MY MELT POT SAMPLES

I've just been on Facebook to see what Suze Weinberg has been up to at the other workshops she was doing before the NEC show, and found out that she was only in Burnley. I wish I had looked earlier because she was working with beeswax, which is what I wanted to learn how to use in the melt pot. She did tell us however, that really you should use a removable project pan for this technique. Anyone know where I can buy one??

I hope the photo I've taken comes out clearly, - not uploaded it yet - 'cos all my piccies have been rubbish lately. Anyway, here goes:

The first thing we tackled was the small frame. We cut a picture to fit and simply poured clear UTEE into the inside of the frame. Once dry, this can be removed to use again and the embellishment can be used on any project, including a jewellery piece.

The large oval face was fun to make. For this you need a greased cookie cutter which you simply place over an image and again pour clear UTEE into the cutter. Once dry, remove the cutter and trim around the picture. I love this sample.

The shiny mis-shaped piece on the right is actually made from a CD! Heat a CD with a heat gun, stamp an image onto part of it using Archival ink or similar, then cut out a shape. Add a few drop of To Dye For to melted clear UTEE and using metal tweezers, carefully submerge the piece in the liquid. Lift horizontally and allow the excess to drip off before placing on a craft sheet to cool and set. This is gorgeous.

We then added some black UTEE to our pot. The picture of the men is trapped between 2 pieces of memory glass. We then put each side into the front edge of the liquid, dragged it forward, lifted it for a second or 2 before continuing all round. This made a fake frame. It actually looks really good too.

The larger of the frames was fun but had I taken more notice before I began (sometimes hard to watch everything at once in a workshop) I would have known to use a rubber stamp with a lot of deep detail to it. Choose one with detail, place a frame over the part you wish to capture and pour the UTEE into the frame. Allow to cool and set for few seconds before removing from the stamp. You could ink the stamp first to give a different look. We then brushed Perfect Pearls over the image and added stickles and beadazzles.

The fun bit came when we each chose from Suze's bag of trinkets, an image with which to make a mould. I first picked out a cat's head - wonder why I was drawn to that? - but then I saw a white face and immediately thought of masks with feathers and semi-precious stones etc, so I picked that. We then blended together the 2 parts of the mould and pour substances and once ready squeezed it round our trinket. This substance is similar to the stuff dentists use to make impressions. It's ready to remove if a nail print does not make an indent. Then we simply poured UTEE into the mould and waited for it to set before removing the mould which can be used over and over again. I absolutely love the face that came out and will be chuffed to use this mould again.

We then added some colours to our pot and once melted simply poured the lot onto our craft sheet and quickly placed cookie cutters into it. It dried really fast and some lovely pieces appeared. Suze gave us all a brooch fastening so that we could super glue it to the back of our favourite piece and hence we made jewellery too.

All in all a really good time was had by all, plus we got an extra hour's class. Can't wait for QVC craft day next Tuesday, when Suze, along with many others, will be demonstrating her techniques again.