Misadventures in UV Resin: Or What to Do When Good Resin Goes Bad

I really enjoy playing with UV resin in my jewelry designs... if you've been following me you've seen several posts to this effect including one that gives an overview of the whole process that you can check out HERE.  As with anything, sometimes things go a little awry.  My husband is fond of saying "natural product, results may vary," and while that's true, sometimes the results just aren't acceptable.

Take for instance this little guy:

See how at the top it's oddly shiny, almost silvery?  Through some trial and error, I've discovered that the resin layer was basically pulling away from the sealed image underneath... probably due to my starting with too thick a layer of resin.  Another common issue that I've had is air bubbles appearing from nowhere and ruining a pendant or other piece.  This can happen even when you think you've been super careful and removed them all.  Frustrating!

Sometimes you can fix the problems that arise just by adding another layer of UV resin and curing again.  This often works when you've had air bubbles that are open at the top or other  surface imperfections like dimpling.

Unfortunately, sometimes the problem just isn't fixable.  Maybe you've got an air bubble completely trapped in the resin, or maybe you've got the silvering affect like in the picture above.  Either way, no amount of extra resin layers is going to fix what has gone wrong.

While I've gotten better at being patient and using VERY thin layers of resin, things still sometimes go wrong.  I thought I'd share a couple of tips and tricks that I've learned along the way in hopes of helping other jewelry designers problem solve and even salvage what you might think was a lost cause!

1. Make sure you have no air bubbles before you try to cure your pieces.
• I usually start by running the tip of my metal awl around the inner edges of my bezel.  It sounds weird, but tiny little bubbles sometimes like to hide sneakily in there and this can help draw them out.  
• Next I run a lit match over the top of the piece to pop any visible air bubbles.  This sometimes draws out some of those sneaky ones that you don't see.
2. Keep a VERY close eye on things when you first put them under the UV light to cure.  
• Even when you think all the air bubbles have been popped, I've found that they still sometimes try to form around the edges of the bezel.  If you see this start to happen or see the resin start to separate from the sealed image, pull your piece out IMMEDIATELY and try to peel the resin out of the bezel.  This can usually be accomplished without ruining your sealed image underneath.  
3. When imperfections do sneak through, see if there's a creative way to mask them.
• Think about if there's a way you can add something on top of the imperfection to hide it.  I've used small flat backed crystals or metal charms in an extra layer of resin to some good effect.  If you use charms, just be careful of how you place them so that UV resin doesn't get under them where the UV light can't reach to cure it.  Here's an example of a pin I just made where I had that shiny thing happen in one little area.  I've circled the spots where you can just barely see some shine:  
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4. Don't throw it away!!!
• Even when you think all hope is lost and there is absolutely no way to salvage a metal bezel, you don't have to toss it.  Try this trick:  in a small saucepan no longer used for food, bring a small amount of water to a boil.  Add in your ruined bezel and turn the heat off.  Let the bezel soak in the hot water then carefully fish it out and the resin should have softened enough for you to remove it.  (I used my handy dandy awl for this too!)  Those little bezels are not cheap, so this is a good trick to know!

Do you have any other tips and tricks for dealing with UV resin?  I'd love to hear them because there's always something new to learn!

Fun with the BIGkick and Vintaj Patinas!

For a variety of reasons that I won't bore you all with, I haven't had time to play with the new Vintaj Deco Emboss and Deco Etch dies or the new patina colors that I bought a while back...and it's been killing me!  I'm sure all of you know how it feels when you get some new toy or gadget and just want to drop all of your responsibilities and play.  Well, that's how I've been feeling until now.

I thought I'd share a little bit about the process since some of you have been surprised by the effects that can be achieved.  Apologies in advance for my somewhat suspect photography skills for this post... I was working with iffy lighting for all of these!

Christmas before last, Eric bought me my Vintaj edition BIGkick machine and I've been having fun with it ever since.  (I have a pretty fabulous hubby if I do say so myself!)  It's basically a small roller-based die cut machine (like what schools often use to cut out shapes for bulletin boards).  Anyway, some smart person discovered that you could use paper embossing folders with thin metal to get cool effects and soon there were jewelry specific products on the market.  Vintaj partnered with Sizzix to make this special edition machine and a series of embossing folders and etching dies.  In the picture below you can see a pair of brass blanks that I've positioned on the DecoEmboss die as well as a closed die folder.  The next step is closing the folder, putting the second clear cutting pad on top (you can sort of see it off to the left side), and rolling everything through the machine.

Here's a close up from after I rolled these little blanks through the machine.  These are going to be painted yellow and have some little bee charms dangling from the bottom when I'm done with them, but that reveal is for another day!

So, I spent a little bit of time rolling a bunch of plain blanks of various sizes and materials (they come in brass, copper, and a blackened metal they call arte metal).  I like to do things in decent sized batches since I have to get out special equipment and it saves time to do a bunch all at one time.  Here's what I rolled out:

After I emboss and etch everything I like to give them a quick bath in a little bit of dish detergent and warm water.  The tutorials and such don't say to do that, but since the blanks often have a little bit of oil left over from the manufacturing process (that's my guess, anyway...it could just be protective for storage and shipping) I figure it's a good idea to clean that off to allow for a clean surface for the paint to adhere to.  Again, Vintaj paired up with Ranger, a company who is known for it's paints and inks, to develop a line of metal friendly paints designed for use with their metals.  They call them patinas, but that's just fancy talk for paint!  They just rolled out two new sets that I was eager to try out.

