Opals Angels

I was playing around the other day with Opals thick embossing enamel and thought I would try to make Christmas decorations. A few things happened: I learned that you can overheat gold Opals and it will change colour to an unpleasant brown/gold and if you are melting it in a pan on the stove like I was don't be tempted to put it on high to melt it quicker.

Anyway this is what I made and how I did it:

Pick out a biscuit cutter that you want to use for a ornament, it should be one that you're happy not to use for making biscuits anymore. Put your finger into a Versamark or embossing pad and run it all around the inside of the cutter. The tree was my failed gold experiment and then I moved on to the angel. Place the cutter on a piece of glad bake on a cutting board.

  

Using a pan that you don't want to cook in anymore (or a melting pot if you have one) place a piece of glad bake in it and pour in some Opals. Turn your stove on to medium and wait patiently, if you're tempted to put it on high see the notes at the start. When it's melted take the pan over to the cutter and lift out the glad bake by the sides, bring together and tip to pour the melted Opals into the cutter. Make sure it goes into the corners and no dribbles down the side. Sorry no photos of that...I need to learn/remember to use my timer. Leave it a minute then roll an awl or pointy skewer into your Versamerk and pierce a hole in the top. Leave it in for a minute and remove. After about another minute if it looks firm see if the cutter will slide off the angel if it doesn't carefully pick it up and apply gentle  pressure to the back of the angel evenly and slide up the cutter. Add a cord and hang on the tree.

 

The other thing I learnt is that we need to make mistakes to learn even if it is frustrating.