troubleshooting milk pendant

[itzj]

So I'm trying to make a milk pendant for dd to give her after she weans (we're far from it but might start ttc). I've seen the ones on etsy but I just can't spend $70 on one. I bought the epoxy casting resin, dyes, and a jewelry mold. I thought that the milk in those might be plasticized but I can't figure out how to do it. The old use vinegar to plasticize the casein is not working on my milk. So I can't figure out what she's doing to make it or even what I should do to make mine.

Any thoughts or ideas? I'm starting to think I might need to just use plaster of paris which I kinda didn't want to do. I wanted it more pure.

[itzj]

:bump Anyone? I'm not that crafty so I'm looking for a little expert opinion.

[gardenfreshmama]

Wow... I don't know. You used a lot of words I don't know the meaning of :giggle. But I think it sounds like a really cool idea, and I'm :popcorn for suggestions.

I know NakedCamper was interested in making these awhile back... :think

[StumblinMama]

I know NakedCamper was interested in making these awhile back... :think


:up :yes

[Naked Camper]

Jenny - I got your PM. I am interested in making one. I want to think it was last month's craft thread or the month prior that we discussed it. Dolphinmamae (sp?) had some suggestions of a product to use. I googled it at the time and found stuff to buy, just didn't go further with it. I know I found videos on how the stuff works - on how you pour a layer and let it sit. Add your image and then pour more. But most of what I could find was setting a penny or other hard object into the mold, not something liquid. But more googling might find a way to do it.

If you do more with it, I'd love to know. I for sure want to make one....or am almost willing to buy one. I think it's so neat.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

poly resin is what you need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSF22iI0E4&feature=related

---------- Post added at 10:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 PM ----------

so here's what I'm thinking....
take the poly resin stuff and fill the mold half way. Then using a syringe or something of the like to pipe in your milk into the unset poly resin. Let set for 24 hours, or however long it takes to set up. Then fill the rest of the mold with poly resin and then let that sit.

:shrug3

makes me want to run off and buy some poly resin stuff to play with. Wonder how expensive it it :think

[itzj]

Do you think the milk is still liquid? I had assumed something had been done to solidify it.

[Naked Camper]

i don't know what could be done to solidify it. :think

From the tutorials I've watched, you can add in liquid dye and stuff to make designs in the base piece....so you have a clear bubble and add designs of other colors. Those colors would have to have gone in there in liquid state. I would think once it bonds with the poly resin it would set.

This really makes me want to go buy that stuff. :shifty

[allisonintx]

Freeze drying may be a solution worth considering.

Spread a thin film of the milk on a cookie sheet and put it in a 'frost free freezer' uncovered for a couple of weeks.

I'm willing to give this a try.

The dry milk could then be added directly to the resin like glitter is, and then shaped in any way you can imagine.

[Naked Camper]

good idea :tu

Off to go put some milk in the freezer to try this idea out

[itzj]

makes me want to run off and buy some poly resin stuff to play with. Wonder how expensive it it :think

I went to michael's to get it (it's also on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Technology-8-Ounce-Casting-Craft/dp/B000XAR0DM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1313865296&sr=8-3) but I used a 40% off coupon at michael's to bring it down to around $7. The dyes were $11.99 for three colors. I'd like to try to make a purple too one since DD is over the moon about purple. If you go, it was down the same aisle as sculpey clay and adhesives and is with all of the glues. I missed it the first time I went.

I'm trying to figure out (and I guess I just need to try it) if the resin will freak out over the milk because I think I read somewhere that it doesn't like water. But I'd be happy if I could even swirl it.

I was thinking more about the whole plasticizing it, but when you do that you really are only trapping the casein. I'd kinda like for all the components to remain in the milk.

I'll try to play with it this afternoon or tomorrow morning and let you know if it works. I might also try partially curing it, making an indentation and then adding more resin on top too. If it doesn't like the moisture I was thinking maybe I could cut some kind of a shape out of a plastic or something to kinda seal over the milk.

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------

Freeze drying may be a solution worth considering.

This is a good idea. I think I'll go put some in the freezer in case my other endeavors fail.

Thanks for helping me brainstorm here. I really want this to work out. I think it will be a really special thing for DD to get when she weans some day.

[Naked Camper]

:popcorn for what you figure out!!

[crunchymum]

never heard of such a thing! wow!


i found a website that said the people who first thought of this discovered you could boil the milk in vinegar and it solidifies into a plastic like substance that can then be molded...:shrug3

[Naked Camper]

:giggle i have images of milk being squirted from breast to a boiling pot :shifty

[crunchymum]

:lol

---------- Post added at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 PM ----------

you know, that's pretty much how you make paneer (cheese) - boil the milk and add vinegar, and it curdles up and then you strain it. hm... breast milk cheese. well, they have breast milk ice cream, so why not? :haha

[Naked Camper]

I really wish I knew where my power cord is for my breast pump. :hissyfit

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

So I've played with this a bit today (it's a rainy day here and two of the 4 kids are gone).

