Amazing Casting Products: #Cre8time Indoor Gardening... Amazing Mini Fish Pond by Sandra Strait

Monday, December 28

#Cre8time Indoor Gardening... Amazing Mini Fish Pond by Sandra Strait

Hello! Sandra here to tell you how I turned a ramekin into a fish pond!

About a year ago, I saw some wonderful 3D resin paintings and wanted to try my hand at it. I was a little afraid though. It looked difficult and I wasn't sure how to start. But I finally found a tutorial that roughly explained the process and I decided to give it a go. Just for grins, I decided to add a frog and some water lilies.

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Amazing Casting Resin
Amazing Mold Rubber
Two 5 oz. Ramekins
Sculpey Oven Bake
Scissors
Paint Brush
Palette Knife
Golden Acrylics– Green Gold, Chromium Oxide Green, Quinacridone Magenta, Hansa Yellow Medium, Iridescent Gold, Iridescent Bright Gold, Payne's Grey

The Frog and the Water Lilies

I used Sculpey Oven Bake Clay to make a model of my frog, the water lilies and lily pads. For the frog I used an almond as a base for the body. I didn't intend to keep the originals so I didn't bake the clay.

For the lilies, I rolled some Sculpey flat, rolled it into a tube and cut the stems like I was making a crown. I did three of these and nested them. Then I cut out the shape of the lily pads and stuck the lily onto the pads. I made two sizes of lily.

To create the mold, I cut an empty Swiss Miss Cocoa tin in half, and taped my frog, two lilies and lily pad to the bottom with two-sided tape. Then I mixed Parts "A" & "B" of the Amazing Mold Rubber, and poured it in. I used cut up pieces of old molds, that I don't use any more, to reduce the amount of new liquid mold rubber needed, and ended up using about half a tub of the product.

After about twelve hours, it was ready for me to pour the resin.

I mixed Parts "A" & "B" of Amazing Casting Resin. This cures in about 5 minutes, turning white. I ended up doing two ramekin fish ponds, one with a frog and lilies, and one with just lilies, so after pulling out the first casting, I made two more castings of the lilies, painting the centers yellow. Some of the lilies I left white, and others I painted with the magenta.

Painting the Koi

Now for the actual 3D painting part!

The essence of this technique is to pour a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin, paint a faint layer of the fish, pour more resin, paint another layer of fish, and so on. I used 1 inch ramekins to do some practice, and found that the first layer before you start painting should be about 1/4 inch, and each layer after about 1/8 inch of resin. It takes about seven layers of resin with the top layer being thicker in this case, so that the frog and lilies were partially under the resin.

That actual time spent painting and pouring resin is probably about two hours. However, each layer of resin has to cure, which takes 12 to 24 hours, so it takes at least seven days to make a painting. That gave me time to make my frog and lilies, though.

I didn't try to photograph every layer.

Here I've shown the 3rd, 5th and 7th layers.

The first two layers are very watery and faint, getting darker and more detailed for the tail and fins. I used the same color for both layers.

On the third layer you're getting a solid silhouette, and at different angles you can see the layers underneath. I switched to another color, keeping the paint thin enough that some of the lower color shows through.

On the fourth layer, I added the eyes and started suggesting the scales with the iridescent paints. I switched to another color, keeping the paint thin enough that some of the lower color shows through.

On the fifth layer, after painting a layer of the same color as the fourth layer, I used the Payne's Gray to add a bit of shadowing along the sides and firm up the shape of the fish.

The sixth layer is the final layer of paint. I used the iridescent golds to blend in the shadow and reinforce the feeling of scale.

The seventh layer doesn't get painted – it's to seal and attach the resin frog and lilies.