ETI Blog Hop with Desinger Craft Connection

Being a novice user to most of the products from Enviromental Technology Inc. this challenge truly was a "challenge" for me.  My experience with resin was for a few projects on a larger scale and the results very satisfying.  I chose to work with EnviroTex Jewelry Clay® and EnviroTex®Jewelry Resin.  After following the mixing directions for the Jewelry Clay® I wanted to try a number of ways to use the clay.  For my first attempt, I used two different type molds, a stamp design and a couple of rubber texture sheets.

Here are the resulting pieces:

Follow instructions for drying the shapes. For the molded and stamped pieces, I was able to clean up the edges with carefully using an X-Acto knife and some sandpaper.  The two pieces that were used for my projects were painted with acrylic paints after being primed with gesso.  NOTE: I am not sure if this step was necessary, but it was one that was done.  

Mixing the two parts of the resin was easy enough by following the instructions  completely. The next step was to apply the Jewelry Resin to both pieces. This step was a bit tricky for the stamped heart image.  Sequin hearts were placed in the indented areas of the heart before adding the resin. Here is where I realized that the stamped image should have been slightly deeper to hold the sequins and resin in place.  We DO learn by our mistakes!  It is mentioned in the instructions that the working time for the resin is 25 minutes which was helpful for the way the resin was applied to both pieces.

The second piece was the molded sun image that was glued onto a laser cut wooden butterfly shape.  Once glued to the wood, I placed it over the first empty mixing cup on a piece of parchment paper.  NOTE: The parchment paper can collect any resin that may drip off the piece and then be discarded. The method used to apply the resin was to use a popsicle stick and drip it into the resin, then allow it to drip and spread over the molded image and the wooden butterfly.  Some of the resin remained in the openings.

The hardest part of the entire process is NOT TOUCHING till dry.  Since I did not make a hole in the heart shape once the image was stamped, nor drilling a whole after drying, a small length of ribbon was used for a hanger and the piece was backed with felt cut to fit.  A jewelry finding was glued under the sun image to hold a cord.

I look forward to working with both these products more and experimenting more.  After this first-time effort, I can see some changes that I would make when applying the resin.

Would you like a chance to try some products from ETI?  During this blog hop, you can enter to win some.  Follow this link:
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THE PRIZE