Fine Fyt Tokens

I am so excited to sponsor a fyt at the premiere of Atlantian Bardic Madness! Fyt 1.2: Vittles from the Galley challenges participants to present a piece "somehow related to food, drink, grog, grub, chow." When considering the tokens I wanted to hand out, I immediately thought of oranges - ye olde classic scurvy prophylactic and cure for sailors! I was initially unsure of how I wanted to present these oranges, but after the blustery A&S competition at Hawkwood Baronial Birthday, I decided that every Scadian needs a good paperweight and went to the drawing board to design a resin orange slice paperweight. I'm hoping that these will prove useful for holding down documentation for my fellow bards' entries at future A&S tournaments.

Step one of my project involved research (as any good project requires!). I found some excellent instructions for drying out the orange slices here. The instructions are usable for making dried oranges as decoration, potpourri, or snacks! Next, I purchased some silicone resin molds (these are the ones I settled on) and some epoxy resin. As far as actual instructions, this video was short, sweet, and to the point!

Drying the oranges and applying the resin ended up being relatively simple tasks, although I was not the best at keeping the molds bubble-free. The orange slices tended to float to the top, and multiple attempts at pushing them back down yielded water-droplet-esque bubbles within each token. After consulting with my peer, I decided to apply white felt backing to some of the tokens and opted to leave half unbacked to allow participants a choice in token. This project was an interesting foray into the world of resin, and I'm excited to explore the possibilities of making more art using this medium. In particular, I would like to make some awards for the kingdom stash and entries for a largesse derby. So many projects, so little time!