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Kind of ended up sketching an idea for a faction symbol for a setting that I'd been working on, then it gave me another idea with parts that looked a lot like an owl, which led to me working out the general owl look, then a youtube video on someone making a pendant with wood carving as I was finishing it had me try and fail at that (I don't have a dremel at the moment), so I decided to try sculpting it...which led to this. The second includes the sketch of the owl symbol that I'd started with... It's on a larger wooden "nickle" from the craft store (Don't try carving with normal wood carving tools, the end result isn't pretty there) with some greenstuff, had the loop from something else that was just in my bits collection, and a leather cord. Painted it up with metallics.

A few people mentioned that they would be interested in seeing what I learned while playing with clear epoxy resin to make jewelry. Here's what I've done so far... To start, I wanted to make some ocean/beach themed jewelry for my daughter's birthday since she's obsessed with swimming and all things aquatic. I'd seen some examples of jewelry made with embedded organic materials ranging from dried flowers to shells, so I decided to give it a try. I got some supplies at my local Ben Franklin craft store: ICE Resin, open bezels and an assortment of little packs of dried sea creatures. If you google "embed organics in ice resin" you will get a lot of video tutorials if you're interested in trying it yourself, it was pretty easy. Pictures... (Hopefully the link works, I'm new to this photo sharing stuff.) https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHOE-7v2CI0jLNiMq5AMDMSDTBgjg As you can see, the resin is completely clear and has a nice smooth, hard finish. I had to do two pours to keep stuff from floating to the top, and I think that's actually the best way to get an ideal end result. Since I had some leftover resin, I did a couple of experiments with it. I'd bought a bottle of greenish ink that's supposed to be compatible with the resin, so I tried mixing a few drops in. I then decided that I should try filling one of the 1" plastic bases that I got with Bones 2, so I quickly primed the inside and painted on some Spectral Glow before filling it with the tinted resin. While there was a 24-48 hour cure time, this definitely worked better than the Secret Weapon water effects I'd tried before. The resin is completely smooth and after fully curing seems very durable. The down side is that the expected shelf life is only about a year, so I'm going to have to make a lot of resin stuff for a while. In terms of basing, I'm going to try trimming a standard Bones broccoli base to sit on top of the resin and paint it to look like an ice floe. (The photo doesn't show it, but it's 100% flat and smooth and filled to the top of the base.) I haven't tested drilling a pin hole into the resin yet, that's on my "to do" list. I will probably stop using the Secret Weapon water effects for anything except surface puddle type situations, because it shrinks so very much. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!