How to make resin jewelry

     How to make resin jewelry is my passion. Learning to work with resin it’s a long process but not so hard if you have the right information. I will share my experience with you. I know it may be confusing to try to get the right info about this new and interesting medium. Making beautiful things like pendants, beads, jewelry, bracelets, and more it’s not hard you just have to try and try and never gave up.

I’ve been trying for a while now to discover the secrets behind resin. Let me tell you...it’s not easy to figure out which resin is good and which is not.

I read so many things about epoxy and polyester resin and finally I end up being more confuse.

I guess that like in everything else in life you have to try it for yourself and see which one works best for you.

I start to work with 2 parts epoxy resin the one you can find in any craft store-easy cast-I was so excited at first trying all the new projects and experiencing with this new medium.

My experience is that even I was so excited at first…a lot of my pieces come out blur or having trapped air bubble. Well you can fix those problems but what you cannot fix is that in time your resin piece will yellow.

From the Epoxy resins I do like Envirotex lite brand. The finish piece is more crystal clear and also I note that it keeps better in time.

I was still not happy with my results so I make another step and…try Polyester Resin. Ughhhh….that smell ! Please if you use this resin reed all instruction before use. It’s very important to use it in a good ventilated area. You can say that you start a new class. Working with polyester resin is different from using epoxy. You don’t have the 1:1 ratio anymore but you have to weight or use it by the volume to add catalyst. It may be tricky but trust me you can figure out the right ratio. I do like to use 10 drops of catalyst for 2 oz of resin. This makes your piece not to be sticky and also not very brittle. Depend on your project how long it has to cure and also on humidity and temperature. A perfect temperature will be 72 F. I do like to let my project to cure for 3 days without touching. Once you take it from your mould you should not put it back. You can polish resin with dry and wet grit starting from 320 grit and go graduate to 600-800 grit. It easier and you will get very good results if you use a stream of water and a little dish wash soap. Do not forget to wash your piece when you switch grits.

Polishing and buffing it’s not always necessary. Depend on your project.

I do love the results with polyester resin even if it takes more time and more patience from your side.

One of my projects.

Good luck.

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