Book review: A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux (spoilers!)

The main problem with this book is not even the impossibility of time travel, the strange "bond" the hero and heroine seem to share (which has her experiencing a pain in her arm when his arm is cut), nor the concept that souls are reborn into different bodies and yet somehow still recognisable. No, the problem is with the heroine, whom no one could possibly identify with.

The idea of a misfit heroine would have been a great one -- which of us has not felt at some point in time that we don't really fit in? -- but the author exaggerated the heroine's differentness so greatly that instead of becoming a human being we could identify with, she became farcical.

Honey, what is wrong with you is that you are a dreamy idiot with little common sense. Robert treats you like sh*t yet you keep making excuses for him and insisting that you love him! And worse, plan a romantic holiday imagining that he is going to propose, continuing to believe that he's about to propose even though he does the extremely unromantic thing of telling you you're going to pay for half of the holiday, building castles in the air based on nothing more than a receipt from a jewellery store. "Oh, it must definitely be an engagement ring!" Oh my God, I rolled my eyes SO HARD. Everything she believed about her current relationship existed only in her head, and she couldn't see it.

In the afterword, Jude Deveraux said, "I wanted a heroine who was strong but believed herself to be weak, who was generous, the kind who'd help another human even if it caused her hardship, yet thought her generous spirit was a weakness." But Dougless (also I hate that name, I don't care how historically accurate it is) doesn't come across as strong at all. She comes across as a doormat and desperado. First of all, she's always the one making moves and throwing herself at Nicholas, and when she doesn't want to do something, all he has to do is kiss her fingers and she capitulates. Second, she cries and cries throughout the book. In fact, it's her tears which first draw Nicholas to her through time, because she's crying so hard that it disturbs his concentration and he decides to follow the sound of the weeping and ends up in her time!

I also found it difficult to stomach or understand Robert's behavior towards her, and then to have him do a 180-degree turn at the end? It was ridiculous. He behaved more like a child than his own child, Gloria. He was mean and calculative and unappreciative and his dumb explanation at the end didn't make any sense to me. So what if you were envious of her rich family? You knew when you met her that she doesn't have access to their millions, so what is this about "play at living on your teacher's salary"? It was dumb and petty and showed that he never really loved her, yet he has come back to propose? It made no sense. I felt that the author just wanted to tie everything up with a nice little bow and "redeem" Robert and Gloria because she'd made them so unlikeable in the beginning. Why does everyone have to end up being all sweetness and light? Just leave them as the spiteful and petty people they were, that's fine!

Three other things that made no sense: If Nicholas had insisted that he be buried with the piece of lace embroidered with Dougless' name, why wouldn't he have also insisted that he be buried with her miniature? How could his family not be aware of the significance of the lady in the miniature, and therefore keep it instead of allowing it to be sold, for it to turn up in an antique shop somewhere? Second, if all traces of the person's visit to that time vanished, how can one or two things remain? The miniature shouldn't even remain, as the painter ought to have no memory of even meeting Dougless or having her sit for him; likewise the lace ought not to have remained, for Honoria also wouldn't have remembered her, much less remembered her name. Third, James couldn't have inherited the Stafford estates because he was illegitimate!!

I had to read this book for a book discussion, but I hated the heroine so much that I did something I never do -- once I got an idea of what was going on, I would skip 500 locations (since I read it on Kindle, there are no page numbers), read a little to see what was going on and if I'd missed anything fundamental to the plot, then skip 500 locations again. I couldn't have gotten through it otherwise. It is supposed to be a classic tale, but I would give one out of five stars! It failed me as a romance because at no point during the story was I rooting for Nicholas and Dougless to have a happy ending together.

Finally beading again

After a whole year of not beading at all, I received a commission from a friend, asking me to make a jewellery set for his mum for Christmas. He asked me to use red because it's his mum's favourite colour. I spent ages searching for patterns because I needed to find something which was within my skill set (not too complicated) but it could not look too simple. Here's what I ended up with:

I fell in love with Stephanie's design from Bronzepony Beaded Jewelry. This is the Victorian Chic Redux Icicles Necklace on YouTube. It looked so elegant and stunning, and seemed fairly straightforward to do. The only thing was, I didn't want to use Swarovski bicones all the way around because they are expensive, so I looked around for an alternative.

