[Nola Paulovic]

I too am making wooden jewelry, so am grateful to come across this thread!
I’m mostly using exotics, and am aware that they often contain oils that prevent certain finishes from drying. I often seal them first with laquer or waterbased poly.
I’m wondering if you can possibly reach out to your friend who is making these pens, as I am carving wooden rings (for fingers). He chimed in on the other resin and wood question. I am using envirotex resin,a and would like to brush the resin onto the rings. I’m also carving out settings in the rings and gluing semi precious stones into them. I’d like to try using resin to set the stones, as opposed to epoxy glue.
What would be the best way to seal my rings before brushing on resin?
How should I stand the rings while letting them cure? (currently I spray them with poly and hang them from fishing line). Would I have to resin the inside versus outside one at a time?
If I’m hanging the rings to cure..won’t the resin end up pooling on the lowest point?
That pen your friend did looks fabulous! I just can’t figure out how to go about doing this! Thank you both so very much!

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Nola,

This is my friend’s response:

I’m not sure that using the resin to set the stones would be the first option, although I can see how it would be an attractive one. Less chemicals to interact, so less chance of some sort of unwanted reaction. But if I were doing them and had an adhesive that was working, I’d stick with that for now.

As for sealing the wood.. I’d use whatever you’re going to use for a finish, perhaps thinned a bit to use it as a ‘wash coat’ or a ‘spit coat’. For oily woods, I like to wipe them down with acetone or MEK, as they’ll both remove the oils on the surface for a while (but they’ll come back if you wait too long) and give the finish a better chance to adhere.

I’ve had luck dipping pieces and letting them hang, but that might not work so well for rings. With a pen, you can let the excess drip down to one end and then sand it off and polish once it is cured. I have seen others using epoxy finishes on round items (fishing poles, pool cues etc. ) and the best solution I saw (haven’t tried it yet!) was a small and slow motor that kept the piece turning at very low RPM’s while the epoxy cured. That assured an even coating, provided the piece wasn’t overloaded to begin with. I think they also made bushings from nylon (or acetyl .. anything non stick) that held the pieces in place.

I’d probably do a complete finish before thinking about the stones. Once it is fully cured, a Dremel with a very fine bit (like a dental burr) should work fine for drilling out the epoxy. If he doesn’t have any fin bits, I think I have a few spares here I can send.

I wonder if the stones will reflect back any light when set in stone? Or perhaps there’s some sort of metallic backer to the stones? (like the swarovski crystals) That might make a difference in what glue or resin is used, too. I’m just not sure about that part. Makes me want to un-bury the lathe and experiment!

[Rhonda J. Hunter]

On http://www.firemountaingems.com, they recommend a two-part epoxy for setting the stones.

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