Innovation Team, On My Table, Tutorials
Look What Is On My Table-Stephanie Gard Buss
Innovation Team Member, Stephanie Gard Buss has been working on a popular technique using Nunn Design Resin and Bezels. LOVE this project! Read her tutorial below.
—
For a long time, I haven’t known what to do with stone beads that break. It seems such a shame to throw them out–yet, what could I do with them? When I saw my team member Karen Mc Govern’s gorgeous bracelet in Bead Trends, my wheels started turning. Then I started seeing druzy pendants everywhere, and thought “maybe I could use my broken stones to make that.”
A druzy, or drusy, stone exhibits a coating of fine crystals that look like a layer of glitter. They appear when a stone is cracked open, like a geode. A lot of the druzy stones I’ve come across look simply like a cool rough cut stone, and the sparkle is very minimal. For a great explanation, see http://voices.yahoo.com/what-druzy-8930033.html?cat=2).
A true druzy is a hard stone. To make a faux druzy, I’ve used soft stones that you can smash with a hammer.” – Stephanie
Broken stones + resin + mica or glitter = a druzy type of cabochon
To begin, mix your resin well and set aside. Have extra cups available if you want to use a colorant or add mica to your resin (or both!). Place the stones in a zipper bag and smash with a hammer. I kept the colors separated; you can do that or mix them.
If you want to use a colorant, mix your clear resin with that in another cup. I happened to have a bezel that I had already half-filled with a bright blue colored resin.
(tip: use a bowl or tray of rice when gluing or curing resin in uneven bezels to allow it to sit flat.)I also mixed mica powder in with resin in a separate cup to add a little color and shine. Mica is, after all, rock, and it gives a lovely pearlescent shine.
Pour resin into your bezel base, filling only about 1/3. Using a tweezer, place your crushed stone pieces into the resin. At this point, if your stone is really light, you may decide you want to add a colorant as the stone seems to disappear into the resin. That’s ok. You can stir it all up, stone, resin, and mica or colorant, in the cup and scrape it back into the bezel.
When you have the look that you want, fill with more resin if needed. If you want to add a bit of sparkle, now is the time to sprinkle on a bit of glass or fine glitter. Put a little on a cotton swab and tap gently with your finger for best control. You could use a pearlescent mica powder as well. If it’s too much, all is not lost. Scrape it all out into a resin cup again, mix it around until the glitter is more subtle and put it back into the bezel. Have several bezels ready so you can play around with different colors. When you like it, set aside to cure for the recommended time. You may want to wipe around the outside of the bezel to make sure there’s nothing stuck to it.
When they are cured, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, file any sharp points off. Don’t slice your finger open like I did!
And now you have lovely pendants!” – Stephanie Gard Buss
To shop Stephanie’s etsy site, visit: maxandlucie
To contact Stephanie, email her at: gardbuss@bitstream.net
Shop Nunn Design Wholesale
Nunn Design has been supplying jewelry artists with findings for over 20 years. Shop wholesale jewelry findings for creative jewelry makers.
Shop Nunn Design!How to Purchase Wholesale?
If you are interested in becoming one of the many designers who trust their jewelry to Nunn Design Findings, please join us by registering to become one of our wholesale customers!
Please visit our Where to Buy Page for a listing of online stores that sell Nunn Design Findings retail.
If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe to our blog. Here are 10 Reasons Why to Subscribe and a place to do so!
Thank you for this wonderful free lesson. I love it. Where do you get the rocks you started with? I need to do this. Seriously!!!
They were semiprecious stone beads that I had, and I started with soome that had brokenwhen I tried to use a bead reamer on them. My favorite stone resource is Beads Direct, out of North Carolina. Leslie and Mary are really wonderful. 🙂
Great Idea! Your ideas are so creative! 😀
Love, love, LOVE this!! What a fabulous idea! Seriously – this is one of the most creative, beautiful ideas I’ve seen in a very long time. Fantastic idea – excellent execution. Amazing tips. I just adore this tutorial – thank you so much!!
Just wonderful, my creative juices are exploding in my head! Thanks for this idea!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much can’t wait to try this
This is exactly what I was looking for! I have literally spent the past couple of hours looking for a tutorial like this. Thank you for this amazing article! 🙂
Pingback: DIY Druzy Resin Tutorial - Nunn Design