Doing the milk and vinegar made the milk turn a bit yellow. i couldn't mold the substance, but I could use a toothpick to put it into a design on foil, that i then stuck into the freezer.

I also took some milk in a syringe and piped it into a design and froze that. Depending on the temp of the resin, you could pick that design up on the foil and place that into the preset mold :think

[Annainprogress]

Interesting... I want to know more :popcorn

(I'm sure I read somewhere that breast milk doesn't really make cheese. Or maybe heard Alex James say it when he made Gordon Ramsay try a breast milk cappuccino...)

[LovinBeingMommy]

I've never heard of this before, but I'm curious. :)

[itzj]

Interesting... I want to know more :popcorn

(I'm sure I read somewhere that breast milk doesn't really make cheese. Or maybe heard Alex James say it when he made Gordon Ramsay try a breast milk cappuccino...)

I read somewhere that there isn't as high of a casein component to breast milk and that's why it doesn't cheese very well. You'd have to have a lot of it. I tried to use the vinegar on it and it just wouldn't turn right. I did it on cow's milk and it worked instantly. :shrug3 I'm now leaning towards finding a way to get it all in there anyway, seems more symbolic to me.

---------- Post added at 09:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:01 PM ----------

I've never heard of this before, but I'm curious. :)

If I can figure something really good out I'll try to make a tutorial or something out of it. I really hope I can get it to work.

[Naked Camper]

for those who are trying to figure out what we're talking about: http://www.etsy.com/listing/58399504/circle-of-life-stamped-milk-pendant?ref=sc_1

[Annainprogress]

I like the mummy & baby ones on her blog. When I googled it last night I found someone in the UK had tried (she made resin jewellery anyway) and thought she had it fixed but then a more recent thread someone said she hadn't got it quite right and had given up.

[itzj]

I'm reporting back with my first results. So far all I'm attempting is trying to swirl my milk into the resin. I gave up trying to plasticize it mostly because if I do that, all that's going into the pendant is casein and not the entirety of the milk.

The milk and the resin are kind of like oil and water. Some of it will remain trapped inside, but some of it floats to the top and either yellows or evaporates depending on how much was there. But what does trap stays pretty white so far. Oh and fyi get mold release or use cooking spray. My mold was not pliable enough and I had to fight to get them out.

For the first cast I just swirled milk in. Here's what resulted:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t140/itzj07/beads/th_IMG_7527-1.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t140/itzj07/beads/?action=view&current=IMG_7527-1.jpg)

Today I did another cast. First I took the best of the beads from the first casting and recast it into one of the heart shapes by pouring a little in, adding the bead, and then pouring more.

After that I just poured more beads like last time to see if I could generate cool designs and see if they dry any better. I also did some in purple. The ones that are kinda clearish and purple are because I didn't follow the directions and just added dye to what I already had mixed. The darker ones are from me adding milk and dye before adding the hardener. Then I added more milk when I poured into the mold.

Here is what is curing in the mold right now:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t140/itzj07/beads/th_IMG_7538-1.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t140/itzj07/beads/?action=view&current=IMG_7538-1.jpg)

I'll report back in 70 hours when I try to unmold them. If there is still too much evaporation, I have a few more ideas I might try. And if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

[StumblinMama]

:rockon do you have a "macro" setting on your camera? That would let us get a good close up view :yes Very cool :heart

[Naked Camper]

that's totally awesome! Next time you load pics - load them big and then use clickable thumbs in here. I totally wanted to zoom in on your pics and couldn't.

I can't wait to try this soon!!

[itzj]

I'll try to reload them tonight. I don't have a macro lens yet (it's on my wishlist) but I can probably get a closer shot with the kit lens. I'd do it now but I'm on my phone.

[JustMandy]

:popcorn

[itzj]

Fixed the links in my post above. It's still not macro but is better. We'll see how they dry in a few days.

[itzj]

I'm updating but I don't have time to take pictures yet.

Results were similar to last time. Milk still rises to the top and dries funny, but some stays down in. And it does yellow a little bit, but I think it looks pretty good. I plan to recast those beads just to seal the backs of them. The beads where I cast one of the beads from the first cast into a new bead worked well. As for the purple ones, those worked similarly so long as the milk was added after I mixed. The ones were I tried mixing the milk in before adding the hardener (so treating it as if it were a dye) did not work at all and stayed really gummy. I ended up tossing those.

I plan to do one more cast trying a new method. I just used a dropper and put milk "beads" on a pan to freeze. I'm hoping frozen milk disks won't rise to the top and that the resin will harden enough before the milk defrosts.

Hopefully it works. At any rate, I've gotten enough decent beads that I at least have some milk preserved for her.

[crunchymum]

i really want to see pics!

[itzj]

Can I ask in general what you add to the milk to make it like clay? I'm curious to know if it's predominately our milk in the end or if it's mixed with something else.

[Glitterfish]

This is interesting! Something I never knew I needed until now :shifty

Would it be weird to make one for Stinker, even though I don't have any for Punky and Peanut? :think

[knitlove]

ohthis is such a neet idea