I decided to continue my ICE Resin experiments and made these tissue paper pendants which I then turned into this necklace:
I've said before that I'm a firm believer in jewelry never being too big, bold or crazy, so I made plenty of these pendants to go around! I was intimidated to try them at first, but once you get going, they're not too hard at all. Here's how I made them:
Start with some craft or jewelry wire. I used two different gauges of wire and if you look closely you can see the differences in wire thicknesses. With wire, the thicker it is, the lower the number. So 16-gauge wire is thicker than 20-gauge wire. That seems counter-intuitive to my brain, but I also flunked math, so I can't really talk.
I used a nice chunky wire (purchased at Jo Ann's) and it did make it easier to adhere the tissue paper to it because there was a thicker "base."
Bend the wire into whatever shape you want your pendant to be. Remember to leave a long "tail" poking out the top so you can twist it onto a chain later.
Lay your pendant loop on top of tissue paper. I used Tim Holtz's pre-printed "Melange" tissue wrap, but you could use any type of tissue paper, patterned or plain. Using a pencil, trace your pendant shape onto the tissue paper.
Cut out your tissue paper shape. Now this is where you can add color or other stamping if you want to. I used Tim Holtz's Picked Raspberry distress ink to add some pink to my tissue paper. I then stamped on a "Love Potion #9" sentiment from Artistic Outpost using StazOn black ink. I didn't care if the pink smeared or bled when I added resin, but make sure to use a permanent ink for any image or sentiment that you want to "stay put" once you add liquid.
After your ink dries, get out your rubber gloves and mix up some resin! For this project, a little resin goes a long way, so only mix a small amount to avoid wasting it. You can buy mixing containers or you can use a disposable plastic cup that you've cut the top half off of. You can use a Popsicle stick to stir it with. I would also recommend working over parchment paper or waxed paper for easy clean-up. Once your resin's mixed according to package directions, dunk your tissue paper into the resin or drizzle resin from the container over your tissue paper. Smear it all over your tissue paper with your fingers and work the resin into your tissue paper. Think of it like paper mache only you're using resin instead of flour/water goop to coat your paper with.
Now that your tissue paper is completely coated and saturated with resin, lay it down on your wire form. The resin that you've put on the tissue paper will stick to the wire and hold it in place. It doesn't matter if the tissue paper overlaps the wire a bit because it just adds to the quirky whimsical look. Now you just have to let it dry and you're done! It will have a translucent shiny look to it when it's dry and you can attach your pendant to anything you want.
In the example above, the wire isn't as obvious because I laid the tissue paper on top of it. On the necklace I made, I flipped some of the pendants over so the "wire frame" showed up more. Either way looks good (in my opinion).
I'm still a novice at all of this resin stuff, but Susan Lenart Kazmer's book called Resin Alchemy makes all things seem possible. It's fact-filled and reassuring, which I appreciate!
You may also notice some pendants that have colorful butterflies, etc. That's actually some Washi tape that I was experimenting with and which seemed to work nicely, too, since it is sort of transparent like tissue paper. I also stamped some random images here and there in addition to the patterns on the tissue paper.
All in all, this project was a fun one to try out. Here are some fabulous supplies available from Simon Says Stamp that can make this creation possible:
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So what are you going to do with tissue paper this week? It's a busy time of year, but I hope you'll share your brilliance on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog! After all, what would be a better holiday treat than $50 at the Simon Says Stamp store just for you?
