It’s an open secret that LED fairy lights were invented for me. I love lights and there’s an abundance of solar powered lights around the house in summer and (rechargeable) battery lights in winter inside. So to combine resin and lights was a natural step. Especially since Marcus sent me a crystal mould and a handmade big globe mould.
I first tried my regular resin with the crystal. I absolutely love how the colour came out and how the copper metal foil really makes it all mysterious.
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But, but, the resin clearly wasn’t the right one for such a project. It cured too quickly and with too much heat. You can see the bubbles all around.
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So back to the computer to get a different resin. This one cures a lot more slowly and with less heat and is more suitable for bigger projects.
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This one cured nicely without too many bubbles, though the longer time meant that my metal sunk down more than I like it. The opaque sheen is due to the acrylic paint I added for the colour.
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I used one of the solar fairy lights Marcus sent in this project.
Now on to the big globe. I first ran a trial freezing water and then deemed it suitable.
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The mould is not quite perfect with some bubbles at the top, but with such a project you won’t notice that anyway. This time, my metal rose to the top and there are still some bubbles, but I think they add to the otherworldly flair.
But man does that resin eat itself. I swear the mould was filled completely. It#s not a problem here, since a perfect globe wouldn’t rest nicely on my window sill, but I think it would be best to refill part of it after a day or so.
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That deep red crystal is a thing of beauty! It looks like a giant almandine or another red garnet with internal fractures. You really created a wonderful geometry there.
I want a light like this, bubbles and all. Very mood, much pretty!!
I like the dark red one, even if it isn’t technically perfect, it’s like a nebula with stars forrming in it’s shadowed centre. Whereas the globe looks like you’ve caught some mysterious denizen of the deep ocean, again lovely.
The globe is like being at the aquarium with the lights dimmed. I see jellyfish and kelp and the less perfect red crystal is my favourite. The bubbles look like chains of octopus eggs in a cave being investigated by divers using red lights. And the garnet colour is full-bodied.
Are these waterproof?
I think they would look great in all that snow.
These are completely beautiful. I especially like the red & blue & gold … wait, I especially like ALL OF THEM.
I agree with Crip Dyke, they are all beautiful! I love lights like this. A friend recently did this with wine bottles and gave me two of them, and within weeks I had worn out the initial set of batteries because I just love looking at them.
If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the blue globe. It would be nice to be able to control where those metal bits went, but man, this thing turned out *great*.
Those came out awesome!
The big globe was one of the hardest molds i’ve done -- it turns out that globes always preset a tangential surface for bubbles to build on.
Anyhow, the mold-style (a block mold with a cut) is a good way to make a mold for just about anything.
I wonder how hard it’d be to make a mold from some big quartz spikes.