I had seen someone else use what I privately call a "picot chain" (I have no idea what the actual name is) but I couldn't find a tutorial or pattern for it anywhere. Using this Youtube tutorial by Sonysree Creations, I made the first motif and then managed to figure out how to repeat it in order to get a neat, pretty chain:

In her video, Stephanie had used drops of the same colour and size for both the lower and higher hanging dangles, but in her earlier video of the Crazy for Pearls Necklace, which uses the same pattern, she had alternated pearl drops and crystal drops, which I thought looked more visually interesting and would prevent the necklace from looking overwhelmingly red. My next problem was getting hold of light siam 4mm bicones and drops. I decided to make the red an accent colour instead of the main colour, and to use 6mm bicones instead of drops. I found the 6mms in Glister in PJ New Town, but they did not have the corresponding 4mm ones, and in fact told me that they are discontinuing Swarovski and will no longer be bringing in new stock. The colour was sold out on Monsterkraft.com too. Fortunately, the lady at Glister was very kind and helpful, pointing me to I-Decor in Petaling Street (Jalan Sultan, to be exact) but their Swarovski section is only open on weekdays! They have loads of colours, it's like Swarovski heaven.

I bought the hematite 4mm unfaceted rounds from Beading DIY also in Petaling Street, the Miyuki 11/0 (metallic RR 451) from Glister, and -- again -- could not find corresponding Miyuki 15/0s so had to settle for 15/0 Chinese seed beads in gunmetal, from Monsterkraft. They actually look more silverish than gunmetalish to me, but they didn't look too out of place in my design colour scheme, thank goodness.

Because I decided to use opaque solid black 3mm bicones and drops alongside the light siam Swarovski, I decided it was okay not to use Swarovski for the black since being opaque, it was not likely to be all that sparkly anyway. I used Chinese glass crystal 12 x 8mm drops which I already had on hand, and Preciosa Czech 3mm bicones in jet which I got from Monsterkraft (still cheaper than Swarovski!!).

After making the necklace, I hunted high and low for a bracelet and earring design which could go with it, because to my knowledge Stephanie hasn't made any complementing pieces to fit with the necklace as a set. I saw a post by Linda Genaw on her blog Linda's Crafty Inspirations and decided that I could make that pattern work.

The bracelet and earrings pattern is called "Craving Crystal" by Deborah Roberti, and I followed the link in Linda's blog post to purchase the pattern from Deborah's website. But, to make the bracelet match the necklace more obviously and tie them together somehow, I added the necklace chain's picot motif in between each of Deborah's components, so that at least there was some motif which was common to each piece. I did the same with the earrings, adding the picot motif on top, instead of using a 6mm bead as Deborah's original pattern calls for; and instead of using the 6mm bead at the bottom, I used the same black drop I had put in the necklace, so that both the earrings would match the necklace.

In the earrings and bracelet, each motif has a 4mm round bead in the centre. At first I used the same 4mm round hematite beads which I had used in the necklace, too, but then there was no strong contrast between the 11/0 Miyukis and the hematite because both looked metallic grey, and in the earrings, the black drop sort of seemed to come from nowhere (since the main pattern had no black to echo it). So I switched out the 4mm hematite beads for round faceted Chinese glass crystals which I already had on hand, and it worked much better to tie everything together and make all the pieces look like a real set.

I'm really pleased with how the set turned out, and my friend said his mother loves it, which makes me doubly happy!

Experiment #12: Mirrored chameleon chrome powder

I was curious as to the effect that chrome / chameleon nail powder might have on the resin. This was before I saw Masherisha's video. At the time of watching her video, I'd already purchased some powders from a Shopee seller. I admit that I didn't know exactly what I was doing. I've only ever had basic pedicures done, so I had no idea about all these powders and it turns out there are several types(?). Cos I saw on YouTube nail art videos (I can't believe I'm watching NAIL ART VIDEOS!) that there are chameleon sequin paillette flakes which look white but turn your nail colour (usually a black base) to different shades, depending on which powder you use, and then I saw "chameleon nail powder pigment chrome glitter" which is actually coloured, and when rubbed onto nails (again a black base) turns the nail chrome and holo, i.e. highly shiny and reflecting several different colours, depending on which way your turn your fingers and view the nails under the light. I saw the Youtuber pat on the paillette flakes so that coverage on the nail was uneven and the black base showed through the glitter, giving the nail a sort of dappled effect as if bits of coloured foil had been applied onto the nail. That looked nicer than a full coverage, which still looked dappled and uneven but with less black showing through.

Anyway.

