Shop Notes

• When mixing materials with your resin that have nooks and crannies, such a gold leaf, mix your resin and hardener first. Once the resin is thoroughly mixed then add your leaf. Materials like gold leaf that can fold and make little pockets of unmixed resin will ruin your blank.
• When making ribbons with Alumilite use a glass plate or sheet of HDPE that will fit in your pressure pot. The trapped bubbles in these thin pours will expand as the resin warms up while curing, leaving you with a pitted surface.

Not every casting or turning is a success. From failure we learn. Today I turned the second half of a blank I cast for my father. It turned well and was on it’s way to becoming a beautiful magnetic Vertex rollerball pen. 

Continue reading “From Failure We Learn”

My mom crochets so I made this crochet hook set for her birthday. The quality of the kit is excellent and the single tube design means it’s easy to turn. As an added bonus a standard 3/4″ x and 5 1/4″ blank can make two handles.

I phoned my parents to ask for color preference. My mother asked for orange. I decided to go mix a couple shades, from orange extending into a pink/red to round out the warm tones. Continue reading “Crochet Hook Set”

I made this bolt-action pen with blue and red resin blank for my Dad. His birthday is next month and this will make a nice gift.

Continue reading “Chrome Bolt-Action Pen in Red/Blue Acrylic”