[Katherine Swift]

This question comes from Sarah:

I am making some bangles with sprinkles. The sprinkles keep sinking to the bottom of the bangle. I watched your button bangle tutorial and considered casting the resin in layers, but it causes lines where each new layer of sprinkles goes. I have been jam packing the sprinkles into the mold, but love the idea of making a bracelet with fewer and seeing them suspended – having the bracelet less dense. Any ideas?

[Katherine Swift]

HI Sarah,

It sounds like you are going in the right direction. I would pour my next layer before the previous layer is fully cured. (While it is still gooey.) That will minimize the lines between the layers.

[Sarah]

Thanks! I originally attempted to pour before it cured, but found it went from liquid to solid behind my back. I checked it every 15 minutes and missed my window. Is there any gauge on how to get the best gooey consistency with your jewlery resin?

[Katherine Swift]

Hmm. There’s no easy answer here. In general, once it starts to gel, you should check it every five minutes or so to see if it’s at the gooey stage you want. I would expect that to occur sometime within the first 90 minutes after it gels.

[Queen Katherine]

I’m another Katherine – oddly spelled the same way! I don’t know that I’ve ever met another who spells it as I do. 🙂 I’m going to throw my moniker out as Queen Katherine, so everyone knows the difference – that is the name the art/craft community knows me as anyway, so it works out well.

Anyway, I don’t pour mine in layers because I get the same result you are struggling with, Sarah. Instead, I keep an eye on mine, and as the resin starts to set up (which can vary between brands), I add a couple of sprinkles or whatever. If they suspend nicely in the resin I know, it’s safe to add the rest. If they are still sinking, I wait a bit longer for the resin to thicken a little more (usually only a few more minutes!), repeating the “test” with a couple more sprinkles. When you find the consistency of the resin is what you want, I’ve found using a toothpick (or bar-b-que skewer) works well to fold in the sprinkles. I mentally divide up the sprinkles into 4-5 groups and mix them in that way. I’ve found that adding all the sprinkles at once (or whatever you’re adding) can wind up in a honkin’ blob of gooey sprinkles…not what you want! If you add smaller parts and mix them in before moving onto another section, I get better results. You just have to be kind of quick – you don’t want your last part to be too hard! Then again, if you go too slowly, you can always make it look like you went all “FANcee” a variegated-type pattern – on purpose! 🙂 I have found that the smaller portions I can work on with resin, the better my project is when finished. That’s a double edged sword, though – because you *will* miss the window when first trying to figure it all out – so practice on a stick or something disposable until you know you have the timing (and “working speed”) down. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you become comfortable with the process once you get your timing down – then you will be unstoppable with all the delightful trinkets you’ll add to resin! xx

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