Resin jewelry step by step: The first layer

Last night I was asked a question about the start up costs of resin. It really depends on how much you want to spend, meaning how much you want to buy at once. You can spend around $35 on your basic resin, one mold, cups, release and book. I believe I spent about $80 because I also purchased color dyes, all the Castin Craft molds, a few jewelry molds from Sherri and bigger resin. The really cool thing about the costs of this is the majority of it is in the molds, which you use over and over and over. The cost of the colorants also goes a long way as you only need a few drops for each piece.

If you were to make a bangle bracelet, the cost comes out to be about 10 cents per bracelet. Think about that next time your at the mall and someone is asking $10, or in Tarina Tarantino’s case….near $100. So tonight we will stamp and color images, find additives, condition the molds, pour the resin and let it set. Lets begin…

To see if a stamp image will fit into a mold I usually take the stamp and place it into the mold to size it. This works really well if I’m ever in doubt. You will want to do this in an area that you can leave out, and not have it disturbed. No pets getting into it, no pet hair. And definitely no children.

You CANNOT wear contacts when working with resin, since a bit could flick in your eye. If you have glasses wear these now, or use goggles. Also you will need some snug fitting gloves to protect your hands, a paper towel and a heat gun.

First find images in stamps, or patterned paper, or small objects you would like to embed. I used several stamps from the “Crab and Co” set and a stamp from the “Swell news” set.

I like to stamp these in Stazon ink since it is waterproof and permanent. Any ink similar to Stazon will do. Then I colored in the images using my SU markers. I then cut them out with my paper snips. You’ll notice that I only wanted the teddy bear out of the “swell news” stamp. I also cut some of the images out of the chocolate designer paper. Set these aside.

With your glasses/goggles, and gloves on spray the mold release into the mold. You don’t want the molds to be drippy, just a fine mist will do. Then use a paper towel to wipe the extra spray around the inside of the mold and take any excess out.

Then pour your resin into your measured container. (I only have the larger mixing cups left, so I have to start at 1 oz. Smaller cups are available and are nice for small jewelry projects like this so you don’t waste.) You always mix on a 1 to 1 ratio…equal parts. Pour 1 ounce of resin into the cup.

Pour 1 ounce of hardener into the cup. You can see the separation of the two liquids in the cup. You will stir slowly and thoroughly until they are mixed. Don’t whip, as it will add air bubbles to the mixture. As you stir it will turn a bit opalescent, that is what you want.


Pour a small amount of clear resin into each mold.You can see in the picture that they are just filled enough to give a base of clear and a home for the additives. (Some of the molds I filled all the way, for me.)

Pick up one of your stamped images and place on the fingertips of the opposite of your dominate hand. (I am right handed, so I place a stamped image onto the fingertips of my left hand.) Using the paint style brush, cover the stamped image with resin mixture on the front and back. This helps to seal the image and keep any color from bleeding.
Place the stamped image into the clear resin. Make sure it is covered and in the position you want.Repeat the brushing with resin onto all of your images and additives and place them into the molds.

I have added some glitter to the top of some of the resin to give a shimmer effect. You could also pour a little pearl powder as well.

At this point I take my cup, gloves and all other resin mixing items directly to the garbage in the garage and throw them away.

Now with your heat gun, turn it on and hold it about 6 inches away from the mold. As it warms the resin little air bubbles will be pulled up to the surface. If you get too close it will blow the resin in your mold and move your additives. (My heat gun is close to the molds in the picture because it was easiet to take the picture that way. This would be a good example of too close to the mold.)

Place the mold under a lamp. I leave mine under a lamp until I go to bed, which is usually several hours. The longer the better since the heat helps it to set. But I feel funny about leaving a lamp on while I sleep, so I only leave it on while I’m awake. Leave it undisturbed overnight and we will check on it tomorrow!

Again, if you have any questions please feel free to ask. Tomorrow we will add the colored background to the clear resin. Good night!

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