New Techniques- Ice Resin

I bought some Ice Resin a couple of months ago, but I have been afraid to play with it. I tend to do that- buy new things but not get around to them for a while.

I bought some old rusty lids which I showed here and thought this would be something fun to use with the resin. 

Here are the results:

For the left one, I left the lid the way it came. I added a dried flower and some text. For the one on the right, I first used a patina on it to make it almost black. Then I added a flatter dried flower and text.

I mixed the minimum amount of ice resin suggested, (1/4 oz each of part A and part B) let it sit for 5 minutes, then drizzled it over the lids. I had a LOT of resin left, so I half filled some frames which I sell in my bead shop. I still had a lot left so I grabbed a piece of ephemera paper and coated that too! Note to self and others trying resin for the first time: Always have plenty of things prepared to use resin on. You won't believe how far that stuff goes!

I am very pleased at how the pieces came out. Of course you have to allow it to cure for 3 days, but you can work with the pieces (carefully) after 6 hours.  Although things went pretty much faultless, there are a few things I learned in my first experience with Ice Resin.

1. Always have plenty of things ready to coat/fill with resin. I would rather have too many things prepared than to waste unused resin.

2. Always stick loose pieces down. I thought that pouring the resin on the flowers and text would hold them down. Wrong. They tried numerous times to float up on me and I had to use toothpicks to keep pushing them back down.

3. Watch for bugs. Wait, what? Yeah. I had put my Ott lamps over the pieces for a little while after I poured them so that it would help with raising bubbles to the top. I went out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back, a skeeter hawk (dunno if that is their real name but that's what we call them in the South) had landed on the piece of paper. (Guess he was attracted to the light and the paper was like 9 inches below it.) He had gotten into the house earlier last night but was in my living room which has a vaulted ceiling, so I could not get him out. I didn't even know he had made it to my studio/office.  Man that was NOT fun, pulling him out of the resin. I am terrified of bugs. My hubby said I should have just left him there but I don't care to sell resin coated bugs. lol

4. If you do add pressed real flowers as I did, you may want to coat them with mod podge or something before using them. I knew that the resin would make the paper more transparent, but it also really made the flatter flower very transparent. I wish I had coated it. The thicker flower turned out great!

5. Watch videos and read tips online. There are a lot of resin videos out there on the web. After watching a few, I felt confident that I too could use resin! It really is easy and fun!

I can't wait to make some cool jewelry out of the pieces I made :D

Riding The Inspiration Bus Reveal

Another Saturday, another reveal day for the My Life Under the Bus Inspiration Challenge! If you have not read about it before, Patty gives us an inspiration picture, which our color palette comes from.

I started out with this piece.(of course I always have to recycle something) It was originally a beaded brooch. I removed part of the back and the center section of beads and then added the yellow/orange rose to the center.


 I then searched my bead boxes and found an array of amber, glass and ceramic beads to match the  brooch. Check out how the green beads in the brooch match the green ceramic beads perfectly! Old and new- perfectly matched!

The completed piece 

 I created a clasp from brass and hammered it. The "ring" it hooks into was part of the middle of the brooch that I removed to add the flower. It turned out to be the perfect ring!

 So there ya go, my piece for this week. Old and new :)

A Few Weekend Things

This past weekend was pretty productive. I managed to create 4 necklaces and work on a few more things.
The Dragon Pendant and the chain in this necklace were both from my stuff stash- previously loved stuff.  I added the freshwater pearls. I thought of cleaning the chain before adding it, but I just love the look of vintage-y grungy stuff!

 This necklace was also made of all previously loved components. Bits and bobs of old jewelry, random beads and the lovely rose.

I have never really made wedding type jewelry.  When I completed it, I thought, hey, this would be perfect for a wedding! When my daughter came over later she said the same thing before I said anything. I had gardenias in my wedding and she was like "Oh, that would have been perfect for you to have worn at your wedding!" Coool :D

This necklace was a good bit of work. I started with the cool charm. It was a silvery color, so I bronzed it and then coated it in Renaissance wax to seal it. I used carnelian rounds, wood ovals and gorgeous black quartz. I decided to make the back from Recycled Sari Silk. I hand stitched around the edge and made a clasp for it, which hooks into a loop I made in the silk. It was still missing something. I thought about what the pendant meant, then remembered I had just purchased some word charms. I was sure hoping to see courage when I found the pack and YES! One that said courageous.

The 4th necklace I created I can't show just yet. It is for the  My Life Under The Bus Inspiration Challenge this week. Last week I waited too long and got busy and didn't get my inspiration piece made. :( This week I wanted to make sure I got it completed, so I went ahead and did it last night :D Yay! These challenges are really fun! Basically she gives us a picture and color palette to work with and we create from there. Here is this weeks inspiration pics:

I'll be posting the piece I created on Saturday for the "reveal."

T.G.I.F!!!!!!!!!!!! or not

I know everyone always says TGIF and things like that, but I don't really get it. For people who work a 9-5 M-F work week, the weekend is exciting. Not so much for those who run online businesses. You can't put up a closed sign and lock the door. Well I guess you could put your shop on vacation for the weekend, but you would risk losing those weekend sales. Also, you still get emails or convos from customers and have to provide customer service during the weekend. So really, there is no excitement for the weekend for me. Well, except for creating new stuff! Now that's fun... I mean work...I mean fun... ehhh whatever.

Totally loving this necklace. I created the slide pendant last night and worked on the design and creation today. I always get frustrated trying to find the perfect bead caps, so I created my own. I twisted recycled Sari Silk for the top of the necklace.  Again, sorry for the bad pic, but I took it on my work surface. I hope to get this necklace in my shop tomorrow. :)

For those that actually get a the weekend off- TGIF! And for the rest of us... Have a Happy, Productive Weekend! :)