. This is the 100% silica. Of course, if you are making a larger piece, then you can get one of the larger troops that you use with a gun. But for a smaller piece, I find something I they so there was no as economical. It's a little bit more easier to work with, so you need to cut the end off of the tip on. I suggest starting with a small hole. Remember to just cut the tip. You could always make the hole bigger if you make it too big, then you have to go out and buy another nozzle or another tube. So just cut a little bit off the tip. That would give a little bit more control as well. Remember, you can always have more silicon, but trying to take it off is gonna be a right sticky mess on on the inside of this one. It has a little silver cap just there, which we can take off. I talked to one side and that silicon is free to come out, so I only want to make sure I squeeze this stupid and ready to use it. So in terms of deciding how large I want my geo to bay, I've actually taken this backing piece from a nine inch shadow box because I want to display my piece in the Shadow Box Frank afterwards. So I've used this piece as a template on just Drawn a Square in this case what could be a rectangle and then roughly sketched my geode onto my plastic. So that, I know is that Cuba kind of science that I wanted to be when it's finished so that it'll fit nicely within this frame. So what's I've got my layout just here to get my gloves old, and then we'll start with the silicon. So we've drawn up a guideline. Remember, it's only a guide. Like if we go outside the lines when we do our silicon or make a totally different shape, it's really not gonna matter too much. Remember that these things are organic, so there's no way that you can say it has to be around. It has to be a certain shape. It has to be oval. They come in every single shape, size, color. I'm variation, so don't ever feel anything that you've done his role. Okay, I've got my chip of silicon ready on all I need to dio I'm actually gonna squeeze it upon the end here so that I'm pushing the silicon dying towards the tip like you do with both. Put toothpaste to be a little bit organized, and as I do, that is gradually come dying towards the tip. I can feel it. It's kind of a little bit hard, this one. You know, some of these they seem Teoh squeeze out a lot easier than others. I wonder if it's a lot to do with temperature or just Some of them were a lot firmer than others. This one is particularly hard together. See if we can get this started. Okay, there we go. By squeezing it over. I got it said I've got a little bit I could just drop that down all Andi allow it to go on the light. They'll see that I'm actually using the keeping the silicon up above the map. So that it's creating a nice, smooth line. And then as I press, I can guide the line, which has already moved out of the tube and guide it towards that line that I've drawn. There we go looking good. So far, I'm taking it nice and slow. We've got plenty of time. The silicon will start to set up after a while, but generally will have enough time to work with it to make our mold. I can see a little bit outside the lines, but no problem. We're gonna work out just fine in the end. And typically also, when I draw my line, probably make it a little bit more wiggly than my silicon line is in real life. Because Silicon obviously wants to make a nice, smooth line, you could make it. There you go. It's weekly or smooth as you like, gradually following that line, and then I get back up to the end here. I'm just going to take it to the outside, give a little dab that join the two lines so that we don't end up with a little gap there. So that's my first language good, and I have decided that it's because I've got quite small hole than that's made quite a small align off silica on. In order to get enough thickness on my piece, I want to do another lights. I'm gonna do another line and try and keep it more or less on top of the one that I've already got. Let's see how I get on with that. So I'm quiet because bought their guns, went off a little bit, come back. So I'm concentrating, trying to get my silk, um, or less on top of the line that I've already got there, but we're gonna have some ability to change that a little bit. So it's not perfect. It doesn't matter. You allow turn out. All right. In the end. Yeah. No. Duh. And again, I'm gonna make sure that I joined carefully. There. Take that away. OK, so quickly. Going to wipe off the lip on, put my feet back on. Okay, so we have our silicon shape, but we can smooth it a little bit with our finger because at the moment it's kind of from here on lumpy, it's two circles basically on top of each other. So we have, like, um a figure eight shape like that on that word. Create the same kind of shake around the backside off our GM peace because it will, it will mold our resident. So I got here in my little park little condiment part I keep is just a little bit off dishwashing soap on some water providing use soapy water all finger. Then we can smooth silicon without hopefully making too much of a sticky mass. So I'm gonna pull my glove, mice and tall s I can use my finger dining here on Then I can use my finger to just smooth the silica. Oh, say I made a mistake. I need to put on my other finger to because if I'm going to use them on both sides, the one on the back side is going to stick to. There we go. I can gently nudge that back into place, and then I can use both fingers just to smooth the inside of that silica onda ne jet back towards those lines. If I want to, I want to make a particular shape and I got a little bit outside the lines Go. I think he's a nice dot I could smooth the inside of the silica on it just gets red route of that curved shape and gives us a flatter edge to the inside of the silicon on that will give us a better finish to the to the outside edge of our G o Why I got any little bits Where the Silicon Medical night, Outside the lines. Or especially here, up at the top, where I joined the to observe silicon together. I'm just gonna give those a little touch and make sure that there's no gaps there where any resident might leak out later on. That's looking good. Now I'm just gonna continue all around the inside, smoothing that silicon with my finger. And if any time it starts to stick a little bit, I know that I need to hop a little bit more. So people drive my gloves, I get I'm gonna end up with a nice, smooth finish to those silicon lines. Okay, so I'm just gonna go around and just finish moving off the dam, and then we'll leave it for 30 minutes or so until it hardens. And then we can start acting in our resident
9. Project 1: Base layer: Okay, exciting times. Time to answer, resident to our silicon mold. Now you may hurt. People talk in the past about working when they were with resident by working in layers on . There's a number of reasons why you might want to do that. There are different types off residents available. You can get casting resins and casting Resins are I deal for doing large volumes or when you have very thick pieces. If you wanted to do an orb or a cube, you would pour the whole thing at once, and you need a specific type of resin for doing that. Most of the time, you'll be working with a new art resin, which is intended for use in thin layers around an eighth of an inch or so, and it naturally levels to about that level if you allow it to do its own thing on the surface. Now, if you made your geode Khalfan inch sick, for example, on expected to pour the whole thing at once. Ah, lot of resins that you worked with just won't be able to deal with that. If you pour such a large amount of resident is gonna overheat calls all kinds of problems in Maeve and smoke or catch fire. If you use far too much resident, all in one go or certainly you'll end up with puckering or too many bubbles. So what we do with with a thinner resin is to work in a number of layers. Another reason you might want to work in layers is transparency. You can sing with paints. You can either work with transparent or semi transparent colors in your residence, or you can work with hope aches. Now I'm going to work with pretty opaque colors. But if you wanted to work with transparent colors, then as you did one layer and then poured another layer of transparent or semi transparent on the top, you would be able to see what you did on your first layer and so on. And you could build up layers and get a certain amount of depth to your pieces, which is one of the really fabulous things about working with resin. You can look through all of the layers and see the layers underneath. However, for the purposes of our class, I am going to do a clear layer first because I'm gonna be working with hope aches. So it really wouldn't make much difference if I did. Three opaque layers, whatever was on layer one and two, you wouldn't see it because the third opaque Claire would cover those up. But we still need to have a certain number of layers so that we make our peace thick enough . That isn't going to be all kind of flimsy or brittle. So I'm gonna do three layers. My first layer is gonna be a clear one, so I'm gonna mix up some resin. So I just got some clear resin mixed. I'm using the master cast 1 to 1 because I really like how nice and thick and controllable it is for these GOP says In this case, it doesn't matter so much because it's just a clear layer. I've also got a few embellishments here. I'm gonna pour. Just pour my resident into the mold, basically allow it toe do its thing. Now let's talk embellishments, because depending on the scale of your peace, your banishment could be small or they could be large, or they could be somewhere in the middle. If you're doing something with very small embellishments that don't raise up a little bit from the surface. If you stick those into your first layer and then you do two more layers of resident above them, then you may find that once you've got your third layer, you can barely see what you originally added, in which case that's no good. So you might want to leave any small embellishments until later layers. In this case, I'm using quite large ones. I've got some. This is like a rock Still here, some polish rock crystal. I've also got some crystal points on I've Got Some my bright turquoise blue glass, which I crushed up myself from the glass nuggets. So once we've got the resident place, I could just use my stick and gently coax out towards the sides so that I know I'm going to get a nice even layer. It's like I've got a little bit of a ripple in my plastic there just a little bit, but it will work out fine in the end. Continue to spread that around. Make sure goes right up to the edge. This is my stick to fill in any gaps, give a little rob around like this on the resin. Well, automatically do its thing. Okay, so that's good. Now, because I'm doing quite a small scale on my layers, they're gonna be quite thin. I'm gonna add my embellishments down into this layer this make sure that they're gonna be really stuck. Well, dying inside on also work with these crystal points as well. I want those really embedded quite well into the residence. So you get my glasses all. I'm just gonna take a few of these crystals. I brought them in the center. Of course you could there and then move them around it in the resident because they stopped just yet. They can move them at anymore until you get the kind off placement that you really like. I'm gonna try and make mine echo the shape that I've got around the outside on again. You don't even need Teoh. Really? Pack it in there because if you want to, you could make a clear center on. That might be an interesting thing to do is you build up your layers, continue to use clear in the middle, and then you'll have a center which is resident but transparent so that you could look through or see like through later on. That would look cool. So I've got some clear ones in the center. Now. I'm just going to use some of the turquoise glass just for a little bit around the outside so I can drop it in pretty much anywhere, and then just push it into place. And you can use your gloved hand for that, Warren. Well, he's a little stirring stick, if you prefer one more bit that Okay, I think I'm happy with the glass. So no, these crystal points, I can just pop those in the resident here, and I want them to protrude slightly from the edge of the design. So I'm just going to raise them up slightly here so that they there propped up on the edge of the silica on the reasons gonna harden and keep them in place on give uninterested in a little bit off variety and some height to the peace. Although I just push back a little bit because, of course, I put in this piece into a shadow box and I don't end up with it to too much higher than the peace. So that is gonna touch the glass. So I think something, uh, should do nicely, but we're liable there. Let's get my sticks. Don't get sticky hands. Okay? So we talked in an earlier lesson about sticking your plastic down to a base or using a thicker plastic. In this case, I think where my piece has been rolled, I've got a little bit of a crease. Just here is rippled up just a little bit. So I've got just a little ripple. So I think I need to have just a little bit more resin. And what's I do that that's gonna level out on fill in that little piece there? I remember. You know, whatever you do, you can't really make a mistake. You can always add another layer. You can mix a little bit more resin. You can change your colors. So be prepared for little things like that to happen along the way. Andi, just know that you can deal with it. You can correct it on. Whatever you turn out within the end is exactly as nature intended. So I need to just quickly go over this piece with my torch. Now, of course we're using Plastic is our base, so I can't go crazy with the torch to get these bubbles out. So I'm gonna turn it on its lowest setting stand away so that I'm not using too much heat on go very, very quickly over the top to get rid of the bubbles for at least I would have been with light. Wait, That's almost out of gas. That's why way are not even enough to heat that plastics. We don't want to cause it to packer it all. Just enough to get the bubbles. I okay. I'm happy with that. My first layer. I'll wait for that to cure. I'm gonna cover it, Of course. Make sure don't get hairs and cat fluff in their on. Then I'll see you back here for a next layer. So I just started a couple of bits of tape on here, and I think I've stabilized. It'll be fun. Now I am making a geo that's going to go in a frame, so I'm not too concerned about what the back looks like. If you're gonna be making a freestanding piece, you may want to add a little bit off interest. So if you like, you can just Sprinkle a little bit off litter on top of your wet resin here on. Then, when people view your piece from the back, it lost to be nice and sparkly on the back as it is on the front.
