After the last failure with using resin, I decided to go back to basics a bit and do something simpler.  Something that wouldn’t take as long, would be as complicated, and would help build experience mixing and pouring resin.  The result were these two small bowls.

My secretary has been dropping not-so-subtle hints for the last three years or so that I haven’t made her anything.  When I brought in the pencil holder, made of colored pencils, she really seemed to like it, so I figure I’d make something similar for her desk, but didn’t know what.  My first thought was to find some non-metal paperclips and make her a little bowl to hold paper clips.  What I found is that no one makes standard shaped paperclips out of anything BUT metal, so that idea was out.  I saw a bag of colored rubber bands and thought that might work.  What a mistake!  Remember the old commercials about the Gillette double edged razors?   The one with the graphic about how the first blade stretches the whisker out so the second one can cut it off, shorter?  Well rubber bands encased in resin act much the same way.  Or, they squish around the tool and don’t cut at all.  Most annoying, were the ones that only cut a little bit, and then flapped around slapping everything as the lathe was spinning.  The final product turned out ok, although I can’t say this is the best thing I’ve ever made.