Creating resin jewelry has never been easier with Lisa Pavelka’s Magic Gloss resin that has been out for a couple of years now. Pieces that use to take a couple of days can be finished and cured in less than an hour! Today I am showing you my ransom letter “serenity” bracelet.
What I love about Magic Gloss is that it is one part, so no messy mixing to deal with. Not only that, but it cures in UV light and doesn’t harden until exposed to UV. That means you have all the time in the world to work with it. No more hurrying to finish in the 25 minutes or so that you have before 2 part epoxy resins start to harden.
What I don’t like about it is that it is way more expensive than Envirotex Lite and ICE resin, both 2 part epoxy resins used in jewelry making. At Hobby Lobby, a tiny 1 oz bottle costs $10.99. I found it on Amazon linked above for $5.88. I can’t say exactly how many pieces of jewelry you can get from a bottle, as that obviously depends on how much resin per piece, but it is definitely pricey in my book. Also, unless you buy a UV light you are at the mercy of the weather. On a sunny day, or under a UV lamp of sufficient wattage, pieces cure in minutes! This makes layering so fun and instant.
In this piece, I cut scrapbook paper to fit the circle bezel and adhered them inside the bezel with glossy accents. Then I cut out letters from random papers to spell “Serenity”. I adhered them with Glossy accents and let dry for 30 min. This is important because the resin will not cure if it mixes with wet glue.
I added a thin layer of resin at a time with various sprinkled glitter, glass micro beads, metal leaf and fibers, curing between each layer using Lisa Pavelka’s UV lamp ($40 at Hobby Lobby). It looks super cool. I wish you could see the layer effect better in my photos. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I can’t stop looking at it.
Stay tuned for more fun with resin!
. This will serve 2 purposes: 1. It will adhere the image to the clay. 2. It will seal the image, which is important when you are adding the resin later. After baking, you can buff and use the pendant as is, or you can dome resin on the top. I used 
for this. I learned a couple of things about resin this time around: our basement flooded with all of this rain, so I was running a dehumidifier in my studio. That, combined with turning on a space heater, really got rid of the air bubble problem I so often have with resin. It really is as temperature sensitive as the instructions claim. Who knew?! My resin has never looked so great. 
