First cast acrylic

[elody21]

This is my first cast acrylic pen. I made it black with gold swirls.
Two questions for those who cast their acrylics themselves
How hard is the finished material supposted to be? I find it pretty soft. Softer that the purchased acrylic blanks. Are they supposed to be this way or should I add more catalist?
Second question. How in the #?*&^%$#@! do you get a digital pic with so much detail I cannot seem to get detail and a close up pic without things getting blurry HELP!

 

[Fred in NC]

Very nice cast blank, and beautiful pen, Alice!

I have the same problem. Out of focus because I get too close.
Most of the time I have to take the pic from a little farther, with more background on it. Then I crop the image.

 

[btboone]

Nice pen Alice. Like Fred says, going out a little further, like 10 or 11" and using macro mode should help the focus. Zoom in on the pen, but not so much that the camera uses digital zoom; only use optical zoom. Use a tripod to steady the camera. I'd be interested to know if the pen hardens up more in time. I assume you used polyester resin. Something that might be possible is the use of too much filler might cause it to not cure as hard. Something to experiment with.

 

[PenWorks]

Great cast & pen Alice. Don't you just like cutting a softer resin! Mine were a touch softer as well. They drill & cut so much easier. I have been using a 7 drop cat to 1 oz PR mix, I did do a batch & increase the cat to see if it would make it harder. Sure did. I was worried to hard as it looked like fracture lines in the mold. But that was not the case. I think with the little softer resin, it can take a drop or fall better without cracking once finished into a pen. Great job.

 

[KKingery]

Beautiful job!

 

[elody21]

I tried you suggestions on photography ptboone thanks! Check out my photo albumn for the new picture.

 

[opus]

Alice,
I really like the colors in that one, and your picture is great, like how you did the background!

 

[btboone]

Better shot Alice. Looks like the camera was just a bit too close before. Different cameras have different macro focal distances. My previous camera couldn't get below about 11". My new one can get very close and still focus.