Friday, April 4, 2008

Extreme crafting - resin jewellery

Usually the holidays give me time to catch up with crafty friends- we like to plan a whole crafting day and often try something new that one or a few of us are keen on. We have tried all sorts of things in the past.



This holidays- led by the art teacher from school, we were all set to try our hand at hand casting some resin jewellery.

In her haste and excitement to join the Fat Quarters for a crafting day, on her way to the car with a box of supplies for us, the art teacher promptly fell down, broke her leg and her ankle and ripped her tendons in the other ankle ! YIKES.


Of course, we didn't know this on the day , we simply proceeded without her , by reading the instructions on the tin and using what we had each gleaned from our favourite source , the Internet.


Don't let this stuff fool you. I know it is the colour of champagne and it has bubbles like champagne - but boy oh boy it stinks. (We wore masks and worked outside-I told you it was extreme).
We used a variety of moulds, some specific to resin casting ( available from spotlight) and some were flexible ice-cube trays or small flexible cake tins.

We popped all sorts of things in after the first layer of resin had been poured....... You have to wait till it is set enough to take the weight of the object and the carefully pop your weeny little object in.

This is a little shell that a friend gave me and a bit of old broken watch machinery.They are resting on the first layer of resin and waiting to be filled up.
Our pieces took longer to set than suggested (like 2 days) but that could be because it has been really cold here lately. Also, we found that the ones that had resin dye in them took longer than the others to set.
The watch machinery in clear resin

Some beads A piece of tape measure.

These are my favourite , I had it in mind to make some handles for a new (very very ugly) set of drawers I have under my sewing table. These were the experiment set. I bought this mould at spotlight as well and the "doings" to turn them into knobs.

Verdict: We had loads of smelly fun doing this. I have a new respect for all those resin artists out there - it is not easy to do this tidily at all. I will do it again because I already have the moulds and am keen to make some drawer knobs for the ugly drawers. I can't see myself ever making jewellery but slightly chunkier things like fridge magnets would be great !

We visited the art teacher in hospital today - she is feeling much better but kind of bedridden until she can walk on the least bad foot. Then it is probably 6 weeks at home "resting". She is worried she will get bored................................really ! ...........hasn't she ever heard of blogging?


We have promised to teach her all about it!

57 comments:

  1. Wow they are all so cool. I think my favourite is the one with the multicoloured beads.

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  2. Ooooh! I have a book about this, but have never tried it..... Apartment-life has some restrictions. I like the letter-ones you did as knobs for drawers! That is such a great idea! They would be fun as magnets too! In my book they used dried flowers and leaves too.
    My favourite here must be the tape-measure. That looks so cute!

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  3. They look great - I really love the tape measure one and the one with the watch movement in!!!

    Poor art teacher - ouch!!! I do hope she gets better soon - hopefully helped along by a healthy dose of blogging :)

    xxx

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  4. Cor! I'd love to try that!

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  5. Oh, man....this has so been popping up in my mind lately, and when your pics were suddenly on my screen, I turned to dh and asked him if he had seen those bottles at the Bunnings at the top of our block. Turns out, we actually have them in our garage. Guess what *my* weekend activity is going to be?? :P (I used to do this with my mom when I was a kid, and we did the whole shebang, with wetsanding and everything...did you guys do that??)(Side benefit to dh being a floorsander...we already have all the gasmasks and everything on hand, lol)kxfjq

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  6. Uh Oh... did you know I am psychic???

    I see in your future a new HOBBY!!!

    I like the tape measure one, and the idea's are endless... unlike this post!



    Lissa

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  7. It was a good day Jodie, but yours turned out much better than mine. Poor Jenny, however she did have a magnificent view... and 6 weeks off work...

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  8. Wow I love these especially the scrabble tiles. They would make great fridge magnets.

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  9. Ohhh your poor friend. That just stinks! I like your scrabble tiles the best too...good luck making your drawer pulls!

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  10. Can you please tell me where you got your insructions?? The results are amazing!

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  11. WOW! Those are just toooooo cool!! I wanna try! :D

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  12. Oh your poor friend! The sooner you teach her about blogging the better - I would go stir crazy stuck resting for that long (unless I had my computer, knitting, sewing, reading, telly (and little darlings of course) to keep me company!)

    I think you should make some resin-y things for your SHOP! (did I say it loudly enough to get you to put it on your sidebar?)

    Lucy x

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  13. Oh no! Poor art teacher - couldn't you have reset her leg with the resin? :-p

    Those are seriously cool little 'things' - I love the watch innards one.

    Thanks for sharing. x

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  14. Great!, so cool I think. You are a talented artist!
    Saludos desde Barcelona.

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  15. how fantastic - they look really cool!

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  16. Wow, it is great you had a go!! I really like these they are interesting and quirky. Good on you...

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  17. They look amazing - and fun!

    Shame someone had to get injured in the process though...truly is extreme crafting!

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  18. Wow. You do some really interesting craft. I love the way they came out. They all look fantastic.
    Don't think I'd be game to try your extreme craft, the smell alone would kill me.
    Your poor teacher, what an awful thing to happen. I hope she gets better asap.

