Verschlimmbessern, verb, German: Making something worse by trying to improve it.
I tried to somehow righten the mistakes I made with the first bracelet, but instead made matters worse, though I think it would have come to this eventually anyway. But I learned quite some things.
Cut off top section
Sticky front
I tried to cut off the sticky top section, round the edges and then polish it up to shine again. This didn’t work well for several reasons.
Most importantly: If your resin didn’t cure properly, there’s not a lot you can do. Reflect on what you did wrong. Do better next time.
The soft spots were all over, and when I cut off the top, the fine dust stuck to the soft spots and made them matte. And since the whole thing isn’t as hard as it should be, it moved quite a lot so the resin and the stones separated in places, leaving more matte spots.
Another lesson: you cannot get around very fine wet sanding paper. All my mats and polishing stuff were still way too coarse to make it shine again. This will be very important since one of the projects that I’ve planned involves makeshift moulds* and requires grinding and polishing.
*Resin Obsession can speak many words to the wise about not being too ambitious in the beginning, but nobody ever accused me of being wise.
Thanks for the wise words. I guess it’s like almost everything else in life… there’s a learning curve. I like the look of the glass inside.
Hey, you got some experience. As they say: experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you wanted! You could also tell people that matte part is “satin finish”. :-) That’s pretty interesting though: were I to do that, I too would want to shape and polish the resin, so it’s good to know it ought to be very well cured for that to work.
It still looks really cool. Do you know, does heat, exposing it to ultraviolet or sunshine etc. cause it to set up harder? I know that putting certain old yellowed plastics in sunshine makes them whiten right up again. Maybe it will still cooperate with you and turn out the way you wish. Here is hoping, but in the meantime I think it’s still beautiful.
Pour a thin layer and let it cure -- that will keep objects from falling to the bottom.
Resin cures with heat. So if you put it on a radiator (not in an oven unless your oven reliably goes to “warm” -- 100F) it’ll cure without stickies.
Thanks for the tips. I didn’t mix thoroughly, so the sticky spots are probably resin without hardener.
Since it takes time to cure, you don’t have to hurry when you mix it. So make sure the ingredients are really well mixed.
I usually mix it and let it sit in the cup for a bit so the biggest bubbles rise and pop. Then pour.
Did I mention that nobody ever accused me of being patient either?
I’ll learn from this, next batch will be better.
Since you suspect not enough hardener, maybe dust it with/dip it in the hardener would help?
You will have to polish the surface after that no matter what.
Hmm, that could work, though I’m not sure how well it will work with the hardener being applied superficially.
An unfamiliar word to me but the concept is rather too familiar.
You should have seen my early attempts.
Well, I made another batch last night and the remains that I pulled out of the mixing pot this morning look promising. Nothing sticky, nothing soft.
Though I pretty much ran out of pot time working with it.
Oh, and the colour smells worse than fish sauce. Is that normal?