Dealing with epic resin failures

We're back from vacation and both Jeff & I are suffering some back issues brought on by the furniture in the condo we were at.  So my attempt to pour resin and do all the small pieces I had set up was pushing it a bit.  And my back got worse between the first pour and the second pour so I rushed the process to finish before I had to quit due to pain.  This was the first lesson of this epic failure in my resin adventures:  Don't work while in pain, especially if the work requires using the part of the body that's in pain.

Here's all but 2 of the pieces I made.  The other two got trashed because really they were total failures.  All of the above pieces have flaws and only two are fixable.  So this has turned out to be an epic learning experience.  What did I learn?

1) don't work while in pain.  see above.
2)  prewarm resin for both pours, not just the first. 3 pieces ended up with massive bubbles due to not prewarming the resin on the second pour. The leftmost piece above was perfect except for the tiny cluster of bubbles along one edge.  And check for bubbles every pour because they are fixable if caught soon enough.
3)  Do fewer pieces at one time.  One piece, the six pointed star, failed because the box that is supposed to keep the pieces from getting dust in the resin while curing got put directly on the edge of the piece rather than next to it which left some of the paper from the box on 2 of the points. Less crowding of the space by doing fewer pieces would have saved this one.
4)  No plopping the pictures down on the resin.  Lay them out from one edge toward the other so as not to trap air under them.  The large oval and the pink square both had this as the only flaw.  (I'm particularly unhappy about these failures as I already learned this lesson from marbling.  Bad Liz!  No keto cookies!)
5)  Elevate the items so I can better see the doming when I'm doing the second pour.  I overpoured several pieces, particularly the 2 I tossed.  While some of this can be trimmed and filed off, it's still something that's easier to prevent than to fix.
6) Keep the temp up in the correct zone for the entire curing time.  Two of the pieces have soft spots on the edges because of failure to cure correctly.  (This also occurs if  the resin mixing is not done properly but I don't believe that was the cause since both pieces were on the same side of the work table.  I have a small heater on order to fix this.)

What good things came out of this work?  I succeeded in using the 2 molds I made and they worked fine.  I mixed colors, tested an idea about marbling, and learned some things about using the mandala transparencies with colors behind them.  While I was incredibly frustrated right after unmolding things, I feel I learned a lot from the work.  And James Clear's email today reminded me of some important things to keep in mind.  His ideas today -

"If you haven’t started, then taking action is more important than finding a better strategy.

If you’re already taking action, then ensuring you’re working on the right thing is more important than working harder."

This is causing me to think about which part of the resin work is the right thing for me to be working on.  If only life's lessons weren't so rough sometimes. 

Ocean Shores vacation to refresh my soul

One of my theories about people is that we each connect to the universe spiritually through different landscapes.  I'm a water girl; moving water is better than still but I'll take a lake if there's no ocean shore or babbling brook.  I suspect this connection explains the popularity of landscapes for art but that's a whole other discussion about art & emotion.

Being a water person, I like to vacation at the beach.  Just standing on the sand, breathing in the sea air, watching the waves, evokes a calm that nurtures and refreshes.  So here we are, at Ocean Shores for the week, having left the cats and the house in good hands.  The view from our 3rd floor balcony is the golf course in the foreground with hotels and the ocean in the background.  So even when it's windy and rainy, which it has been pretty much since we got here Friday, we have an interesting view and opening the door slightly gives me all the sea air I could want. 

View of storm coming in on Friday

 Saturday we ventured down to the shore in the car during a break in the rain.  There are no islands off shore as there are off the coast of Bellingham.  The next land out there is Japan, I believe.  So there's a lovely vastness that I find both soothing and invigorating.  Tensions evaporate.

Sunbreak during the shore visit

Alas we only got a few minutes of sunniness.  We were not the only ones at the shore, and others were braver than we and went out into the windiness to walk along the beach.  I got out to take the above picture and had to chase down my birding cap as the wind was strong enough to rip it off my head and send it scudding along the sand.

gulls huddling on the windy beach

So I quickly got back in the car and we cracked the leeward window so I could smell the ocean.  Watching the gulls is always fun and we enjoyed seeing them deal with the wind as they moved about the beach when cars came by.

Sunday was less rainy so we got to watch mallards, geese and a ginormous quantity of gulls on the golf course.  They were playing in the myriad puddles but all took off when a coyote came wandering along.  It took us  long enough to identify it as a coyote rather than a dog, or even a deer which are plentiful in the neighborhood, that I failed to grab my camera in time to catch it.  We have days yet so I have hopes he'll wander by again.

geese grazing

And last but not least in the amusing photos so far is this sign glued to the sliding glass door. 

So glad this is here because being mugged by gulls every time we opened the door would not add to our enjoyment.

Testing new mandala stencils

This last week got thoroughly eaten by the garage sale which went fairly well, with a steady stream of customers, altho I wish more stuff had gone away.  *sigh*

So I'm taking it a little easy and spent time yesterday trying out some new mandala stencils.  I'm not happy with the motif in the upper left of this dancer piece and I'm searching for a replacement. To be honest, I'm not happy with several things, but the incoming energy ball is my starting point.

These mandalas came in a set of 35 stencils and are 5x5inches.  I do my tryouts in black ink on white paper so I can scan in the ones I like and do whatever sizes I need for the current work.

Since things look different once they're on paper, I did 5 of the ones I'm most likely to use.  If not for this project, for creating fabric I like for other projects.  Of these 5 possibilities, I like #11 the best.

I particularly like the broken line giving a circle in the middle of the spinning spiral.  There's lots of movement, but also the calm center.  I love the overall effect.  Next up, doing it in colors to see what happens to all that motion.

Studio downsizing sale ate my week

Today is my studio downsizing garage sale and it has taken the whole week to finish the decluttering, set up the garage, display all the items and price everything.  But once I finish today, My studio will be so fabulous to work in.  No moving stuff so I have a work space.  No opening bunches of drawers looking for that one thing I know I had somewhere.  Okay, that last one is probably over reaching somewhat but the problem should be easier.  I even have empty drawers now!

Besides decluttering my studio, I'm hoping to meet some neighbors and online friends.  And I'll be really happy if the rain stays away.

Hoping your Saturday is as happy making.