10. Project 1: Colored layer: So my first clear layer is all set up on Hard is absolutely fine on the problem with the slightly Brinkley plastic there has been resolved by spreading out a little bit and just taping it down to my surface, pouring a little bit of extra reason itself leveled, and I have a problem with that. Warp in the plastic is no more. So we 90 to think a little bit about adding color on, um, design and glitters on crystals and things to our pieces that I have a couple of examples here. Want to show you this one here? You can take a look at that without too much glare from the lights. This one is much more subtle. You can see the all of the layers have been poured at once on, they all kind of blend in a little bit together on. I also haven't drawn any defining lines on this one, so as you can see, it's much more subtle in its colors and its Grady intense. This one here is a little bit more in your face. It has more distinct layers on it, more colors, more glitz, more glamour on. Also, I've gone afterwards to draw additional lines with some pens again to give it mawr definition. So when it comes to design, these kind of decisions are entirely up to you. If you've taken my resin geos basics class, then you'll notice in that one. I very much help you to work with distinct bands of color and keep those bands distinct on . Of course, you can continue to do that with this type of thing. If you want to poor individual bands and keep your layers a lot more distinct. Then of course, you can do that for this one just to change it up a little bit and to save us time so that we're not forever doing a single poor coming back. Another one, another one coming back. I'm going to do them or like this, this piece here, which is more more subtle. So I'm gonna pour an entire layer at once, which will incorporate all of my colors and alive people end together. So I'm gonna get a little bit of resin mixed up, and then we'll make a stop. Now you may be wondering when I mix my reason and my especially my colors. How do I decide which colors to use, which glitters to use which things are gonna work well together. I just want to share a little tip with you on. This is my cup of sticks. If we open up my cup inside, I've got a number off sticks on on each stick. There's some paint color or a glitter. I get a paint that I think might work or a glitter that I want to use. Then I add them onto a stick and, of course, right the details on the back here about what the name is on. Then I've got all of these together in here. I can simply pull them out on decide which colors I want to use together on. Hopefully, it will help me make the right color choices on avoid glaring mistakes. So I whenever I get a new paint on you litter, I make myself up a little paint or bliss. We'll go here in my cup on. Then it's an easy decision. I get the sticks out, pop them next to each other in just audition the colors and decide which ones I want to use . So I've got set aside here a couple off resin metals. These are from the same people that make the master cast 1 to 1 resin that I'm using. I've got a nice rich blue on a silver Also got a couple of acrylic paints A mid tone blue on a much lighter blue on Then I've got to glitters kind of Ah, royal blue glitter on silver on may also use this one. This is an ice resin German glass glitter in ocean. I'm undecided about that one yet because I've only made quite a small piece. It's a lot to fit in. I think the larger your piece, the more extravagant you can be with your design choices. Well, I'm just looking a small piece here for the purposes of our class of To try and fit all of these things in might be a little bit of overload. Okay, so let's get mixed up. I will make a star colors already. Let's get started. I've left a little bit off clear resin just here, which I'm gonna put in the center. I think later on, I'm going to start with a line off silver glitter just around the outside of these blue stones on because I want quite a thin line and I want it right by the stones. I'm gonna apply it with my stick. Of course, you can pour the resin on as well, and we'll do that with some of the later ones behind my glasses for this detailed work. There we go. Now I can see what I'm doing. Just there. Now, of course, as we know resinous self leveling so you can put it where you think you want it on. It's probably gonna move anyway. Resin just does. So I m breast that go with the organic effect on Think. OK, that's what nature intended on. It's a natural organic product. Anyway, NGO. So you really you don't want to make it look too regimented? Just embrace it. Let nature do its own thing already. That looks glamorous with that silver, the annex to the blue thing. We're doing good so far. Okay, Happy with my silver layer. So now what the glitter is done. I'm actually gonna go with a silver colored resident. This is the one with the resident in it. I'm gonna pop that around the outside on. You'll see as I do it. That the resin layer start to bleed into each other, but providing We have ours work surface nice and flat. We should at least be able to control it to some extent. Hopefully won't all end up down the bottom oral end up at the top. - Okay , I think that's good, because my have a larger gap on this side than I do on this side. I'm going to start to draw my resin a little bit. Maurin this direction to the I echo the shape with the contours of the color that I've got with the contours around the outside. We'll just have a little bit more. All these top section. Okay, let me make it a little bit wider. All right? Got plenty. And this silver color is so delicious. Have a little bit more. Okay, that's myself. For now, I've got my lightest blue on. What I'm trying to get is like an ombre effect. So rather than do, like, dark like dark, which, of course, there's nothing wrong with that either. I'm actually going to start with the lighter colors and then work out towards darker at the edges. - Okay ? Think I'm happy with that one now. I've got another color of blue. This one is a little bit transparent. I think it will fit nicely in with the design we're going for. I don't want to. Much of this one, I think, was gonna add fairly thin line again. Let the president do it. Stay. Okay. Now I have another layer off glitter on depending on how much glitter you add to your resin , it may be rather transparent or it could be really, really saturated. So I've got a transparent color here and I'm gonna put this resin next week which has a certain amount of glittering, but it's not really really packed like the silver one. Waas. This has got less, so we will see the difference. But typically, when you put a resin layer next to another color, sometimes the resident you'll find wall actually kind of float a little bit, and it will flow out into the other colors, which which could be a nice effect. Yeah, this is looking good, and I can already see that it's quite transparent, so I can see through the clear resident down into the layer below a my doing various layers you can make quite uninterested Look in peace because you've got a lot of depth to it. As you can look all the way through the different layers that we've created, it could be quite interesting. Now I want to as well. I can also go back on drizzle some of this over some of the earlier rings I've done. So maybe we should do that. Just see what happens. We'll just put a little bit in the margin between two colors. I already have. Again, we may see the glitter kind of bleed out into the other colors a little bit. Just a few light touches, okay? And then I finally have my my other residents in the dark blue. This one is quite opaque. Pop this one all around the outside. At this point, I could pour, so maybe we should just do that. It should be quite easy. Fill in the gap there. I also wanted to come in underneath the crystals that I've got here. I'm just gonna pour up right to the edge there. Hopefully it's gonna seeped in underneath. I could just encourage it under a little bit with my stick. Others. Any resonance? Not quite meeting the sides again. I could just encourage it there with the stick. Or if you need to drop in a little bit extra, I go. So that looks really good so far. Now what we can do to blend these layers together, you can either leave them as they are if you prefer the kind of look where it's a little bit more distinct or you can blow on the resident or you can use your stick. So if I take one of my little sticks here, we can just use the stick to pull one color in tow, another. So I could pull this out here and you can see how we can get more of a blended effect on. We could even create certain designs in the resident. So let's say we can pull this glitter out, have more a kind of a starburst look coming out from the center that looks kind of cool, and then at the same time, I can take colors from the actor and bring them in towards the centre just by doing the exact opposite. So I can pull them in like this, blend the colors into a design that I like to call. Okay, now I've got a little bit off clear resin left over. I'm just gonna use that to fill in the center. I decided on this one would be called, have a sense of It's clear all the way through so they don't have the stones on there. A little bit of care. Residents adjust. I feel that in a little bit. If I go, I put too much. Then we will see what happens is the clear resin starts to push these other other colors away on again. That can look quite a interesting effect. I want to just add enough that it's gonna cover the stones. But no push away the other colors I've already done. I think that looks good. Now, at this point, you can also go on to add more embellishments if you like. So where my crystals? I'm gonna bring in a few more crystals and build that center of a little bit more. Now, I've got some clear resident in the center that he should just stick in nicely so I could just add a little bit extra wearables them, raise up the center a little bit more. Okay, that's good on I think over here on the left hand side where I have the crystal point sticking up I'm gonna anchor those, I think, with another few pieces of glass. I think I used to blue so I could just pick a few rounds and again, Just don't dime in the resin there. Okay? I think that this looks very nice. Okay, So I am happy with my colored layer. I think I've got enough high. I've got enough glitter. I've got enough blending of the colors where I won't tell and I've got a really cool design . So now I just need to cover it, Leave it to cure, and then we'll come back and do another layer.