I thought I had bought a bunch of chrome powders, because the name of the product was "nail art gorgeous chameleon mirror powder manicure chrome pigment glitters". But when I opened one of the pots to try -- I chose green because green is my LEAST favourite colour, so it is perfect for experimentation; tak sayang nak guna! -- it turned out to be FLAKES:

And because it was FLAKES, it was HELLA MESSY. I didn't expect it to be messy. The so-called "powder" came with an applicator (looks like an eyeshadow applicator), and I thought it would be simple to dab it on the nail. But every time I dipped my applicator into the pot, the flakes would shift about and fly out due to the movement disturbing them, and glitter got absolutely EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, I had seen this tip from Crafterzdelights about using cellophane tape to remove glitter from silicone moulds, and it worked like a charm! I got the glitter off my table, my self, my silicone mould, and everything else that it managed to get on.

I wanted to know if the so-called "powder" would give a different effect on a different colour base, so I first poured a clear layer of resin into the moulds, and cured.

Then I rubbed the so-called chrome "powder" onto the hard surface of the cured (clear) resin.

I figured I'm just doing it backwards from how nail techs do it on nails. They put the colour on first, then the chrome powder, then seal the powder with a glossy top coat. I'm putting the clear coat first, then the chrome powder, the the colour.

To colour the resin, I gently shaved off some flakes from Daiso's soft pastels. I chose black cos chrome powder is always used with back; white, because I wanted to see what it would look like on a light base; red and blue, just to have variety; and there was supposed to be yellow but the yellow accidentally got a little mixed up with the blue, and turned green instead lol. I then poured the colours into the respective moulds.

I cured this for 5 minutes under my UV CFL 36W lamp, cos I was afraid the pigments might interfere with the curing process as they sometimes make it difficult for the UV light to penetrate and activate the photoinitiators which cause the resin to harden. Then I popped the resin out to see what it looked like. Here are the results:

I think I can see some subtle differences, especially with the red-base one, but overall nothing major. I'm now wondering if it would be different if I were to actually rub the colour onto the base colour instead of onto the clear layer. But that means I can't use a mould; I'd have to use a bezel and work from the bottom up, like I would if I were applying the chrome powder to an actual nail. And I kinda don't want to "waste" any of my bezels on a mere experiment. Hmmmm.

Experiment 11: Nail polish colours

My UV lamp arrived! Finally! It is a 36W CFL lamp, with four U-shaped 9W tubes. I finally decided to get CFL because I think it provides better (more thorough) light coverage than most of the LED lamps I've seen. Also, the LED lamps tend to be a dome shape, which works for nails, but is not so ideal for silicone moulds (which are mostly rectangular or squarish).

So I had to test my UV lamp to make sure it was working. I got it on Shopee, and the way Shopee works is that they don't release payment to the seller until your items arrive and you have inspected them and deemed them to be in good condition. If they're defective, or if some of the items were not sent out together with the rest of the order (this has happened to me THREE TIMES now!!!), you can file for a refund.

I'd bought some nail polishes earlier from Sasa. At three bottles for RM10, they were pretty cheap and perfect for an experiment, as I didn't need a whole huge bottle. Plus, they are so cute!!

So I cured a clear layer of resin in one of my silicone moulds. It took just two minutes! Ah, bliss! And then I applied nail polish over the top of the hardened resin. Since it was an experiment, I just randomly dabbed the colours on any old how, without caring about how it looked. I did have to go over and put at least three coats to get the colours more opaque, because nail polish tends to spread pretty thin (we also usually apply at least two coats on the nail). Then I poured another clear layer of resin over it, and cured for three minutes.

OHMYGOD IT TURNED OUT SO PRETTY!!!!!!!! <3

The shimmer of the nail polish really made the piece 'pop', and the rich colours came out beautifully against the clear layer of resin. The resin cured without any problems and even somehow managed to clean out my mould of the nail polish that I had accidentally 'kena' the sides with when I was painting the surface of the piece. I don't know how that happened, but I'm not complaining!
 
 
 
NOTE: I would not mix nail polish into the resin. I'm afraid that the resin might not cure when the chemical properties of both items come into contact with each other. Also, pigment is known to block the UV light from penetrating the resin and that would prevent the resin from hardening.

Uv resin: Experiment #1

I don't have a UV lamp (yet), so I cured the old-fashioned way: in sunlight.

Steps:

1. I brushed the inside of the mould with a thin layer of silver glitter. (I used my finger, I put on disposable surgical gloves lol)
    
2. I mixed UV resin with blue poster colour and a bit of blue glitter dust and poured one layer in. Left to cure.
    
3. I mixed UV resin with a lot of pink glitter dust and poured one layer. Added six 11/0 seed beads (each bead is about 2mm in diameter) arranged in the shape of a flower, a turqoise flower sequin, and four randomly placed petals of a blue flower sequin. Left to cure.
    