After painting the pieces and setting the paint a little bit with a heat tool (i.e. tiny but really hot little hair dryer looking thing), you can sand off excess paint from the high points to bring back some of the metal to the surface.  The arte metal is kind of fun since when you sand it down it actually shines through silver.  Here are the same pieces after getting painted:

They are super close to being done at this point.  My photos were taken in some iffy light conditions and don't do the colors justice.  I'm pretty happy with the way I did some color blending to get a sort of ombre effect on a few of them.  All that's left is shaping anything that needs it and then sealing everything with the Vintaj Glaze for durability and to keep the shine on the exposed metal.  The glaze can also be used to thin out the patinas to create some cool effects but I didn't do any of that with this batch.

It's probably a little hard to really tell, but here are the pieces after I shaped some of them and applied the glaze.  I used my dapping block (the wooden square in the top right) and my trusty hammer to dome some of the pairs.  I learned the hard way that using the glaze before dapping can cause some undesired effects.

I also curved the three rectangles that became a bracelet.  Here is the finished product... in person the painted and glazed pieces almost look like they are enameled or cloisonné.

That's all the show and tell for the moment.  I'll showing off at least two pairs of earrings that come from this batch on Sunday for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge reveal.  Most of these will hopefully be completed and for sale at the Chanhassen Spring Boutique sale that day too for you local folks!

Experiments with UV Resin

In December 2011 I took a class that taught me the basics metal stamping and using UV resin with what they call transfer sheets (more on that later).  The UV resin can be used in layers to fill pendant bezels and is a little less scary than other resin products because you don't have to mix two parts together in perfectly equal proportions like you do with epoxy resin products.

My favorite pendant from class.

Anyway, I was pretty excited about playing with these new techniques and bought a lot of supplies to do just that.  Is anyone shocked?  I made a couple of pieces early on and then mostly shoved these supplies to the side as I started trying some other new things.  I've had a couple of ideas rolling around my brain for a while that involved digging the resin back out.  Today, on this sunny but cold Sunday, I finally had time to pursue them!

Any time I have to bring out something out of the ordinary like a special tool, paints, or my rubber stamps I try to make the most of that effort and work on several projects at once.  My main project involved some cool scrapbook paper with a honeycomb pattern, a brass bee charm, and some flat back crystals... but I figured I should make the most of having my resin supplies out so I made a bunch of little pieces.

I'll show you what I made then talk a little bit about the process.  Here are the finished pieces.

Resin can be used in a variety of applications for jewelry making, but I was focused on doing just two things.  For some of my projects (the four on the left of the photo above) I cut out scrapbook paper and glued that into the bottom of my bezel finding.  The next step is to use a sealer over the top of the paper to protect it from the resin and to keep the colors from bleeding or blurring.  Once it is dry you are ready to carefully pour the resin into the bezel.  Often you need to do this in a couple of layers.

The rest of my projects were using components that have a raised platform design to them (the three on the right up above).  I used transfer sheets on top of that flat surface, sealed them, and then poured a layer of resin over the top.  It's kind of amazing how the viscous resin will follow the edge of these pieces and not drip over if you carefully rotate your piece.  Since the transfer sheets are printed on a film, once you apply it, you can see through anything that looks white when it is on its original backing.  If you paint behind the transfer sheet you can see that color come through to varying degrees depending on your design.  The ones I was using were black (or dark blue) and clear so I chose to leave the metal background as is for a cool effect.  I love how the silver and copper pop through!

For both applications, once the resin has been applied you want to make sure that there are no bubbles and that the resin is spread evenly across the piece.  The neat trick I use to get rid of those pesky bubbles is to take a lit match and move it back and forth just above the surface of the resin.  A cool chemical reaction causes any bubbles to rise to the surface and pop.  Just make sure to have a little cup of water nearby to douse the match and don't get so involved in looking for bubbles that you burn yourself!  (Sadly, I speak from experience!)  Once you are happy with how it looks, you just put it under a UV light (like the ones they use at some nail salons) for a few minutes to cure.  In theory you can just let it cure in direct sunlight, but Minnesota winters don't really work for that too well!

A few of my pendants curing under the UV light.

After the first layer of resin had cured, some of my pendants had either air bubbles or uneven surfaces.  Luckily, you can often fix those little imperfections by adding another layer of resin and curing again.  For my honeybee pendant, I had a couple of air bubbles and marks that I couldn't get rid of in this fashion.  Fortune smiled upon me though since I'd been planning all along to add items into the resin.  The judicious placement of the bee and crystals allowed me to hide those problem areas!  See for yourself:

The bee's wings and the tops of the crystals actually peek out of the resin giving it a three dimensional feel that is fun.  I wish the crystals were a little less covered, but I had to add an extra layer of resin to even things out and they got a little submerged.  You want the crystals to be out of the resin as much as possible to maximize their sparkle.  Since I wanted the crystals to seem like honey droplets, it's not a huge loss.  I'm just learning here so things aren't going to be perfect every time.  

Since I'm pretty much relearning how to use resin, and it can be a bit temperamental, these pieces took up the better part of my afternoon.  I know that I will get better at it as I keep experimenting and playing.  I feel good about my day's work and I have some great new handmade pendants to go into my jewelry designs!