BIG Tutorial. Jewelries with dandelion, glass and seashells. Epoxy resin and molds. DIY

Tutrorial by Anastasia Parfenova aka NikaLiza

 All shown molds are taken from our shops!

You need:

 - epoxy resin;

 - silicone molds for epoxy resin;

 - rubber gloves, squirts, glasses, sticks to mix resin;

 - different natural materials (dried flowers, stones, shells etc.);

 - potal, stained glass paint, powder perleks.

To create pendant with the help of half-sphere mold I picked 2 different dandelions, to compare then how they will look like in the final variant.

 

 Before beginning carefully wash the molds and wipe them dry. Put on rubber gloves, pour resin and hardener in glasses (it's more convenient to . Work in well-ventilated room!

 Measure resin using a squirt, pour it into another clean glass; with another squirt measure hardener and add to the resin. Different producers of resin have different proportions, so read attentively instructions and follow them. Final result depends on accuracy. If the resin wouldn't harden it means that proportions were violated or both components weren't mixed good enough.

Use wooden stick to mix hardener with resin. I mix them during  10 minutes with circular motions avoiding of getting of air inside the mixture.

Put the dandelion into the mold (some pieces of it I deleted with tweezers)

Put aside resin for a half an hour to let the chemical reaction happen. You can understand, that it's started  from the heating glass with resin. Don't work in too warm weather or hot room. High temperature will speed up chemical reaction and resin will become hard to soon.
Pour carefully with a thin stream resin into the mold on the dandelion.

As after hardening resin will sag a little bit - pour more resin, to get convex lens. 

Now I'll show you how to make rings using glasses, which were polished by sea.

Pour some resin, put stones/glasses and pour resin as in half-sphere mold to make convex lens on the top.

How to make earrings with dandelion seeds.
 Pour some resin in the mold and allocate it with wooden stick.On this stage resin begins to become hard and it make possible to keep seeds on the same place.

Put seeds.

Pour resin on the top.

You can make truncated sphere in the same way. Fill a half of mold with resin.

Put seeds into the resin with the help of wooden stick or, as I did, a needle.

Pour resin on the top.

 And now we'll make a bracelet with shells and stones from the Azov and the Black Seas. As usual in clean and dry mold pour some resin. By this time it becomes more hard, that's why it stays on the walls of the mold just as I wished. Add into the mold shells, stones, sea-stars etc. Add smashed shells, they'll stick to the the walls and create a suspended effect.

A half an hour before I had made new portion of resin. Very carefully pour this fresh resin on the top to avoid of appearing of air bubbles. If you have bubbles you can heat an oven to 80°C / 176°F, ventilate it, put there mold with resin (molds stand temperature of +204° C / 399°F) In such a way you'll get rid of air bubbles in resin.

It's important to put mold on the smooth and level surface, because resin can become hard in sloping position. As more accurate you poured resin as less you need to polish your bracelet. I pour mold to the maximum top with a small convexity.

Now wait 24 hours to the full hardening of resin. Cover mold with some box or something else to avoid getting dust on the surface of resin.

Now we'll make a pendant.
Prepare  main background. Insert liquid polymer clay on the billet. Cover it with thin layer of polymer clay and bake in the oven. Let it cool and start the work.

Pour a couple drops of resin, enough to cover the whole surface, then with the help of tweezers and needle put completely dried flowers and leaves. Resin plays the role of glue and fixes dried plants.

DON'T USE FRESH OR NOT DRIED PLANTS! 
THEY'LL ROT AND DECAY INSIDE YOUR JEWELLERY!

Let it dry. Then you can pour the 2nd layer of resin and form beautiful lens.

24 hours passed and I took off the bracelet. This is the top side of it.

You can also make earrings and pendants using the same technique.

These are 2 half-spheres with dandelions to compare.

These are truncated spheres with dandelion seeds inside...

...and small half-spheres.

Rings with sea-glasses.

If you add some stained glass paint or perlex powder you'll get resin of different colours.If you add paint be carefull with proportion of resin and hardener. Your jewellery can be liquid in the end or sticky. 

These are examples of potal using.

 After full drying you must polish your jewellery.

Before polishing

Use respirator or mask to avoid breezing with dust.

After polishing

You can use machine for manicure for polishing

Varnish slightly.

Author and source of the tutorial Anastasia Parfenova NikaLiza