11. Project 1: Lines and finishing: Neither are colored layer is cured. We have some design decisions to take. Take a look. Do you like it? Do you like how it turned out? Nothing is final as yet, so if you decide the whole thing is just not what you want it, then pour another layer, choose different colors, do it in a different way, and you'll get an entirely different look. Or, if you like, some parts and no others, then maybe pour some additional rings or just change up what you already have. No one will know it's finished until you say it's finished. So just carry on until you feel you've got the piece. Just how you like it. Now I'm happy with mine. I think why? God is just fine. But we have a design decision to do with our additional lines, and I've got some markers here on the desk. You know, adding extra lines is again a design decision, which is entirely up to you in the silver on white one that you see this one just here. This one doesn't have any lines. The gold, bronze and black one, the smaller one in the frame over there. I did on extra lines to give it a lot of extra dimension and definition on, you could go for a more subtle approach. We can go for a much mawr delineated approach. Either of those are entirely up to you. If you decide that you do want to add lines, you might want to think about doing them before you add a clear layer on top. The reason being although the lines are reasonably good, the Penta good because of the resin surfaces so glossy and shiny over time. If people were to handle your piece, it could easily thes paint lines could be worn off or become faint. Now, if you're gonna put them in a frame and you know that they won't be touched, then that's not a problem. You could always at your lines on the top for me. I'm gonna add them all now and then. I will seal the men with a clear layer later on, so let's take a look at some of the pens that we can use. The most popular pens seemed to be the Posca markers on these come in a whole variety off different sizes. You can get the like a fine, medium and ultra fine on even a thicker nipped. I think it depends on the scale of what you're using here. I got so medium ones silver, white, black on a gold. Andi can't hold him up right while altogether. There we go. There's there's my favorite colors for these Posca markers. Andi, I think if you are doing a large piece, then you can have much larger variety off lines. But if you're doing a small piece than trying to add a lot of thick lines can sometimes take over and make it look a little bit clumsy. But these come in a number of different nip sicknesses, so you can pick whichever one is going to suit the scale of your geode piece. I also like thes ones by cry law. They have very, very attractive packaging. Thes are the silver and gold leafing pens on these have a nice metallic finish to them and they worked well on the residence. Well, for the fine lines, I tend to go with a couple of different ones. These ones here these are the Secura Micro per on. I used these in black. I've got them in a number one number three and number five net on, depending on which number you go for their role slightly thinner or slightly thicker. I think the number one is thes theta one. So if you want to add just a very fine black line that I like to use these ones, I also have these. These are the you nibble signal pens. You can get them in a variety of different colors, like a gel pen Again, I like to use the metallic so ago for the silver and gold on, maybe add a touch of white on again. Those make nice fine lines. If that's what you're looking for in your GOP now, you don't have to just have one size of Penn. I think on the larger pieces something like the burgundy one that you see here in the back . I've got a number of different sizes. All start off with a wider penner and the around the larger pieces, and then maybe accent it with some finer lines as well. So for this one, because it's just a small piece, I'm just going to use some fine line, so I'm gonna put these medium ones off to one side on also the golden silver metallic ones on just worked with the micro perm on the signal ones. So you want to try and pick colors that are going to complement or contrast with our work. So for that, because this one is blues and Silvers, I'm gonna put my gold pen aside on I'll use the silver of the white and maybe a touch of black. The good thing is that we can generally experiment with these because if you draw on with your one of your pens and you really don't like it there more than like you all, it's still where you can just wipe that way with a wet white. I'm completely start all over again. I think from memory. These micro prone ones don't wipe off so easily, but you can just put a little dab of alcohol onto onto your wife for a piece of cotton wall or something on. Then you can wipe thes ones off to a little bit of alcohol, so don't feel afraid to get in there and experiment with your pens, because again nothing is finished until you say it's finished. So I'm going to go in with my silver pen to start with. I like to just bring over she of paper and give it a little test to make sure that the ink is running freely and there's no little drive. It's on the tip on. Then we could just decide what defining lines we want on you. See where we have quite a definite line here. We're on the edge of the blue. You could either choose to emphasize that or to do it maybe within the blue area itself. So because I'm using a silver, I think I will start around this central point by the glitter is and I'm just gonna draw a line. I have been a more or less follow the shape of the glitter on the shape of those stones that have there in the center. You could do it right next to the glitter or stones if you want to. I don't do my just a little bit away. I think it will show up a little more, and I'm holding the pen very lightly on allowing it to kind of just blind over the surface on doing with a very light touch, because I want my life to be slightly wiggly, shall we say, slightly organic looking. If I drew in very straight lines, it might look a little bit odd. But again, there's a place for that on some of the works that you see behind. May this one here with the gold in the turquoise that has a lot more a straight lines running through the centre, In which case you can choose to emphasize that by by doing straight line work, if you like. In this case, I've just started something that looks kind of organic and fits in with shape. That's my silver. Maybe we could do just a little bit of black. I'm gonna pick my finest while on see what that looks like. Maybe do a line outside the silver. So I'm gonna keep it more or less equal distance to the silver one. I already have. Oh, I'm already I'm thinking, you know, that doesn't look very