Now resin pendants are a very quickly fill-up the pendant, leave it, wear it art.... until extras are added - such as pages! As you know one of the great things about Harry Potter is the language so it's quite easy to tell what the pendants relate to and it's that that makes them unique.
So, what did I learn making Harry Potter jewellery with resin? Quite a bit!
Choose a piece of text that has nothing on the back! This could take a while to get the perfect piece of text, but is an important step!
I found that once the resin was applied, the text on the reverse of my page started to come through, and it dried like that!
Once you have mastered the art of cutting out the image to the exact size of the pendant (yeah I haven't, so no tips on that I'm afraid). You need to seal the moisture in.
Hairspray will do this just fine and don't freak out at how transparent the page goes, it will dry out fine. If you've not followed the above step and the text on the reverse are coming through don't worry, it will not dry like that.... not because of the hairspray anyway!
I think after my second pendant I finally figured that I need a very small amount of resin glue around the edges of the paper - this is to stop the paper lifting.
Don't be too eager with the glue and cover the base of the pendant - it comes through the page. I'm sure if it does this with all paper mediums - but it will do this for Harry Potter pages.
If you're a bit of a perfectionist - and you probably are if you're crafty or enjoy making jewellery - Take care lining up the text when placing the paperback on the pendant. The glue will take a little while to set and it is so easy to move the paper ever so slightly whilst fixing in place.
It may not be a big deal or noticeable to others - but it's one of those nagging feelings at the back of your mind when it does happen.
Only the smallest amount of colour is needed.
If you get carried away the colour will be too dark and you won't see the text underneath, which will kind of lose its purpose.
I found mixing the clear and harder first with a couple of drops of colour worked best for me in the end.
Against my better judgement, I did this - Do not fill the pendants in dim light and/or when tired.
You may overfill the pendant and if not noticed until the next day you will have a job pulling the pendant off the block let alone any spillage on the pendant itself! I think this may be because the pendant is dark itself that it was harder to see it overflow? I don't know and I don't plan on finding out again anytime soon!
The second point I'd like to make about filling the pendants in dim light - air bubbles!! You may not notice in dim light and if not caught before the resin dries, you're stuck with it and as this is the final step it can be quite disheartening to get to this stage and impatience causes a few bubbles - take a rest.
If you notice bubbles whilst the resin is wet, a quick run over the pendant with a lighter will get rid of them.
And finally - Use a little sample on the block! This will stop you from touching the pendant before its ready... and you will want to touch it!
I would advise waiting a full 24 hours before even thinking about touching the pendant.
I now own a few pieces that have my fingerprint on the tip of them!
So, those are all the lessons I've learnt (thus far!). I do hope they come in useful and you can avoid them when using Resin Jewellery.Hairspray will do this just fine and don't freak out at how transparent the page goes, it will dry out fine. If you've not followed the above step and the text on the reverse are coming through don't worry, it will not dry like that.... not because of the hairspray anyway!
I think after my second pendant I finally figured that I need a very small amount of resin glue around the edges of the paper - this is to stop the paper lifting.
Don't be too eager with the glue and cover the base of the pendant - it comes through the page. I'm sure if it does this with all paper mediums - but it will do this for Harry Potter pages.
If you're a bit of a perfectionist - and you probably are if you're crafty or enjoy making jewellery - Take care lining up the text when placing the paperback on the pendant. The glue will take a little while to set and it is so easy to move the paper ever so slightly whilst fixing in place.
It may not be a big deal or noticeable to others - but it's one of those nagging feelings at the back of your mind when it does happen.
Only the smallest amount of colour is needed.
If you get carried away the colour will be too dark and you won't see the text underneath, which will kind of lose its purpose.
I found mixing the clear and harder first with a couple of drops of colour worked best for me in the end.
Against my better judgement, I did this - Do not fill the pendants in dim light and/or when tired.
You may overfill the pendant and if not noticed until the next day you will have a job pulling the pendant off the block let alone any spillage on the pendant itself! I think this may be because the pendant is dark itself that it was harder to see it overflow? I don't know and I don't plan on finding out again anytime soon!
The second point I'd like to make about filling the pendants in dim light - air bubbles!! You may not notice in dim light and if not caught before the resin dries, you're stuck with it and as this is the final step it can be quite disheartening to get to this stage and impatience causes a few bubbles - take a rest.
If you notice bubbles whilst the resin is wet, a quick run over the pendant with a lighter will get rid of them.
And finally - Use a little sample on the block! This will stop you from touching the pendant before its ready... and you will want to touch it!
I would advise waiting a full 24 hours before even thinking about touching the pendant.
I now own a few pieces that have my fingerprint on the tip of them!
Below are my final Harry Potter Jewellery pieces that I've made - do let me know what you think in my comments.
what fabulous pieces of jewellery you've made - i love the idea of using the harry potter pages as your inspiration. x
ReplyDeletethank you Rebecca x
DeleteThey're brilliant! I'm more of a paper crafter myself but I love seeing what other crafters get up to. Loving your blog so far :) x
ReplyDeleteaw thank you.
DeleteI do like decoupage the best I think, but I'll dabble in other crafts, but like you I do favour paper crafting