I really like the deep channel bezels that I got from Nunn Design. They can be used to embed all sorts of things using either resin clay or resin. (
See this post where organics are used). As sea glass is translucent, I thought it would be fun to make a see through sea glass necklace. You could also add resin clay and embed decorative items in the outside channel. But I opted to keep things simple.
This mini tutorial is very easy to do. The trick is to use packing tape or a piece of adhesive shelf liner to cover the back of the bezel. Press and make sure the bottom edge of the bezel is well down. This stops the resin from leaking out.
Then it is a matter of making up some 2 part epoxy reason. I used
Little Windows' resin (my favorite) but you can also use other types like
ICE Resin 
. I poured a layer of resin into each bezel, popped any bubbles I could see with a little cocktail stick. I covered the bezels and let the resin set overnight. This first layer thus acts as the "invisible" back of the bezel.
I then played around with very small pieces of sea glass which are really too much bother to try to drill. The sea glass came from Nova Scotia - a kind colleague used to collect them for me while he walked his dog along the ocean beach near his house. I thought of including a small sea shell in the design but decided against it.
A second batch of resin was made up and the resin poured slowly into each bezel. After checking for bubbles, I let the resin cure fully under cover for 48 hours.
Once the backing tape was peeled off, I noticed 2 things. One, the backing tape left a frosted look at the back. No big deal. Just add another thin layer of resin to clear it. Two, the frosted look of the sea glass itself disappears.
It's fine to photograph the see through sea glass pendant flat as I did here :
But photographing the necklace either hung or upright does make the sea glass look transluscent and better.
The bezel naturally rolled to one side in the upright pose. It made for a fun kind of image.
But a tiny bit of blue tack at the bottom of the pendant kept it upright for a more conventional photograph.
Not too long ago, I visited Prince Edward Island on vacation and stumbled upon a gift shop in Charlottetown selling small bags of sea glass. Collecting sea glass on her daily walks along the beach was her hobby. She was selling only the most common colors - white, green and brown. Pity because I wanted more blue glass!! I still bought a couple of bags because they were good sized pieces and I would have no easy way of collecting sea glass on my own.
She had many finds over decades of collecting which she kept in her shop display counter. The big dark glass piece below was from a rum bottle - a few centuries old. The blue and white piece was what she called fire sea glass where molten glass had combined probably during a shipboard fire.
DisclosurePhotographyI used natural light, my iPhone 6S with the camera+ app and the Modahaus TS320 tabletop studio and Steady Stand (medium). The necklace is suspended from a Modahaus Steady Stand. Check out my
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