Product Testing Fails

Sometimes product testing blows up in your face

Testing new products is fun but infuriating. While I love making paintings, I knew that just doing those wouldn't keep me busy for long. I seem to have caught the bug of "I can't keep still" for long, and always am coming up with unique ways I can use my alcohol inks, and abstract paintings for my business.

One of these little tests was resin magnets. I'd seen them all over Pinterest, Youtube and the like which made me want to dive in. I absolutely loved making them because of the surprise every time un-molded them. Sometimes they'd come out beautiful and delicate, then other times they needed to go straight in to the trash.

A lot of trial and error is needed for this type of project because each artist has a different environment they are working in, different spaces, climates etc. and this all effects how they come out. I think about my third batch in is where I started figuring out what I was doing and getting into the groove of things if you will. 

But alas...things really can't be that easy can they. So I had these gorgeous little alcohol ink resin products that I wanted to test and make into magnets, but I was missing one key thing. Magnets! For the small ones I ended up finding magnets that worked out, but left my hands basically black when dealing with them. That was definitely a lesson learned: wear gloves when handling black magnets.

For the slightly larger magnets I was making I needed to have a bigger magnet with more surface area and a bigger magnetic connection. I purchased some chrome magnets that looked beautiful and were so easy to attach with just some of the sticky paper that was included. Boooy oh boy that wasn't the answer. When the magnets got too hot, or too close to each other the magnets were so damn strong they were pulling themselves off of the adhesive patch! 

I basically spent all this money on magnets that were too strong. So what did I do? Well yell and scream a little bit on why life sucks, but then I had to remove all the magnets and the sticky backings from all of the magnets. 

I'm still in the process of removing the sticky backing with Goo be gone which is taking forever, but I've found an alternative that works so much better and is much safer! Now I just need to suck it up and finish cleaning up the resin bits so I can attach the new backings.

Things don't work the way you want them too and that's alright. If everything you did was perfect you'd be a millionaire and probably not reading this. It sucks but life moves on and you figure out a way to move past it. Don't loose hope. Scream and cry for a bit (my mom always said you can be sad for a day then suck it up), and figure out a way forward.

Hope your day is fantastic and I can't wait to talk to you again soon.

All the best,

Olivia