Hot Glue Rings

This is another project that I made for Instructables – specifically for the Glue Contest. The contest is about anything you make with glue, and my first plan is to make a fridge magnet with hot glue. To be exact I wanted to make Captain America shield fridge magnet. The idea is to shape the shield using plasticine, then make a mold of it using the common silicone caulk/sealant. After that I can melt the hot glue onto the mold to produce the shield. What I don’t anticipated is that plasticine and silicone caulk doesn’t mix well. It turned into a smelly gooey stuff instead. A curious reading afterward explains that plasticine contains sulfur which inhibits the curing of silicone. Failed experiment.

Did not willing to admit defeat I changed the silicone caulk with white PVA glue as the mold. It turned out that the glue took forever (I’ve waited for days) to cure. And I didn't want to bake it in the oven afraid of what the outcome might be. Failed experiment #2.

After finally admitting defeat I change the plan – what else I can make with hot glue? I was scratching my ring finger when the idea came to me – ring finger...yes, ring! So I googled a bit and found an awesome project by Allison Murray. She melt the hot glue with some swirl design and turn it into a ring. You can read more about it here.

Putting my DIY hat on I try my hands at making the hot glue ring, only to encounter two big problems:

problem #1: Surface to work on

The original idea of making the glue ring is by melting the glue on a non-sticky surface, create your design, then peel off the hot glue from the surface. Some people recommend glass while others suggests the use of wax paper and parchment paper. However I found out that my hot glue seems to stick to everything – glass, wax paper, tiles etc.

problem #2: Design with hot glue

If you ever use hot glue, you would know that it’s hard to make a design with it. Even if you’re able to create a neat design with it, once you peel it off the surface the glue will stretch out and you end up with an ugly shape.

After testing with different surfaces I discovered that hot glue doesn’t stick to metal/aluminium surface. So the idea came to me that I perhaps can melt the glue on a piece of paper, then roll over a metal rod (i used a tyre wrench) on it. The harden glue is easily peel off from the rod.

Next I used hair dryer to soften the surface and rolled over the rod again until it’s flat.

With this “flatten hot glue” I can further shape it into a ring. I simply cut about 3cm of width of the flatten glue and bend it circle. Both ends are then melted together to complete the ring shape.

Although I was satisfied with the ring I wish to decorate it further because it looks too plain. So I looked into my craft tools and realize that I might be able to use the craft punch to make a design/shape on the flatten glue I made earlier. But of course in order for the flatten glue to be inserted into the craft punch opening it had to be made thinner, and flatter. So I heat the flatten glue again and roll over the metal rod - and do it over and over again until it was thin enough. With that I can use the craft punch to make a flower pattern and a motif punch.

The rings look fantastic by itself but I thought of painting it just for fun. I sprayed over a chrome color acrylic paint for the “punched” ring and hand paint the “flower” ring. It might not look like the real stuff but the hot glue rings does look fabulous! =)