First try with Polyester Resin

I've been wondering with searching do I need to put both variations of a word. As in; jewelry vs. jewellry. I know it works with Google but with Etsy and other craft sites I'm unsure. Anyway onward to the actual point of the post.

So, being a purely polymer clay jeweller up until recently, I decided to try using resin.  Polyester resin, to be precise. Of course, sufficiently paranoid, I did extensive research first and bought my mask that is apparently suitable for toxic waste, but in all honestly still looks suspiciously flimsy for something that is supposed to protect my lungs, and eye protection goggles that were already in the house. Of course my first attempt was a disaster of disorganisation, as per usual. I used polyester resin, notiorious for its noxious smell. Anything you've heard is true. I'm usually not that over-sensitive to bad smells compared to other in the first place, but I admit chemicals do get to me, and it was extremely strong. It will almost certainly impede your ability to work even if you want to risk your lungs. However, the mask, however flimsy, did it's job and I felt fine afterwards.

Of course, I misjudged drying times, spilled half-dried globule of it onto a wood table and caused irreperable damage, got it all over the rubber gloves I was using making them impossibly sticky, stiff and unusable, ended up having to take them off anyway, got it on my hands, oil paint and pigments for coloring everywhere, blobs of resin and paint on the ground, one patch sticking to my shoes as I tried to clean up an other (with a paper towel, that also ended up getting stuck to the ground, yes I'm a wizard at this, I know) on the table, on my clothes....

Protip: don't try to mix in a colour with the resin in the mould. Do it before. Use a small container for each colour you want to use. I learned the hard way. If you are a messy person in the fisrst place you need to be orginised to military precision to use this stuff.

I used some silicone putty (I'll post more about that later) shell mold I had made and a couple of round and oval cab moulds from the same stuff. They didn't dry particularly well either. I thought it was the silicone because I'd heard reports of it not drying properly but I did ensure the manufacturers stated this particular stuff was ok for polyester resin. Another tip is avoid humidity at all costs. Apparently shoving them in the oven will force-cure polyester resin as a last resort, but it wasn't something I tried. I put them in a dry cupboard and after about five days(!) they seemed completely dry. They weren't exacly pretty looking things from my colour mixing debacle but at least they cured.

I have tried it again since, with significantly less disastrous results, which I'll outline in a future post.

I bought my resin from here on ebay.