Paw prints!

A couple of weeks back, I bought myself a silicone mold with paw prints. I decided to try making a pair of resin pieces with the mold as I wanted to try layers, and see how I can add more dimensions to the work I’m creating. The results? — two very pretty paw prints! The surfaces are quite matte, however.

I’m going to leave it instead of doming it, because I feel that the effect would otherwise be taken away. They are not quite finished yet, however. I still have to sand the bottom, and dome it, before making them into pendants.

These will be the first items to go on sale in my shop very soon.

Cheers!~

Gengar, I choose you!

I made this gengar for my boyfriend.

Apparently, gengar is one of his favourite character, even though he always claims that he’s too manly for cute things like this.

To create the background for this resin piece, I decided to try dry watercolour technique about 5 hours after the first layer of resin was poured in. However, I think I still haven’t quite gotten the effect that I wanted, so I’ll probably try this technique again in my next few pieces.

I also made 3 other pokemon resin pieces. Pictures when I finish doming the surfaces. Cheers!

A little bunny says hi

I drafted a simple pattern of a rabbit several weeks back, and left it. I never got down to sewing the rabbit because I had so many other things distracting me. After much procrastination, I finally got down to sewing the rabbit. Since this was my first time drafting a pattern from scratch with no reference, my measurements were somewhat off.

I traced the template out onto a piece of felt I had lying around, and began cutting away. A good half hour later, I had the rabbit laid out. Or rather the different parts laid out. I took a pretty long time with the cutting and trimming because, as usual, I was distracted by the boyfriend, the cat running around downstairs, and my brothers running in and out of the room.

Also, I was trying to trim the shape right. I never knew how to cut properly in a straight line. I supposed it’s my personality to some degree because I tend to be careless.

After cutting and trimming, I had to figure out what I wanted to stuff the rabbit with. I still had a lot of leftover cotton from my previous projects, but I was reluctant to use it. I felt that cotton tend to flatten over time, and plushies ended up shapeless. Hence, I decided that cotton wasn’t a good stuffing medium for this. Since I still had a lot of quilt batting left, I decided to use those in place of cotton stuffing. I spent the next hour tracing and cutting out the batting, deciding that I should use the “sandwich” method for sewing. That should, technically, result in a more even looking rabbit.

Another hour sewing, and then finally this:

I’m pretty proud of this creation. However, as you can see from the picture, the sewing are still very messy at certain parts. But stitching this has helped me figured out some things, and I’ll probably be doing a second rabbit tomorrow evening or something.

I also decided to skip the arms and legs for the rabbit. My boyfriend said it was pure laziness on my part but I told him the addition makes the rabbit looks very odd since I had cut the fabric a little smaller than I had calculated.

The rabbit is also quite floppy at the moment, so I’ll probably need to stuff it even more. I’m thinking of a rounder bottom… so it’s back to the drawing board for rabbit #2.

What do you think?

Resin pieces and etsy store

These came out, perfect and better than what I had imagine.

I’m mad please with them and I think they are a great improvement from my first ones. However, I made the mistake of making these too thick. I think it’s the glitter and confetti spam. I should ease that up a bit. Generally, all the pieces are perfect; I just need to dome the front and back, and I’ll be done.

In other news, I will be opening my etsy store soon (url coming up in the coming posts since I haven’t listed anything yet). I’m looking to officially launch the store by mid-August 2015, but I’ll probably start selling my pieces earlier (kind of like a soft launch). There are still loads to do: description writing for each listing, the individual photography of each piece plus picture editing.

And then there’s the shoot.

My friend Deborah has very kindly agreed to help me model the accessories (the girl has already reserved and bought several pieces; I also gift her some in exchange for her time since I can’t afford to pay her). We are currently working on some ideas, and I’ll put up the sketches soon!

I’m really excited how this will turn out, and I can’t wait! In the meantime, I’ll be taking some closeups of the resin pieces. Until then!

BJD Wig Sewing

So on Saturday afternoon, I went down to the local craft store and got myself some craft fur. I had two ideas in mind — one, to create fluffy pom pom earrings; and, two, to sew a wig for my BJDs.

I own two BJDs — a Luna Pukifee, and a Bisou Littlefee. My Bisou is supposed to be a boy, but over the years, EVERYONE including my mom insisted on dressing the doll as a girl. So, I guess Pip is a girl (with a boy part) now… >.<

 So anyway, I got started on sewing a wig, based on a simple tutorial I found online. One thing about myself is that I can’t quite follow patterns very well, so it was a blessing when someone posted up a tutorial on making BJD wigs on DoA (Den of Angels, a forum for fellow BJD lovers). The tutorial was very easy to follow; just a couple of measurements here and there, and you basically ended up with 3 pieces of fur in the right shape, and supposedly right size. I had decided to get a piece of white craft fur because I was thinking that I could probably dye the wig after I was done. I still have a lot of Special Effects dye left over from my wild hair days, so why not?

Anyway, after 30 minutes of mad sewing, this was the result. Bear in mind, this was before I hemmed the wig and made minor adjustments to fit my doll’s head.

It was a nope.

