Resin d’Etre – Bead Landing Resin kit review and resin experiments!

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m really really excited to show you this project since I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time!

I actually got interested in doing resin late one night while surfing around on Youtube.  I stumbled upon a video where a girl made some cute resin charms, and proceeded to search all over Youtube for other resin tutorials.  From that point on, I was HOOKED and determined to try it out!

I proceeded to run over to my local craft stores to look for things.  I found a Bead Landing Resin kit in Michaels in the jewelry tools area and bought it.

I finally pulled it out after finals were done and had the adequate space/ventilation to work.  The kit comes with the following:

•          A plastic mold with an oval, a circle, and a square
•          A stencil with the same shapes
•          A bottle of resin and a bottle of hardener
•          Stir stick
•          A little hand drill
•          Measuring cups (like the cough medicine kind)
•          Photo paper
•          Various jewelry findings
•          3 different necklaces 

I looked at the instructions to find that this particular resin takes 48 hours, which surprised me since other resins take 24 hours to cure.  Also, this resin was a bit different in that it’s a 2:1 ratio of resin to hardener.

I decided to try things out by using cake sprinkles (thanks for the suggestion Mackenzie!) and glitter.  I also decided to use another mold in addition to the one included with the kit.  It’s supposed to be a chocolate/candy mold, but people online say you can use just about any mold (silicone molds, paint trays, ice cube trays, etc).

I whipped up 30 mL of resin total and made a total of 5 pieces in the garage.  I did notice that while pouring the resin, the resin was a bit chunky, but the chunkiness went away when it was mixed with the hardener.  Bubbles also appeared as I stirred since I was initially stirring too quickly.  Thus, it really is recommended to stir SLOWLY for about 2 minutes and leave the mixture out for 5 minutes afterwards to allow any bubbles to disappear.  After pouring the resin, bubbles also popped up since I stuck sprinkles in there.  I just tried to take a toothpick to move them around and try to pop them.

I covered them up to prevent them dust, dog & cat hair, and bugs from getting in my pieces.  I checked on them during the 2 days it takes to set to make sure they were working and weren’t accidentally bumped/tipped over.

48 hours later, I popped them out!

The mold that came with the kit was easy to use and the pieces popped out easily.  However, I was kinda disappointed in that the pieces were kinda cloudy.

 

As for the candy mold, that took a lot more effort.  I read online that you can stick the mold in the freezer for a bit and it makes it much easier.  Luckily for me, this actually worked!  These pieces were much shinier possibly because of a difference in plastic.

There were a few grooves and indents from bubbles on the surface of the charms, but I’m hoping to fix this when I make my next batch of resin and coat them with fingernail polish.  Crossing my fingers!

Needless to say I WILL be doing this again with different molds and different materials!  I’ve got flowers/plants, stickers, and other little trinkets!

Stay tuned for more! :)