Shop Update: Pin Cushions!

Shop Update: Pin Cusions! {an Art School Dropout's life}

This has been an idea I have had in my head for almost a year! It just took me awhile to perfect it.

Let me introduce to you the exclusive Art School Dropout Pin Cushion! 

The bottom part is made just like a lot of my jewelry over the years. It is a lightweight hand cast plastic that was made using molds I created. Each one is one of a kind since I mix the pigments myself and the fillers. The inside of the pin cushion is a felted wool and is very dense. It will grab on to your pins and keep them super snug until you need them.

Shop Update: Pin Cusions! {an Art School Dropout's life}

For this specific update I only added a small handful of variations. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with shipping. I’m holding on to the second batch of these for a shop update in April!

Shop Update: Pin Cusions! {an Art School Dropout's life}

 

Shop Update: Pin Cusions! {an Art School Dropout's life}

You can find all of these pin cushions plus other awesome sewing notions in the shop.

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Adventures in Casting: Rings

rings003rings002rings001 rings004 rings005Lately I’ve been testing my limits when it comes to casting. I’ve been doing it for so long, yet I keep using the same supplies and same process each time. Using the glitter as a filler lately has opened my eyes again and all I want to do is Cast things for me now. Stuff to test what I can do exactly. I know how to make a two part, 3D mold (as you can see here) but it’s not how I mainly cast things. I usually just build a foam core box and lay things flat on the bottom and fill it with silicone. Simple. Well, that doesn’t work for everything, like say, rings. I had to do a lot of testing with the silicone and the way I lay the pieces in the boxes. After a few mishaps with the silicone reacting badly with glue, double sided sticky tape not being sticky, etc, I ended up with the pieces you see above!!

The originals were hematite rings. The kind you get at the beach for $1! I’ve always loved them, but they never lasted long on my finger. I would end up breaking them on some hard surface within a few days. Hematite isn’t the strongest mineral.

The mold making was the hardest part really. The casting was super simple. I used a slow curing plastic because of the blended pieces I was trying out, so there’s loads of bubbles in this batch. I really don’t care though, since these are for fun. Tests. I’ll be keeping most of them, and a few will be sent out to my product testers (I have a small group of girls who test out my pieces and send me feedback). I’ve also sent a few to loyal customers already too.

So now a question… Should I sell these? Or are they only worthy of a gift in large orders? I’m not quite sure if there’s a market for plastic rings in weird colors. I guess this is something I should look into!!