Emergency Jewellery

We had a bit of a medical scare in our household recently. Our eldest son suffered an allergic reaction to something he'd come into contact with and his face and neck were swollen and itchy. It was enough of an emergency to warrant calling an ambulance.

The paramedics arrived and checked all his vital signs. They attached electrodes from the heart rate monitor to his chest and monitored his heart rate. They also checked his blood pressure and breathing. They declared his condition was not life-threatening but decided he should enjoy a ride in the ambulance and receive further treatment in hospital. And I'm happy to report that he was released from hospital in the wee small hours of the morning.

The paramedics left behind the coolest little plastic patches which they'd peeled off the electrodes when they were monitoring his heart. The patches contain conductive gel and attach the electrodes from the heart rate monitor to the skin. But I like to think of them more in crafting terms: they are bezels to be used in resin jewellery making! Let me show you what I mean.

Here's the little patches that contained the conductive gel. They have two channels on one side and one on the other - just deep enough for filling with resin.
I traced several circles onto an Alice in Wonderland photo sheet. These circles are the same size as a 5c coin and I had to cut them out with scissors but my recommendation is find a circle punch the right size! It took 45 minutes to get them the right size and round.
Because the patches are clear and I didn't want the printing on the back of the photo paper to show, I've cut out two pieces for each patch making them double-sided: image on the front, text on the back. But the text pieces were so white and they needed a little aging to tone the background down. I swiped them with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Adirondack ink.
That's much better!
The Krylon Gold Leafing Pen fitted into the channel on the underside of the patch perfectly. What an easy way to create a frame!
At this point you want to mix the resin. Follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully. Use a wooden stirrer to drip a few drops in the centre......
and then place the text image face down into the resin. Make sure the text isn't at an angle.
Put another 2 or 3 drops of resin on top of the text image and then place the picture image on the resin right side up. Place another 2 or 3 drops of resin over the image and spread it out to the edges using a toothpick. Leave them to cure for 24 hours and you're ready to be used in a project.
Don't they look cool?!! I think they make wonderful little bezels!I haven't finished with these just yet but once I have I'll post the finished project. But at the moment I'm just enjoying looking at how vivid these images are.

My thanks go to Beads Online for providing the Alice in Wonderland photo sheet and of course to the wonderful Queensland Ambulance Service for supplying the bezels that inspired the project! I hope you'll stop by Beads Online and check out their fantastic range of jewellery making supplies - you won't be disappointed.

'Til next time.....

If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration, click here to find my books and printable pdfs