February 13, 2012: Totally Tubular

Clearly I am getting a little bit behind in updating... I have to look at my list on my phone to remember what I created on the date that I am writing about... Yikes! I have to get this caught up.

On this day, Monday February 13th, I went to training at TSK which was, as it always is, very refreshing. While I was waiting for class to start I was in a Starbucks working on Period Ten. It was then that I realized Period Ten was about to get 1000 views! I thought this was pretty exciting, so thanks for stopping by everyone :).

When I returned home from training at about 10PM, I put some finishing touches on a piece that I had started earlier in the week. Now, I have to say that this is not a test tube! Which, one might assume that I stole from the lab at school... haha. I didn't! This does lead me to the fact that this is a glass cigar tube. I do not smoke cigars! There are all kinds of fun cigar packaging things out there at rummage sales though. Cigar boxes and tubes make great crafting supplies. (So... are we clear? -- I did not steal a test tube... and I do not smoke cigars! haha)

As you can see the tube is filled with colorful seed beads that I have collected over the years. I poured some Ice Resin into the tube and moved it around until the resin covered the sides of the tube. Then I poured the beads in and rolled it around until the beads were stuck all over the sides of the tube. I had to let it sit for a day until the resin hardened. Then I repeated, and repeated, etc. I envision this to be a fun little vase that I hang in the window in the summer with fresh cut flowers. I still have to figure out how to hang it though... TBA.
To learn more about how the resin works, click the label below to jump to previous posts. The new information that I learned is that the term resin is actually referring to organic molecules (hydrocarbons, specifically) produced by plants! I'm not sure that it can get more biology related! As I read through the Wikipedia page, I became more and more fascinated by things you could learn by just being interested in using resin to make stuff! For example, did you know that frankincense and myrrh are resins? There is an incredible amount of history in those two examples. I was particularly interested in the fact that resins are used to make incense and perfume. Obviously there is a ton of organic chemistry going on here too.... without even looking for it.

January 3, 2012: Bloom Necklace!

Have you ever seen cool jewelry made of bottle caps with some picture in it and a hard clear coating over it? I bought two great necklaces like this; one from a market in Nova Scotia that says "Earth" and the other from a street vendor in Union Square, NYC. I always look at this type of jewelry and say... "Oh I could make that." However, until yesterday (January 3rd 2012!) I had not even tried. I have been talking about making resin jewelry for years. So much that I have actually received resin as a gift several times... haha. That being said, I actually did not use the resin I received for this project. Instead I used epoxy resin (much like glue) which is why there are so many bubbles I think. But... at least I got the ball rollin' right? I will be sure to make genuine resin jewelry in the future and post it.

To make the pendant I took a bottle cap and sanded off the emblem on the flat side. Then I cut the rigid rim off leaving just enough to create a shallow dish-like structure. Then I painted Mod Podge all over the inside of the cap. Then, while that was drying, I cut out the floral magazine image into a circle and coated it with Mod Podge. I added the cutout of the word "Bloom" and stuck it to the front of the circle. I painted the image into the cap with more Mod Podge and waited for it to dry. Then I mixed equal parts of each compound to make the epoxy. I scooped the epoxy into the cap and tried to spread it out without causing too many bubbles. Then I let it dry. Meanwhile I found the brass leaf charm and used the epoxy to stick it to the back of the bottle cap. When everything had set, I attached a jump-ring and put it on a chain from an old necklace!

Ok... get ready for it! You would not believe what I learned about epoxy. Being a biology teacher, naturally, I was curious about the chemical reaction between the two parts of the epoxy mix. Basically you have to mix the two glue-like materials together in equal parts to cause it to harden. When I looked up the chemistry behind this (on Wikipedia... where else?) I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the first compound (resin compound) is made up of monomers (zing! bio word) and so is the hardener. When you mix the two together, the monomers form an intricate cross linked polymer! Huh! This causes it to form a very hard solid that is used in jewelry making, electron microscopes, plexiglass and much more.