Playing with Casting Resin!!

So playing with a new material! I think it has a lot of potential for future projects. It's called Clear Casting Epoxy Resin. I bought a small kit of "East Cast" at Michael's last week, & thought I'd try it out with an upgrade to my Fish Bowl design. The kit I got was kinda expensive, but it works great & I'm sure there is a slightly cheaper alternative. It's a fun experiment!!

Playing with Casting Resin Tutorial!!!





This is the kit that I bought. There were other larger kits available, but I didn't want to spend too much for doing these tests (just in case something tragic happened). I want to look into maybe some less expensive casting resin. People usually use this to cast small embedded jewelry, or paperweights, or to coat biodegradable items like wood or flowers.






I first hot glued my support wires to the bottom of the glass bowl. This was they will stay in place while the Resin sets. i think it takes like 24-72 hours for the Resin to completely cure. In my previous Fish Bowls, I hot glued the wires w/o the resin & I'm scared they won't last as long as I had hoped. So that's how I came up with the Clear Resin idea!!







I got these little decorative glass rocks to put in the bottom of this Fish Bowl. I think they look prettier than just using colored aquarium rocks. I got the Aqua Colored ones (in the department that sells glass vases & decoration-type stuff at Target) to look more like water!









So I put the rocks in the bottom of the Fish Bowl. I made sure that the hot glue & wires were covered so that you can't see them.





Be sure to wear your safety-gear!!! I've worked with these types of chemicals at my day-job before, & you don't want to get it on your hands. It's not good for you, plus you can't really get it off without using Acetone or something. It's easier to just use a pair of latex gloves & save yourself the trouble!! This is low-odor Epoxy, but some chemicals are very gaseous. If you use any chemical with a strong odor, PLEASE wear a respirator. You can get disposable masks at Home Depot that are Osha rated for fumes, or invest in a hard-core respirator with cartridges.





These are the materials that I used for this specific Epoxy. You have the 2 part mix, a couple of cups for measuring & mixing, a couple plastic spoons for mixing, & a cover for the counter.






Be sure to read the directions for the specific Casting Resin you have, but this is an easy trick for measuring & mix that I learned from my Scenic Sculpting job. Have 2 of the same cups (clear is preferable). Then measure out equal amounts (I eyeball cause I'm lazy, but you could also mark the cups). Then pour one part of the mix into the other part. Mix. Then you can pour that mixture into the other cup & mix some more, This way you get both parts mixed thoroughly.




Mix in the first cup for about 2 minutes. Then (like I said before) the directions say to pour into a different cup & use a new stirrer. Pour back into the the other cup. This way you don't waste 4 cups (2 for measuring plus 2 for mixing) but only 2!!! MIX MIX MIX!! You want it to be SUPER MIXED, cause if not, then the resin won't cure correctly & you might have a gooey mess. It's always better to mix too much with non-time sensitive chemicals, than too little.




Now pour into the glass bowl. **Be sure to pour carefully so that you don't get any drips on the sides of the bowl. Also be sure to get resin all over the rocks & down into the bottom area to set the wires. I think it would be okay if you didn't mix enough resin at first to add a little more on top WHILE STILL FRESH!! I haven't tried this, so don't blame me if it doesn't work!!















Here are the 2 bowls that I made. One is the Fish bowl, and the other will be a present for my niece. It's natural rocks with a place for some sort of animal... not gonna tell, don't want to ruin the surprise!!








Here's the finished Fishy!! He's cute & quirky & looks right at home in his new Bowl!!! I think I'll be playing around more with this Resin stuff in the future. I'm sure I can come up with all sorts of neat ideas!! This was a great starter, but now my brain is working on bigger & better sculptures to make!!!

Holiday Diet & Blog Awards!!

So if you were to stop by my shop in the next couple weeks, you'll notice alot of yur favorite items missing. Don't worry, they will be back after the Holidays!! Angler, Jelly, Godzilla, they will all reappear after New Years.

