This week I decided to play with my August Sophie and Toffee Elves Box. August’s theme was Aurora Snow Valley. The main idea was creating resin pieces like the really cool ocean floor or mountainous designs.
This box had a lot of neat molds that can be used for a variety of projects. It was nice getting some simple shapes too since they’ll be the most flexible.
I think I was most excited to try out the aurora USB!
Here’s a little look at what came in the box:
Aurora USB Drive
The very first project I tackled was the aurora USB. There are 4 mold components for this project, and I thought the way they coordinated together was very well done, and everything fit fairly well from start to finish.
Since I was experimenting with the overall project, I followed along with the project Sophie and Toffee posted on their Instagram. The mountain base had to be poured first. I used UV resin for this since it was a small piece.
The overall look was going to have a night sky look since I was attempting to create an aurora borealis, so I made the mountains black using pigment in the box.
The Mountains
Before I was ready to cure, it was time to add the small mold that would create the indent to hold the USB hardware. I did have to hold it down while I was doing the initial cure, but it created the perfect slot!
After demolding, it was time to add the snowy effect. The box also had white, opaque UV resin, which I used to fill in the dips of the mountains to look like snow.
Once that was cured, it was time to add the little silicone piece under the base. This will make sure the hardware slot doesn’t fill back up for the next part.
The Aurora Borealis
I used 2 color for my USB drive. I thought the green glow in the dark powder would give a pretty, bright color, and then I used purple at the top. My goal was to have bright colors, but you’ll see later on I made them too opaque.
When it came to pouring, I did my first attempt at a 2-color simultaneous pour. It shows I need more practice. While I imagine every pour will be unique, with more practice, I could get a better feel for which one to pour faster to change the effect. The green went way further toward the top than I wanted it.
My guess is that instead of doing them at the exact same time, I should have started with the purple (the color I wanted to fill the most space), and then bring in the green before the purple reached the mountain base.
The Problem
It’s lucky I didn’t mix enough resin to fill the entire mold. As I mentioned, the pigments were way too opaque. It was hard to see the mountains. So, I cured it where it was. I wanted to use the holo glitter to mimic stars, so I added that before filling everything else with clear resin.
At first, I was sad about my oversight, but I’m really glad I had room to add the clear resin. I think it turned out really neat, and it glows!
The Finished USB
And in case you’re curious, the USB DOES work. It comes in at 7.48 GB.
Here’s what it looks like, in both day and “night” view.
Resin Cubes
Next up are the resin cubes. I made the 2 very similarly; their biggest difference is the size. It was fun experimenting with both pieces, but it definitely made me wish I had a pressure pot to help reduce the bubbles that appeared.
Big Cube
This cube is used as a “paper” weight to hold up our DVDs. I sculpted a turtle out of polymer clay to add into it instead of the dolphin.
Since this was so large, I used epoxy resin for the mountain base and “top” area. Sophie and Toffee did include epoxy resin in this box, but since I still had a large bottle of resin open, I wanted to use that up first.
To place the turtle, I did a partial resin pour. I poured enough so the top of the resin was where I wanted the bottom of my turtle. Once it cured enough to be gummy, I added my turtle. I placed a scrap piece in the mold underneath my turtle to hold it up while it continued curing enough to hold.
In hindsight, I should have waited a teensy bit longer to add the turtle, as my turtle did sink into the resin a bit. If I waited too long, however, there could have been a seam that showed between the layers of resin, so at least there was that!
I didn’t show demolding the cubes because it was kind of a pain (epseically the bigger one), but Sophie and Toffee recommended doing it in soapy water.
Small Cube
For the small cube, I used UV resin for the mountain base, and then used leftover epoxy resin from my big cube to fill it up. Before pouring it, I added some of the blue glow-in-the-dark powder.
Once both of these were demolded, I had to dome them with UV resin since the epoxy resin rode up along the edges like some kinds do.
With this little cube, however, I’m not sure what to do with it! I was thinking about using one of the cool bails that was also included in the box, but I almost don’t want to waste it on such a bubbly cast.
What do you think? What should I do with the small cube?