Water flea shrink plastic keychain / Yukinko's carefree and easygoing handmade crafts

Hello everyone. How are you? This month's project uses materials I've never used before in my series: shrink plastic and resin.

Water flea shrink plastic keychain

Shrink plastic is a popular craft material that even elementary school students can easily enjoy, and I think many people have either "tried it" or "seen it" before. It's so familiar to me that I'd never thought about making anything with it. However, my daughter asked me to "make a keychain to put on the bag I carry around on weekends," so I decided to give it a try on a whim. When I asked my daughter what she wanted, she made a series of requests, such as "I want a water flea!", "Don't draw the internal organs", and "Make the heart heart-shaped and pink." That's right, my daughter has been obsessed with microorganisms for the past two years.
"Plastic shrink plastic is transparent, and water fleas are transparent too. What a perfect match!" I exclaimed excitedly and immediately started making them. At first, I thought it would be easy to just draw an illustration and bake it in the toaster oven, but for some reason, I wasn't impressed when I saw the finished product. After making seven or eight of them, I finally realized that the important thing with plastic shrink plastic is to find a balance that makes you think, "Wow, it's so cute!" when it shrinks.

After much trial and error, I discovered that drawing a 2.8cm-long water flea on a 0.4mm-thick plastic sheet with a 1mm-wide marker resulted in a nice finish when it shrunk. I made over 100 water fleas before I was satisfied. My daughter saw me endlessly toasting them in front of the toaster and nicknamed me "Yujinko," the water flea craftsman (lol).

For this project, I sandwiched a water flea between two transparent cases, allowing it to move around inside as if viewed under a microscope. To create a gap of about 0.5 mm for the water flea to move, I experimented with various molds for the resin-filled cases, using pudding cups and cotton swab lids, before finally finding that two corrugated aluminum cups joined together worked perfectly. I glued them together, drilled holes, and smoothed the whole thing with an electric sander to complete it. This hands-on experience made me realize that even seemingly simple crafts can be incredibly complex.

Next time we look forward to.

 

Yukinko

I've been contributing to the magazine "Couturier no Tane" since its inception. As my daughter grows, I've also found more free time. Lately, I've been completely engrossed in sewing.　

Instagram:@yukinko_no_kurashi