A house project for a change

Between the piñatas, living pictures, there is always something in the making in my house. Many of the non-garden ones tend to involve my OH and it is always fun sitting down together talking through ideas.

Some of the current projects revolve around the sea urchins we found recently.  Short of doing some sort of picture, we are still considering what to do with them. One of the things I have always enjoyed is making molds and casts. The shells are very delicate and have an amazing amount of detail and so I have been experimenting with different molds and materials.

I had never tried two part molds before, and still have a few things to tweak. They are getting better though and having tried casting in resin, instead of plaster, helps to stop air bubbles ruining the result.  This is the latest attempt, you can just make out the amount of detail in the mold. 

There are different stains available for resin, so I can see a whole line of different colours appearing a soon.  The other good thing about being able to cast my own shells is that I can make a series for the garden.  I think they will look good scattered in among the points.

A smashing interlude

The cold has returned with more snow and it doesn't show any signs of letting up this week. As a distraction from the cold weather I was looking through old photos and found some of the pinatas my OH and I have made.

We started a few years back making this octopus for my nephew.  Strangely they spent longer trying to knock the legs off than they did trying to crack it open. When they finally do smash open it is quite scary as the kids pile on top of each in a mad scrabble to get as many sweets as possible. We keep threatening to fill it with homework one year, we thought it would be funny to see their faces when little pieces of paper fell out with maths problems. We would however have to have a second one ready as I wouldn't fancy having to fight off the pack of disappointed kids especially as at least one would be holding a baseball bat!

Obviously having made one we now have to make them for all my nieces and nephews. This year we made a penguin, he sat in this chair for about a week and I got used to looking over and seeing him sitting there.

Looking back, with the penguin, and the party being at a ski slope, maybe the omens were already pointing to a bad winter!

But my person favourite has to be this little fella. Again we hadn't really thought the idea through before we started, and it was only as we rolled up all the cones that would form the spines that we worked out we would have to attach them all as well.

I have been trying to persuade my OH that it would be fun to make mini ones of these using different coloured paper but for some reason she never seems that keen.

Right now I could do with a few of these around the house to hit each time I get frustrated about the weather.