Fun With Resin - A Glittery Hairpin

Ooh! Sparkly!

How much do I love resin?!? A whole bunch!  I had a lot of fun last weekend experimenting with it. I used it to make the Map to the Beach Ring, a bunch of gemstone shapes, and a pendant (more on the pendant tomorrow). I used one of the gemstone shapes to make this hairpin.


Ingredients:

• Epoxy resin
• Disposable cups
• Craft stick
• Rubber gloves
• Glitter
• Gemstone mold
• Oil or release agent
• Bobby pin
• E6000

I picked up the mold at a bakery shop in the candy-making section. It's a heavy plastic and I wasn't sure it was going to work. I only tried four of the molds just in case. I oiled them first and then mixed up the resin according to the directions.

The ingredients for casting.

I poured the resin in the molds and then sprinkled the glitter on top. I have cats, so protecting the resin was a must. I put a cup over it to keep the cat hair and dust out. Not that my work space is dusty. Or hairy... Anyway. Let it sit for two days before prying them out of the mold. It was a lot of work getting them out of there and I was convinced I had a craft fail on my hands, but after a lot of elbow grease and prying with a flat screwdriver, they came out. Maybe I should have tried after one day. I guess that will be the next experiment. Let them cure for a third day before going on to the next step.

Diet Dr. Pepper is a crafting must.

Here's where we turn that gorgeous little chunk of glitter into a hairpin.

The ingredients for a hairpin.

This is the easy part. Bobby pin + E600 + resin gem = glittery resin hairpin. It takes just a drop of glue on the back of the resin gem, stick the pin in, and that's it. Let it dry.

The back.

The front.

I haven't decided what to do with the other three resin gems yet. I really didn't have a plan going into this project, so who knows how the others will end up? Drop back by tomorrow to see the pendant I made with a very surprising ingredient. I even surprised myself with that one.