I'm heading back to Dallas tomorrow & have cut back my shop items to those Holiday Inspired ones. So if you need any last minute gifts, just check in. I'll be back to full speed after January 1st. I will be blogging while on vacation (although probably sporadically).


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I'd like to Give a Big Old THANK YOU to Needle Felted Art by Robin for awarding me these awesome Blog Awards!! She is an amazing Felting Artist who makes some of the most beautifully detailed, and Super Cute needle-felted animals that I have ever seen!! She also donates a percentage of most of her sales from Ebay to some Amazing Animal Charities (something that I really need to do too, cause there are so many lonely, homeless animals & with the economy the way it is, many Rescue & SPCA organizations are really hurting).

Here are the rules for the award acceptance:

(1) Thank the person giving the awards
(2) Copy awards to your blog
(3) Place a link to their blog
(4) Name 7 things people don't know about you
(5) Nominate 7 bloggers
(6) Place a link to those bloggers
(7) Leave a comment on their blogs letting them know of their awards

Now for the 7 things you probably didn't know about me.

1. Hmmmm.... My favorite T.V. show of all time is the Nickelodeon Cartoon "Invader Zim". It's an awesome cartoon about an Alien that is trying to take over Earth with his totally inept sidekick GIRR the robot.
2. I grew up in Dallas, Texas. Then moved to Baltimore, Maryland for College. Lived there for like 7 years, then moved to Los Angeles to work in the Movie Business. I've been here for almost 5 years.
3. My favorite foods are butter, spam sushi, biscuits, and green tea mochi.
4. My family always eats BBQ on Christmas Eve. We order-out awesome BBQ Ribs, Turkey, Sausage, etc. It's basically a "MEAL OF MEAT!!" YUMMY!!!
5. I only play 3rd person, action-adventure RPG video games. I'm super picky & returned "The Game of the Year" cause I hate first-person shooter games. I do love to play me some Video Games though!!
6. I rarely talk politics (I learned that hard lesson a year ago) BUT am a complete News & Political Junkie. I listen to talk radio ALL DAY LONG, don't listen to music that much, and listen to the News at night. I could talk your ear off about all the goings-ons in Washington... but I won't.
7. I love Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Niel Diamond, & Tom Jones. I think I was born like 20-30 years too late. This is the kind of music that I have on my iPod. I'm a lame geek... whateva...

Wow! That was harder than I thought it would be!!!

My 7 nominees for the award:

1. The T-Shirt Lady
2. Adventures in Catnip - Jake & Micah
3. Beneath the Rowan Tree
4. Dude Craft
5. Gourmet Felted
6. Pinkkiss Pottery
7. Sea Star Studios
   

Rainy Days make Chrissy Bored...

So she ends up spending the day surfing the Interwebs....

So if I'm not the last person to see this, HAHAHA on you!
Please watch it, I think it might be one of the most amazing videos I've seen in so long!!




Oh, and my thoughts on Tiger....
It's tragic, very sad, he needs to take some time to reassess his marriage & life, he will loose some endorsements right now...
BUT...
When he wins his next Tournament, no one will remember.

HAHA!! Saw this & had to share!!!

Saw this article on www.cracked.com Had to share it cause it is so in the season of things!!!

It states (in a very convencing way) how Die Hard is one of the best Christmas movies ever!! It hilariously compares the traditional Movies & illustrates Morals that are told in Holiday movies, to Die Hard!!! Very Funny!!!

Check it out!!!!





Oh! And thanx to Robin for the Blog Awards, I will definitely grab them & post them! I'm feeling kinda lazy today, it's still raining & I'm not feeling too motivated, but I will post them tomorrow!!!

New Cupcake Design!!!

YEA!! Did get some photos done yesterday. I hate the winter sun cause I never think about going out to photograph my stuff until afternoon. In the summer I have good sun until like 4-5 pm. But now, I get shadows by 3:00!!! Today's a bust with pictures anyways cause it's raining! It hardly rains here in SoCal, but it's been rather wet this past week.

I did get some awesome picts of my new CupCake designs though!! Just listed them in my shop. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE how the cherries turned out. It's crazy how you come up with the most creative stuff when you are pressured for time. I made the little stems last minute, and LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out! I think they look pretty realistic. I also love the yummy colors & shading & cuteness.... actually I love how I did them!! Ego much?








I also am experimenting with some new material. I did a test last night (actually I'm going to turn it into a X-Mas present for my niece) & am really happy how it turned out. I need to get a couple things to make the custom order I got for it, but will post pictures tomorrow of process. It's pretty cool.

Have a great Weekend!! Only 2 more till Christmas!! Get your shopping done... in my shop :)

Looking at a New Car!!

So after having to stuff everything in my tiny little 2004 New Beetle, I was thinking about getting a slightly bigger car. If I'm gonna try & do this whole Craft Show thing, not sure that my Bug will be able to cut it. Luckily we spent the day out at the L.A. Auto Show yesterday!! It was like going to every car showroom you could image, but all in one place!

This is a picture of me in my next car!! They checked my credit & it's pretty good, although the monthly payments are a bit high for me right now!!!
















I think this one was the Mercedes SL550. It retails for about $125,000. It was funny cause a lady said that I looked "really cute" sitting in the car.... um... well I think spending over $100,000 on a car, anybody would look cute!! I think it's a standard feature included in ever Mercedes!!!

But I did actually see a few cars that I would think about getting (used, never buying a new car again!). I liked the Scions alot! Lots of room & cute & funky, also a few others, like the Tricked-Out Bentley!

OH!! And I finally got to sit in my dream car.... The Dodge Challenger!!! That car is so hot....

Obvious Conclusions...

**Thanx krex for inspiring these thoughts!!**

It's funny, at points last weekend (especially Friday) I was swearing that I would NEVER NEVER NEVER do another Show again. It was too much stress, too much pressure, too overwhelming.

So what changed my mind?

Well, I think it was Saturday night, we were driving home after the first long day kinda talking about how things went & what the day was like, and I came to some obvious conclusions....

1. It won't be this stressful every time. I hadn't realized that I wasn't going to have to make as much product for every show. I think I was under some delusion that I would sell out every item that I had for sale, and would have to restock it all in the future. Well, that didn't happen!! I have plenty of stuff that I can list in my shop & plenty of product to take to the next show. I can instead focus on making more AWESOME sculptures to sell instead of spending so much time making the small, easy stuff.
2. Just because I don't sell at the show, doesn't mean people won't buy. I knew this one in the back of my head, but was so worried about selling stuff there, that it wasn't until Sunday that I really started to focus on handing out business cards & telling people about my blog. I know that doing shows is about networking and getting people exposed to your work, and there is no reason that someone who took my business card at the show might not check out my shop & buy something they passed over before.
3. Not every show is going to be a winner. My parents used to own a Comic Book Shop when I was little, and they would sell at many-a Comic Book Conventions. They told me that there were shows where they didn't make a single sale all weekend!! Also Unique Los Angeles is a huge show (almost too overwhelming) and after talking to a fellow vendor, I learned that this specific show is very Design & Clothes & Bags based. There are other shows that are more arts and hand-made crafts based that I might sell better at. You never know until you try!

So now that I have a more realistic view of what doing shows is going to be like, I feel better about it. I think I just had nothing to compare it to. I did really well, so I am happy with the whole experience. I also know that starting your own business (crafty or otherwise) is really expensive, and most people fail, and most people do it for years without any real recognition. I'm okay with that... for now.

And going with the thoughts of #1, I'm excited about making new products and to continue expanding my current designs. I did get to make a few new sculptures for the show. I sold many of them, but have a few that I need to photo & list in my shop.







Need better pictures of my new Palm Tree. It has battery-powered X-Mas lights, with the battery pack hidden in the base. It's super cute & lights up! Definitely need to get this one photo'd today!
























Everybody thought these were HILARIOUS!! I thought they were cute & funny. They are just little bits of felted coal. Made the same way as my sushi, except that I dyed the wool with Acid dyes (which was kinda hardcore & complicated).














New CupCakes!! Love these & the cherries!! I think the stems came out perfect!! I need to photo these too... so much to do even after the show's over!!









HeeHee!! New design, need to tweak it a little bit to make it more awesome. Got some materials (casting resin) to try out on this little fun sculpture. You can't kill this little fishy!!!

Pictures from Unique L.A.

So here is the first installment of pictures of my most-awesome booth at the Unique Los Angeles Craft Show.

Here's overall pictures of me & my booth design. I was happy that so many people complimented me on how nice my work was displayed. They were saying that lots of people didn't layout the space well, so that it wasn't inviting to come in and look at stuff. That was a goal of mine, to really make it fun & homey and get people in to look at all the stuff I had in there. There was alot of stuff, but I was pretty happy with most everything.





You can see my coffee there! This was Sunday Morning, and I was chugging it like it was going out of style!!




Lots of people liked the Fireplace. My mom totally stayed up till 2AM the night before set-up, cause the way I wanted to construct it, didn't quite work out. It was based off of an old-school CardBoard Fireplace, but instead of painting the bricks on, we glued felt bricks on!! It ended up nice.

I was really proud of my self, that after all the blood, sweat, & tears... I made enough stuff to fill the booth! I pretty much made everything in about a month. It was so stressful, but in the end, it was a ton of fun. I really really enjoyed meeting all the shoppers & fellow sellers. Everybody was so nice & really helpful. Everyone was surprised that this was my VERY FIRST SHOW!! They all laughed and said that I picked a huge show to start with.

But that just like me...
Gotta jump in head first... not test the water with my little toe... feeling the chill... scared to get wet...

Taking the Day Off!!!

So my first Craft Show is over...
It was a ton of fun...
It was great meeting so many people & vendors...

But...

I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!

So taking the day off to spend time with my boyfriend, mom, & cats!! Will be back tomorrow, or (I'm not gonna lie...) Wednesday with pictures & stories & thoughts from this weekend!!!

Thanx to anybody that made it out this weekend! And if you are a new friend that I met, WELCOME!!!!

Felted Mama is En Route...

YEA!!! FeltedChicken's Mama is on her way here as we speak! Still gotta finishing cleaning up the house a little bit, & then once Mom gets here, we get to run around town & buy stuff! Also gotta plenty for her and Mr. Chicken to get done in the next couple days! They are both getting put to work the minute she walks in the door.

So much to do...
So little time...

I also wanted to share how AMAZINGLY creative & awesome my customers are! I'm pretty sure that most of my customers are way smarter than me (like that's hard). I've had some custom orders in the past, but yesterday I had a brilliant one!! Someone convo'd me and asked if I had 2 of the SnowFlake (re)GIFT BAGS in stock because they wanted to use them for Hannukah. Instead of wrapping presents for each of the 8 nights, they are going to reuse the (re) GIFT BAGS over and over again!! This is just a perfect use and part of why I started making the bags.

I also had a couple special orders this past October for Custom Order (re)GIFT BAGS to be used as Treat Bags. They wanted bags that would match their kids costumes!! MAN that was something that I never would have thought about, but now I have a great idea for a new item to market for next fall.

So, the moral of the story is... Your customers are WAY MORE BRILLIANT than you. You never know what kind of cool interesting ideas they might come up with. I really like working with people on custom orders, which is why when I just got like 1000 new business cards printed, they say "Custom Orders Welcome"!





HAHAHAHA!!! It's Backwards!!

You get the idea though!!!