Back in April, So Puzzled Puzzle Company was a vendor at the Michigan Makers Spring Market. We got set up quickly so I had some time to wander the show floor, which got me thinking about puzzle-themed crafts. I’ve been wanting to play with resin molds – and it’s been a long time since I let myself take a minute to do something arts-and-crafts-y – so I wondered how it would work if I put a puzzle piece in resin and then mounted a magnet to the back of it.
I impulse-ordered some round molds about .25″ deep and then continued to brainstorm exactly how it would work. As I churned on the idea a bit more, I realized the magnet would be visible from the front, so there needed to be some kind of background between the resin and the magnet. For a long time I used that as an excuse to not try the project.
As I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve let myself do something like this. Breaking out of that slump took some convincing.
Eventually I decided that, while I could use a map or textured paper of some kind, the cardstock I had on hand would work and I could always do a second round if I wanted to get fancier so there was no reason not to give it a shot. I finally did that last weekend.
One of the things about owning a puzzle company is that it’s not hard to find puzzle pieces to use in crafts like this. We have a few puzzles we’ve cracked open at various events for use as examples. We suspect that we’ve lost some pieces from those here and there so it was easy enough to just swipe a few more.
In this case, I grabbed eight pieces from “Natural Michigan” figuring that its pieces would fit nicely in a mold 1.5″ in diameter. I also wanted to try a 1.25″ mold, though, so I also grabbed eight pieces from the 1000-piece version of “Oh MI Cookies!” figuring they’d be a good fit. It turned out that a couple of the pieces I grabbed were too large and I had to swap them out but, in general, the idea was solid.
I sprayed down the molds with hold release, mixed up some resin, and poured just enough to cover the bottom of each mold before dropping puzzle pieces face-down onto the resin. Then I filled each mold the rest of the way to the top.
I was really curious what would happen at this point. Would the puzzle pieces absorb the resin and warp? Would they float? Would they sink?
It was quickly clear that the pieces were absorbing at least some of the liquid as the ESKA board backing went from grey to black. They also floated to the top but didn’t quite break the surface, which I figured was fine. I’d have to let them dry to see how they turned out, though.
It was hard not to mess with them over the next 24 hours but eventually they were dry. They easily popped out of the molds and I could see where things stood.
For the most part, they turned out okay.
I seemingly used too much hold release spray as there was a bit of a texture to those surfaces, which I didn’t expect. The colors of the ink got darker but didn’t run and the pieces didn’t warp so I call that a win.
Then I stole borrowed Jenny’s Cricut machine for a minute to cut discs of different colored cardstock. I sprayed those with adhesive, stuck them to the back of each of the resin-ed puzzle pieces, and let that dry with some books weighing them down.
By this point I’d realized that I only had rare earth magnets available and I wanted something thinner, so I ordered some 2mm thick round magnets with adhesive backing. They arrived the next day, just in time to call the cardstock backing dry, so I popped those on, used the books to weigh them down again, and let the magnet adhesive dry overnight.
I think they ended up working out nicely.
I’m still thinking about doing another set. I really like the idea of using a map as the background, though that could get a little cluttered. I also wonder if it would be possible to seal each puzzle piece before dropping them in the resin to prevent the color from darkening.
At the same time, though, it was a bit more effort than it might have been worth. This got me 16 puzzle piece magnets. I don’t need 32. I’m not looking to sell them. We’ll probably use the ones we have as part of So Puzzled’s booth at shows.
While it ended up being a fun project and I learned a bit and could iterate on it, that doesn’t mean I have to iterate on it. Which is a good lesson to try to learn, I think.