good. The black kind of looks a little bit out of place. So now let's see if we can like those off. So I got a little bit off a weapon like here. Let's see. Oh, OK. So as I suspected, the thes pens and any Posca markers and things. They rub off really easily with a wet, wet white while while they're still fresh. But the black what? The's micro perm ones. They require a little bit of alcohol. So let's give it a go with a little alcohol life. I'm just gonna top a little bit on here. We should say, There we go. That black comes right off. So even though it felt like I had made a terrible mistake and ruined it, there are no mistakes. You can always redo it. You can always restart and try game. So now I just need to take my silver, and I will go in and feel the extra part of that line that I wiped off. So because I know the silver looks good, I can do a few more defining lines. So I'm just gonna do one again, just that side where the two blues and the glitter layer meat, because I think that would look better if I emphasize that made a stronger contrast. So again I was gonna put my pen on and more or less full of that line. Oh, a little bit didn't come out quite right. wipe it up for my finger. Now, - where I come up to this section where my crystals are just here, I have the option to go around if I want to. I think I'm just going to stop the line right where it touches the point of the crystals so that I'm or less maintaining the shake that I already have just restarted on the other side . I think I'm happy. So now where is in the, um I've done single lines, but it can also look good if you do multi lines together. So where I've got this line here in the blue, I'm just gonna do another one on the outside, but again, sticking with the silver because I know that it looks really good with this color combination. So I'm gonna add my extra silver line, and then we'll take a look. So that's it. My lying work is finished. I think that's all that this one needs in order to give it. There's that little bit of extra pop and definition. So now all I need to do is pop another clear coat of resin over the top, so I'll get that mixed up now. So my final clear resin is mixed on. Of course, at this point, you may still have to sign decisions to make. You may want to add some extra glitters to your resin on. Do a complete glitter topcoat, which will look really cool. Or you may wish to add extra stones. Popular resin on an extra bed, extra stones either in the centre Raby in a ring around the outside, or just to heighten some that you already have their Or you know, anything else that you want to add to your final coat of resident. This stage is just cool. You know, I mentioned these ice resin, the glitter glass shards. If you wanted to add something like that, you could, too, on anything which is transparent. Of course, that you add means you can look through, and it would just give your piece greater death. So if you want to add any of those, just feel free. Go ahead. It's your creation. You do whatever makes you happy. So I need Dio is just add a, uh, a simple clear coat to my because I think for a small scale, pieces already has enough going off. I'll spread it. I make sure it covers completely up to besides, and then before it's finished, I'll go over it quickly with my torch. Should get rid of any bubbles. Cover it, leave it to cure on. Then our peace will be finished. It'll be time to unmold. I'll see you in the next session for that.
12. Unmolding and trimming: So my piece is cured. I'm ready. Toe a mold and the more unfolding process is really easy. Weaken. Just push the silicon away from the sides just like this, and it comes away really easily, and you may find you can even pick it up. I just pulled the whole thing away and it will come away from your plastic math too. Of course, If you're using a silicon, Matt, then your silicone mold will have fused your foot silicon map. And it worked, in which case it wouldn't come away. If you're using plastic more from the not you can just pull you mold away. Onda cast that to one side on then, in terms of taking off the plastic, it should peel away nice and easily. There you go. Just peel the two way on because I've used this nice shiny vinyl plastic. The back of my piece, as you can see, has a very nice shiny finish to it can see if I hold it under the top camera. But it looks like perfectly shiny and glossy there on the back, you can probably see has a slight ripple. You see, just here where when we put the first layer. There was a slight ripple in plastic, but the rest of it is nice and flat. And then, as we look on the top also has his beautiful mirror glass finish, and it looks absolutely great. Now you may find that around the edge of your piece. It can be just a little bit shock. What happens is due to the meniscus effect, the resin kind of on the side of your silicon. Here, it kind of just curves up just a tiny little bit on the edges on. For the most part, it's not really a problem in one or two places. I've got a little part just there. It can be a little bit sharp on. What you can do is just take her sharp pair of scissors. If you have something like that, just slip off any of those sharp, sharp edges Now, in order to make that season even easier on to help yourself do that, then instead of waiting overnight for your piece before Lee cured, maybe give it 46 hours, depending on the type of president using on if you unmold it while the top layer is still just slightly soft. Then, if you have any sharp edges, you can trim those off a lot easier. Just using a small pair of scissors, some now scissors or even a sharp craft knife. We'll do it on, then your piece is finished. So let's take a look at it in more detail. So here is the center back of our peace. As you can see, it has this completely transparent center, which is quite nice on you can see the layers. The glitter looks particularly nice here on the back. I think there's a clear part just here, which is interesting where we have the crystals on the front. And then if we flip over to the front, we have our beautiful design there. Andi have all of the glitters and things coming through on where refused glitter. Here you can see this glitter layer again. It's transparent where some of these others the blue, particularly, is a Pake. This one here, these colors a little transparent and so you can see through on underneath. And then we have our beautiful Chrystal area. Just here with the crystal points coming out. Give it a nice three D effect on of course you can see again the clear center. So I'm very happy with my little piece. I'm going to set this to one side now on. We'll come back in a later lesson on. Look at some ways to finish and display them on. Now let's have a look at making a mold with with a homemade silicon putty.
