Ok, I've mostly been going back and forth with pdib in pm's about this, but he suggested I post some photos of what I'm up to. Some time ago, I asked pdib about making my own button in glass. He sent me some parts for sizing, specifically, the screw and a piece of richlite with the actual button hole size cut out. I realized that the logistics of making this out of glass was pretty daunting without a mold... mostly due to the base that connects to the screw part.
Since I had the pieces pdib sent me already, I started thinking of other ways I could do it, and given what I REALLY wanted for a button, this would work out better. It's a type of acrylic resin, something I had planned to play with for a long time anyway, but it's similar material to the wood stabilizer we have been sending pdib anyway, so I knew it was both strong and durable enough (or the mod itself wouldn't be). I did my first test with a Swarovski crystal (which is glass, not plastics):
Not bad at all

. Actually, that particular crystal was a really nice match for the black and details in the violet wood.
So I went ahead and tried it with what I wanted to begin with. A bee. Not just any bee... a fat little honeybee like pdib's avatar in perfect microscopic detail. I figure if he refuses to sign his wood pieces, this would be a nice permanent reminder of the maker of his mod

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I tried the bee 2 ways, under a glass dome.... which gives a magnifying/holographic effect. Because it's not fully encased in the glass, but only has the glass as a 'cover', is darn near impossible to photograph what you see with your eye. Other way was not encased, but the bee painted with a coat of high strength UV marine epoxy (what they clear coat boat bottoms and surfboards with). I only did that last nite, and it still needs to dry about a week to be at full strength.
Here are the uncoated buttons:
The brown one, which is incredibly beautiful, is a Swarovski crystal limited edition brown cabochon (called "Buffalo"). Looks way prettier than a cats eye. This one goes with everything.
The other bee I did 'naked'. This looks the best, but over time, the detail on the bee would get worn away from pressing on the button, that's why it had to be coated. As this would be the most work, I molded it right on the only button screw I had.
Since I had to coat the naked bee, I decided to coat all of them... they aren't fully cured, and this isn't the best shot, since I just took it, but you get the idea:
I also did them in various height levels for pdib to compare:
Here's the bee detail, relative to hand (er, fingernail, er fingerprint) size. Pretty neat

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I'm going to send them all to pdib soon as the marine epoxy cures. What do you guys think

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