Today guest designer, Sarah Hoare from Bird & Monkey shares an insight into how she makes her stunning resin jewellery pendants.
This pendant is inspired by the Bowerbird - the male Bowerbird collects many brightly coloured objects of the same or similar colours to create an eye-catching display to attract a female.
We absolutely love this pendant, with it's bright and bold colours and pearlescent finish.
Check out Sarah's design process below and find out how you could use resin to create your own colourful jewellery designs.
The first stage of this design is to construct all of the components in sterling silver.
Each part is made from silver metal sheet strips and soldered together. This is one part being held together with pins whilst being soldered.
To ensure the piece is level on the top I make a print from it.
This is sent to the customer and also used to help with colour planning.
The piece goes off to Goldsmiths Assay office in London for hallmarking.
Using one of the prints taken earlier I can plan the colours of the resin that will go into the piece. I use an Epoxy 1 to 1 mix resin and pour the individual colours leaving plenty of time between pours so I do not get any colour transfer between sections.
I will leave the piece to dry for at least 72 hours before sanding back using wet and dry paper. This piece was given a black patina with liver of sulphur and the front was repolished to make it lovely and shiny.
How long does a pendant take to make?
Each piece takes 20 plus hours to create, so it's a bit of a labour of love.
How did your jewellery making journey start?
I have always been a creative person, in 2012
How did you get started in using hand mixed resin for your jewellery?
Whilst studying I designed some pieces that needed colour and I also wanted some to glow in the dark and resin was the best way to achieve this effect.
How would you describe your jewellery?
I have two styles of jewellery, one is jewellery created from
I think that both ranges represent bold, fun and quirky pieces that are made to be seen.
What
I've always loved
Where do you find inspiration for the next design?
I'm very
Although at Kernowcraft, we don't supply resin, we offer all the other supplies for creating a pendant including metal sheet, polishing supplies and liver of sulphur to create a patina.
At Kernowcraft, we provide a wide range of metal sheet, metal wire and metal tubing for your jewellery making needs. This includes sterling silver, ecosilver, 9ct gold, copper, brass and more.
These high quality wet and dry sanding sheets are perfect to roughen and clean metal, remove unwanted marks to create a fine surface for polishing.
Create a patina on your jewellery with liver of sulphur. This is so popular among jewellers, used to create an antique, black or iridescent coloured patina on silver, copper, bronze, metal clays and more.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with our friendly team who will be more than happy to give you advice over email or on the phone.
You can learn more and find inspiration by visiting our Jewellery Making Tutorials, Jewellery Making Kits and YouTube Channel. Don't forget to follow us on social media and tag us in your designs on Instagram & Facebook, we would love to see!