13. Making a silicone putty mold: our second piece. Instead of using the silicon straight out of the truth, Why made is a kind of homemade silicon putty. You take a look at it. It's kind of soft and squishy, actually looks a little bit like a formed and icing, and this is what we can use to make the damn for our geo. So let me just show you first of all, how how we can use it. And then I'll show you how it's made so I can roll a little bit of this just into a sausage like this, and then just put this along. What? I want it to go on my plastic, and it's just sticky enough that it sticks in place where we want it. It's Moldable enough that you can mold it into a nice, flat shape. It doesn't need to be very thick, but you could make it quite tools. If you want a larger, thicker geode, this is a good way to do it, and it wants to get a nice, smooth edge on the inside. Just here, because you've been smooth easily with your fingers, little sausages at all. Let me go. It's really easy. You can work it so much easier than you can with the role silicon on it. So a little bit more easy to join the two pieces together. So you know you're not gonna get any gaps on as I put it down. I can squish it between my fingers to make it nice and smooth on the inside to get that kind of nice, smooth finish that we're looking for on the edges of our geo. It's also really easy to work into any kind of shape that you want. So if you do have a new intricate design on, it's really important to you that you want Teoh maintain that design. Then you may find it easier to use the Silicon Putty than to use the silicon out of the two . Because this is a lot more controllable. So a little bit more on there, you can see my silken damn! It's easily taking shape there. I can smooth finish, take it to any size or shape that I like. So let me show you how made that homemade Silicon Party. So I warn you, although I think Silicon Party is easy to work with, actually making it can be a little bit of a messy process. What I've used is corn starch. Is this one on a couple of drops off baby oil on? Of course, our regular silicon. Now, I've got a little plastic tub just here. Hopped plenty off corn flour or corn starch down there in the bottom on. I've got a working surface here which has got a little bit more corn starch on to just because the silicon is gonna be really sticky. So first thing to do gonna take the cap off our silica, uh, squeeze General Sameh down into our corn starch. I'm gonna try and put it kind of in the center there because I don't want it sticking to these sites now. Of course, if you are making making you're own patio Don't make this in some kind of bold anything And he eat your cereals. I talk tomorrow. You really want to do it in something like untold used margarine, container of yogurt top or something like that that you won't be using again? Said you couldn't throw away afterwards. Once I got my silicon down in here, you're gonna just pick up corn starch and start to roll it over the top of the silicon because otherwise the citizen is gonna be really sticky. Once I got it covered, then I can start mashing it with my stick unless I mush it a little bit, A little bit more core structure on the top, and I mash it down into the silica on our aim is to take this stickiness away. You could see it was kind of sticking a little bit to my stick there, so I have not got enough corn starch mashed in just yet, So I'm gonna keep on mashing the cornstarch in bringing it together. I said, I got a little boat double that rolling around there in the corn starch. I can kind of rolling about a little bit and pick up some more corn structures ago. Push it up to the sides, see how it's looking. I'm what I'm aiming for is a kind of a flaky look I think you can start to see. Here is it starts to kind of four part into little flakes. Then that's at the point where the silicon is not so sticky. That is gonna be really messy for us to work with So we just press or the silicon up to this one side here? Yeah, I think that was good. I'm gonna pulpit on my work surface, and now we're going to take what looks basically like a load of pounder and kind of flakes . Always looks a little bit like flaked coconut. And now I'm going to use my hands. Make sure, obviously, that you wearing gloves. I just kind of bring it together and start to gently need it into this kind of putty effect . Now, if you find that it's sticking to your gloves, are gloves to stick into the silicon and you can dip them a little bit in your corn flour corn starch. Start to work it together, and there you go. You can see it coming together, bringing up all of the flaky sides, a little bits of corn starch, bringing them into the center, and it's sticking a little bit to my back, so I need a little bit more. Let's see if I can work that in lift off the map. It's a little bit sticky a little bit more. Basically, I'm gonna continue to work this together until it gets that kind of fund and feel. And look that you saw the start of the video, every guy starting to come together. It doesn't stick to the map or stick to my gloves. I need a bit more yet see, that's kind of sticky underneath. Work a little bit more kinder into that, and then it starts to come away from the map, lose its stickiness and then bring it all back in together. Pick up any little flaky bits and start toe. Need them into my silicon funded putty. Once it's good. Pick it up off the map, you could need it in your hands. What you're aiming for is to for it to be small, like the sticky, so that if it you know, it kind of sticks to your glove a little bit like this, but not so sticky that it's impossible to work with because you want to make a nice lawsuit with it. If you add too much powder and you take all of the sticky away, then it won't be so easy, too late down onto your plastic because it won't stick twice as much. So where it's just a little bit sticky. That's the point where it's about, right? So now I can take my working shape way, bring back my GOP piece and then just break off. Small rights, as you saw me is due at the start. Just roll it into a little sausage and use it to outline my geode. So that's how to make your home a silicon party. If you are having trouble and finding that it's still really sticky, then what you can do is just use a couple of drops of the baby oil on rough that onto your gloves a little bit on that can help your your party stay sticky enough that is going to stick down onto your surface, but it will help it not stick to your hands and make it a little easier to work with. Okay, a little bit there. So I'm gonna continue now on set out the rest of the party around my shape on this section here in the center on. Then I'll meet you back and we'll handsome glitz and glam resident or peace
14. Project 2: Start to finish: our Silicon Party mole is now cured on dry. It's ready for me to start out in some resin, so my sticks have already come in useful because I've set aside a number of sticks in the color palette that I'm thinking of using, which is kind of purples black, white on gold. I'm using this tile as inspiration. Sometimes, if you want to work with a color palette, you aren't quite sure. Rather than commit to a really large piece, it can help if you do a test. So here's one that I did on the six inch tile. I used these colors and I'm thinking, OK, yes, these were together. I could probably do with a little bit more purple for this one, maybe a little less black. So I've used this one as the inspiration for the colors I want to use for my project. I've got together a few sticks with some glitters and some colors on. Already. It's helped me to decide that this greater this one here, it just doesn't match well with the others. It's a little bit past, all compared to the strong, strong other colors, so I'm going to set that 1 to 1 side. I worked with these others, so I've got some glitters, Some some kind of a medium glitter on a very fine litter in pinks and purples Got the same in a gold brightly, brightly colored gold Here Then over on this side I've got a couple off purple paints which I will views Then I've got a black on a white thes air The dies from my resident on my favorite gold This one is the mayor on gold pigment powder but I really love create a fantastic effect in resin. And then I've got some some larger embellishments and chunky bits and pieces here on the side. He spots here are actually, um, glass chips which have been dying. And if you look very carefully, they got holds in because I bought them in the jewelry section of my craft store on there really inexpensive on the holes. Really Don't show up once you've got them in a piece with the resident, unless it's intended, you know, for very, very up close scrutiny. And so these could be a cheap way. If you don't get access to a lot of other things that you could have a little bit off texture into a piece. So I put those in a purple and black. I also got these ones. Please are on acrylic, Very spiller on. As you can see, these are quite large, chunky pieces. But what's useful with these is when you're working on a large piece, these are really light compared to glass or crystal the credit card relight. However, I've decided, I think that these were a little bit too large and chunky when looking at them in relation to the size of peace. I think there's a little bit too large, but I did use them on the this colored one that you see here. This one does have them down at the bottom on a larger scale piece thes look really good. So I'm also going to set those to one side on then here. These are actually really am assists. So I bought these online. These are real and Mathis chips on basically picked out the ones that look kind of rectangular on. I want to use these ones around the center here. I think those are all my supplies. I'm going to use the same the master cast resin Because I like how it's just that little bit thicker on. It's gonna give me a bit more control without everything running too much in together. So I think I'm ready for this one because you've seen the process before. Um, I'm pretty much you know what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna get on with it. I'm not gonna give me too much chit chat unless as anything that I feel that I need to explain to you along the way So I'll just get my mask on, give you a little bit off music as background on I was gonna work on my peace. Now I'm gonna start a sentence Ended with the last one just with a clear layer. First of all, on once that one is set up, I'm gonna come back and start at in all of these other glorious little bits and pieces to it. Okay? Um no. - Go . No. Yeah.
