Brass Bezel Bleedthrough

My 9th grade teacher would be so proud of my alliterative title! I can't remember her name, but I can see her in my head - a short, round woman with dark hair who couldn't believe how ignorant we were about grammar. Anyway...

I had some brass bezels on hand, and I purchased some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic at the new Joann Fabrics store that recently opened in Columbia, MO. I wanted something for quick narrow bezel fills and I had read about this product - I used a 50% off coupon so I could give it a try.

This was about 2 weeks ago, so I decided on a St. Patrick's day theme.  I cut an oval out of shamrock paper glued it down and filled it up with Dimensional Magic, waited overnight.  The next morning, it was a MESS. The ink bled through! Ugh! I didn't take a photo of that because the idea to blog about didn't come to me until after I took it apart.

When I stripped everything apart, it wasn't the ink on the paper that had bled, it was the brass on the bezel that had turned green. The pink arrows point out the greenest part but it still may be hard to see. But it was obvious in person.

Ugh! Green!

I scrubbed and sanded it clean, then coated the bezel with clear fingernail polish. Not sure if you can see the coat of clear polish either, but here is what the cleaned-up bezel looks like.

After a coat of clear nail polish

The nail polish was just what I needed. The next pour worked perfectly! I topped the shamrock paper with a 3D glitter shamrock sticker, and coated it again with Dimensional Magic. I made 2 this time, and the results turned out just like I wanted! 

Finished bezel pendants

This product won't totally replace using two-part epoxy resin, for one thing it is not self-leveling. But for quick little pendants like this, it works well. I hope this little coating tip helps you when you are working with raw metal bezels.