Playing with Resin

I am taking a break and visiting family for a few days.  It is nice to get away but the weather is much colder here than at home.

We now have more of our new blank snaps with a bezel frame in stock.  These are flat inside so don't need prepping with clay first before filling.  They also work well with other mediums like resin.  They are now available in 2 sizes, the larger 20mm and now also the slightly smaller 18mm.  I like both sizes but the smaller one sometimes looks nicer in the framed pendants and other findings and doesn't overwhelm them.

I have been experimenting with different ways of filling these snaps using resin.  The resin I was using before was a UV type.  I like this resin as it cures under a UV light and only takes about 20 minutes.  It does tend to get a lot of bubbles, however, and some are not visible and can later rise to the surface during the curing.  I found it is best to let them sit for a while and then pop any bubbles that show up before putting them under the light.

I recently tried the Art Resin from Shades of Clay which I found to be very easy to use.  You just need to let it sit longer (over night is best) to harden but is so worth the wait as it is a very good quality resin.

Shades of Clay also carries some cool inclusions to go into the resin if you are looking for something different other than clay.  I just had some of the German Glass Glitter in silver which is in the red snap below.  The red color is from alcohol inks added to the bottom of the snap before adding the glitter.  Resin was added over top of that to create a glass-like finish.  The teal and green snap at the back (top) was created using the shredded type glitters and alcohol inks with mica flakes create a faux opal effect in the snap on the right.

For the snaps below I baked thin sheets of crackled clay in the bottom of the snap and then added the resin on top.

And the other day my friend, Joanne and I were playing with the clay circles cut out in the Pantone Spring colors to create various retro canes.  These clay logs shown here give an idea as to how the various colors were stacked and inserted into the extruder to create the pattern.

I baked some thin clay veneer sheets in the snap and then added the resin on top.  I love the glass-like finish on these and the resin  magnifies the pattern.