4. I mixed UV resin with a little (just a very little, I didn't want it to be overwhelming) purple glitter "hairs" (short stripes?) and poured one layer. I was impatient and lazy, so I poured more resin in an attempt to dome the project and as a result, the resin overflowed the mould, although I tried to wipe off some excess. Gave up on wiping and left to cure.

Result:

The edges are jagged, but I knew that was going to happen due to the overflow of the resin earlier. I also know (have seen in YouTube tutorials) that I can file or sand those edges off.

The surface of the piece is not smooth. I don't know why. There is a "bump" in the resin on one side.

The very first layer, the blue, didn't cure properly and left a patch stuck in the mould :( The patch was hard, so it's not that it didn't cure (as in didn't dry), but that it didn't bond. I think there was too much pigment (I've read that pigment can affect curing as it blocks the UV rays from reaching the photoinitiators in the resin to activate the curing process) and indeed, even while mixing I felt that I had put too much colour, although I only added a small drop! The colour was very dense.

I like the 3D effect given by layering the resin over the embellishments. It feels like the items are suspended in water, that's the best way to describe it.

The blue cannot be seen much through the pink glitter layer, but looking at the piece closely, I think it does have the effect of providing a base colour for the glitter.

Take-aways:

• Add less pigment to the resin, just a teeny-tiny bit will do.
   
• Add the pigmented layer last when using a mould, not first! (Because the back of the piece is actually the last layer, the one facing you; the front is on the inside of the mould) You want the colour to be a sort of background for the whole thing, not to appear on the front and obscure everything. I think the first layer can be totally clear or just have a little glitter in it to add shimmer / shine.
   
• Plan layers more carefully (what to add in which layer, so that it will give the desired effect)
   
• Be careful about the amount of resin being poured. Don't over-pour. If want to dome the top (i.e. the back of the piece), do it in one last step after the layer which creates a flat surface has cured.
   

UV Resin

I have a new obsession and need to write things down so that I don't forget!

I've just discovered UV resin by watching a YouTube tutorial, and it has gotten me excited! It cures under UV light within 15-20 minutes maximum, and doesn't need mixing unlike epoxy resin.

Epoxy resin always felt intimidating to me cos you have to mix the ingredients together and get them exactly right, or it might not cure properly, and of course took forever to cure. Because UV resin cures so fast, you can apply layers to your piece and build up interesting 3D effects. I love the concept! And being Miss Impatient, I also love that it cures fast!

So. There are 3 main ways (that I've seen) of making pendants with UV resin:

1. Use a silicone mould and pour the resin in, cure it under UV light, pop the pendant out of the mould, and attach it to a bail or drill a small hole in it to attach a jump ring;
    
2. Use a cabochon-type bezel and pour the resin in, then cure it under UV light;
    
3. Use an open-backed bezel or connector/link finding (anything that has a hollow space in the middle), paste refrigerator/painter's tape on the back to "seal" the back (any tape which doesn't leave sticky residue would work), then turn the piece over, pour in the resin, cure the whole thing under UV light; when done, peel off the backing, apply one more thin layer of resin on the back, and cure again.

This means I've ordered several silicone moulds and various types of bezels and bails. Uh-huh. And a pin vise drill, or mini hand drill, and refrigerator tape. Uh-huh.

Aaaaand you can use nail art embellishments for your pendant, cos those embellishments are tiny and you can place them wherever you want in the pendant, to jazz up your design. So I've been looking at loads and loads of nail art stuff. There are rhinestones and glitter and powder (glitter powder and holographic powder, to name just two) and sequins and stickers and stencil stampers! Holy smokes. See this fantastic tutorial using stencil & stamping! There are even "caviar beads" (super tiny beads) and foil flakes and dried flowers and flatback half pearls.

A note on glitter powder: it's different from glitter cos glitter is coarser, usually around 1mm in diameter, whereas glitter powder is fine, like dust. I think glitter powder, when mixed in the resin, will give a shimmery effect, while the glitter itself will be more blingy because there are larger pieces reflecting light. There are also different ways of applying the powder. I've seen a video where the powder was dusted into the silicone mould, then the resin was poured in -- which means the glitter would end up being on the top surface of the piece; but on an open-backed bezel I've seen it being dusted on one of the layers, usually a background layer before applying any other stickers, painting, or other embellishment; and of course you can thoroughly mix it with your resin solution before pouring the solution into the bezel or mould. I plan to experiment with all three ways and see what difference it makes to how my piece turns out.

