This post shares all about how to make resin jewelry, including fun dress-up pieces for kids! I used EasyCast resin jewelry molds to make my pieces, and I’m sharing a bunch of DIY resin jewelry ideas. These resin molds are the perfect option for beginner resin crafters. This post is sponsored by Environment Technology, Inc. (ETI) and originally appeared on bybrittanygoldwyn.com.
How to Make Resin Jewelry
The EasyCast Resin Jewelry Molds are made out of smooth polypropylene—and they’re reusable! There are two different choices: One with 11 popular jewelry gem shapes, and one with 8 more “artistic” and fun shapes.
What is EnviroTex Jewelry Resin?
EnvironTex Jewelry Resin comes in smaller containers, making it convenient for smaller projects like jewelry. It’s a two-part, crystal-clear resin that provides enhanced clarity and depth to projects (like encasing an object in a pendant). This formula is easy to use and is formulated for high resistance to light and UV rays (meaning less yellowing, as resin can often do over time).
Once the EnviroTex Jewelry Resin cures completely (24–48 hours), it is super durable, waterproof, and heat and chemical resistant. This resin also doesn’t have a ton of overpowering fumes. It has a light citrus scent, and ETI only recommends wearing disposable gloves and protective eyewear. (However, I certainly encourage wearing some sort of mask if you’re sensitive to scents in general.)
When you’re making resin jewelry, the ideal room temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees. In my experience, a lower humidity level is usually best, too—though that isn’t as important of a consideration when working with smaller pieces and pours like jewelry.
Adding “Found Objects” To Resin
The term “found objects” basically just means anything you find that you want to add to the resin! It could be stones, glass chips, shells, dried flowers…whatever. I used evergreen cuttings in this resin project I did, and that post has a few tips about how to dry flowers and other natural elements before sealing them in resin. (If they aren’t completely dry, they’ll cure all yucky.)
A quick recap of those tips—to seal items in resin, I’ve found it’s best to pour a shallow layer of resin first. The amount depends on what you’re pouring into, but I’d say about ¼ of the depth of the piece depending on the effect you want.
Let this sit for a few minutes. Pop all air bubbles that rise to the surface use a straw and air, a toothpick, a heat gun, or whatever else. Once you’re sure all bubbles have escaped, add your items gently using tweezers. If you’re adding something absorbent (like fabric, for example), make sure to seal it completely before adding it to the resin. You can use something like a modge podge to do this.
How to color resin
There are many different ways to color resin. I used mostly acrylic paint on the galaxy-inspired paint pour resin art I did. But you have to be really careful when using paint. If you add too much, it can interfere with how the resin cures.
The best bets, in my opinion, are using pigments designed for resin (like the Castin’ Craft pigments, which come in both transparent and opaque options), highly pigmented dye powders, or alcohol ink. I’ll be using the Castin’ Craft pigments and shimmery mica dye powders for my tutorial today!
New to resin? Check out my tips for using shiny vs. matte resin silicone molds, as well as my full tutorial on two ways to make your own silicone mold!
Resin Jewelry Ideas: DIY Kids Play Jewelry Using Resin!
For today’s tutorial, I’m going to be sharing a few resin jewelry ideas. Specifically, some DIY kids play jewelry for R. I am actually not much of a jewelry-wearing person at all. I don’t even wear my wedding ring! But my mom is. She loves wearing a lot of jewelry, including really bold and colorful pieces.
R, of course, loves grammy’s jewelry. She likes putting things on and saying “just like grammy,” which is absolutely adorable beyond words. So I thought some play jewelry would be fun for her. As a bonus—the resin is really durable and can withstand some rough handling from a toddler!
Here’s what I used for my jewelry:
- Two-part resin—you can use a smaller jewelry resin kit as well
- EasyCast Jewelry Molds
- Heat gun
- Mica shimmery dye powders
- Castin’ Craft Liquid Resin Dye—here’s the white, and there are a bunch of other colors available.
- Resin mixing supplies
- Bead cord or something similar
- Krazy Glue
- Clip-on earring backs and ring pins
And here’s how to make beautiful resin jewelry
Step 1: Prepare and plan!
Yes, plan. Resin cures quickly, so you want to have everything out and ready to go. That means your mixing cups and backups, gloves, your molds, any items you want to put into the molds, and any colorants you want to mix it. I decided to do a mix of colored pendants and clear pendants with items inside.
Step 2: Mix together in two stages
This resin is a 1-to-1 ratio, and you really do have to get as close to that as humanly possible. Use measuring cups to measure out each part. Then mix thoroughly by dumping everything into one cup and stirring for 2 minutes. As you stir, scrap the sides to make sure everything gets mixed in. Like mixing cake batter.
When this initial 2 minutes is done, pour the mixture of resin and hardener into a separate clean cup. Use a new stir stick to mix for 1 additional minute. This mixture is what you’ll use for your pours! Now that it’s mixed together, you can dump bits into smaller cups to add different colored powders.
For more resin projects, check out my hexagon resin coasters and my beautiful resin and wood tray tutorial.
Step 3: Pour into resin jewelry molds
Remember to work quickly—you have about 25 minutes of time before the resin begins to soft cure and you won’t be able to pour it evenly. If you’re filling a pendant mold with colored resin, you can pour it directly into the mold. Do it slowly! 🙂
If you’re adding found items or glitter into the pendant, remember to pour a shallow resin layer first (about ¼ of the mold’s depth depending on the look you’re going for). Pop air bubbles. Then use tweezers to add items and pour the rest of the resin in.
