Tag: work in progress

And Other Sparkly Victories

I wasn’t planning to sort the entire alphabet, but you know how it goes. One minute you’re staring into a tube of glitter letters, trying to find a J, and the next you’re hunched over with tweezers, sorting out the entire English language like you’re prepping for glitter spelling bee season. And honestly? I didn’t hate it.

I saw the tube of alphabet glitter at Hobby Lobby—just one of those “Ooh, that would be fun in resin” moments. I decided to try using the letters to make earrings. Long rectangle molds, some resin, and little letters floating inside like magic. I made a pair for Sarah—one earring with her name, the other with Drue’s. They turned out so pretty.

So I thought, okay, let’s do another set: Aubrey on one, Jarod on the other.

Except… no J.

So I started sorting the alphabet to find one. It was actually kind of relaxing. I pulled out some little paper cups, grabbed my tweezers, and even after I found the J’s (little punks), I kept sorting. It became its own little project.

A few days later, my alphabet keychain molds came in—finally. I’d been wanting to make some, so the second I opened them, I sat down and got to work. I already had a bunch of the glitter letters sorted, and I had this idea ready to go. I started pouring, and everything just clicked. One of those rare sessions where nothing goes wrong and everything cures the way it’s supposed to.

I made an A for Amber and spelled my name inside with the glitter letters. It came out perfect. Then I made Sarah and Aubrey. I also made a letter M with pink heart glitter, and oh my God, it was beautiful. I even used some of the same pink hearts to make a pair of heart-shaped earrings—those turned out just as pretty.

And on the same mold tray, there was a paw print. So I made one of those too. Black resin, pink toe beans, and a letter Z in the center—for Zazu, Zuri, Zephyr, and Zorro. All black cats, all names starting with Z. The design worked exactly how I pictured it, and I stopped there. I didn’t want to mess up a perfectly good pour day.

The next day, I decided to make some heart-shaped earrings—because Valentine’s Day is creeping up, and if I’m ever gonna get my stuff listed on Etsy, I’ve got to start somewhere. I mean, let’s be honest, I haven’t attached a single finding yet, but that’s a problem for Future Me. Present Me was feeling ambitious and full of glitter.

I’d used pink heart glitter the day before, and it came out really pretty. In the same container, there were also red heart glitters, so I thought, great—red hearts, Valentine’s, whole theme. Let’s go.

That’s when the glitter betrayed me.

As soon as the resin touched some of those red hearts, the dye started bleeding. Instantly. The red ran off the glitter like it was trying to escape, and it looked horrible—cloudy, streaky, weirdly bruised. Not the aesthetic I was going for.

So I got creative. I poured a super thin clear layer of resin and cured it. Then, one by one, I placed the red hearts with tweezers, added another thin layer of resin, and cured it again. Then I did it all over one more time.

It looked better—but it was taking forever. These earrings were shaping up to be about $400 a pair if we’re counting time and sanity. And the red still kept bleeding just enough to be annoying.

That was the moment I tapped out. That session officially went on pause. I’ll revisit it once I’ve forgiven the red hearts.

After the Great Bleeding Heart Incident, I needed a break. So I pulled out my gallon-sized bag of finished resin pieces—the ones I’ve been tossing in for weeks, fully intending to “deal with them later.” Well… later showed up.

First, I tossed the ones I knew I’d never actually use—the earliest pours and experiments that taught me what not to do. I originally saved them so I could look back one day and be proud of how far I’d come, but nope. Some things are better off in the trash.

Then I sorted through the rest. Some of it was just okay. Some of it was Etsy-worthy. I pulled out the decent ones, grabbed my stash of hooks, jump rings, and earring findings, and started finishing everything up. I got a bunch done and felt mildly accomplished. I didn’t pour anything new for a few days—just needed to regroup.

Then yesterday, I had a brilliant idea. Or at least it felt brilliant: red pepper flakes in resin. (Has this been done before?) I don’t have any dried flowers or pretty garden goodies over here, so I grabbed the pepper flakes and started looking around my kitchen for other leafy or interesting things to use.

That’s when I remembered the loose-leaf tea. I have so much tea, and some of it had been hiding in the back of the cabinet for a couple of years. The tea itself was perfect—beautiful little dried petals, herbs, and fruity bits. So I grabbed a few and pulled out my open-back bezels.

I decided to use hearts for the pepper flakes—seemed appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Everything looked great at first, until the bubbles started showing up. They’d been hiding under the tea and pepper flakes, then rose up under the UV lamp. One of the hearts came out near perfect—except when I tried to dome it, it overflowed. The second heart had a couple of bubbles—still beautiful—but when I domed that one, it overflowed just enough to fill the ring at the top. I’ll drill that out later.

The other piece was a diamond shape, and that’s the one I put the tea in. It had the most bubbles, but it’s still gorgeous. I just wish I’d caught those bubbles earlier, because that one’s a really beautiful pendant.

So yeah, that’s where I’m at in my resin journey right now. It’ll probably be a little while before I pour again—I’ve had a special request to do a cross-stitch project for Drue and Sarah’s wedding, and I’m also working on a knitting project for my other daughter-in-law. Resin might have to take a backseat for a bit… at least until I get tired of stitching and knitting.