Now, to colour the UV resin, there are pigments specially made for that, but I read that eyeshadow or chalk work too; just squeeze a bit of resin onto a surface which acts as a palette (I heard that a polypropylene plastic sheet works well because resin does not adhere to it; you can also use wax paper or baking paper), scrape some of the colour off your eyeshadow or chalk, and mix it in. So now I'm looking for cheap eyeshadow palettes. I think it's probably cheaper than buying the resin pigments. Why colour the resin? Well, apart from giving your pendant a specific colour, sometimes to layer different colours, or have your pendant's background coloured differently in different sections. See this tutorial! UPDATE: A YouTuber answered a question I asked in a comment, and said that she uses soft pastels to colour her resin. She just scraped off a bit of the pastel and mixed it up in the resin.

UPDATE 2: You can use these to colour UV resin:

1. Eyeshadow
2. Soft pastels (also known as chalk pastels)
3. Acrylic paint: It creates an opaque effect (the item won't be see-through) and also makes the surface of the item become matte (usually cured resin is a little glossy, but the acrylic paint counters that glossy finish). Plus, it also may make the item look a little grainy

UPDATE 3: I have had success using poster colours to colour the resin. Just put a teeny tiny dot. A little goes a long way!

Alcohol ink and food dye / food colouring won't work, according to this video. The lady stated that they may work for epoxy resin, but will prevent UV resin from curing. And here is a very informative blog post!

You can draw on the UV resin too, like doing nail art: See this gorgeous peacock pendant tutorial. What I've read is that this UV resin is very similar to gel nails which are also cured under UV light (and you can use the gel manicure lamps to cure your UV resin pendants). So I was reading about gel nails and nail art, a subject I know NOTHING about, and I discovered you cannot draw on gel nails with regular nail polish cos according to one report, the polish will crack when the gel top coat is applied over it and cured. You can use gel polish or acrylic paint, or "nail art pens", but nowadays there is also gel paint. Gel paint can of course be cured immediately after application, but if you use acrylic paint (as in the paint you'd get from any art & craft store) you need to wait for it to dry before applying a gel top coat and curing that. But gel paint is thicker than gel polish (the whole point of creating a paint is so that the nail artists wouldn't have to go over their artwork again and again, applying many layers in order to achieve the necessary opacity to get the design to stand out; polish tends to be less opaque, hence we usually apply a minimum of two coats of polish, even with regular polish) so -- where was I? -- oh yes, so with gel paint you need to take up and apply only a little at a time with your brush, to avoid possible goopiness.

And you'd definitely need a set of nail art brushes as long as you're not using those specialty nail art pens, plus brush cleaner to clean them (I read that we shouldn't clean them with acetone -- the solution used to remove gel nails -- because that would damage the brush). So: that means buying gel polish / gel paint, a set of nail art brushes, and brush cleaner... I still need to discover how to clean off the resin from the polypropylene sheet used as a palette.

I also read that LED UV lamps cure gel nails more quickly than regular UV lights, and of course they tend to use less wattage and are much longer-lasting than regular bulbs or tubes. So I'm looking for an LED curing station which is powered by plugging it into a wall socket, and not via USB charging. Cos if there's an internal battery and you keep charging it, eventually one day it will retain less and less charge (power?) and then it will die, and I don't like that idea. It also needs to be large enough that the silicone moulds will be able to fit into it.

Okay I think that covers it all for now! I might have forgotten something, in which case I'll come back and edit this post when I recall whatever it is I've missed. This is mainly intended as a resource for myself.

EDIT: Last night I watched a tutorial by a Japanese lady who used origami paper (or patterned paper) as a pendant background. She glued double-sided scotch tape onto the paper prior to inserting it onto the first layer of resin in the silicone mould, because she said when she tried putting in the paper by itself, "it got darkened when the resin got stained" (that is a Google translation of what she wrote in Japanese! lol). I think a 4mm-wide clear cellophane tape (packing tape?) would do -- I have that around the house -- but I also think a layer of Mod Podge, varnish or any kind of paper sealant would work. Another thing to try out once my supplies arrive.

EDIT 2: I watched a video where the lady used holographic nail art transfer foil to decorate the surface of the finished piece. She brushed on the UV resin, spread the foil over it, and cured. After curing, she peeled off the foil. I had been wondering if there was a way to use the foil and now I'm all WOW! Also, if you apply resin onto the surface of the piece with a brush (like for finishing, the final cure), another YouTuber said, "I always wipe the used brush with wet tissue paper containing alcohol. Although it gets a little sticky, it can be used without problems."