I am glad to report, that UTEE does indeed work in my plastic molds that I have available for sale.  The pieces you are seeing were made with clear embossing enamel and antique copper Pearl Ex mica powder using my rose cabochon and hard candy mold.  The rose mold was made with my thickest plastic and the candy mold was made with a slightly thinner plastic and both worked out perfect.

UTEE with molds is a perfect way to create quick embellishments for jewelry, scrapbook projects, or any altered art.  One of the best things about it, unlike resin, is if you don’t like your pour, pop it back into the melting pot, remelt it, and pour again.  I created a video that I am embedding below but as you will see in the video, I did not mix the powder as thoroughly as needed and also the camera impeded my pouring a bit.  Off camera, I threw the pieces back in and remade them.  This time, the powders mixed all the way and I filled the cavities fully creating the pieces you see.  They harden quickly and are really light weight.

A tip or two -

• When you start pouring, don’t stop.  The UTEE hardens quite quickly and will cause crease lines in your piece which I show below.  Its better to over pour a bit and trim than to stop and get an ugly crease line.
• Do not use any colorants that will react with heat.  You will see in my video that I tried some white ink which reacted with heat and caused it to cook.  Avoid these as it leave a residue.
• After your finished or if you need to change colors, let your pan cool and any UTEE left in the pan will harden and you can remove it to keep for another time.

Below you can see the video to see the process.  Super easy!

Ranger Melt Art Melting Pot UTEE Pearl Ex Mica Pigments

Below is the video showing the molds and info in living color plus a preview of molds to come…

On the other hand, I will not be purchasing her air-dry clay.  I have never used air-dry clay before but I can’t imagine she wouldn’t be happy with the effect herself and would have been much better off with a clay more similar to polymer clay.  The clay right out of the package is very similar in texture to what I remember cold porcelain and is very lightweight.  It is very moist and colors mix beautifully in it.  The problems begin when it starts to dry.   As your rolling it into a ball and you are not releasing the moisture from the clay, it begins to crack and never really gets into a smooth, consistent ball.  As it dries, it becomes very porous and cracks.  It does not dry hard and is very flexible.  If you have ever used bouncy putty, this clay dries very similar to this.  I am not a fan.

This would not be a clay I would use for any jewelry purpose.  The only use I could see it possibly for is scrapbooking, mostly because of its lightweight aspects.  I could see it being painted and used in mini-books and such.   I have recorded two videos, so you can see the molds up close and person.

Thumbs-up Molds!   Thumbs-down Clay!

When I decided to take a break from making beads in late 2009, I struggled.  It was a really uncreative time for me.  I have always needed that outlet to keep me sane.  In the 90′s after college, it was interior decorating projects.  In the early 2000′s, it was resin and jewelry.  In 2004, I found lampwork beads.  I was searching for a new project.  Something that could keep my mind and hands occupied.  I don’t remember exactly what brought me to Youtube but when I was there, I found one haul video, then another, then another.  OMG, all the cute crafty products.  And somewhere along the way, I ran into Kristina Werner’s (StarofMay on Youtube) Make a Card videos.  Cardmaking had never occurred to me.  I always thought of scrapbooking thinking of the really basic products from the early 90s.  Boy had they come a long way.  After watching lots and lots of videos, I ordered my supplies and the rest was history.

I listed my first video on January 31, 2010 – a haul video.   The rest is history – all there in video.  Up until about 10 months or so ago, there were very few resin artists on Youtube.  When it started getting popular and there was an audience, I added those videos to my paper related videos..

Things I want to improve regarding YT in the future:

• Of course be more regular with video making and blogging – sharing more of my projects with you.
• I would like to be more, for lack of a better term, “lighter” in my videos and more open.  I am definitely too serious of a person.
• Do a regular series videos and tutorials.
• Lastly, increase the quality, i.e. lighting, etc, of my videos.

Anyway, if your interested in entering my giveaway – please check out my video here.

If anyone has any suggestions of what you might like to see, I would welcome the suggestions.

I will be offering custom molds to customers also and will be posting an information page on that within a week or two.

The garage studio is finally near the point where I get the propane filled and fire up the torch.  Thinking about it makes me smile.  There is something about playing with fire and hot glass that is alluring.  I won’t be giving up resin or clay but its where my heart is.  I had not shared this video on here yet but I wanted to share some of the things there are to come for those wondering what they looked like, etc.  I am anxious to fire up the torch.

Take a peak – http://jeweledlizard.etsy.com  or click the link in the sidebar.

When I purchased my vacuum chamber, I moved up to a heavier duty silicone called Smooth-On Moldmax 27T which is a semi-translucent silicone with a much tougher tear strength.  Pouring silicone is not rocket science but there is a learning curve.  I think the most important aspect is preparing your piece and making sure you have a tight bond with the base of the pour surface.  It is also important to realize that what you put into it equates to what you will get out if it.  If you mold a dirty piece, your mold is going to pick up all the imperfections so it is important to clean all pieces.  I recently did a video showing how I prepare my molds.  Following the preparation video, is a video of me pouring the molds.  I am sure there is a superior way to do this but this is what has worked for me and seems to work.