More Dead Wasps

It's super slow at Factory Job right now, being that it's the day after xmas. Since this place has better lighting than back at the Bunker, I hauled all my junk in and did a photo shoot. Hooray!

I finally put the wasp pendants in the Dr. Craftenstein shop. They will each come with a black cord. Here are the store pics I designed:

Quite the pitched battle I waged today with the mosaic tool. Luckily there isn't shit else to do! I hate touching the computer after hours, so I am pleased I was able to use the time. Shall I dare two posts in one day?? Shall I???

Dead Wasps

Frankenstein is painting his mother's house, and encountering lots of wasps in the process. He sprays them with wasp killer and waits until they're all dead before he resumes painting. Then he asked me, "Do you want the dead wasps?"

Hell yes I want the dead wasps.

Frankenstein presented me with this jar. The lid says "apricot jam."

I pulled out my resin and my molds. Took the lid off the jar of wasps, poured two wasps out onto my table, and then froze in terror. I was completely paralyzed. I stared at those two wasps for a good three or four minutes. Then I carefully put them back into the jar using a hemostat, put the lid back on, and texted Frankenstein. "Are we sure these wasps are dead? REALLY DEAD?" "Of course they're dead," he responded. "Be brave, little one!"

After about ten more minutes of staring at the closed lid, I realized that the only way I was going to do the damn thing was if I actually mixed the resin. So I sucked it up, mixed the resin, opened the apricot jam, and poured out two wasps. I was committed now.

Every time I dropped something or bumped the table, the wasps jumped, and I screamed. This continued throughout the project. But somehow I finally managed to get glitter and resin and wasps into the molds.

Behold:

This is a pic of the wasps on the doming tray. The glitter predictably sank to the bottom of the resin, which made the side stuck in the mold effectively the back side. And the wasps' various lumpy parts were sticking out of the tops, so I domed them. Afterward I had to sand off a couple of drips and round some of the edges, but they turned out pretty well.

Once they were safely contained within the resin, I felt more comfortable touching them! Not 100%, but better.

I pulled out my tiny hand drill and prepared to turn them into jewelry. My wire wrapping skills are not the best. So I'm trying to improve. Here's an early one:

This one came out okay:

Mostly I stuck to the swirls that I'm comfortable with. But there are lots more wasps waiting to be wrapped, so I hope to get better at it. As you can see in the doming pic, there are lots more to practice on.

And Frankenstein has already filled another jar full of wasps for me. They sure do love his mother's house! Perhaps I should gift her one of these...

More Budget-Friendly Sharts

One more exciting piece has just been added to the Exclusive Budget Collection: "Second Question"

And who likes metal? I do! I do! Need some hooks?

Wait, that's not metal enough!

AAAaaahhhh... that's better. These metal hooks are only five dollars each -- what did you say??? I said FIVE DOLLARS EACH. Hurry up or I'm keeping them for myself.

drcraftenstein.com

GO. NOW.

Now I've Discovered Resin Pouring AKA R.I.P. My Bank Account

The truth is I've known about resin pouring for a while. And I've been avoiding it like the plague because I'm pretty sure resin pouring is a chasm I am never going to be able to climb out of, and plus, it's a relatively pricey chasm. For years I've been the live-action character slo-mo running from cartoon Resin Demons as they swoop down on me trying to steal my soul. I put up a really good fight...

...Which ended when I signed up for classes offered at a craft store which shall remain nameless in order to protect the innocent. (And myself.) Said classes were allegedly for Metal Stamping and Wire Wrapping. However it quickly became apparent that this was a clownboat production: nothing was as it seemed, connections to reality were tenuous at best, and the whole event was fluid and ever-changing. Luckily I had dressed for just such an occasion:

It ended up that I was the only attendee for this particular set of classes (and therefore alone in my cat leggings, THANKS BECCA). I showed the instructor the tools that I had brought with me and some examples of what I have done in the past. She asked, "So you've done all of this already. Why on Earth are you in this class?" I pointed to a couple things on the syllabus, and she cleared up those topics in one sentence. Then she announced, "Want to pour resin??"

Through a swirling cloud of cartoon Resin Demons I glimpsed the face of the sweet elderly woman across the table from me, stringing beads onto a bracelet for her granddaughter. Her presence is the only thing that prevented me from shouting "FUCK YES I WANT TO POUR RESIN." TIE ME OFF AND HAND ME THE NEEDLE. I AM READY.

The instructor scampered out into the store to grab a resin kit and I knew my fate was sealed. I am doomed, friends. It's all over for me! Save yourselves!

The kit contains a small mold with three sections. Luckily I had brought along my trusty sack of coyote teeth (thanks again, ebay hillbillies!) which I used in two of the molds. They were not set by the time I got home, so I was able to find some things to fill the last mold. Here's what I ended up with:

(Please ignore the snap on my notebook that totally looks like a nipple.) The kit came with a really nifty teeny drill bit that cuts right into the resin, allowing me to wire on a bale, and also the word ART.

Gee, I wish I could tell you the exact resin kit I purchased, but Clownboat Craft Store claims they do not carry it. Despite the fact that I bought it from them. Ahoy!! [Edit: I found the packaging. It's Clownboat Craft Store's personal store brand. So....yeah.]

Friends, I have long fed my desire to pour resin by suspending things in soap. I have no more need for that crutch as I have already purchased more resin and more molds...and now watch helplessly as the cartoon Resin Demons lower me into their boiling cauldron. It is done. Amen.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN.