Resin Jewellery.

For Christmas 2010 Mr Opoes purchased me a 'Red Balloon Experience' and I had 12 months to use it. I was really excited to use my experience but I got pregnant, sold a house, moved into a rental, bought a block of land, signed a contract to build a new house, had a baby and moved again. So with all this going on I quickly forgot about the Christmas gift that Mr Opoes bought for me. Each experience is valid for 12 months so you can imagine surprise when I found my voucher a few hours before it expired. I jumped on their website and after a few minutes of searching I came across a jewellery making workshop that used resin to create three bracelets. Not really knowing what resin was I was just happy to come away from the experience with three possible Christmas gifts for my sisters and my mother so I was happy to pay the additional money.

 

Originally I was going to book myself into one of the classes been held in March but unfortunately the only date available was Caelan's birthday and I also thought that Quinlan might not have lasted the three hours without a feed and we couldn't give him any food because he would have only been 5 months old. So just before we moved into the new house I looked again on the Red Balloon website and I chose the last weekend in September to do my lesson. For everyone who knows me I am really good at forgetting things so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a telephone call to remind me about my upcoming class.

 

So Kylie was our lovely teacher and there were only six people in the class so we could ask questions and get her help when needed. Kylie did a run through of all the steps involved to pour a bracelet and ring and surprisingly all you needed to do was mix your colour into the 'A' container until you were happy with the overall colour. The next step was to mix 'B' for about 15 seconds or until it warms up and then you pour it into the mould. Most of the other girls knew what colours they were going to use prior to arriving so I took my time making my decisions because once you've poured you moulds you can't make any changes.

The first bracelet mould.

I was really confident picking my bracelet and ring designs, choosing the colour I wanted and mixing the solutions together. The part that scared me the most was pouring the warm liquid into the mould, the gap was really small and I didn't want to ruin it as we didn't get another opportunity to do it all again. I chose to do a purple pearl colour however I didn't realise that the pearl powder would lighten the colour. I was still really happy with the colour and how it turned out.

 

The first ring mould.

 

To create a pearl effect you use as little or as much of the pearl powder as you want.
The pearl mix comes in a silver and gold tint I went with the silver.

You can see  how I over poured the ring, I had
a big job trying to fix my mistake.

The only negative part of the class was that I wish I hadn't poured too much resin into the moulds because after you take the piece out of its mould you have to use sandpaper to get rid of the rough edges. I quickly realised this after over pouring the resin into my ring mould as it was really difficult to take it out and then I had to spend ages working on fixing it up.

 

This is my first finished bracelet and I'm really happy with it.

I got a little creative with the last bracelet and ring and I decided to use two colours. I tried to mix an opaque colour with a translucent colour. I ended up with it all been opaque but I was really happy with how it turned out. One of the ladies had a bit of orange resin left over so she poured it into one of the moulds I had and then she let me have it. I was shocked because I really liked the colour and as she had already made herself a bracelet and ring I thought she'd add it to her collection. I really like my new ring now all I have to do is find something to wear with it.

 

My two toned bracelet.

This bracelet is a cream colour and a deep pearly purple colour. I love how it's nearly a 50 50 split of colour and all I had to do to create this effect was to lean it up against something on an angle and wait 5 minutes before I started mixing up the next lot of resin. I started with the cream first and then I went onto the purple which had a hint of violet added to give the colour some depth. And the last picture is of my three rings. The first is a translucent orange, the next one is to go with my two toned bracelet so its cream with a small amount of the pearly purple added and lastly is my nearly translucent pearly purple ring.

 



My three new rings and no one else has anything like them.



So now I have a few accessories to wear when I go out. All that's left to do is to find somewhere a little up market to wear them, I think they are just too good to wear grocery shopping. One day I'd love to make some more resin jewellery but I think I'll wait until all the kids are at school. If you have the opportunity to make some resin jewellery you won't be upset with the outcome.

 

Megan