Resin-ating

I recently met a local beader via Facebook (Judy Y.) and we have met and talked a few times. I love making resin pieces, and she had never tried it out, so she asked me to teach her how. We met last Saturday at her house for our session.

I am amazed at how many jewelry/beady people I talk to on Facebook that are afraid of resin! It is one of the easier things I have tried.

Here are the supplies you need: Two part epoxy resin (brands include Ice Resin, Easy Cast), Mod Podge or Elmer's Glue, bezel, photo sized to the bezel frame or scrapbook paper, measuring cup, stir stick, scissors, paint brush, protection for your work surface (in this case the rest of the piece of paper from which we cut the photo). Optional supplies: oval punch, fixative spray (if you are using an image from an Inkjet printer).

Some of the supplies we used for Resin Day

This particular bezel doesn't have a great finish on it and I've had issues with the resin causing the brass to turn green, so I coated it with clear fingernail polish before I got to Judy's house.

Judy scanned and resized this photograph of her mother before I arrived. She has an Inkjet printer, so I brought along my Krylon Workable Fixatif spray sealant. It prevents the ink from smudging, takes only a quick spray or two, and dries in about 10-15 minutes.

You always want to coat any image or paper that you want to put under resin. Otherwise, the resin will bleed through in spots, darkening the paper only in certain areas. It's not a nice look (ask me how I know)! I use Mod Podge to coat my images, usually 2 coats. Judy coated the images and we let it dry about 10 minutes between coats.

Judy coats the image with Mod Podge; the original photo is in the upper left corner

Judy had purchased Ice Resin in a plunger-style container, so that is what we worked with. The most important thing is to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE PACKAGE EXACTLY, regardless of what brand you purchase! Different brands have very different directions, so be sure to read and re-read so you following them to the letter. That will be the biggest key to success with resin.  If you purchase a two part resin, get a measuring cup to ensure that you get equal parts. I have mis-mixed, and the results are not pretty. It's better to dump the whole thing than bother pouring it and waste bezels, artwork, your time, etc.

The Ice Resin instructions say to push the plunger into a container, mix for 2 minutes, then let them sit for 5 minutes to let the bubbles settle. I strongly recommend that you use a timer to make sure. It's amazing how long 2 minutes seems when all you're doing is stirring...

Push, stir...

...and wait.

While we were waiting, we glued the now-dried and coated photo into the bezel. Again, you can use Mod Podge to do this. You only need a very little bit, you shouldn't see any white areas - if so, you have too much Mod Podge on the bezel.  Burnish or push down the edges of the image into the corners of the bezel.  We used the opposite end of our stir stick. BE CAREFUL, the image is wet and will want to tear.

After the resin sat for 5 minutes, it was time to pour. Judy asked me where to pour - usually you pour right into the middle, seeing how the resin flows, and adjust where you are pouring. If you can see in the photo below, it was pooling toward the top, so she adjusted toward the bottom of the bezel. POUR SLOWLY. You don't want to get to this point and overpour!!

Pouring resin..go slowly!





Bubbles are inevitable. You can get rid of them in several ways - a pin or headpin, a lighter, blowing through a straw, blowing directly on the bezel.  I usually use a pin, or blow directly on the bezel. You blow with an open mouth, like you are warming up your hands on a cold day - NOT like you are cooling down your soup! It is the carbon dioxide we exhale that pops the bubbles.  You always carry your warm breath with you, but you may or may not have a pin, lighter, or straw handy.  You really have about 4-5 hours to pop bubbles.  After about an hour or so, you must use a pin to pop the bubbles; the resin has gotten too thick to blow them away.

Resin is self-doming; it has enough surface tension to dome on its own. Here is a side view of the bezel after Judy poured all the resin in. We made just enough!

Side view of newly poured resin

That's it...all that's left to do at this point is wait. The resin will cure hard to the touch in 24 hours, and will totally cure in 72 hours. Resin definitely works better in warmer weather, so now through the end of summer is perfect resin-pouring time!

 

Judy finished her necklace this morning, and here is the finished product. Do you see any bubbles? I don't - looks like Judy blew the all away.

Red was her mother's favorite color, so she made sure to use red beads in the necklace. She has an heirloom she can wear around her neck, to remember her mother at all times!

 

I hope you that this tutorial will encourage you to give resin jewelry a try!