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  19. They remind me so much of the old lucite pendants and paperweights.
    I loved the one with the beads and the scrabble tiles would make dear knobs. Even an ugly, ugly set of drawers could give you a smile with those cute pulls.
    Poor art teacher, hope she enjoys sketches, she'll have time to fill a book.

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  20. Oh Jodie, these are so AMAZING! I can see that this would have been a lot of work, but how did you deal with the fumey headaches afterwards?

    The poor art teacher. I am really feeling for her.

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  21. Oh wow! And you thought my buttons looked like sweets!!!! I had to stop myself from licking the computer screen :P

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  22. No kidding about the SMELL! But I see now that there is a brand that sells a "low odor" resin. I think it's made by Castin' Craft.

    I'm using it in bottlecaps for the molds.

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  23. Wow! They look great. I love the scrabble letter the best.

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  24. Scrabble letters triffic, resin casting ace but v.v. stinky and poor teacher friend. You weren't joking about extreme crafting, huh?




    BTW did you know it is NOT normal for hospitals to be side by side?

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  25. What a great idea to all have a get together like that to create. Thay turned out really well-sorry to hear about the art teacher.

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  26. wow - they are amazing. i'm almost tempted to do them myself, but i have way too many fingers in way too many pies. they do look beautiful though - maybe next year....
    l
    x

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  27. They look fantastic. I'd love to give it a try, but if my tidiness factor when cooking is anything to go by, using resin is way out of my league.

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  28. i love this!
    although messy it looks like so much fun and they turned out so cool.

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  29. I love this!!!!!!1I would really want to try it too some time.You are such a busy bee!love the one with the washingmachine thing it it!xoxo

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  30. I have been wanting to do this for ages. The results are great. I especially love the scrabble letters - I am definitely a letters and numbers person, so this is my sort of 'thing'.
    You have inspired me again. Thanks.

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  31. Art is about experimenting and fun, isn't it?

    There was an artist on Sunday Arts yesterday who made jewellery from objects imbedded in resin - check it out on www.abc.net.au

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  32. Very cool! You should be proud! Love the colors and textures.

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  33. I love this experiment! Everything looks so great. I hope I have a chance to try this out someday.

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  34. These all look awesome...cannot wait to try my hand at this one day soon!!

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  35. I just love these! I've been coming back here to look again for the past 3 days - and then I get to thinking about what I could do. Dresser knobs, door knobs, maybe the kitchen cupboards! My job gets in the way of my creative time - but I shall add this to my list of things to try! Honestly, this blogging thing is just getting me into trouble!

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  36. Just gorgeous, hope to see piccies of the drawers when you've finished!

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  37. This is awesome! I really want to try this soon.
    Have you seen Stoopidgerl products? She makes resin jewelry with brightly colored things:sprinkles, beads, candy, glitter!
    check it out:
    http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5264823

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  38. I love your resin casting! Where did you get those cool moulds from?

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  39. Love the moulds. I know you said you got them at 'spotlight', but I have no idea what/where that is. Is that a local place? Is it on the net anywhere?

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  40. Woop, nevermind. My google-fu was weak.

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  41. playing with resin is on my list of dream crafting days, but I'm always scared off at the last minute by the thought of the smell. But this post has got me excited all over again.

    thank you

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  42. how long did it take yours to set? it took me almost 48 hrs. is this normal?

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  43. Wearing a mask isn't enough, you really need a respirator. Working outside is good, but controlled airflow/exhaust is much better. Resin can be nasty stuff, and if you work with it long enough you can develop a sensitivity and major health problems. Please be careful, the stuff looks nice, but it might not be worth doing without taking better precautions.

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  44. To Anonymous...what do you mean by a respirator?? My dh uses something that looks like a gas mask for polyurethaning the floors he does, and it removes a large portion of the fumes you breath if you wear it. Is that similar to what you mean?

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  45. they are so cool, I will put this project on my 'to do' list!

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  46. Yes, something that will handle vapors and not just dust. Skin absorbs what's in the air as well though, so covering up is important too if the vapors are not being handled in an ideal way.

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  47. Oh wow- these are really cool! I like it...

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  48. Great idea for cabinet knobs. You said that you got the knob attachments and hardware from spotlight. Do you have a web address for them? Thank you!

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  49. Thank you for sharing this amazing tutorial with everyone. I just bought myself some resin and can't wait to play =)

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  53. Hey they are cool!

    I liked the fridge magnets idea.

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  54. Interesting post about Extreme crafting - resin jewellery
    I have enjoyed following your blog entries.

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  55. Hi! Your resin pieces came out beautiful! I just made some for the first time last night and had a question... How long did your resin stay liquid? Cuz mine dried up while the first layer was setting, and boy is it a pain to make! Any idea or suggestions?

    Thanks so much!

    Melanie

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  56. Thank you for sharing your experience. I am sort of trying to use the sort of resin to make jewelry. Yes it has to been cold in San Diego so my resin in the heart mold doesn't look like it's dry at all. Reading your blog totally helps me out when you said it took two days for the resin to dry. And yup it's not easy to make to jewelry out of resin but I will keep trying I'm too I know the drill. Peace.

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Hellloooooo !!!!