Amazing Casting Products: Sweet Treats lead to #Cre8time Greencrafting and a Mini Koi Pond... by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products inspired project! Though in all honestly it wasn't just resin that got me thinking; crème brûlée, the lack of sleep and The Simpsons ™ also helped. Without sounding completely daft, let me try to explain...

A friend of mine served some crème brûlée one day while I was visiting, and she noted that the glass cups that the crème brûlée served in was sold pre-packaged. She wondered if I could find a use for them. Of course I took several to see what projects I could come up with. Next came not sleeping so well, but often in the middle of the night I get great art ideas.

One of those ideas was turning the crème brûlée cups into miniature ponds. However as lack of sleep is known to play funny tricks on the mind, instead of normal fish I thought of Koi fish looking like "Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish™" from The Simpsons ™ swimming merrily in the ponds. With all this inspiration I just had to make them!

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Alumilite's 4 Piece Carver Set
Small glass or plastic cups, I used crème brûlée cups
Stir Sticks
Craft Knife
Premo Polymer Clay: Translucent, Orange, Green, White and Black
Multi Surface Chalk Paint Grey
Thin strips of green paper or plastic
Cosmetic Sponge
Clay Craft Blade
Flocking Fiber Green

I started off making sure the crème brûlée cups were thoroughly cleaned and dried, making sure to not leave any fibers in the glass thanks to static electricity.

Next I applied the Grey Multi Suface Chalk Paint with a cosmetic sponge inside and out of the glass cups. They needed two coasts of paint to get a color shade similar to cement. I let the paint dry overnight.

To make the pebbles for the bottom of the pond I used Premo White clay that had dried out and crumbled. Using a Clay Craft Blade I cut up the clay into tiny little bits and then baked the clay as per the manufacturers instructions.

I mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin and poured a thin layer of resin into the cups and sprinkled the now cured clay pebbles on top. I made sure to completely cover the bottom of the cup with the pebbles.

Before the bottom layer of resin started to set I mixed up another small batch of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and poured it on top of the clay pebbles to lock them in place.

I cut up little pieces of scrap plastic and stuck them in the wet resin to give the appearance of reeds in the pond. I was careful to make sure the plastic reeds were nestled in-between the clay pebbles. I let this cure completely sealing the pebbles and reeds in place.

I created polymer clay Three-Eyed Koi fish, lily pads and flower buds using Premo Polymer Clay and Alumilite's 4 Piece Carver Set. I poured a layer of resin into the cups and carefully placed the fish in the resin. I kept them in place by looping thread around their bodies and attaching the thread to pencils, suspending them in the resin. I let this layer of resin cure.

The finishing touch was to pour one more layer of resin, making the fish look like they were in water and floating the clay lily pads, flowers and flocking fiber on the surface of the resin.