Forays and Favorites

It is challenging to start a habit, positive habit of course, and once it is set it takes discipline to keep it going.

My hobby habit has experienced a collection of hurdles and hand grenades when it comes to getting it set – super frustrating, by the way – and so I wanted to share my work in progress.

Instead of simply working with stringing beads and wirework, I’ve begun experimenting with Resin!

Working with epoxy resin was daunting at first – took me a year to gather my courage to perform this first attempt! Why? Because the end result of epoxy resin is dependent on the accuracy and care of the mixture of part A and part B. If you don’t get it right, the result won’t be hard enough and will need additional work to cure, or it will have bubbles, etc..

The result of my first foray into this medium was a mixed bag, but these are my favorite 3 of the 7 I made.

I’m trying my hand at UV resin today, but the stench is awful, so I might stick with epoxy resin going forward, though the 15 minute curing time is preferable to the 24 hour curing time of epoxy ….

And the UV resin is still sticky while the epoxy is firm and smooth. I wonder if it will work better with a permanent mold used as part of the piece rather than a removable one?

So I think I’ll need to do some research. But that’s fine. As a writer, I’m very familiar with research.

UPDATE: The longer I kept the UV resin pendants in the sunlight, the better the cure. So no more sticky!