Tier 1+ Bonus Post🌱 Huge Board Making Of Post! (Patreon)

Hello Sweeties! Rose writing here!

For my bonus post I thought I share the making of pictures of my boards and a little backstory / hardfacts!

One day one of the items I ordered came with huge styrofoam slabs. The looked so thicc and sturdy that my ADHD brain just forced me into a new hyperfixation at the spot and I bought this hot wire styrofoam cutter (German Amazon). A fairly cheap one, but I just wanted to test the waters. I ended up loving it so much that I eventually did a ton of boards!

At first I scribbled the writing on one of the boards, then I started to cut it. Or shape it, really. It was super satisfying to do. Then I painted over it with watered acrylics. It was obviously too bright, so I added some more coats and weathered it with darker shading on the writing and grain. Lastly I added the gold.

I was so happy and proud with what I did! It took around two working days to figure everything out (learning by doing, my personal way to go).

I had some forming pellets that you activate in hot water left, so I made a couple of tiny white mushrooms as a little detail, too.

I also did a little test board, and on that I added later matte varnish, then very thicc glossy varnish for stabilization, then again matte varnish because I didn't like the glossy look.

Once everything was nice and stable, I tried to do it with the Schpog Shop boards, too. To save time I started with the glossly varnish first. 

Can you imagine my horror when the boards started to dissolve in front of my eyes? There was nothing I could do about it. (Pic 11 & 12)
Turns out that styrofoam is allergic to all kinds of shit. And it happened to prefer my matte varnish and hate the other one.

Ngl, I cried a little. I was so proud of them... I tried to repaint them, but damage was done and they looked so weird and wobbly...

So I started new ones. Then I learned another new thing: Not every Styrofoam is the same. There are some with bigger holes, some more solid ones, made from different materials - also Styrofoam is a brand name. Didn't know that before.

I tried out two different kinds of foam, but sadly none of them were as good as the packaging material from my order the other day. You can't really tell from afar, but they also weren't as satisfying to work with and the color sticked differently.

Seeing my previous boards, friends of mine commissioned me to make boards for them, too. I accepted and since I got more into the boardmaking passion, I also ordered island moss, miniature moss, fake mushrooms and a mask to protect me from the toxic fumes. 

Instead of spraypainting the finished products for stability, I put on a BIG FAT coat of waterbased wood glue, which styrofoam will accept as its armor.

There was a looot of testing around (wood glue first and then acrylics, mixing wood glue with color, glue first and then color, how to use the moss, how to best use the miniature moss, how to add the hooks, etc), but the process was nice and it made me happy 💜

I'd love to do them professionally, but sadly the time they take/price does not match the stability, I think. So it'll stay a special commission for friends 💜

Have you ever done something with Styrofoam? How did it turn out? I'd love to hear!

Have a beautiful day!

🌹 Rose (Management & Partner) & 🌿Schpog (Main Artist)

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