Tutorial: Fun with Resin!

I recently got into making resin jewelry, first with pendant trays, before I took the next step and bought some molds. I decided to do this tutorial because there are very few mold directions online, especially ones telling how to place things, like candy or pictures, inside the resin without completely messing up the whole thing. Almost my complete first run of pendants never made it to my etsy store because I failed one step or another. So hopefully this helps someone out there!

First, prep your work station. I put some wax paper on my little table to protect it. Then, spray your molds with mold release and let them dry. Mix up your resin according to the directions. I use Easy Cast because of it's 1 to 1 mixing ratio.

Next step is to pour a thin layer of clear resin into the mold. This layer is the front of your pendant, so you will have to check up on it, making sure it doesn't develop bubbles. If you do see bubbles, you can pop them by blowing gently over the surface or with a needle. Let this layer sit for at least an hour. When I first made pendants like this, I waited about ten minutes before I put my image in, thus trapping all the bubbles in the front. It's not pretty, believe me! Place a sheet of wax paper on top of the mold to protect it from dust, playful cats, and the like. Then you can place whatever you want to show face down. In my example here, I have placed a sticker image of a camera in the resin. I pushed down a bit to secure it since the resin will still be pliable.



Now, I wait about a day to put the next layer on. I mixed up another batch of resin and this time, added pink glitter to it before pouring into the mold. If you're doing the whole mold in glitter, I would suggest doing it in layers, because the glitter has a tendancy to float to the bottom.



Let this layer sit another day and you are ready to demold! The mold release should allow the piece to pop out, but if you are met with resistance, you can put the mold in the freezer for a few minutes and then try again. Once you are sure that your pendant is set up, you can drill a hole in it or glue a bail on the back (I use E-6000).

The finished piece is up here.

This method is similar for the candy sprinkle pendants that have been popping up everywhere lately. After the first layer, add a second layer of clear resin and let that sit. Then, spoon some sprinkles on top of the resin, letting them sink in, adding more until that layer is covered. Then, add a third layer of clear resin to seal in the candy.



Now, get yourself a mold or five and enjoy! And don't pour resin down your bathroom sink. *cough*

Perfect Present for the Mac Owner

Last weekend I traveled to New Jersey for my friend Matt's birthday. It's been tough getting off of work lately because I'm one of only two assistant managers now at the store, so I wasn't even sure I was going until last minute. Therefore, I didn't give myself much time to get a present. Matt loves Street Fighter, so after consulting with his girlfriend, Vanessa, I got an awesome Macbook decal from etsy seller Crafty Gal. I told her after I payed that I needed it in less than a week, and she was so quick about responding, and even shipped it the next day for me for no extra cost! I got it the day before the party and was so relieved, even had time to wrap it! Now you might know that I don't have a Mac, but these decals are definatly cool. Here's a pic he sent me:


That's all for now, but check back soon because I'll be posting jewelry tutorials and stuff like that! Also, my friends and I secured a table for NY Anime Fest/Comic Con, so I'll be posting more info about that :D

This, that, and that other thing

Yesterday I had off from work so I spent the day listing new things on my etsy:



I've been doing this and that lately, I did a drawing for an ArtOrder contest and I'm working on a little something for Captain Picard Day. I bought a great pair of vintage boots that I'm going to use for my FFVII Tifa cosplay. I also applied for a spot in the artist alley of The New York Anime Fest in October.

My two other roommates are on vacation in Hawaii so Alex and I have the whole place to ourselves. We've been watching the second season of True Blood and wishing we had enough money to warrent adding HBO to our cable package before the third season starts.

Do the New Computer Dance!

So I'm sitting in front of my new big beautiful computer, an HP touchsmart 3000, and this window only takes up half the screen(Artist that uses a PC oh no!). It's bigger than the TV in the bedroom! There are so many great features, like the snap feature where I can look at two windows side by side, and the voice recognition is amazing, I could almost use the internet hands free. This computer was a graduation gift from my grandparents and my aunt and uncle.

Which reminds me...I graduated from SVA! After two years at Pratt and 3 years at SVA I finally have a BFA. The ceremony was at Radio City Music Hall and was very nice, if a bit long. My parents thought that graduating from SVA is like a golden ticket for getting a job in the art world, but it simply doesn't work that way. It's up to me to pitch to companies and put myself out there. As soon as I get a nice character sheet together I will be ready to pitch "20 Fingerprints" to Yen Press. I'm also working on a couple contests and a submission to Threadless, which I will post when it's up for voting.