For small molds like these jewelry pendant molds, you can use a plastic pipette, a small spoon, or even an old plastic medicine syringe to pour the resin in. (If you have a kid, I’m sure you have about a zillion of those syringes from tylenol bottles!)
Use a straw, a small torch, a toothpick, or a heat gun to pop bubbles as you go. (I used my trusty heat gun on the low fan setting, medium heat.) If you’re adding a ring pin to hang the piece from a necklace, you can add it now. It will cure in place inside the resin. Or you can glue it on in the end.
You can see I ended up adding some glitter to a few of these mixtures. I did some with just glitter and clear resin—but I also did some that were different colors with just a bit of glitter added. You’ll also notice I did a little bit of overpouring…more at the end of this post on fixing overpouring!
Step 4: Let cure and add jewelry hardware
Once your pendants are completely cured, you can remove them from the molds. If you’re making earrings or a ring, you can use crystal clear super glue to glue the resin pieces on to ring base or earring backs. You can also glue a ring pin on. Follow your resin’s instructions for cleanup.
And here are my finished pieces!
R isn’t quite sure about the clip-on earrings, yet—she’s a bit scared of them. But she loves the necklaces and even the pieces I didn’t even turn into jewelry. They are her “treasures” 🙂 Some of my favorites were the ones I used the Castin’ Craft translucent dyes on.
For the purple, I just eyeballed a 50/50 mix of blue and red transparent dyes. The ring shaped necklace looks much more pink in person—that’s mostly red with a bit of blue. The dark green is just the straight green translucent dye. The others are either clear with glitter or clear with mica dye powders mixed in! And these are just a few. I made a bunch and had fun experimenting!
How to Make Resin Jewelry: Troubleshooting 8 Issues
There are a few issues you might run into when making resin jewelry. Most are issues that are related to working with resin—not necessarily just making resin jewelry.
1. Help, my resin jewelry pieces are sticky and won’t cure!
This is a result of improperly mixing the two parts of resin. You should have as close to an exact 50/50 measurement as you can get. Double mixing can help prevent improperly mixed resin. That means mixing it in one container and then dumping it into another container to continue mixing.
Like this project? Also check out how to make your own silicone molds for resin projects and read about the differences between matte and shiny silicone molds.
2. Help, my resin jewelry has bubbles and blemishes!
If you notice bubbles or blemishes in your cured resin jewelry, it’s too late to fix it. Sorry! Make sure you pop all bubbles that emerge in your resin for about 10 or so minutes after pouring it. This is normal—it’s just air escaping. As for blemishes, be extra careful that your hands and workspace are super clean. Turn off any fans.
3. Help, my resin jewelry pieces are cloudy!
If you mix resin up and it’s too cold, this can lead to a cloudy cured finish. Before working with your resin, fill up a bowl of warm water from the tap. Set the closed bottles of resin in it for a minute or so to warm it up.
4. Help, my resin jewelry looks messy because I overpoured!
If you overfilled your pendant molds, let them cure. Don’t try to do too much cleanup while the resin is wet. You’ll just make more of a mess and potentially contaminate other pours as well.
After about 12 hours, your resin will have what’s called a “soft cure.” Pop the molds into the freezer for about 30 seconds—then the pieces should pop right out. Since it’s only soft cured—not final or “hard” cured—you’ll be able to cut the over-poured area with scissors.
Cut away as much of the excess as you can. After 24 hours, your resin should have reached a hard cure. Now you can use fine-grit sandpaper to sand the excess away.
5. Help, my resin jewelry is curing too fast!
There’s nothing to say except, sorry! You just need to work faster. This resin has about a 25-minute working time if you’re in a room that’s about 70 degrees. I usually prep everything before mixing the resin to ensure I’ll have enough time.
6. Help, my dyes are mixing completely!
I love working with the mica powder dyes, but they can be tricky. Sometimes they will resist mixing in completely, and the chunks that didn’t mix will settle to the bottom of the mold you’re using. The only real way to combat this is by adding very small amounts of the dye, then stirring. Repeat until you have the desired color. Don’t use too much.
Here’s what this can look like. Luckily it actually can look kind of cool, so even if it happens to you, it might not be a complete loss!
7. Help, my resin jewelry isn’t shiny anymore after it cured!
Resin takes on the finish of the mold when it cures. Here’s an example. The first picture below is of a decidedly un-shiny resin finish. This mold was a matte mold, so it led to a matte finish. Not what I wanted. The second picture below shows how the beautiful resin cured on the surface of the mold—the part that didn’t actually touch the mold.
Huge difference, right? If you aren’t happy with the shininess of your finished resin piece, you can polish resin pieces to make them shinier. But always remember to check out the mold 🙂
8. Help, my glitter or found items are sinking to the bottom even when I mix them!
Yep, this is to be expected! It’s the same reason why the unmixed dye powder chunks fall to the bottom of the mold. Glitter is heavy and will settle at the bottom. To create a more dimensional effect with your glitter, pour a shallow layer of resin, pop the bubbles, let it solidify for 20 minutes or so, and then add your glitter or found items and the rest of the resin you need. Don’t stir! You don’t want to disturb the first layer you added in. Pop bubbles and let cure as normal.
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