 



Judy's finished necklace - an heirloom she created herself!

Finally Done, and not Overdone

My last blog post described my "One step too many" heart, and how I went overboard by adding one more thing. The second time, I stopped before I overdid it.


I finally finished the heart and the necklace design yesterday - too late for Valentine's Day, but that's OK.


Brass Heart Pendant

I purchased the plain brass heart pendant, and then embossed it with my Sizzix BigKick machine. I used a Cuttlebug folder for a more geometric look (the Vintaj decoemboss and decoetch folders are great, but I wanted something different). Then I added alcohol ink and Vintaj patinas, extra-fine black glitter, sealed it with Vintaj Patina Glaze, and embellished with Swarovski flatback crystals in a lavendar color.

Originally I wanted to make it into a true lariat necklace, but it didn't hang like I wanted, so I put a Brass toggle clasp in the front instead. I debated on putting the dangles in front of the heart or the back, but in the end I chose the back because it was distracting from the heart too much. The rest of the chain has one AB finish lavendar faceted crystal on one side, and three purple dyed jasper rondelle beads on the other.

Pendant, clasp and chain

I decided to make matching earrings match the dangles that hang behind the heart. <rant> Man, making loops on 2-4mm faceted beads is a KILLER on my thumbs! I have got to find a new method because I am pushing directly on the facets when I bend my wires and it just hurts. </rant>  The large bead at the top of the earrings is the dyed jasper on the left side (facing) of the chain, and the dangles are the same beads as the ones that dangle from the hearts. They are not only a great match, but they are lightweight and will work great worn with or without the necklace.


Matching Dangle Earrings

You can see both items in my Etsy shop: Necklace and Earrings. Thanks for stopping by!

Wellness Words Jewelry Challenge

Today's post is about Tracy Statler's Wellness Words Jewelry Challenge from her blog Make Bracelets! I love all of Tracy's blog posts and it's one of the few that I follow - I usually learn something from each one of them and I look forward to getting and email that there is a new one to read.

Tracy's challenge was to come up with an inspirational word or phrase in an area of your life where you want to make positive change. My word: Persist.  I have been working on finishing things that I start!

I knew I wanted to stamp my word on a strip of brass, which I had on hand. Another word I could have used - "Practice," because good, clear, even stamping isn't one of my strengths. You can probably tell by the position of the I.

Friday night was a prime example of persistence. I waited until the last minute finish this necklace (maybe my phrase should have been "Stop Procrastinating") and I thought about just saying to heck with the deadline. I mean, I had the phrase piece done. But I stuck with it for once!

However, it was too late to get a good photo. There is always a hitch, isn't there? So you are getting the best photo I could take tonight. I promise to get a better photo of the whole necklace, because it looks pretty good and there's lots more goodies to see than just this section.

EDITED: I'm back with more photos of the rest of the necklace. Originally, I was going to have the "Persist" Brass segment hang from the art bead and then the dangles hang from that, but it turned out way too long and in the end, I like it as part of the necklace anyway. The brass flowers were a plain connector that I colored with Vintaj Patinas and Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks.The remainder of the necklace is finished with a combination of Picasso finish beads and Tiger Eye tube beads on the left, and Brown Glass bead, a polka-dot Lampwork Art bead, and Blue Peruvian Opal stick beads on the right.  The back end of the necklace ends with a brass chain and a toggle (OK fine! It *will* end with a chain and toggle, I promise!)


Complete necklace (left); Pendant and Dangle detail (right)

Please visit everyone else who participated in this challenge.