First, the wig was a little too big — maybe about half a centimetre, or less. But more appallingly, the craft fur was shedding while I was sewing. I had been quite careful while cutting, so I don’t think it’s an error in cutting. Also, the wig was ridiculously thin.

I was quite disappointed. Then again, there was also this sense of pride that I actually managed to sew something for my doll, albeit fail. Somewhat.

So, I guess it’s back to sewing from scratch again — I’m probably going to get a new piece of craft fur, this time from another place. And then, I’m going to attempt wig #2.

What am I going to do with the remaining craft fur from this piece? I’ll use it for practise, I guess. No good wasting stuff!

Tofu: UPSIZED

Remember several posts back, I wrote about creating a series of tofus?

Well, I decided to re-work the tofus, and this time, I “upgraded” the design. The tofu is now bigger than before, with fabric eyes. I also changed the stuffing. Previously, I used cotton. This time round, I got some quilt batting, made a little sandwich and popped it into the tofu. The result was a fuller tofu plushie, and a tad more squishier.

I LIKE!

My current resin pieces

I finally popped the last few resins out — and they were perfect.

I was pretty pleased with how they look, and I’m planning to turn the pieces into brooches and pendants 🙂

My boyfriend really loves some of them and demanded that I make him a couple as well — less girly, of course. Some of the other girls who saw the resin pieces suggested that I add additional things to them, such as charms and ruffles and bows. I attempted and let’s just say it wasn’t what I expected.

I’ll probably start on a new batch of resin pieces tomorrow. As for the bottom piece with the coffee head, I definitely am disappointed with the outcome. The sticker embedded inside curled up because it got wet. Really should have sealed it before, but oh well. Lesson learnt.

First resin pieces

Hello, I’m back with an update of my resin pieces. I had de-mold them this afternoon, just to see how they look. Unfortunately, I supposed I should have waited a little longer since my dad told me the resin pieces were still not cured completely.

Since I was curing a few other pieces under a Tupperware box, I decided to put the two pieces there as well so that I will not touch them at least until tomorrow morning.

I called this piece “The Unimpressed Kitty”. It’s peachy in colour with a pearly pink based. Some of the pigments got onto the kitty’s face — ugh. But otherwise, I do like it a lot. I’ll probably make this into a ring.

The surface finish of this resin piece is dull because the silicone cup I used has a dull interior. Also, there is a circular bump right in the middle. In my excitement, I had forgotten to check — and apparently there is a little indent in the cup used. So I definitely need to dome the surface of this piece, in addition to the back.

Next, I’ve got this black kitty resin piece. Same colourway because the resin used were of the same batch and I was experimenting colours for the first time. I got some plastic bails and will attach one to this piece. I’m planning to gift this to my cousin in HK.

This turns out pretty ok and I’m pleased. The surface is perfect and shiny, and I’ll have to dome the back tomorrow morning.

Overall, these two pieces make me very happy. It didn’t feel as epic fail as my previous two. I’ve got another 3 more in the making — one of them feels like a potential fail as I painted the back of the resin with opaque pigments. Not sure how that’s going to work, but we will see.

All in all, this has been fun although I really hate waiting. But the good news is that I can use the wait time to finish up my sewing projects. Time, not wasted!

Lessons from the first

I tend to get very excited when it comes to trying new things, and when I get excited, I make mistakes and I end up becoming extremely impatient.

I recently attempted my first piece of resin work, and the results were disastrous. Basically, long story short, my first two pieces of resin looked like the cat pissed in them. They were messy, they were still tacky when bordering on the 72-hour time frame, and they are currently stuck to the bottom of the mold.

Yup, the epic fail piece of work, and a reminder of my folly.

There are definitely a lot of trial and error on my part, but largely boils down to my assumptions. So here are some lessons I learn.

Assumption 1: One cup for everything!

Basically, I decided to scrimp on the mixing cup and use one cup for everything. By that I mean, measuring out resin into measuring cup before measuring the hardener into the same measuring cup. Simple Math. Cool? And then after that, mixing. IN THE SAME CUP.

Apparently, nope.

See, the components are measured by volume. Using the same cup gives me more room for error. I could have easily overpoured one of the components and I would not be any wiser. Probably a reason why my resin pieces never got cured properly after so long.

Assumption 2: Stickers (puffy ones) go in immediately.

No. No. No. No. No.

That was the worst thing to do on my part. First, puffy stickers don’t stay. They go EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE except where I wanted them to. One lesson I learn here: the epoxy resin I purchased had a curing time of 24 hours. I have enough window to work, so there is no need for me to rush.

Assumption 3: SPAM CONFETTI AND GLITTER IMMEDIATELY.

Stupidest idea. Ever.

The confetti sank to the bottom, covered my work, and looked nothing like what I had imagined.

Assumption 4: All molds are equal.

Nope. Definitely no. I made a mistake with the mold. And I forgot mold release. You get the idea.

So these were the 4 assumptions I made when I was doing resin for the first time. It does feel a little miserable to know that I have to throw out a perfect good mold (with two cat-pissed-looking resin pieces that will never cure properly) inside, but a little price to pay for the lessons.

So here is a picture of what I am attempting today, bearing in mind all the assumptions, and also new knowledge and advice from the kind people everywhere.

I’m keeping my finger crossed — let’s hope the kitty comes out well!