15. Finishing the edges: our second piece is cured. Let's take at mold and take a look they're taking out. The mold will be exactly the same on this one as it waas with our other what we can just pull the silicon away. As you can see, it comes away nice and easily from the side of our peace, so we don't have any residue left on there to be concerned about on appeals straight off that plastic. And there we are. Another beautiful piece is completed now the same with this piece as there waas with the smaller ones may Originally, you may have some little sharp edges around the size here because no matter what you do, sometimes it's very difficult to get the perfect finish on the inside off your silicon mold . So let's have a look at some of the ways we can finish the edges of our pieces. So let me show you an example with this smaller piece, which I've started on already, although I have trimmed originally with some scissors around the outside just to get rid of any sharp bits around this side, I thought it was a little bit uneven. So what the good news is with your resin, you can file it. So I've got some slightly sharp edges just here. Why use is a nail file just like this? Well, something that you would find in any beauty or now supply store on If I take on file along the sides like this instead of No, you don't want to do it over the top because you'll make a scratch on the surface and ideally, no in this direction, either because you'll end up making it kind of smooth and rang Did which perhaps wasn't what you're looking for. It's better to do it the way better to do it in this direction. So that your filing across the edge of your piece on when you do that, you can take away any of these uneven areas you see up just a little bit uneven around these sides. If I file crossed off, I could just take that unevenness away on get a much smoother finish at the same time. I'm not wrangling it because I'm still maintaining the shape that I've got. I can use the edge of my file to get into those curves. Go. I still keep my curved shape. I can take any unwanted little bits and pieces away on Make sure there's nothing shocked now for the purposes. So I'm doing, I'm gonna put them in frames. So if it did have any slightly uneven or sharp edges, it really wouldn't matter so much if you're making them to be freestanding, intending them to be handled, Maybe putting them down, that's some kind of display. Or Trey. Then you would want to just finish off these edges, so I'm gonna just carry on round with my nail file for a little bit more on smooth off some of these edges on. Then we'll talk a little bit more about finishing them. One thing I should mention. If you are sending down the edges of your resin pieces, you must always wear a dust mask or a respirator because you really don't want to be inhaling any of this very fine resin Dust into your lungs. So, please, as always, remember safety first. Once you finish standing around the edges of your piece, of course, you're going to notice that suddenly those edges are not glossy like unreasoned like they were before. Now they're Mattan dull where we've sanded them. But the good news is depending on how you want to display those edges either what you've seen or you can correct them. So you have a look around the edges of mine I could get and you can see the nice girl sea surface on, then the wrap, the rough matte edges around the side here where it's been, send it on. I'm gonna correct that. I've got just a little bit off clear resin mixed up on old paintbrush. I can take just a little bit of the resident, brush it onto the sides. Being very careful. I don't put too much on so that it's gonna direct play drawn, just enough gently painting in these rough edges. And when I do that, the Matt Ruff disappear. Rough appearance is going to disappear, and it will come back nice and shiny and glossy on clear again. I think you can see here how it's working compared to these Matt areas a little bit raising , no running back with my brush and the nice I'm glossy on clear again. So that's all we need to do to finish off this piece. I'm gonna go out my paintbrush on, Just fill in all of these edges on pop it on a couple of little cups. To cure on that, we'll have a look at a couple of other ways that you can finish the edges A second way. That you can have a nice finish to the raw edges off your GOP's is to use an acrylic paint . Here. I've got a deck or metallic my glasses all so I can check it. This one is a glorious gold. This is a really nice color, and I like to use this one on, the GOP says have gold in them. It gives a really nice finish. It's very, very easy. Basically, all you're going to do is take a little bit off paint on brush. Just dab it onto the sides of your piece. You'll find that if you haven't sounded, then the paint perhaps won't make the perfect coverage. The first coat on you might want to do another coat. If you have sounded, the paint normally will grip pretty well on. You'll get a nice finish with just one coat, and it's entirely up to you how you do it. You can either do it just as I am here, right on the edge. Or you can live the pain. Just put a little bit more in your brush and allow it to just creep over the edge onto the front of your piece to that cannot really nice as well. But for this one, as you say have already done the center here of the Rio. I'm just carry on right the outside on finish up for the nice, glitzy, glam kind of gold, shiny metallic border they can use. A critic paints for this. I've seen some people use enamels or inks, whichever you got, which is a nice gold or silver or metallic shiny finish, which is gonna fit in with the color scheme of your G o should work well, so my little brush, my pain in the ready I'm gonna carry on on complete around the edge of this piece. So I finished the painting on this one. Now I can leave that aside to dry. Now, there is another method that you might want to try for edging your pieces on. This is using metal leaf here. I've got one of my favorite brands. This is from Mona Lisa. They duel. The the usual colors copper, gold, silver and so on. You can get them in sheets. This one is in flakes. As you can see, it comes in a little baggy is very, very light on. I don't have any examples of this because, although I always admire it in the Geos I see from other people. I simply don't have the patience. It can take a while on. It could be messy, but then we talk you through generally how it works. Instead of applying paint around the outside off your piece, you would apply these special glue or size that you're going to use for your metal leaf. Then you leave a little while ago tacky, and the instructions will tell you on your leaf in your size exactly how long that's gonna bay. It'll be kind of 10 to 15 minutes on. It generally goes on why it goes clear when it's talking. I'm ready to use on. Then you will take these tiny, tiny little pieces off oil on, press them onto the sides off your G O on, Then leave them to dry brush off the excess with a soft brush, and then you will need to use a cedar, meet the instructions that comes with your metal flakes and see which type of sealer is going to work for yours. Because otherwise your metal flakes will tarnish overtime. Unless, of course, you use really dull ones, in which case they may know. But for most arts and craft purposes, you'll be using a faux gold, and it will need some kind of cedar. So that's just 1/3 option for you to finish the edges of your pieces. I don't think it looks really, really gorgeous. So hopefully if you go on to give that triangle, share your finish results with May I look forward to seeing them? Okay, so in our next section, let's talk a little bit about display on framing are finished pieces.
