Resin!

 I came across some resin bangles the other day that I thought were pretty and it got me thinking about resin and how I have never played around with it. I decided to order a kit that included Ice resin (name of the brand of resin), tiny plastic cups for measuring, and some popsicle sticks for stirring. Before my kit got here I started planning out what I might like to try first. I had seen some resin jewelry with dried and pressed flowers and decided that would be a fun first project. I searched my yard for some pretty things and found some neat wild flowers and leaves.Got out some huge heavy books and laid the flowers and things between paper towel. I also hung up some bundles of flowers to dry so that they would be more 3-D and not pressed flat.

My kit came and I was ready to start. I made my own sterling silver bezel to pour resin in (no pictures of this one yet), and I also made 2 bezels from a small copper pipe my husband bought me (There are tutorials out there that show you how to make the pipe bezels). I also bought an adjustable ring from Hobby Lobby to pour in.

Here are a few pictures of one of the necklaces.

 What I found out is that resin is hard to capture on film. It has such a nice glossy finish that the light reflecting off it makes it hard to see it fully. Also, I bought these really awesome "chartreuse" beads, but they look more basic yellow in the photos.

 I stamped on the bottom of the pipe bezel "wild flower" just for the fun of it.

 This shows you one side of the pendant.

Here is the other.
I love how these pipe bezels allow you to have something showing on each side. In the future I will probably experiment with making more of my own bezels, but I have seen some pretty neat pre-made ones out there that would make some really fun jewelry. Unfortunately, the silver bezel I made turned out good, but I don't like how it turned out nearly as much as the one in the picture. Because the bezel I made had a back to it the overall appearance is pretty dark. You really have to see it up close to see what is in the resin. I think maybe cutting out a light colored paper background would have helped make the flowers and beads I embedded in the resin show up better. Also, some flowers look pretty when dried and some turn ugly colors when dried. I will have to figure that all out a bit better sometime.

Here is the ring.

I wasn't so sure how this would turn out half way through. What I learned is that you pour your resin to the top of your bezel and let it dry for a bit. Come back and very carefully pour a bit more on top to make a little dome above the resin. It's a bit scary because you basically keep dripping resin in the middle until the resin spreads to the edges and then right when it looks like it could spill over, you stop (and then you pray you don't bump your table). After my first pour the ring looked kind of ugly. There were all kinds of bits that were sticking out and it looked like a mess. It's amazing how "doming" really magnifies what's in the resin and gives the piece a really nice smooth shiny look. I am happy with the end result and I can't wait to make a few more.

Here are a few links to get you started with resin if you are interested:
Ice resin website with videos and all kinds of stuff to look through.
http://www.iceresin.com/
Tutorial video-
http://beadaholique.com/t-video-how-to-fill-an-open-back-bezel-with-resin.aspx