The first part of the event was a local poet, Kirsten Hopfensperger, explaining how she got into writing poetry and reading several of her poems.
After that we worked on our poems. We were told to pick 3 words from a pile of words and try to make a phrase. Then we needed to add a 4th and 5th word. Exchange words and rearrange until something made sense. I really wanted something sports themed but couldn't make anything work. I ended up with "Forever to dream & believe".
Once we had our words and accessories, flowers and items to go in our paperweight, they would pour the resin into our mold for us. It is very interesting compound to work with if you are not careful. It can overheat very quickly if done incorrectly. This why the librarian and her mom handled the resin. I'm so I glad I wasn't going to be responsible for any chemical reactions at the library.
After the resin was poured in the mold, we had to blow on it to remove most of the air bubbles. Then we could places our words and accessories into the resin remembering everything is backwards. Since the words were double sided, you had to make sure you didn't accidentally place the word the way or your phrase backwards. Heavier objects sank to the bottom of the mold so they would be at the top of the paperweight. Lighter objections tended to start towards the top so they would be at the bottom. However if you added the glitter pieces and they stuck to the paper flowers, the flowers would then sink.
We had to leave our paperweights at the library for 3 days to dry. I was very happy at the way mine turned out.
Okay so resin this way was not as scary as I thought it would be. I would never do a resin project myself but if the library wanted to do it again, I would sign up. Even my poetry wasn't bad.
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