16. Finishing, framing and display: the edges. Only pieces are completely so. It's time to talk about race to display them that start, perhaps, with the simplest one, this little blue one here he stood or an acrylic stand. This is the sand, just one of the simple ones that you get. Probably see them at $1 Stores on Amazon are shops and craft shops on. This is basically the easiest way to despair. Your face. You just pop it. Yeah, on the sand on. It looks beautiful that way. I course get all sorts of different sands. This is just a basic care, one that you can get anywhere on. You can also get ones, which are specific for GOP. So if you do a Google search for GOP stand or a gate, sand your final. Lots of acrylic stands in all kinds of shapes and sizes. They're perfect for displaying a gate slices on Geo's just like these, because that's exactly what they designed for for despair. Actual natural pieces. So your artworks good in them, too. Now you can also hang. I go an example here of a kind of hunger that you can use. I bring that in close, you to look at. This is what's called a deering hanger on its articulated like this on, if you want to use something that this toe hanging pieces on the wall, it's very simple. You just take your piece on. Then you can decide which way up he wanted to go on glue the hanger on back just like this , or if you don't have a suitable glue them. Remember, raising works great as a really good I'm gonna use that in another example. So pop a little bit of resident Hang your Hagar, and then you could hang your pieces directly on the wall if you want. This one here is a different type of stand. This one is called a Gibson stand. You have a look. It's this kind of shape from the top so you can see exactly what it looks like. It's called Absence that they come in a lot of different sizes. This is the large on is suitable for your larger pieces. They can also get them small, medium, all kinds of different sizes. What I like about these, they are really, really strong. They're clear at the front so they don't really interfere with what you're displaying. But this spring apart in the back be adjusted up night and Z is really tight, really strong. So anything that you put in the stands is not gonna go anywhere. So if you have a larger piece or a heavier piece or something just concerned, it really wanted call over, then try one of these gifts and stance on that is ideal for displaying more larger pieces. Now I like to put mine in shadow box frames on. Get these with or without glass on the front. I got the couple ones covered in glass just because I think it keeps the dust off of the raised particles in your pieces. So let's have a look now how we can assemble one of our gov into one of these shadow box rains. So this is the piece I'm going to put into this, right? And if you remember, when we did our template on the plastic, I used this frame as a template. So I knew that my piece was gonna fit like you within the frame and have the edge around outside that was looking for on the back of your friends Come typically with some kind of way to remove the back piece. You just lift up the staples, uh, take actor blocking, but that off to one side, the little hair that you get like, straight away. And then if you look at the back of your piece, it probably is gonna have some kind of Heiner. So before you put your piece in, I put it the wrong way up. Make sure that you are working with the hangar at the top. I'm gonna put mine down like that. So let's get this little piece off the stands put in place. And, of course, you can put it in any orientation. Something on the diagonal looks nice. Good. Put it like that with the crystals oriented upwards more this way. I think I like the diagonal. I think that is a nice orientation for my peace. Now you can course, just stick it straight down onto your backing off rain. But what I like to do is just lift it a little bit away. Give it just a little bit mawr depth lift away from the background a little bit for that, I use this double sided magnetic tape. It's like a foam take with double sided sticky by. So we take off here, I'm gonna turn it over. Just take a few pieces on some scissors where will come together now, if you have any holes or have any clear areas, then you don't want your backing tape to be able to speak seen. So I got this clear area. So when I put my my phone tape all I'm just gonna make sure I avoid that clear area. Same of the talk here. Area that angle I take just here and then put some more bottom. It doesn't need to be large cases. You can cut small pieces. Just a little square in there. So that's my first layer. And if you only want a small gap, one layer is gonna work. Fine. Just pop that down and then see what you think. You can turn it over and think, OK, that's lifted it a little bit. I like to bring my Ford a bit more so I can put another layer on top. Remember to peel the paper tape all first so that you get the sticky side. Yeah, and then I'm just gonna cut pieces and stick them straight down. The sticky side is already here, so I could just pop that straight. That gives it just that little bit extra dimensional. Lives off a little bit. That's kind of do these other places. It doesn't have to be exact, but make sure you give it a good press tags with two sticky surfaces coming well into contact with each other. Last piece right there again, I'll take off with the paper tape. Now, my experience has shown that sometimes these shadow box frames come with a variety off different backings on them. The one I have here. This will have a card hard ord backing on. So it was easy to just take my sticky backed phone. Pop it. I wanted it on the on the car on board here it's stuck beautifully. However, the one that you see here behind me on this one here, this friend actually has, like a linen backing on. I find that the foam appears to stick straight away, but then after a while, especially in the heat that I have here it comes a little bit loose. So I have found that the sticky isn't enough. If I'm speaking against cooperate base. But remember, what was said resin come also be used as a glue. So I'm gonna mix up a little bit of resin and then we'll actually you blew this one in place on this fabric backing have a little residue mixed up now, just a tiny little bit. I remember if you put too much, resin can quite conspire ed quite a lot. And we don't want to go outside the bangs of our peace be able to see be seen on the fabric . So I'm just gonna put a little bit. It really doesn't need very much on it's going to sink in through the fabric. So down into the board behind, I'm create a good A good, great so that my piece go spread out a little bit so that my piece is going to gripped well into its friend. Now I want to trying to put over reasonably quickly so I don't get any drips. But the same time I want to try on level it within my square so I don't have to move it more than once. Once it's down, I think there and of course, if you want to, you can use a tape measure and only keep one on hand just here so that you could just tape . Just see, it's about an inch from each side. Looks right. Probably go that way a little bit. Get press that into place on the residents. Not gonna sink through the fabric grip onto the board behind on that will give me a nice glued in spot rising GOP so that it's not gonna go anywhere within the frame. But remember, Of course, if somebody wants to take out of frame, they can do because the mounting tape that we used is no permanent. So if somebody wants to, they can just peel it away from that phone tape behind and then put it in a different frame or use, Understand? So just wait for this one to cure up on. Then we'll come back and finish the framing. The reason is now cured on my piece is securely glued onto the back of my friend. So now I just need to take it, pop it down into the shadow box, close up these little brackets on the back on a piece is ready to display. Or so I hope you've enjoyed looking at a few of the display options for your G. Oates. We've now come, unfortunately to the end of our class. It's been a blast filming it, and I hope you've enjoyed watching. I really look forward to receiving your feedback. If you got any comments, any more suggestions or ideas, different ways that we can display our Geos. I really love to hear them from you. So once again, thank you very much for taking this class. I hope you found it useful and enjoyable. I do have other classes on this platform, so I hope you'll take a look at those on. Maybe I'll see you in some of the other classes again soon.
Deby Coles, Artist and teacher
