Monday, May 17, 2010

When disaster strikes...

If I was a painter I'd be able to paint over a section of the work that went awry- it's not so easy with a piece like this one. 


On Saturday I had to stop because I ran out of resin and silk and on Sunday I began to notice what polymer clayers would call "plaquing " in the resin- I realized that the resin had run below the fabric and pooled in a dark cavity of the clay underneath so it was only partially cured in the lower layers. After considering the issue last night I decided to warm the piece in the oven and cut away a section of clay to expose the uncured resin to the sunlight so it would cure. It was a good plan until the resin conducted heat onto the thin fabric/canvas layer and scorched the fabric to a deep toasty brown. One quarter of the piece is ruined. 


Lesson Learned- Resin is fine in the oven but not if it can conduct heat to sensitive associated components. 


I have a plan- and if it works out I think the piece will be better than before...wish me luck!

6 comments:

  1. Oh wow G, sorry to hear about the scorching! Good to know about the heat conduction on sensitive components!
    I noticed this weekend, that curing outside in the sun is fine, as long as the sun doesn't suddenly hide behind a cloud. The piece will then stay tacky unless another layer of resin is applied.
    Wishing you good luck!!
    T

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh no! Wishing you luck with your new plan! Sometimes there are happy accidents--I hope this turns out to be one!

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow , the frustration you must have been feeling! wishing you luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm not sure I followed exactly what happened other than you're not pleased and learned a process lesson. Maybe the scorched part could become an oil spill and then the piece will have an environmental message. I say that tongue in cheek, but... Anyway, good luck with your plan.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hope you manage to retrieve the piece, Gera. I didn't know you could put resin in the oven at the temperatures for curing polymer clay? You are obviously using UV curing resin, do you know if you can do this with the two part mixing resins like Envirotex Lite? Wishing you the best of luck and look forward to seeing what you do next.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm so sorry you had a problem with your new piece. On the other hand, as Lorrie said,with the resin being a rather dark color, you could have kept it and called the finished piece "Oil Slick." :-) Seriously, I'm curious to see your solution to the problem and wish you the best of luck.

    ReplyDelete

I always love to get comments!