After watching my Sparkle Sistah Kristal Wick's new Mixed Media: Beaded Bracelets with Fiber, Beads, Crystals, Resin, and Wire DVD, I was overflowing with great things to share with you about using epoxy clay for bezel setting and making mixed-media jewelry. There's simply no way to tell it all in a blog post, but here are a few more great tips about working with resin that you must know to help you add depth and layers to your mixed-media jewelry projects!
Kristal uses UV curing resin, which cures in about 5-10 minutes under a UV lamp (like the one you use for your nails--as she demonstrates on the right) or in the sunshine. She makes bunches of charms and pendants on a cookie sheet and just puts the whole sheet outside to cure in the Colorado sunshine. You know it's cured when it doesn't feel tacky or sticky when you touch it. UV resin is fast, safe around kids, self-leveling, and nontoxic. (Did you see this
free resin bezel project from Kristal?)
When you glue paper, fabric, fibers, or whatnot into bezels, whether you use white glue, some sort of epoxy, or another kind of adhesive, be sure to let it dry completely and thoroughly. Wet glues and resin do not play well together and you'll end up with a sticky mess and/or air bubbles that can ruin your piece and break your heart.
Kristal recommends putting bezels on small cards (such as old business cards or scrap card stock) before filling with resin so that any spillover won't get in your UV lamp and also to help keep it level as you move it. If it doesn't cure level and flat, you'll have a weird bump on your piece. In order not to overfill a bezel with resin, just go drop by drop until the base is covered. Turn it to and fro to make sure it fills in all the edges and then allow it to level out and cure.
If you want a domed look on your resin bezel, you might expect to just add extra resin--kind of like icing a cake, right? No. It's a two-part process. To achieve a domed resin surface, apply the amount required to coat your piece and fill the bezel to all the edges but no more. Allow the resin level out and then cure completely--then add more to create the domed surface you're after.
If you do end up with an air bubble in your resin, just glue some embellishments over it and no one will be the wiser. Kristal glued a charm over an air bubble on one of her bezels and then disguised the charm's bail with--what else?--a crystal bead.
When you've created a whole slew of resin bezel pieces, fabric beads, epoxy creations, and more, think about layering them onto other jewelry pieces to create bold, dimensional jewelry, like the peyote-stitch wide cuff bead bracelet that Kristal embellished with some of her resin handiwork. Being a brooches-and-rings girl, I like the idea of just adding a pin back to some pieces to create a brooch or adhere them onto ring blanks to make big bold cocktail bling rings.
I can't say enough about Kristal's new DVD,
Mixed Media: Beaded Bracelets with Fiber Beads, Crystals, Resin, and Wire. It's a mixed-media jewelry artist's dream. You'll learn to make custom charms with resin and fabric, use scrapbook eyelets with flattened bottle caps to make floral pieces topped with flat-back crystals, and use rub-on transfers in bezel pendants and charms layered over sparkly fibers, hand-painted fabrics, napkins, paper, or paint. She shares how to layer metals, crystals, resin, fibers, and fabric into beautiful, unique, densely layered pieces that you can use in all your mixed-media jewelry-making projects. Very versatile and very fun! Don't miss it.