In the meantime I'm looking for a new part-time job. Although I still have my job at Ricky's, I've been banned from taking time off. They had a real problem with me taking off for my own graduation (heaven forbid!), but I need time off at the end of June so I can go to Buffalo for some doctor appointments. Lately my co-workers and I have been getting in trouble for not signing as many people up as we can for a contest we're running. Basically, we take your name and email in the hopes that you can win a $1000 giftcard. It's a contest I would enter if I was a customer, however the fact that the company in giving away $1000 a month for a whole year, but has not giving their workers raises in TWO YEARS, really bothers me.

Seriousness is Serious!

Sometimes I can't tell when someone is being serious or joking, especially if there is a language barrier. I was at work (my retail job) and had a half-hour long conversation with an Indian man about what lube he should get so he can please his 19 year old wife. It was one of the most surreal discussions I have ever had. At any minute I felt that some guy with a camera would jump out and yell that I'd been Punk'd, but as far as I could tell the man was serious. I admire his devotion, really, but my coworkers had no idea where I'd gone to all that time.

Saturday is the day! MoCCA Fest 2010-where myself and my friend Vanessa Taffuri are going to be at booth D6, premiering our second collaboration comic. We had them professionally printed at Comixpress and they look great! I'm very excited. I will also be selling a mini comic with the first 12 pages of 20 Fingerprints, provided I get it done in time! Bridget Rhee helped me with the fonts on my business cards and they look great, so if you manage to make it out for the festival, at least come by to pick one up! I'll also be selling my Art Loves Music t-shirts and some of my resin jewelry. Whew, that's quite a few links.

So I was sick because of the weather suddenly deciding to be nice, then freezing, then nice again. For a bit there I thought I had strep so I did what any person too busy for the doctor would do, go on Web MD! Here's a precious piece of advice-"Do not cough or sneeze on anyone". Ah, the Internet is so helpful...

Reminiscing but Looking Forward

One of my closest friends from Buffalo, Justin, left here today. He stayed on my couch for a few days, and instead of doing touristy NYC things we did museums and food. We went to Nintendo World, and a few comic books stores, and ate at places like Bubba Gump's and the Stage Deli. At night we talked about high school and our weird parents. Justin's been my friend since the third grade and it was great having him around. This last weekend was the first time I played something on my Xbox that was not Rock Band. I played and beat Bayonetta, which was so much fun. It took about 10 hours and probably would have been 6 without the cut scenes.

I've been thinking about MoCCA more and more lately as the time approaches. Vanessa and I are doing a collaboration based off of a goddess that I created, Aroha, goddess of misfit relationships. She is supposed to take care of all those in unconventional partnerships, like online dating, open relationships, and all that. I imagine she's quite busy. I also want to do a comic with Alex about our job, since we work for the same company, just a short one. I'm giving myself until after spring break, so there will be no cutting it close for printing when the time comes.

One of my Senior Series, the seven week classes that we are required to take, is a class on Storyboarding for TV commercials. Last week we visited the apartment of my teacher's friend who does color storyboards. I feel like I learned quite a bit, one thing that I really need a new computer and a tablet(and classes on how to use it!), and also that I need another website. I think that I need to keep my webcomic separate and have a website just for my portfolio. Of course, I realize that means that I should start updating my webcomic again!

Fa la la la la, already?

I can't believe it's December!! The good thing is, I've already ordered most of the Christmas gifts for my friends online and all I have left to do is shop for a few people and my family. I've been super busy with school as the semester winds down and I even went on an internship interview! The projects that I have to complete in the next two weeks consist of a 2 page joke comic, a stencil of Christopher Walken, a colored set design for my comic 20 Fingerprints, and of course work on 20 Fingerprints. I'm on page 9 now but I still feel like I should be working faster. I'm also working on a 7 page comic with Vanessa about twin girls in a surreal Japanese landscape. There's also a twist, but I can't tell you that!

Work has been fine, I was promoted and promptly transferred, and then the store that I'm at now got a new manager who doesn't seem to understand that school comes first. Many of the coworkers that I have made friends with are already looking for new jobs. A cool note though, the one that I'm at is the first Ricky's that was ever made!

Today I started Isagenix, a meal replacement system. Vanessa's mother set me up on the program, and I'm feeling pretty good so far. I gained 30 pounds since transferring to the School of Visual Arts which I hope to lose. I hope to surprise my family with at least a little bit of weight loss when I get home for Christmas. Speaking of, I will be flying to Buffalo on the 21st!

Before School Update

So my Senior Year at the School of Visual Arts starts in 2 days and I'm very ready for it to start. When people find out that it's my last year in school they always ask if I'm going to miss it. I know that I will, but because I was a transfer student from Pratt I have been in college for 5 years and I think its time to go out into the "real world". I have also been asked quite a bit what do I want to do after I graduate, and I never know what to say. I'm not even sure if I will be able to still live in NYC. But I still have time to figure it out, and my teacher for portfolio this year is the talented BECKY CLOONAN so I'm sure that she will put our class in the right direction for jobs in the cartooning buisness.

Looking over my last post, I see that I reported that Alex was working on my website, and he still is, while he is also working on a portfolio for Nickelodeon, which is exciting! There isn't a day that goes by without me thinking about Fragile Products and my guilt over not updating it in so so long. It's not like I haven't been doing comics, for instance I did a comic about my lovely friend Cat who is a burlesque dancer and I also have been working on drawing up a script I wrote for Jack Harris's class this year called 20 Fingerprints. It is about a girl with four arms who becomes caught up in a murder. She's fun to draw. In other art related news, Alex and I have an etsy-neisse-although right now only bracelets I have made are posted.

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy, since I am helping out at SVA to get the new students used to NYC. Last weekend we moved everyone into the dorms and gave tours of the neighborhood. I refrained from telling freshmen where to get liquor without getting carded, but I'm sure they'll find places if they try hard enough haha. We also took them to see Wicked, my second time seeing it but the first time since completing my thesis project on it, and we took a group to go clean up Central Park. It was hard work because the storms we've been having made a real mess of the trees, but it was satisfying to be able to play a small part in making it better. Today all I have to do is take freshmen to the movies and see whatever they want to see. I want to see Ponyo though!

A Year Later

I seem to be really bad at this updating thing. Not much has changed, I still live in Harlem, I still go to SVA, and I still work at Rickys.
My big news for this year at SVA-I got into the junior thesis show! This year the theme was Beautiful Losers, and I chose to do Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I did an 18 page comic which I hope to have up on my website soon. Speaking of, Alex is currently revamping my page and hopefully I will be back to updating soon *crosses fingers* I would love to have suggestions for comics, but I'm really hoping to start drawing from the script I wrote for Jack Harris's comic writing class this summer. I'm also thinking of finding a new job or internship. Ricky's is fun and all, but they are not giving raises this year and they have taken away all of my responsibilities. You see, I used to do all the ordering for the adult room, which was awesome, but now corporate does all the ordering for us. boo hiss. Oh, and I finally broke down and got a facebook. So that's all for now, I was distracted by The Stand on TV and lost my train of thought :D

New and improved and living in Harlem!

Now, if you read the title you're probably think, Harlem? Is that any place for the whitest girl ever to be living? But it's actually a nice area, and I love my apartment. Everything is brand new, and it's HUGE. Four bedroom, with one and a half bathrooms, a nice living room, and a full kitchen. It's a bit of a mess since Alex went home and left his stuff here, and I just checked out of my dorm today, so I haven't really unpacked yet either.
So it's been a whole year since I updated! Wow. I just finished my first year at SVA, the school of visual arts, or the school of vicious adoration. It was great, I feel like I learned so much in their Cartooning program. I did neglect my webcomic but I was so busy. It's no excuse, I know, but the work load was kinda crazy. I'm happy I transferred here though. I know I would've been miserable at Pratt. I'm taking some summer classes too, Cartooning Hothouse and Abnormal Psychology. I have so many credits I won't have to go full time my senior year!
I've been working at this place called Ricky's, for those of you that don't know it's a cosmetic/beauty supply store with professional hair products, costumes and even an adult room. It's a fun place to work but the pay is shit, I made the same at Burger King in Buffalo! I got more hours there too. It seems like its time to get another job, especially since I owe my roommate Chris money and rent will be due before long.
Tomorrow my mom and aunt come to visit, then I go home to Buffalo with my mom for a week on Thursday. I'll be glad to see my family and my friends since I haven't been there since Christmas break! Hopefully I can get some of my friends from there up to visit here.
Updates on my comic hopefully soon, I'm using "borrowed" wireless (whoever has a network called "Manon" thank you!) and Dreamweaver forgot my ftp password which I need to update, meaning I also forgot it. Oops!
Bye for now!