Dried Flower & Resin Pendant

I have a pinched nerve in my neck right now. Besides the obvious "pain in the neck" jokes, it is keeping me from creating anything new. Talk about a hardship for the creative soul! So I am blogging about a piece of jewelry that I created in the Fall.

I have mentioned before that we are lucky to have a neighborhood park within walking distance to our house. Before Winter set in, I would walk Mo (our 2-year-old Bassett-Cockapoo mix) around the trail. Yes, I am a fair weather walker. What can I say?

Mo, my walking partner

In one corner of the park were an abundance of dried flowers in a beautiful deep red color. They were perfect for a resin pendant! I collected several at the end of one of our walks and headed back home. I wanted to make the pendant right away so that the color didn't have time to fade.

I used a flexible resin mold that I got from Hobby Lobby with one of their 40% off coupons. I like it because there is a large assortment and the resin releases easily from the mold.

Hobby Lobby assorted shapes mold; oval shape I used is in lower left corner

I mixed up the Easy Cast resin according to the package directions. I poured a small amount of resin into the mold first (I did this is to prevent the dried flowers from projecting out the front of the pendant). Then I placed a few small pieces of the dried flower in the mold (about 3), and filled the mold the rest of the way. If you are trying this yourself, DO NOT overfill the mold! You don't want it to mound up as if you were filling a bezel; you want it as flat as possible. I used tweezers to move the flowers around to their original position - they almost always move; after all, you poured liquid on top of them! Toothpicks or even headpins If using tweezers or a headpin, wipe immediately.

Then you WAIT. A full 24 hours. No really. There's no rushing resin. Pop it out, and glue a bail on the back.

The result is pictured below. I hope you'll stop by my Etsy shop to see the listing for this necklace.

The finished pendant