acreativeforce.blogspot.com alankarshilpa.blogspot.com

allprettythings.ca

anniamaebisuteria.blogspot.com.es/

apolymerpenchant.com

beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

beadrecipes.wordpress.com

centsations.wordpress.com

clay-space.com/

creativeatelier.net

elliesbijoux.com

emakdesigns.com

erinsiegel.com

etsy.com/shop/shamaen

facebook.com/hotsouthernmessdesigns

facebook.com/soquilidesigns

fairiesmarket.blogspot.com

firstimpressiondesign.blogspot.com

gemsbyjudy.com

glasstastreasures.blogspot.com

handcraftedserenity.blogspot.com humblebeads.blogspot.com

facebook.com/azuresunshines

facebook.com/whdalaska

jeanetteblix.com

kimmykats.com

kymhunterdesigns.blogspot.com

lisayangjewelry.com

macmillanmarie.blogspot.com

makebraceletsblog.com

miabellasoul.com

misheldesigns.com

mycreativechallenge.blogspot.com

noseycritters.blogspot.com

pixiloo.blogspot.com

sandivolpe.com

sharonsjewelrygarden.blogspot.com

shaterra.etsy.com

shinylittlethings.blogspot.com

shymedesign.se

shymessmycken.blogspot.se

simpleearthcreations.com

soultosubstance.com

suebeads.com

sunshinebliss.com

sweetbeadstudio.com

sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com

thebeadingyogini.com

thestudiosublime.com

treasures-found.blogspot.com

twitter.com/ldymlivelystone

vault31.blogspot.com

veradesigns.blogspot.com

The Brave Necklace

I promised myself that I would start filling my Etsy shop with all the designs I already have made but haven't listed because of all the holiday shows (and the fact that I *hate* listings - but that's another story).  So this week, I kept that promise to myself and listed 3 items over 3 days - not bad!

One of them was this inspirational necklace with a decorative "Brave" charm hanging from the end.

"Brave" necklace

I had this decorative charm in my stash for a long time before this design came to me. I wanted something special for it! For a certain time in the near past, bravery was a pretty important part of my day. Let's just say that teenage children can be beyond stressful!

One day, I pulled out the charm and the keyhole connector and started designing. Out came this little necklace. I love the Brave charm and keyhole together, the little pearl, the little wing, the shades of brown, grays and blues in the beads - heck, I love everything about this design.

Late in the evening, I get a notification on my phone, and it's an Etsy notification - I've sold the Brave necklace! It was my first sale after getting my iPhone, it's a "cha-ching" sound, LOL! Took me a while to figure that out.

As it turns out, a FB friend from one of my groups purchased it, and had the nicest things to say, "You never know when your jewelry will be an answer to a prayer! You have no idea how this will brighten up someone's day."

Gosh. I never thought about how my jewelry might affect people in that way. I only thought about how it made me feel. It's really validating for someone *else* to feel that way.

What a great end to my week!

Berries & Leaves - Artisan Whimsy's November Challenge

Artisan Whimsy is a great website for creative folks to connect. It was created by 3 ladies from our Facebook group Creative Bead Chat. If you aren't a member yet, you should head over to both and join us!  Every month, they host a challenge. This month, it's Berries and Leaves. Perfect for the Holidays!

 

 



I have been on a nature kick with Fall in full swing. Mo, my 2 year old Bassett/Cockapoo mix, and I walk around our neighborhood park every day! I pick up acorns, dandelions, bark just to mention a few - and I take photos. Tons of photos (thank goodness for digital photos). I use my phone when I forget my camera...those don't always turn out the best, but sometimes you get lucky. Mo is wonderful when I stop and start shooting the same flower from 12 different angles - she just stops and sits down, patiently waiting for me to finish. That's pretty hard for a high-energy dog to do!

Here are my favorites from my last "Photo Shoot."

My photos from Louisville Park in Columbia, MO

I decided to use one or more of these as the basis for a piece of jewelry for the Berries and Leaves challenge, so I started playing in Picasa. Picasa is a free photo editing software. It works for almost every photo editing function I need. Plus, did I mention it's FREE?!

I love the milkweed pod and seed photos, I think I really managed to capture how they were blowing in the wind that day. But when I sized them down to create a pendant - down to a mere 1 to 1 1/2 inches tall - all of the detail was lost! So those photos are going to have to be used in a different way.

Next I decided to work with the Winterberry photo. It is a species of holly that grows wild in Missouri, all over our park.. It was the perfect green and red for a holiday pendant. I spiked up the color in Picasa and shrunk it down to fit in a round bezel I had in my stash.

My new color printer makes great color copies, but it's an Injet - which runs like crazy if I were to put resin or paper glaze over it. I did an internet search on how to set inkjet color, and the answer is - Krylon fixative spray (gotta love Google)! I got some today, and sprayed the photos I printed out. After they dried, I coated the paper with Alene's Paper Glaze. Last, I put the coated photo into the bezel and topped it with another coat of Paper Glaze.

Ta Da! Winterberry Pendant

I decided to keep the necklace simple and topped it with a cluster of olive green and red Swarovski crystals and an 18" brass chain.

