ALL CHOKED UP part 3 – seeing red

If you’ve not read Parts 1 and 2 yet, you can find them here and here. But if you’d prefer a TL;DR synopsis, then:

• I saw an image of a choker I wanted online, but after seeing the price and how long it’d take to get here, I decided to make my own.
• After a couple of false starts, I made good progress on making the choker and found out that it fits just how I wanted/expected!
• I also threw in a quick story of the first time I saw a ghost. So far it’s been my only sighting. As far as I’m aware, anyway.

Right, today, I want to show you how I got on with adding the “blood splatter” to the pearls. But ahead of that, here’s a quick ‘Before’ shot, side by side with the Hell’s Belle Designs version of a Dior piece that I’m taking inspiration from:

I had a few ideas about what I could use to achieve the appearance of smeared blood: resin, acrylic paint, and nail polish. It needs to look “bloody”, but at the same time, quite obvious that it’s not real. So I decided to test each… substance? Liquid? Liquid. Feels weird calling them all liquids, although that’s what they are.

Time not being my best friend at the moment, I had to test them all on different days. So, to keep it all as fair as possible, I made sure to do everything in the same room, at around the same time of day, making the most of the natural light and available workspace. And I decided I would score each on Colour, Coverage, Application and Drying Time. There will be a little bit of maths involved for that bit, which means I got to spend a long time messing about with the colours on the little pie charts I made on Canva! Yes, pie charts. There are pie charts in my blog now.

But before we can look at the numbers, it’s going to get a bit sciencey.

I’ve written a few scientific reports before, and considered setting this out as though it was one, complete with an abstract and a discussion; even a reference list. But the more time I spend faffing about typing, the less I will have to get on with completing the choker in time for Hallowe’en. Plus, it’s not really that amusing an idea. And on a personal note, the sight of another journal or article honestly would make me want to weep right now.

To start, I dug out a few more of the pinky pearls I’d used to “fix” my choker last week, and threaded them in groups of 5, onto silver coloured wire, so they would be less tricky to handle. Though I want to stay away from this being like a scientific report, I probably should have made a 4th group kept bare as a control to compare the others against. But I suppose the choker itself is the control group. Hmm. Anyway…

So, the trials began on Tuesday, after I came home from the shops with bits for that evening’s dinner, a deep red nail polish… and a 4 pack of toffee apple muffins and press-on holographic glitter nails.

Trial No.1 – Nail Polish

I did actually need the red nail polish – way more than the press-ons and the muffins, believe it or not – because closest I already had was a bright, summery coral-ish tone which, while gorgeous, isn’t exactly what I’m looking for here. And I’ve had it for a while, so it is getting a bit gloopy and streaky.

• Colour

The shade is called Crimson, from W7. In the bottle, it’s a deep red with a lot of warmth to it. Like I expect crimson to look, funnily enough. Opening the bottle, though, the colour has more of a pinky tone. Bit more of a cooler red. Which was really enhanced by the pearls, and in turn, it really brought out their glow. But still, is she bloody enough? Not really. 6/10

• Coverage

I swiped on about two coats’ worth, and the result was still quite translucent. Or “buildable”, as they’d probably say in the cosmetics industry. Buildable. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature! 5/10

• Application

It being brand new, and having its own brush really helps it, obviously. It was easy enough to swipe and smear over the pearls; very smooth, easy application. 10/10

• Drying Time

A few minutes? I don’t know, actually. I forgot to pay much attention. There’s nothing on the bottle to suggest it’s a quick-dry formula. But I was able to touch the pearls without ruining them pretty soon after painting, anyway. 8/10 (and a 2/10 for my lack of attention. This will not be added to its final score)

• Final Score

29/40

Trial No.2 – Acrylic Paint

I mixed some red acrylic paint with a smidgen of black and an even smaller smidge of brown (and then later, blue!). It’s quite thick, so it’s got good smearability, but not so gloopy that it will take ages to dry. And of course, washing it off the brush, my hands, and my silicone mat was nice and easy.

• Colour

It looked a fair bit like old, dried blood. Even before it had actually dried. I need to reacquaint myself with the difference between shades and tones, I think. When it did dry, on camera it looked almost black, but in real life, natural light, it looked like I’d smeared chocolate on it. 4/10

• Coverage

Opaque. Just as I liked the way the nail polish brought out the glow within the pearls, the opacity of this paint really smothered any light coming from them, and I thought that looked great too. The way I’d applied it: daubing it on any which way, added a slight sort of, grubbiness, that really suits the look of it. 10/10

• Application

For old-ish paint, the colours mixed and went on quite smoothly with a paint brush. 7/10

• Drying Time

Within about 15 minutes, it was pretty much all touch dry and safe enough to faff about with. I would’ve preferred it to have dried quicker, because I was a bit pressed for time, but I can’t exactly blame paint for that. 5/10

• Final Score

26/40

Because I absolutely cannot work out how to focus on just one project at a time, I want to interrupt this post to quickly tell you about something else I’m currently working on: I’m putting some kits together, of mix and match BFF earring and necklace sets. I say “BFF”, but you could just as easily share them with siblings or parents or whoever. You could even keep the full sets for yourself; I wouldn’t be able to stop you!

How the idea came about was, I was shopping online for the red beads my choker needs, and got sidetracked by some gorgeous little precious metal heart charms. So I bought 12 of them. That shop saw me coming, didn’t they?

I’ll tell you more about them closer to when I make them available in my shop, because I want to save at least some information for that blog post. But I’m excited about my new idea and wanted to share. They’re so lovely! So, anyway, let’s now get back to these bloody pearls…

Trial No.3 – Epoxy Resin

Well, it’s called Ecopoxy Resin, and it’s non-toxic, and uses bio-based epoxies. But the biggest immediate benefit to this over the usual epoxy resin, is that it doesn’t stink so you don’t really need to have all the windows open. Which is great, because it’s getting pretty cold outside now.

This, obviously, took the longest to set up and prepare.

• Colour

In the beaker, looked a bit like raspberry jam. Not what I had in mind, but raspberry jam is my favourite kind of jam. Lifting some out with the stirring stick, and letting it run back down into the beaker, though, I could see how light-coloured and translucent it was. Not what I was after. 3/10

• Coverage

It was so runny it barely did anything except migrate into the spaces between the pearls. Which it covered pretty well, to be fair. But I did need it to show up on the surface of the beads. 1/10

• Application

I used an old makeup brush, which held the resin really well and probably would have made it easy enough to apply onto something that wasn’t small, smooth and spherical. For the potential there, I’ll give it an extra point or two. 4/10

• Drying Time

I’m drafting this post about half an hour after clearing all of the resin paraphernalia away, and pouring what was left over into silicone pendant moulds. So far, it’s nowhere near even beginning to cure, and still fluid enough that I’ve been able to easily stir a needle around in it to get rid of some bubbles. I suppose it should be at least touch dry by this time tomorrow. By which time you should already be able to read this. Irrelevant/10

• Final Score

8/40

I’d assumed, before I started, that resin would be The One. I’ve worked with it a fair bit lately, so was sure I knew how this would go. But nope! I didn’t even bother waiting until the curing stage before discounting it entirely.

Neither the nail polish nor the acrylic paint were perfect either, but they were far more easy and quick to work with. So, how will I choose which one to work with? A reminder of the finals scores: 29 for nail polish, 26 for acrylic paint.

Nail polish wins then, right? Well, yes. But I went with both.

Earlier, I told a bit of an unintentional fib when I said the only other red polish I had was coral. Turns out I do have one other: it’s red glitter. So red and so glittery, that it’s called Ruby Slippers. How could I not use that?

I’m really pleased with how it’s going so far. And again, I almost want to leave it as it is. And I could, really. It’s my project, after all. But I bought all those lovely red beads and it would be a shame not to use them.

I always have all these ideas for things to create, floating around my mind, that I would love to see in front of my eyes, but I’m terrible at translating the image in my head onto paper, to make a physical plan of exactly what I should be doing. So I just have to wait until I get the chance to make the actual, physical, thing. Most of the time, it works out pretty well. And I’m hoping the drippy beads situation, the next stage of this project, will be one of those times, too.

And that is what I will be covering in the next part of this series, which I’m aiming to get posted on 22 October. 

So if you want to see how that turns out, be sure to give this blog a follow so you don’t miss it.  

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That’s all for now. Thanks so much for popping in and having a read. Have a lovely rest of your day! 

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