My friend Carmi Cimicata (remember the Resin Crafts Blog…hope you’re following her) asks who will help her with a small Blog Hop featuring a new product from her favorite bead distributors John Bead. OOH OOH…I love beads..pick me…pick me…. YAY… she said I could help… so I open the box when it comes:
Um… rockin’ awesome leather scissors (seriously, you NEED these)… a cool brass cuff bracelet.. and ..um.. skin? It says Tilapia Leather… really? ick! Um.. Ok….
Apparently it comes in 12 colors. Yeah.. I got gray. It looks like a dead fish. It spent 3 weeks in the box. Everyone asked me if it smelled like fish… but I hadn’t even opened it. I took it out of the box and tried stamping on it (no, it doesn’t smell like fish, it smells like leather). It’s got a beautiful, glossy surface, but is not very ink friendly. Everything wiped right off, including Copics. Ok…so I guess I’m not stamping on this.
Then, while watching a resin clay video on ETI’s website, I saw a gal making eyes for fur costumes using resin… oooh.. what if I made my bangle look like a Fish! So I sat down to work. (Way more inspired by the eyes than the leather!). I found this leather astonishingly easy to work with . It cuts like a dream, is very very soft, and glues to anything just beautifully. I was actually pretty impressed!
I started out by sanding my bangle a bit to help the glue, then I glued it on with Beacon Adhesives Quick Grip at an angle to let some of the brass bangle show. Then I embossed the edge by using my VersaMarker to ink along the leather edge and add Aged Silver Embossing Enamel and Silver Crushed Glass Glitter for an Encrusted Jewel Look.
But adding the glitter was a little harder, the bracelet got hot when heated, so I put it on a water bottle to heat the powder and sprinkle the glitter on. (Yes the bottle melted a little, but not enough to matter)
So now for the fish eye. You can watch the video above for a much better tutorial about how to make eyes, but basically I mixed my resin with a bit of our Shaved Ice for an iridescent look, then I molded it in a craft tray (this one is from Wilton for painting with Chocolate and I bought it at Michaels), then waited 24 hours for it to cure.
Then I found a real fish eye picture:
And I painted mine to match:
And I forgot to take a picture of it, but I coated the whole back with black acrylic paint to give it a lot of depth. I think I achieved Fish Eye Ness!
You can see that I added some Encrusted Jewel Technique around the eye. I glued the eye to the bangle with Quick Grip and let it dry. Then I applied a thin bead of tacky glue around the eye to hold the embossing enamel. I sprinkled in the glitter as it melted, again using my water bottle as a holder. See my finished cuff…
I like it so much I’m making earrings to go with it. I’ll share them when they’re done.
So the Tilapia Leather proved pretty fun, and I know that Carmi’s other victims probably did amazing things because they chatted a bit about their plans and I was jealous of their ideas for purple leather and so on. Carmi will post the Blog Hop on her site on Wednesday. As soon as I have a link, I’ll update it here. Here you go – the Metal Complex Second Skin Blog Hop – wait until you see what everyone did with this product. It’s mind-boggling!
oh goodness, now DS is asking for fish leather! LOL! I’ve never even heard of it. Beautiful job, Laura! Love seeing you get crafty!
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Well I have a couple tiny scraps…but tell him I think it might be just as much fun to tan your own fish hide! I mean, seriously, who thinks to themselves, “I wonder if I could make this fish skin into leather!”???
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That. Is. So. Incredibly. AWESOME!!!!!
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Thanks, Barb! You’re always so supportive!
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Ohmycards stars! Laura, that is so cool and well interesting, but I love how real your fish eye turned out. Can’t wait to see the earrings.
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Thanks, Janelle! My kitten has hidden one of the earrings, so I need to find it or start over to have a pair.. hee hee
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Oh woooow! This is so super original and I absolutely love it! I really can’t wait to see the earrings!
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Very cool and creatve idea.
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That is incredibly cool. I love it!
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Very interesting.
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Thanks, Mom…you could lie, you know…
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Great bracelet love the whole idea and am totally impressed with your Star Wars reference. May the force be with you. 🙂
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Thanks, Celina! And also with you!
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Holy crap it really does look like a fish. Thats are there. Love the site here. This is my first time here. Might have to subscribe. Wonder if you could make a bracelet that looked like a different animal eye.. now you got me thinking..
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Fishinpost, Making the eye was really easy. And yes, there are lots of different styles possible. Anything that can be painted. Check out the video link in the blog post. The gal that made that video sells her eyes on Etsy and she has lots of gorgeous ones!
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