Painting with UV Gel Nail Polish

painting a little smudge with nail polish

I’ve always found resin, painting and the creativity people put into nail art very interesting.  I’ve decided to try and put those things together and paint with UV gel nail polish.  Not on nails, but on a small wood painting panel.

UV Gel polishes are just liquid resin (supposedly a safer version), which I’ve used in my craft room for years.  Normally, I’d add colorants or pigments to clear resin and pour it into molds or paint it onto something, but with polishes they will already have colors mixed in for me.

The added bonus to using gel, and what I’m probably most excited about, is that there is their ability to instantly set.  With a nail lamp, each layer is cured within seconds and you aren’t literally sitting there and watching acrylic paint dry.  And like oil painting, I can pretty much keep playing around with it in a wet form until I decide I’m happy with what I have.

Supplies for this project

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Turning Eyeshadows into Watercolors

glass muller sitting in a pool of paint

For years I have watched people mulling paint online in visually appealing and almost hypnotic videos with glittery paints that swirl and metallics that color shift.  This isn’t going to be one of those posts, I don’t have it in me to do video or the energy to make everything Pinterest perfect.

Many people have taken to upcycling their old expired eye shadow palettes into watercolors and I happen to come across a few palettes recently and I’d thought I’d finally give paint making a try.

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Trying Out the Eazao Clay 3D Printer

the 3d printer that has been put together and sitting on a wood table

Eazao clay 3d printer

A while back, I had ordered another Kickstarter.  Even though I’ve been burned before, it was pretty hard to resist ordering this Eazao Clay 3D Printer at a fraction of the price of anything else on the market.  Kickstarters often take a very long time to materialize into a product (if they even do).  Once this printer shipped it then sat in the California port for many, many months.

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Resin Cloisonné

the completed pendant

Have you ever liked a type of art but had no idea what it was called so you couldn’t look up how it was made?   I certainly have.  I recently came across the word “Cloisonné” and realized it was one of those things I had always wanted to know about.

By 변우주 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46792787

Essentially, Cloisonné is an ancient enameling technique where you outline your design with strips of metal, drop-in enamel paste to color in your design, and then fire it in a kiln.

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Testing Art Mediums on Shrinky Dinks

all the swatches laid out on a wooden table

baking shrinky dinks in a toaster oven

A while back I had fun making pins with Shrinky Dinks and I keep thinking about making more.  The images I had picked out in the past were mostly white (or were just prints) with a touch of color that I added with Copic markers.  The next ones I make I hope to do more drawing and coloring, something original.  I wanted to see what supplies I had that would work and which would look the best once shrunk.

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I 3D printed a weaving loom

many 3d printed parts for the loom laid out on a wooden table.

3d printing loom parts

A while back, I found 3D printing files for a rigid heddle loom.  A new loom had been on my wish list for years but I never pulled the trigger.   Honestly, I think I’ve become frugal in my old age.  Years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about adding a new loom to my cart and checking out, but these days I just can’t justify in my mind paying hundreds of dollars for a couple pieces of wood and some plastic.  Especially when I’ve had 3d printers in my home for 10 or 15 years now and I pretty much DIY everything I can.

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More Layered Wood Ornaments

finished wooden ornaments of a girl handing an ornament on a Christmas tree

layered wood ornaments

Just a quick update on the layered wood ornaments I’ve been making.  12 days of Christmas?  No, it’s not the 166th day of Christmas in my craft room.  I’ve knocked out a few more ornaments designs and this was the last one.   I plan on making one more before figuring out little hangers, packaging, and where to sell them.

I can’t wait for it to be done.  Honestly, I don’t want to see any Christmas stuff for a very long time.