Resin Dollhouse Geode table, working in miniature with resin and Polymer Clay.

Making Miniature Resin Geode Tables

Ok I'll be honest, I absolutely love miniatures.  To sit down all day and make everything in mini would be freaking awesome!!  I was feeling sorry for myself the other week, resin allergy, no one interested in my art, when something popped into my head and filled me with excitement.  Miniature resin Geode table for a dollhouse.  OMG yes.  I had to do it.

Polymer Clay popped into my mind for the base of the table, and that moment I went searching in the garage for all of my clay tools.  With Mr 4 by my side we began playing with scrap clay.  My scrap clay is a mixture of all the brands, Kato, Sculpey and Fimo.

 Here are my four basic geode shapes.  I just rolled some clay out, and cut out random shapes.  They went into my mini oven for an hour and then they were ready to play with!!

 I made up a very small amount of resin.  The great thing about miniatures is, it uses less of everything!  I placed the bases on upturned cups and began my experiment.  A very small amount goes a long way, so I did have trouble getting the distinct lines I can get on my large geodes.

 Obviously glitter played an important part, shiny pretty glitter.  What could take the place of the rocks, glass and gems that I use on the large geodes?
Beads of course.  I have a plethora of beads, finally time to use them!!  I mainly used microbeads, which are teeny tiny, obviously.

I also used some glitter gravel that I bought from a cheap shop.  It actually looks nice in geodes.



After the first resin layer was dry, I added another, this one I put in more glitter and tried to define the colours a little more.  It basically took a lot of patience and a steady hand, moving the resin where I wanted it to go, then using the heat gun sparingly to blend the colours.  I also added some gold leaf on the third layer.

After the fourth or fifth layer was completely dry I brought out the posca pens and drew some more defined lines around the geodes.  This made them start to look like something worthwhile.  I was a little worried to begin with.  (Apologies for the dog barking in the video).

I wrapped the edges of the mini geodes with painters tape, leaving about a 3mm edge above the geode.  I did this so when I poured the next couple of layers of clear resin they would build up and completely cover all the beads and make the table flat.  It worked!!

To remove the resin that had dripped onto the bottom of the geodes I used the heat gun and a small chisel to carefully get them off.  The resin actually came off quite easily, which was awesome.  Time for the edges of the geodes.  I used Mont Marte Leafing Size glue, and gold leaf and prettied those edges up.  I was actually really surprised at how easy the glue made putting the gold leaf on.  That one is a definite win, and I will use it again.

Mont Marte Leafing Size link.

The saga of sanding and using my dremel to cut some wood for the legs, ugh, wood and cutting just not my favourite thing.  I am actually in love with the way they turned out, I love the thickness, and I can see all the layers of resin and glitter and beads that lovingly did.  Let's not forget the swollen eye from my allergy to resin, the rash that spread like chicken pox, and the misery I was in from the pills and the itching.  To sum it up, it was worth it.  I will do it again, and again and again.

GLAM SHOTS!!

I'm happy with the experiment.  My doll house, everyone's dollhouse deserves some glam geode tables I think.  I absolutely love them :) 

I have also made some experimental resin tiles for a dollhouse.  I have embedded microbeads in some tiles, glitter in others and of course I have made a glow in the dark sample. All different styles and colours.  I will be doing a project with them in it sometime in September.  I will post my progress of that too.

Etsy mini tiles for sale here.

 I've also been glamming up miniature cheese boards for the doll houses as well, adding resin to them to make the glam mazing!!

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And now on Etsy.........  https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/KrystalRoseCreations?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Until next time.........

Glow in the dark resin dragon egg, painted with acrylics

Set backs, mistakes and frustrations.

As I sit here writing this I realise that I am not in a writey mood. All my effort and thoughts are elsewhere and I am struggling to put down the words.  The longer I type though, the more I am getting into it. I find that this is similar to lots of other things, until I actually start and make myself do something, it seems too daunting and big of a job.  Once underway, I actually enjoy it, so without further adieu here it is.  My blog post about my gorgeous dragon egg.

My vision was this magnificent dragon egg, glowing furiously, with a polymer clay dragon tail that protruded out from it.  First off, me using a jigsaw, ugh, we are not a good match.  My mdf cutting of an egg shape not so great.  So all my dreams shattered I had to wait until I had help to cut it.  This completely demotivated me and to be honest I did feel like a failure.  Every time I saw that badly cut egg I would remind myself how useless I am.  Why bother Kristina, I would think.  Nothing you do is good.

I put the egg in the too hard basket.  I would get annoyed every time I saw it.  There was always this part of me though, that saw it and wanted to start, wanted to make it turn into the vision in my head.  The old me, I have to be honest, would've thrown it away and never tried again.  I have this little bit of determination now, that I never used to have.



So with it newly cut by my wonderful husband I decided I could start.
I originally painted the base of the egg in Cadmium Orange hue acrylics.  Then I applied a layer of Golden's glazing medium mixed with the encapsulated glow powder.  It glowed, but not enough.  I wanted the orange to burst out from between the scales when I painted them on, like fire, not like badly painted s%#t.  This set me back again, I don't handle stuff ups very well.  So there the egg sat, taunting me, laughing at me, again.  Until I got so angry that I wanted to teach it a lesson lol.

There are two types of glow in the dark powder available from Glowing gecko.  There is the normal one which can be mixed with most things except water based materials, like acrylics.  They also have an encapsulated powder that costs a little more, glows a little less, but it can be mixed with acrylic paint, water etc.  

I decided to just paint the egg, and make the glow between the scales by painting the areas in.  I started with red acrylic paint as the base layer, added black to make the shadows, and put the scales on.  OMG ick.  Just ick.  Anger again grew within me and I wanted to scream, it looks like crap!!  Well maybe a little more profanity than "crap" was used lol.  Walk away, again.  I walked back though, and even more determined than ever I decided after two hours of individually painting on the scales that I had to redo them all.  Then I had to shade them, covering some up in darker colours, but I was finally seeing an egg shape appearing.  GLIMMER OF HOPE!! 

 I put some cracks in so I could make them glow instead of the scales, less work shhhhhhh.

The cracks I hated with a passion.  I won't go over how long it took for me to get the darn things right.  I almost gave up again.  I was beginning to hate this egg.

NO NO NO.  It just looked wrong no matter how much fiddling I did.  GRRRRRRRRRRR.














I decided to focus on the dragon tail that I wanted to come out of a crack in the egg.  Using polymer clay I made the tail, baked it.  Then held it up to the egg and hated the way it looked.

 I had come this far I was NOT giving up.  I painted the dragon tail but it still looked like some weird tail that didn't fit with the egg.  I think it needed to be bigger.  I kept the tail but it is for something else.  This egg was not it's place.  Dammit.  My 9 year old son said to me, "I thought you were going to have an eye in a crack?"  Hmmmm, no I didn't but that sounds like a good idea, thank you lol.

 Painted the eye, wrong, wrong wrong.  It took me a while to realise that I needed black paint in the cracks, because inside the egg would be dark.  Once I did that it was like angels were singing in the background.

Still desperately trying to make the tail fit, lol.  

I got the normal glow powder, mixed it with the resin and slowly and delicately poured it on the cracks and the eye.  I left this to dry, because I wanted to make it super glossy so it needed another resin layer.  I used Solid solutions resin, I haven't had a problem with it, except for the occasional patch of the art or table that doesn't get covered with resin, no matter how much I spread it.  It's called a dip or something like that.  Very frustrating.  I call them oogies.  So I did pour another layer of clear resin over the egg, but I got oogies.  three of them.  FFFFFFFFluffy puddles!!!!!

I poured another layer, carefully ensuring that the oogies were covered, and agh, nope.  I love solid solutions resin, it does everything I want, and because I am still a beginner perhaps it is something I do to make the oogies happen.  I don't know.  I do absolutely adore that resin.  I'm just trying out new ones to see what I like.  Bunnings the hardware store here in Australia, sell a beautiful gorgeous glassy oh so glossy resin.  Oh I love it, perfect, but almost $60 a litre.  A little bit too pricey.  Save it for the special pieces.

The egg glowed, it was shiny, it looked like a dragon egg, the majority of it was a glass finish, but those damn oogies were killing me.  

You can see the defects in this video on the resin.

I ran out of resin while doing the egg so I bought in bulk a different resin.  It is designed not to have oogies!!!!!  It kept it's promise!!!!  NO oogies!!!!  YAY.

 AND SHE GLOWS!!!  I put glow powder and resin on the side of the egg to make it appear like there is a glow all around it. 

 This is the final product, after weeks of hatred, anger, disappointment and mistakes.  I actually really love it.  

 And here is my pugs reflection in the egg.

Wow,  I just realised that after my initial frustrations of writing something, I have gotten more done than I thought.  It is good to get this out of my head and accomplish something, even if it's never read by anyone, I did it.  I finished the egg, I didn't stop trying.  I love the end product and I feel good about myself momentarily.

Now onto the next project.  I have been focusing too much on tables and resin geodes etc that I have neglected my main passion, painting.  My next big goal is a huge canvas painting of Aquaman's face (Jason Momoa).  With water dripping off it.  In oils.  I cannot wait to grid it up and start.  I just have so many things to get done.  I also think Aqua man is going to take me two weeks to paint so it won't be done in time for my next blog.

I am unsure what my next blog will be about.  I'm thinking maybe a detailed (kind of) blog about the products I use in the resin geodes, like the glitter and the gems etc.  Or possibly I could do a blog about the Captain America table I will be finished this week.  Or the one I am looking forward to but I know I will fail and get angry at for a while, the harry potter glowing table I have plans for.   I also want to address mental illness and it's ability to kill every thing and every relationship in my life, and how I chose to fight everyday.  Some days just making sure my kids are happy and safe is enough.  Mental health is very important I am learning.

Anyway, enjoy your week.  It is my daughters birthday this week.  She is a beautiful 22 this year.

Enjoy yourselves.


Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart
I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/
Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/

Hopefully within the month I will have my own website selling my one of a kind products, and if I can conquer my fear of being seen I will have a Youtube channel.