Tuesday, May 31, 2022

How to Make Jewellery - DIY Earrings

Make these gorgeous ocean-inspired cluster earrings, dripping with dagger beads in luscious greens and blues.  Can you believe they are made using JUST ONE TECHNIQUE? And it's a basic jewellery technique... All you need to know is how to Open and Close Jump Rings!   Need a refresher on how to open and close jump rings so that your handmade jewellery doesn't fall apart? See how to do that here . To make them, you’ll need: • 10x3mm Czech glass dagger beads: 22 frosted aqua; 16 milky green Picasso; 16 transparent green Picasso (or choose your own colour combination) • 52 4mm silver jump rings (fine enough to pass through the dagger beads) • 2 6mm silver jump rings • 2 silver earring wires - use these easy-to-open earring wires to make them easy to assemble You'll also need 2 pairs of chain-nose pliers. Because you'll be opening and closing a lot of jump rings for this project, you'll need some quality pliers. I use these slimline chain-nose pliers . Their slim...
Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Why Resin Yellows and What You Can Do to Avoid It

If you've been working with resin for a while, you might have noticed some of your earliest pieces just don't seem to have the clarity of your most recent pieces... they seem to be slightly discoloured or they've taken on a yellowish tinge. As disappointing as it is, this is actually a normal phenomenon.  It's a fact that all resins will yellow... eventually!  For some resins, that can be as little as a few months. For other resins, it can be a number of years.  You may have seen resin kits where one part of the resin looks slightly yellow. The yellowing usually occurs in the hardener side first, due to the amines that are present. Without getting too technical, when they're exposed to oxygen (like when you open and close the bottle), they oxidise, or turn brown. That's why RESIN HAS A SHORT SHELF LIFE. But just because your resin hardener has yellowed , doesn't mean you have to discard it...