This break will be short: 3 measly weeks, but I'll be making the best of it.
More about those later. These few days I'll post a number of back logged posts.
First up:
Making of the the junior's Xmas gift.
A reader of my blog need not be reminder that studying can be dreary business. Got to do something to keep the creative part of my mind alive. This little(understatement alert) project came to mind after helping Jimmy with his present to his dear r*****.
Only after I started that it hit me: it ain't so simple to do 12 presents instead of just 1 which I always do in the past. Crap, I'm already lacking time in my studies. Heck. Wateva I started I will finish. Probably be more fun than mugging anyway.
Alrite, firstly gather and chose the most photogenic and visible(when reduced to keytag size) mugshots of each of the juniors, followed by slight tuning/cropping/etc of each pic. Final results pasted to excel so that the size format can be standardised for print erm....in office.....hehehe.....there got laser printer mah!
Next will be finding a template of a simple shuriken from the net. This one will do. Bless Google images.
Pasted and duplicated images on excel and print. Just to realise I only need 1 template....oh well... Also pictured is or rather was my Leather Micra that was lost on the highway. It was bought to replace my other Leatherman Micra which was ALSO lost on the highway.... Seee beh sad siah....
On to the hardware. Two different types of acrylic boards sourced from Art Fren. One that is totally clear for the front cover and another type with a corrugated surface on the rear surface for the rear cover. All measured, drawned out and cut to sized with an acrylic cutter.
Trace out the shuriken shape onto the acrylic using the template. Followed by grinding out the shape using my Dremel set with a few type of bits. Delicate work.
Finished with the grinding!
2 extra special formula for getting the "GLoW" into the tags! Glow Inc powder and Norland 61 optical adhesive(exotic stuff)!
Carefully pouring and smoothing out the powder in the shuriken shaped recess.....
And a few drops of Norland....this portion of the work is the most irritating. The adhesive dun like to mix with the powder as can be seen in the pic....
Self-made curing station. Norland 61 requires deep UV (wavelength 320nm-380nm) light to cure. Fortunately I still got a couple of UV lights (380 nm and 390 nm) from my torchlight collecting days. Must be exposed overnight, which is kinda disturbing. It's kinda hard to sleep when your bedroom glows at night!
a display of the half complete tags!
After all the tags are glow-powdered!
A taste of the effect!
Refining the edges. Tedious but therapeutic. All edges and corners, one by one, all 24 of 'em.
Drilling & Screwing around.....Smallest crews I can find. Even from an industrial shop that specialised in supplies of only screws and nuts! Originally wanted to use glue but that would mess with the clarity of the acrylic.
Pics, names and personalised quotes printed. Had the pics printed on both rice paper(better glow light transmission) and shiny pearl paper(better aesthetic of pic). Chose the latter. Cut and refined corners. Hope the juniors can learn from the quotes.
A touch of the evergreen Uhu for the pics. Not too much or it'll ruin the clarity of the acrylic.
Since the glow already gave the 'green', the tag ropes should be in red to further stereotype a Christmas gift....bleah.....And finally after 3 months of planning and refinning, they are complete. Took so long cos I can only do abit at a time and only on certain weekends when I have self-declared breaks.
Extra insert of 3 blue mini tritium tubes for Xinyu's tag since it was her bdae month.
All boxed up and ready to be delivered! Got the box and pre-cut pick n pluck foam from work.So far the most ambitious self made present project undertaken. But it wun be the last.... another one is already in the works..... and it's even more challenging design wise. Fortunately it ain't so numerous and now's my term break! :)
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