Finished necklace with Swarovski crystal cluster

 

And so I have entered and completed my first Artisan Whimsy challenge. Tune in tomorrow for my "No Berries and Leaves" challenge piece, using the Tree photo above.

Reveal: My Bead Table Blog Hop

Today is the reveal for Lisa Lodge's My Bead Table Blog Hop. Lisa sent us a (large) package of random coordinating beads, and along with things in our stash (stash only! no purchasing! that was the rules), we were to use as much as we could and Create.

Finally, the package arrived and inside I found a large bag of glass, seed beads, gemstone chips, some findings and large acrylic petals. The color scheme? Hot Pink. Bright Yellow. Black. White. The acrylic petals were big, over an inch tall. She also included 2 chicken beads - that's right, CHICKENS. What am I supposed to do with chickens? 

Bawk, bawk!

I have never worked with acrylic beads, and bright pink and yellow aren't colors that I usually work with. Ever. Fortunately, they came about 4 weeks earlier so I had time. I put them aside, and every time I passed by them, I thought about what to do.

When October rolled around, I knew it was time to get started actually using the beads. Still confused about what to do with these bright beads, finally something hit me. It's October, and I have a mix of pink beads. I decided to make jewelry to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness.

The first thing I made was a Memory Wire bracelet. Whew, already the pressure was lighter - I used a lot of beads on this one! P.S.: this is the photo I pixellated for my preview post earlier this week. I actually like this bracelet and the color combo! It turns out all I needed to do was just begin.

First design, Memory Wire bracelet

Then I started on a necklace. I wanted a long necklace with a dangling pendant. There was a large white Howlite bead that was perfect as the foundation for the pendant. I used a variety of beads to make the dangles of various lengths. To continue with the Breast Cancer Awareness theme, I made a beaded pink ribbon out of seed beads and 28 ga. wire. I have some interesting crinkle stringing wire from Beadalon that I used for the lower beaded part. To show off the wire, I used crimp beads to space the beads. The remainder of the necklace is silver tone chain, and I finished it off with an "S" clasp that was part of the bead mix. It is very long, hanging well past the bust line. Perhaps that's why I had a really hard time getting a photo of this necklace. I am still not happy with the final photos, and I may try again this weekend depending on the lighting.

 

Time to make some earrings. I used the leftover chain from the necklace to make a quick pair of pink and yellow drop earrings with the small rhinestone beads.

Drop earrings in pink and yellow

I used 2 of the peach acrylic petals for a second pair of earrings. At first, I tried to use an eyepin through the top hole with another loop lower on the pin. I bent the middle to match the curve of the bead. It didn't hang well AT ALL! It looked terrible. After about 3 times, I tried a jumpring through the top, and I attached the eyepin to that. That worked exactly like I wanted. I love the look of these earrings especially with the heart charm, but they clack a little when you wear them.

Peach acrylic petal and crystal drop earrings

 

This second necklace is my favorite. The pink and brown button above the acrylic petal and the black and white leaf button are part of a closeout set of wooden buttons that I got on Etsy. Along with a caramel colored crystal rondelle and various leaf beads in my stash, it works for me. I wish I could get the petal to quit spinning around. I am going to play with the jump rings some more this weekend.

I had one more project planned, but I just ran out of time. It is the last hot pink acrylic petal filled with resin and a Pink Ribbon oval with a few pink glitter hearts sprinkled in. I intend to finish it with a simple chain and a pink ribbon accent above the petal pendant.

These was one casualty - a broken glass heart...I broke it trying to tighten up the loop I made at the top. It split right in half! I wasn't happy either, I really wanted to use it. I guess I don't know my own strength.

My broken heart

All in all, I am happy with how everything turned out for this Blog Hop. I like the designs I came up with, I made 4 1/2 pieces of jewelry and I used a lot more beads than I ever thought I would when the package arrived that's for sure.

But I still don't know what I'm going to do with the chicken beads. If you know a chicken lover, let me know - I'll send you some beads.

Please be sure and visit all the Blog Hop participants to read their story and see their designs!

Host: Lisa Lodge, Pine Ridge Treasures

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution
Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...
Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse
Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings
Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life
Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps
Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs
Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's
Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Handcrafted Serenity  *you are here
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs
Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress
Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky
Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!
Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!
Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog
Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey
Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories