I got these long ago! Like months. Like last year. Yup, it's May already now... Pretty darn long ago isn't it?
Anyway... I got them with the goal of making something Arashic from them to use as gifts for DNA... But I didn't make anything then, so it ended up sitting on my desk for months till the prize giving season for Storm Freaks rolled around.
The instructions are simple. Color the plastic sheet using permanent markers with whatever design your heart desire, then heat it up in the oven to shrink the plastic. The plastic will shrink to roughly a quarter of the original size.
But well first, I had to cut the sheet. The sheet I got came in B3 size, so after some measurements and calculations... I figured that I could only make 4 rainbows with a single sheet. *gasp* The plastic sure shrinks a lot!
There, all cut up! Oh! I just marked the sheets with whiteboard markers, since I have tons of them sitting beside me. Permanent markers works too of course... But whiteboard markers are easier to erase if you make mistakes.
I've already printed out a template for myself to trace - well it's there in the background since a few photos up. They say that messy tables make people more creative. Well I do feel that way, and sometimes having messy/cluttered tables is just convenient. So I was thinking that I needed some paper clip or something to secure the plastic sheet to my template. What else would my eye chance upon other than a big blob of white tack sitting on my cupboard door? Left overs from a previous decorating attempt. Just perfect. It works better than paper clips and binders too.
Finally, my trusty collection of Sharpie markers can be put to use!
Coloring the rainbow. Oh yeah. It's much easier to color first and outline with black later. Common sense, I know...
Of course, my trusty bottle of ethanol is there to help my my hand goes out of control. Lol. I'm bad with writing instruments, really.
So I colored...
And colored...
And colored some more.
That's the finished product! Boy did I take a long time coloring this very first one. I got way faster with the subsequent rainbows...
So I cut the rainbow out, taking care not to leave any sharp edges. Also punched a hole at the top for a piece of string or whatever to hang the finished product with. I found that the plastic tends to chip when cutting. Holding the scissors parallel to the plastic sheet, instead of at an angle, reduces the chances of that happening. The chipped edges doesn't seem to affect the quality of the final product though.
It took me two whole weeks before I finally got round to heat shrinking the plastic... Because the oven was hidden somewhere far away... I finally dug it out yesterday though!
And that's the finished product! I dropped it a few times during the heating from panic and stuff, which might have lead to the cracked edges. Also I poked around too much with the chopsticks and that lead to the paint being smeared... Anyway, pretty good for a first trial I'd say. Just 5 more to make lol.
More coloring.
In the oven it goes!
Sorry, it's really dark in the oven so you can't see it clearly from the photo (and I didn't think of turning on the flash)
But well, the plastic totally gets crumpled up during the heating process! It's ok, just let it be. It'll eventually flatten out once everything completely shrinks. The crumpling is due to the uneven heating of the plastic - things like the proximity to the heat source and the drawing on the plastic affects the heating and therefore shrinking rate.
Since I was making 5 to give away, plus the first as a trial... I had a lot of runs to try different methods of shrinking and to perfect it.
Here's a rundown of what happened in each run.
1) Poked the plastic a bit too much, and I even flipped it around at the end, leaving a rainbow mark on the aluminium foil.
2) Tried putting it flat, all the way. Minimal poking. Only to find that at the end... The stupid plastic is stuck to the foil! GOSH! Managed to take it out after loads of wrestling... But it's not that flat anymore... Oh wells... :(
3) Tried putting a piece of crumpled aluminium foil at the bottom, as suggested by the package instructions. It still gets stuck! Plus, the rough contour of the foil left marks on the back of the plastic. Darn.
4 - 6) I did the last three in succession, I colored them all first then mass 'fired' them. So the first of the batch turned out pretty ok. No more crumpled foil. I just made sure to move it around often enough, and then flattened the plastic after heating with a glass slab pot holder thing. (I flattened it that way from the 2nd try onwards.) Turned out pretty good. So I proceeded to throw the next piece in the still hot oven. Opps. Not too good. The oven is too hot... And the plastic crumpled up so much that it folded upon itself! It's alright in the sense that it'll 'uncrumple' once the heating is completed... But alas! My drawing! Parts of the paint came off and got stuck to other parts because of the crumpling! Darn. Was the same for the very last piece too... *Sigh* One of pieces has two dents - chopstick marks - because it got stuck on the chopstick a little while trying to move it around.
So... Some conclusions/takeaways from my experiments.
1) Oh let's start from the very basics. Cover your oven tray/rack with aluminium foil. Unless you're not planning to use the oven for food anymore. Also, use a pair of disposable chopsticks too (Or one that won't use used for food anymore.) If you can't use chopsticks, get some tweezers or tongs, but make sure you get those without sharp edges, or they'll easily mark the plastic.
Paint/marker coloring can get on anything it touches, and I wouldn't recommend handling food with paint contaminated utensils...
2) Lay the plastic piece flat on the foil. The initial stages are fine, since the plastic will curl up and all. But later on, once it gets flatter, pick it up and move it around every few seconds so that it doesn't stick to the foil. Overall the process takes a minute or less. So it's really quick.
3) Don't put the plastic facedown. And *try* not to touch the painted part with your chopsticks. Of course, it depends on how much unpainted area you have left with your design.
4) Turn down that heat! I set my oven to roughly 150 °C. It's fine for the first piece - I put the plastic in when the oven is still cold. But if you're shrinking multiple pieces at once, you might want to try a lower temperature. Say 100 °C or something... So that the oven won't be too hot for the subsequent pieces. I actually turned the oven off a bit for the last two pieces, but it was still too hot :(. Of course, this depends on the size of your plastic piece too. If it's too small to begin with, the crumpling might not be a concern at all.
5) You can reheat the plastic if it's not straight enough. Just be sure to have something to press/flatten the plastic with once you are done.
Of course, I don't have to warn you that the oven, foil and plastic will get really hot right? Be careful when handling them! The plastic especially. It's a poor heat conductor so it might not feel that hot when you first touch it... But another second more and then... XD. As a poor heat conductor, it stays hot for pretty long after heating too, so beware!
6) The plastic does shrink more if you continue heating it. Even after it becomes all flat. I traced all my rainbows from the same template, but they ended up being different sizes - just the drawing part, not comparing the overall size of the plastic pieces since I cut them freehand.
It *might* be more convenient to use a heat gun instead of the oven. But I couldn't find any cheap, light duty heat gun for crafts. The only one I could find was a 100+++ dollars Black & Decker heat gun. Nah. I ain't no using heat guns for any construction... Just heat shrinking a few pieces of plastic.
So... The end results.
That's a size comparison of the original VS the final product. It really shrunk a lot huh?
That's all for now I guess! Maybe next time I'll try with Arashi logos or something. Think any fans will be interested to buy these things? I like making 'em but I got no use for them, beside collecting pieces of colored plastic and cluttering my desk even more! Ha!
PS: Did the rainbow look familiar? I did it a long time ago with the Assembly app :P
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