Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more

Having completed Vex's gorget, I'm taking a break from her to embark on a totally different project: learning how to cast resin to make a light-up staff for Caduceus.

Here we have step one: making wax models of the crystal clusters. This was pretty easy, actually! I used the candle to get my knife hot, which let me cut the wax into smooth facets with decently crisp edges. Attaching each individual crystal together at the base was a little trickier, and I had to go back once it was cold and hard later to smooth over the bits I accidentally mooshed a little bit when it still warm and pliable. 
 

Step two will be making silicone molds from these. This will involve cutting these chunks back apart to cast each individual crystal separately, then gluing them together. This is because I'm using epoxy resin, which doesn't do super great in larger chunks, plus casting smaller chunks and then sticking them together gives me greater control-- if one spar comes out weird, I haven't ruined the whole pour and can pick and choose the best looking pieces. The only reason I stuck them together in the first place was to make sure they looked good and fit on the staff right.



This is the first batch of color tests. As this is the first time I've worked with resin like this, I've only done a very small batch to practice technique before I test all my colors. (Pictured: top row of powder eyeshadows available from Shiro Cosmetics, bottom row four of a set of thirty pigments from amazon)