Professor Severus Snape's Office - click on the photo to visit it

"Happy is (s)he who, like Ulysses, has travelled far...."



Jun 13, 2010

Still Water

I was once asked by Ascension if I am going to fill the jars in with some liquid too. Well, the truth is, in my country it is really hard to get many things one can make minis from, so naturally I couldn't find any liquid fimo or scenic water here. But looking through the hobbycraft's websites I found a shop in my city with all the things one needs to build electric mini railways and trains together with all the views around. That's how I found something called Still Water. It is used by minitrain's lovers to make small ponds, waterfalls and rivers. They wrote on the bottle, the liquid should extend and level by itself and dry to hard non sticky crystal finish within 24 hours. I thought I will give it a try.

First I put some of orchid's dry offshoots to the jar and filled 2/3 of it with the liquid in.

48 hours later it still didn't dry. I left it for some more time thinking that there maybe some chemical reaction between the liqiud and natural offshoots.
But in the meantime I tried once more, this time with the jar fully filled with the black pepper seeds. I poured the liquid in and 12 hours later I was surprised because it dried completely! So I knew I must put more of offshoots to the first jar. I did. The liquid dried soon!

Next I tried it with the tadpoles I made of airdrying clay. I was a bit affraid if they could melt in this liquid. Still I put them to the jar, filled the jar just a little bit above the tadpoles with Still Water in and waited. And waited. I saw the tail of the tadpole on the top is broken but the liquid finally started to dry. After two days it dried!

But a few days later I saw this in the jar!

A whirlpool! Lol! I put the jar up side down and thought the liquid would level itself. But it didn't. So I put the jar back as it should be. Luckily nothing more is going on with the tadpoles and the liquid so far.

The conclusion: Still Water is a good liquid for flat, shallow and even areas. It wrappes aroud things instead of fullfilling the dish.
I will give it a try with really small bottles and see if it will be drying better and faster there.

21 comments:

Ascension said...

Veo que has tenido pequeños problemas.
Lo que yo utilizo es Gel-Wachs, se pone en el fuego y una vez que el gel se ha disuelto ya se puede utilizar, enseguida se queda duro y dentro del bote puedes meter cualquier cosa.
Puedes hacer fuentes, estanques.......
Te dejo mi email, por si quieres que te mire un bote aqui.
besitos ascension
ascensionruiz@gmail.com

nikkinikkinikki72 said...

Hi Ira. Thank you for sharing this info. I too have tried this product and found it also took a long time to dry and there was a bit of shrinkage when dry, although only a little.
I put a link to your blog over on my question and answer blog. Hope that was ok?
Nikki xxx

Michelle said...

Ewa, I've not heard of this product myself, but you can buy online all types of liquids, Scenic Water, Solid water, FIMO Decorating Gel to name a few. I have given you two links where you can buy liquid gels where they deliver internationally. ;o)

http://www.minimumworld.com/index.php?cPath=248_324&sort=2a

http://www.polymerclaypit.co.uk/Level2.asp?Level1=22&Level2=153&Level3=0&PID=0&Action=

Michelle xxx

Fiver said...

I've tried something similar before called scenic water, and had the same problems. I never got a cool whirlpool like you did though, lol. I've also used something called "quick water" which never really dried completely. Ewa, can you get casting resin there or maybe online? I've had good results with EasyCast (I think it's called).

Unknown said...

I can't get this product to work either! I have some I did months ago and I put colouring into it and it still has not dried!!!! I gave up after that ;o)

The Old Maid said...

Muchas gracias Ascension! Will write to you soon!:)

The Old Maid said...

Hey Nikki! Sure! :)
Ewa:)

The Old Maid said...

Thank you so much Michelle! Thank you so much for that you always are so helpful for me!:)Thank you for the links very very much!:)

The Old Maid said...

Kristy, thank you so much! Michelle has just given me above links, will try there:)

Roz&Aidy - maybe we should try what all the blogger suggest here:)

Glenda said...

Thankyou so much for sharing this information, Ewa, I haven't tried using fake water yet, and it's good to know some cautions in advance!

The Old Maid said...

You're very much welcome Glenda! :)

Norma Bennett said...

Thanks for such detailed info, and I must say I love the tadpole whirlpool :) - one of those things that if you were trying to find a way to do it deliberately you probably couldn't.

The Old Maid said...

You are absolutely right Norma!:)And you're very much welcome!

Sans! said...

Thanks for this info. I have been wanting to try making water in a jar for the longest time. I tried with resin, you know those you mix with 2 tubes and got loads of bubbles. I wanted to make perfume with flowers but the flower didn't settle nicely . Will try again. We don't have scenic water etc etc here as well.

The Old Maid said...

That's the worst thing Sans - to have fun we have to import many things first ;)

miniannalee said...

You might try just adding a little bit of Still water at a time. Only the surface area exposed to the air is going to dry. The whirlpool effect was created because the surface dried while the liquid under it was still wet. By adding small amounts of liquid at a time you give each layer time to dry and will have a true hardened liquid. I hope this helps some.

The Old Maid said...

Thanks for the tip Anna! I tried that but everytime I was adding a bit more to the dry part of liquid the whole amount of it was wet again!:D Or maybe I am just not THAT patient ;) Thank you again!

Bözse said...

I'm in the same situation: no liqiud fimo or scenic water in Hungary at all. If I want to modelling water I have to order from abroad materials with high postal cost. I'm sorry for the tadpole, but the whirlpool is cool!

The Old Maid said...

Isn'it?;) Thank you so much Bozse! Seems to me most of the ingredients we need are in England or USA. I will have to order something to make the liquid from abroad too!

Witchkrafting with Kat said...

Thank you for sharing your informtaion with us. Love the whirlpool though I think it's a cool effect!

The Old Maid said...

Thanks Kat,glad you like it although I didn't make it deliberately;D