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PLAY DAY

(Obligatory Ali picture)

Hello Friends... I have been an Olympic geek for a week now. Love them. Frankly I enjoy watching raw talent. Kind of like American Idol, raw talent. Any hoodle, I know you would like to know what's new at Zinnia.

This weekend Tamara and I actually had a 'play day'. A 'play day' is a day we actually craft and play with product. Sad to think that we haven't been able to have a 'play day' for a while. We realized that the last time we were able to play was for a day or two in February last year as we prepared for the "Heart Break Show". Pathetic actually, but with the shows, the move and life it isn't as easy as we'd like.

This week we got in our order Lisa Pavelka product. Bezel charms, earrings and rings along with a cool product, 'Magic Glos'. Many of you are super artists and have already found and used this product. Well I haven't and I was able to enjoy it like a favorite toy at Christmas day. Okay check this out... we played with this product making pendants, rings and cabochons. Picture below. I have always been fascinated with resin and the final result. However, different from working with resin which is not forgiving and has a lot of rules; this stuff is easier than painting my nails. We used a UV light to dry the gloss and set each layer. There is no heat as the light is the same that is used at the nail salon to speed up the drying of the nail polish. It dries in direct sunlight too but we didn't get a chance to try it because it was rainy and gloomy all day Saturday. These are some of the pictures of our results after playing and experimenting.

Both of these samples are 'Magic Glos' poured onto a flat brass. You can

create a flat or domed cabochon by layering and letting each layer dry completely
before adding the next. Each layer dries in about 15 minutes using the UV light.

On the left one Tamara started by adhering a piece of decorative tissue onto the
brass plate with a few dots of Ultimate Glue. She poured gloss on the tissue and
allowed it to dry. The colors of the tissue seemed to pop one the gloss was dry.
After that she added a tiny image of a glamorous lady. The colors all work and
pop out. On the left; I photographed a brass plate like the one used on both
pieces. The layered look is far more visible in person.

More flat surfaces, Tamara used the layer effects on the round bezel
charms are and layered with some of the details exposed out from the gloss.

Unfortunately I didn't very good shots from the side.
I will try to rephotograph and share at a later date.

More bezel charms. The 'Magic Glos' dries clear with no need for
additional sealing and cures in minutes. (We used the UV light)

On the one on the left I wanted to try embellishing the angels' wings with
Gel pens... it didn't work. It smudged and made a mess. I added extra fine
gold glitter and a final layer attempting a dome. That worked. There are 4 layers
in that piece. The one on the right was the 1st one I made and I messed up on
cutting the image to an exact size. Errrr, there is a hole punch that matches
it which would have been easier and a no brainer. There are seed beads layered
on the green scarf, kind of hard to see them, I should have used a darker bead.
I have to remind myself that the purpose was to experiment and more importantly, PLAY.

Here I poured gloss onto tiny shrink plastic hummingbird and dove.
I attempted to layer the applications but I got greedy and goofed a little.

This stuff is incredibly forgiving and although some of the product
spilled in the tray of the UV light it didn't damage it.

AND FINALLY...

An attempt to make a ring. On the left Tamara made her ring by decorating
the sides of the cube of the ring after filling the cube with seed bead in an
assortment of colors. All four sides are embellished by allowing each side
to dry as she went along. On the left, I layered beads, then hearts in a
few sizes and attempted the dome effect.

I should have used a light back ground then layered the heart so they would be
more visible. Also trying to come up with a way of making the ring lay still and
flat was difficult. Eventually we used wood clothes pins.

We are very excited about the product and hope that you enjoy playing too. We only received a limited number of bottles so don't miss out.

Ciao for now!
Suki