Making faux glass beads with UV Resin

Hey, it's Laura today. I have an interesting project originally suggested by Pat from Globecraft - Faux Glass Beads made with UV Resin. I had so much fun, that I made two. And, for my friends who are Red Wing fans ...

Read on to see how they were made.

Materials:

Laura Drahozal
Remembering Life's Moments

• Your choice of 3D Enamel Gels (I used Metallic Silver, Napthol Red and Mars Black on the Octopus and Creamsicle Orange, Orange, Leafy Green, Avocado, Ultramarine Blue and Mars Black on the Seahorse.)
• Fine Line Applicator Tip
• Instant UV Resin
• Black Satin-Like Necklace
• Large Wooden Beads
• Wooden Skewers (cooking supplies)
• Masking Tape
• White Acrylic Paint
• Paint Brushes (not good ones, but at least one small and one medium)
• Sponge Paint Brush
• Non Stick Craft Sheet
• Pencil
• Toothpick
• Scrap Wire in a Larger Gauge
• Manicure Light Box or Bright Sunlight
• An Empty Jar

Directions:

1) Wrap the end of one of the skewers with masking tape. Slip a bead on and wrap again. The skewers will hold the beads through the creative process.

2) Paint the beads with the white acrylic paint. I used a sponge brush, but you can use any type of brush you have.

3) Use the pencil to lightly draw your design on the paint, if desired. Be warned that the pencil will show through when you are finished!

4) Apply the 3D Gel Colors. I used the fine tip to apply the gels on the octopus.

When you apply the gels directly from the bottle like that, they can go on pretty thick. If you don't let them dry in between, the colors swirl and blend - an effect that I liked for the octopus. Of course, I let it dry before I added the red, as I did not want a red octopus. Also, wherever you apply the gels heavily, gravity will cause it to pool a little.

For the seahorse, I put some of the gels on my craft sheet. That way, I could blend colors and pick them up with my tools.

Then, I used a fine brush to apply the color. It went on thinner, so it dried quicker.

I applied details on the seahorses with a toothpick.

Because I applied them thinner, I did not have to wait for the foreground to dry before I applied the background. You can see that I used my jar to hold the beads while they dried.

5) While my beads dried completely, I used the wire to create a spit of sorts. That way, I had something to cure my beads on.

6) After the 3D Gel was completely dry, I applied the UV Resin. I squeezed it directly from the container, and then used a cheap brush to even it out.

7)  Remember the gravity I mentioned earlier? Well, we are going to get around it the same way that professional glass artists do - we are going to slowly spin the bead so that it doesn't all pool in the same spot. So, place your skewer on the spit and the spit into the UV light and slowly spin it for the 3 minutes it would take to cure. Alternatively, you could skip the spit entirely, take you project outside in the bright sunlight and cure it there. Don't forget to spin the beads, though!

8) You're done! Now, you can use your beads in a project, or simply do what I did here and slip it over one of the Globecraft necklaces.

Here are a few more shots of the beads:

Thanks for stopping by today. You are welcome to come join me at my blog, too, www.rememberinglifesmoments.blogspot.com. Better yet, become a follower (I love followers)! Today, I will be featuring a cute little gift that I made for my niece with Globecraft products. I have a full tutorial. Here is a peek: