Storm Clouds Flower Girl acrylic pen blank

Nominal size = 21 x 21 x 135mm

Instructions for the preparation and turning of Flower Girl pen blanks.
 

Preparation

• Cut and drill the blank according to your pen kit or project kit
• The resin is crystal clear, so to eliminate the possibility of any swarf or drilling dust showing through in the finished piece, swab out the drill holes with denatured alcohol (methylated spirits) using a Q-tip
• Before painting the inside of the holes, saturate a Q-tip with CA and swab the holes. This will eliminate the possibility of any of the cast flowers etc from taking up the paint
• Once the CA is completely cured, paint the inside of the holes and allow to dry. Use a colour to set off the flowers inside the blank to their best effect.- white is often most effective, but black or any other colour of your choice are also worth considering. Two coats of paint will be better than one, but allow each coat to dry thoroughly before proceeding to the next stage.
• Prepare the tubes using your usual method and glue them in. Kayla herself uses two-part epoxy which she first mixes with paint or with mica powder to match the paint on the inside of the tubes.
   

Turning

• The resin itself should not have air bubbles in it, since it is carefully cast under pressure in order to eliminate them. However, the flowers themselves may sometimes conceal the occasional small hidden void which the resin has been unable to reach, such as inside a seed pod for instance. If you come across a void whilst turning, it is not a faulty blank and the void can easily be filled by carefully applying a small amount of CA