Playing with Resin!!!

Here is a close-up of two where I used fabric as the background. One is from Pokey and one is from soy wax printing. I just cut out the piece and glued it with Sobo glue to the bezel. It looks fab in real life. Sorry, the picts are not the best because I had to use just my iPhone. My digi camera works but I can't find my cable that connects to the camera to the computer. Need to buy a new one. I lost it when I got rid of my old desk top. BTW, you can enlarge any of the picts by clicking on it.

Picts of my copper pipe bezel charms and pendents. I did some fun soldering this summer. It is actually quite easy once you get in the groove. I gave away the charms at Art Unraveled this summer.

I had to lean the pendants over the edge of the table because the jump rings are actually built right into the bezel and extend into both sides so the back side is not flush. I had to extend it over the table so the backside was flat or the resin would glob over to one side. It was either that or I would have to have the bezels lean over on a book or something.

Just more picts of my bezels. I did this one during Jane Wynn's class at Valley Ridge. I will never use this big one for anything. Just experimenting.

That long silver bezel you see is one that I won from a blog contest that I entered from Amate. I won a bunch of bezels and bezel rings from Amate. You will see some of the bezel rings in this next pict.

The two top right ones are my pipe bezel rings that I made during my workshop with Jane Wynn at Valley Ridge. The other ones are the Amate bezel rings that I won during their blog thing. The green thing that they are set in is something I got at Michaels or Joann's from the garden dept. It is the green foam that you stick the stems in for flowers. It keeps the rings upright while the resin sets. Hey, I do what works.

Being the impatient person I am, I mixed up a larger batch of resin than I should have. You should mix small batches of resin and do more as you need it. Little Windows resn makes it easy for you to make up more as you need it anyway. I had some left over and I did not have anything really ready and I wanted to experiment...so I put it in a jar with some stuff and made this. I think I wanted to be a mad scientist in another life. I have mixed it up a couple of times before it has set. It has some bubbles in it, but I don't care.

Here is one using Little Windows trays - no bezel. The background you see is a board that I use for stenciling fabric - that is why it is so colorful.

More Little Windows trays and found objects in resin.

This is Little Windows doming tray and some of my stuff. The four little pieces were rather small and flat so I put them on the doming tray. You can actually pour resin using stickers and/or sheets of paper using the doming tray and the tray will catch the excess resin. Directions are on their website. I use it when I have small or shallow bezels, too. I just put the two key bezels here because I did those two last minute. BTW, when you have something that is copper colored, it is better to put something contrasting inside and not something copper colored inside or it will look too dark when you resin it. See how dark it looks with the copper colored face bead when I put resin in the key bezel?

Side view of the jar after it was stirred up.

More Little Windows trays with stuff and resin.

Keep going! I have text at the end!

Okay, end of picts! Hope you enjoyed that. I will post picts in a couple of days once the resin has hard cured. Some of it has soft cured but I had to put a second layer on it to dome some of it.

Okay, I used to think that resin was a really hard thing to do when it really is not at all. My friend, Harriet, and I braved the winter to go to Valley Ridge to learn how to do resin. We had a blast! It was a lot of fun. I have been doing resin ever since. It is not hard. It is messy though. I have to remember that my hair is longer and it does not belong in resin. I also have to remember that impatience is not a virtue with resin. Coughing does not work well with it either. I had to finish coughing first before pouring.

I used to buy my resin from Rio Grande but now I buy my resin from Little Windows. https://www.little-windows.com/index.php

The reason why is because it is easy to use, it does not smell, and it is low bubbles. I also like that Fran puts out all sorts of information on how to use it on her website for easy references. I sometimes forget and that makes it easy for me when I do my art in the middle of the night! I am also part of her referral program, so mention my name if you are ordering something from her. You can also be part of her referral program and get something if your art friends order something from the Little Windows website.
https://www.little-windows.com/referral.php

Back to resin, it is easier if you do it in small batches. If you realize you need more, you can mix up another batch while you are waiting for the previous batch. It is important to make sure you have the correct amount of resin to hardener. The correct proportion in on the bottles and there are measurements on the measuring cups. There are even little stirrers that come with the resin packs! Make sure you are on a level surface. What I do it use a board on my table. If I spill, then I don't care about messing up my table. I have a heat gun and small lighter nearby for bubbles. The straw doesn't work for me. I have a tendency to blow too hard. Make sure you have adequate light when you are pouring so you know when to stop so you don't pour past your bezel or tray line. A mistake I once made was touching the resin before curing. I have a piece now with my fingerprint on there. Don't touch something for a couple of days or you may ruin it.

To be sure, I will wait until tomorrow to pop the little discs out of the trays and put any holes in them with the manuals drills. If anything, I can use my Dremel to create holes. I would rather have them hard cured rather than too soft when drilling a hole through them. Last time, they were still too soft when I drilled and I ruined one of them. It was rather sad.

What I did...

1. Mix 2 part resin to 1 part hardner.

2. mix for 2 and 1/2 minutes slowly so I don't create bubbles.

3. Let sit 5 minutes - it starts to get warm.

4. Pour resin into trays or bezels. Cover with box or trays so dust doesn't get on resin, if desired.

5. Come back periodically to check for bubbles. I use heat gun or lighter to get rid of any bubbles.

6. Next day, mix up small batch of resin to put on second layer to cover any pits created by curing, hole bursting, or if I need any additional doming.

7. Let sit at least 24 hours, covered again (if desired).

8. Pop out of trays (if used).

9. Clean trays and doming trays, if used.

10. Embellish and create jewelry

Post a comment if you have any questions. Comments are welcome.