The projects in Enchanted Adornments are starting to get a bit more complex. I’m calling this a personal challenge for a reason. I figured these projects were nothing difficult at all, just more stages to complete, more time needed to complete.
These fairy wings have taken several stages, and they still aren’t finished. I think resin has a personal vendetta against me.
Part one: wire wrapping
This is straight forward if you haven’t done wire wrapping before this is a great project to start with. You need two gauges of wire, the instructions are fairly clear, at least I thought so. I’m an “advanced beginner” when it comes to wire wrapping, I do not consider my skills intermediate on the wire wrapping front.
Part two: gluing
This is more messy than anything (gluey fingers!). You want your tissue backing to be well glued, it will make things easier when it comes to painting with the resin. I decided to use origami paper instead of tissue, because I had been playing with origami paper and resin a few years ago, and I really loved the results. I thought it would make lovely patterns in the wings.
I found it easier to do a basic gluing of paper to wire first, then trim out the wings, and do a more complete gluing of the paper to the form.
Trimming out the origami paper for the wings
Mod Podging the heck out of the wire form and the oragami paper
Part three: resin
I found these great little plastic shot glasses, they are a great size for mixing the small amount of resin I need at a time.
Before I got started I set up my drying rack. I used a heavy gauge wire and gift box I had. Also, make sure the area the resin has to drip onto is covered for clean up. Resin is a nice clear epoxy, so it’s tough glue to clean up afterward.
My wings hanging to dry
For “painting” I used the back end of a bamboo skewer, and between layers of resin, I added some finger nail decorative sparkles, for extra fairy dust.
The plan was to do the resin in two stages. This would give me a chance to wash off the thick backing of the origami paper, and to layer the sparkles within the resin. Turns out I didn’t need to do too much of this washing of the paper backing because the white of the origami paper turned pretty translucent once it was “soaked” in resin. I did need to clean off a lot of the mod podge from the wires thought.
I ran into a problem on phase 2 of the resin. It stayed sticky. It was really super rainy when I the resin. I had to shout out to a crafting group for resin help.
I was directed to fabulous resin resource called Resin Obsession
Humidity can be a factor, but it depends on the type of resin used, my issue more likely than not, was user error and I got my ratios incorrect, even though I measured. I was trying to mix a tiny amount so I didn’t waste any, and that probably threw things out of wack. I did a third pass with the resin. It’s still sticky.
I’m going to have to mix a larger batch of resin and just be okay with knowing I won’t use all of it.
Part four: string it all up
I’m not here yet. It’s been a while and I’m still not complete with the resin. I will not give up I am determined. But after 6 weeks, its time to admit temporary defeat.
I love how they look, they are translucent with design and pigment from the paper I selected. I cannot wait to get them strung up. I am hopeful the last round of resin with cure without being tacky.
Unfortunately, this one has taken a long time to complete because I just haven’t had time during the week, or the past few weekends to do another batch or resin. I’ll post some pictures once they have been completed.
Next month is another resin project. I hope I get this figured out by then (I was tempted to say mastered, but let’s be honest, I’m never going to become a resin master).
