Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Experiment - Acrylic Turned Jars



acrylic turning experiment
Originally uploaded by Snowfern

oh boy.

so in my search for the elusive perfect breads texture, i came across Tomohachi's site, http://www.geocities.jp/la_cocina_alegre/ and how wonderful her works are! i've emailed her regarding how she achieved the wonderful textures, and she's replied, but since the results are not consistent, i'm not sure if i want to chance it, what with my lack of a microwave oven, and resin clay being so expensive ; ; i've already wasted so much clay, and boy i hate wastage -_-" even if it's mini wastage...

i've forgotten to ask her for permission to post her formula, so i'll update if and when i get it > <

ok! back to the experiment! i found a nifty little Japanese (their miniatures are AWESOME!) site:

http://home.s02.itscom.net/yoyo/yoyomenu.html

i think it's a 'her', not sure though. she seems like a pretty fun-loving lady, and her tutorials are AWESOME! especially the banana, and mandarin oranges....mostly air dry clay though...:( anyway i came across some of her acrylic tube turnings, and coupled with a jar i saw on tomohachi's site, i decided to try it as i had all the tools and materials on hand! WOOT! yeaaaahhh~~


here are the tools i used. an acrylic cutter, a rotor (i got a relatively cheap one from mix 'n' match in Chinatown), some drill/sanding bits from Daiso, a mitre and saw.......it's alot of tools and i think i inhaled alot of acrylic dust > <>

i quite like how it turned out! forgot to add that i have several grades of sandpaper on hand, from 100-2000 grit. i need to get myself some acrylic polish, but i'm quite liking this 'frosted glass' effect!

the smallest one on the right will probably become a cold cream jar, have to think of how to make a nice stopper for it....

can anyone recommend a good and affordable acrylic polish?

---------

am thinning out the jars now with the new sanding bits bf got for me, am now really really tired and shoulders are sore.....-_-"

i'm done for today.

13 comments:

  1. oh gosh Cindy, i went to that second Japanese site, and its got me REALLY tempted to switch to using resin clay instead! but i guess i wont. i used to think it wasn't waterproof like other airdry clays, silly me. but her tutorials are REALLY awesome, every one is an amazement!!

    thanks for sharing Cindy, and you have to update us on how the bottles finish up, they look wonderful already! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. WHAT??? Cindy, you just made those!?? Woman, you are a freaking wunderkind! Ok, I'm off to check out that Japanese site :-D!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. yea Jocelyn, i thought i hit jackpot when i found it! thank goodness for poor recognition of basic japanese characters LMAO

    i have finished up a few bottles and some glasses, but my camera battery died on me, it's charging now....

    You're welcome, Mo!

    Kiva, we all know i'm nowhere even CLOSE to the standard of those Japanese miniaturists > <

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, don't shortsell yourself, Cindy! You are amazing! I haven't gone to the link to see how she made these "glass" jars so I am very curious. And did you just say you bought drills from DaisO???

    One of these days, you must really show me how to use all the tools. I have all of them but haven't figured out how to use them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sans, the drill BITS are from Daiso, the drill/rotor itself is from mix 'n match in chinatown!

    i've replied on your blog liow.....:P

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a terrific job you've done on these bottles, and you blog is humorous and i've enjoyed my time here. I have not checked out the cool Japanese website b/c i've run out of patience, lol! I'd like to subscribe to this, but i don't know how. In fact, i'll be amazed if i can find this again to read your comments back, i'm such a dork! lol

    We are new contacts on flickr :)

    -Katety

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi there Snowfern,
    glad to see that you hands are recovering well and working/playing again.

    now I've used to work with acrylic materials and usually have to fine sand + buff them to get them shiney/clear. Unless you know of some liquid polish which I haven't heard about?

    - since you have the rotary tools, I'd suggest getting the buffing "wheels" bits. They're just like small pieces of cloth stacked together like a disk. Used together with a buffing compound for better effect.
    (if you need the wheel just let me know.)
    *** I've never try on resin clay, no idea if it works on the clay stuff.

    speaking of resin, Snowfern may I know where you'd get epoxy resin or polyester resin? I rem you mentioned something at another forum regarding silicone molding/resin casting.

    Tom.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Tom!

    oh! i've seen some of those in Daiso, so that's what they're for, DOH! LOL i'll make a trip down soon to get them! i don't know what polish cream to get though, i'm thinking just a 'plastic polish' should work, but it's not at the top of my priority list now...

    Thank you for your invaluable advice! i used just normal gloss varnish on the acrylic to make it look 'glassy' but i prefer to buff/polish the acrylic cos it's messy to work with the varnish, getting it on the item without smudging is a PITA.

    Tom, if you're in Singapore, my epoxy resin is from Madam Ang's:

    Sunshine Plaza, 91 Bencoolen Street, #01-75

    Opening Hrs:
    Tues-Thurs/Sat-Sun
    12pm-5pm

    polyester/epoxy is also available from art friend's, but at rather inflated prices. if you need it in larger volumes, you can try wee tee tong

    http://www.weeteetong.com/

    i think imma create a post on this too....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cindy, I was just asking Chris (Treewizard) where to get resin yesterday!! (I must really introduce u 2 soon.) Anyway, he told me that the resin comes in 2 parts and can be bought at Straits Commercial Arts at 420 North Bridge Road, #01-27 North Bridge Centre, Singapore 188727. Just opposite Bras Basah Complex.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sans, THANKS SO MUCH! i hope it's more affordable there, weeteetong is quite a distance to travel, and i have to buy a minimum of 4 (or was it 6?) kgs :O

    ok. i'll make a post about epoxy resins and what i know soon.... thank you and thank Chris for me too! yes, 'soon' is never near enough LOL

    i -might- *fingers crossed* have exciting news soon...SOON AHH this word is a killer.

    ReplyDelete
  12. hey again,
    - yesh me in SG...and SGcafe also. (see u in there nxttime)
    - Daiso (PS, Vivo) no buffing wheels, me been there often lately. But they do sell a block of gray-ish buffing compound. (yet to try, usually compounds are white chalk-like blocks)
    - I got spare buffing wheels if you want to try out. I dun mind.

    - tks for the Epoxy resin outlet, will chk it out soon.
    - ditto about ArtFrnd's Polyester Resin, that's why tryin hard to look for alternatives.
    - know abt WeeTT from your previous post. Was considering that, but transport cost gonna make it not worthwhile again.
    - Was at StraitsC-Arts a mth ago, if I am not mistaken, theirs is those casting resin similar to ArtFrnds, and also (very) not cheap. Unless they have gotten new stuff since then.

    - will check back again, take care & c'ya.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Tom!

    ; ; buffing compounds are in chalk-like blocks??? so i have to add some sort of lubricant? water?

    thanks for the offer, i am thinking of saving up for a proper set of tools, currently the drill i'm using is a bead drill running on 2 AA batteries > < if i'm gonna do it, might as well do it well, yea???

    Weeteetong is a little inaccessible, but there's a TIBS bus that runs that route, i forgot the number though..might have to check with gothere.sg.

    if you're only experimenting and don't mind forking out $18+, you can try the envirotex lite, smallest box at art friend's. i have a membership card there, so it will be cheaper than buying the 'no brand' epoxy from Madam Ang's.

    advantages of epoxy->polyester can be found here....

    http://pannikins.homestead.com/resins1.html

    seeya around!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time out to comment! :D