I was surprised to see real interest in my first attempt with resin and nail polish
in this past tutorial. There I used the dry marbling technique on some previously cured resin pendant blocks. This time I wanted to see if I could use just nail polish for the background and decorative features and save the clear resin for the top. Using nail polish is an easy way to get colorful enamel. Plus, it is a lot of fun. You need only small quantities and don't have to mix any colored resin.
The inspiration for this tutorial comes from the amazing nail artists you see on Youtube. Their skill astounds me because they are working on tiny "canvases", They repeat the design up to 9 more times for all the fingernails!
I watched
this easy nail art tutorial by LifeWorldWomen which deploys the needle nail art for wet polish work. I rather liked the heart design at the start so that was what I tried to do - a hearts feature for Mother's Day.
I used white nail polish to add a background color to the bezels I used.
Then after adding dots of contrast color to the still wet background, I used a pin to draw lines through them and created hearts.
I also used Nunn Design's wonderful adjustable ring bezels both the
round antique silver one as well as
the oval variety. I sandwiched them between two stacks of empty CD cases to make sure the bezel sections were level.
The process is the same as for the pendant except there is even less space for the dots. One begins to appreciate the constraints nail artists have!
I did not get any color bleeds on the pendant but the hearts on the ring showed a faint pink around them.
Not that the color bleeds matters because I jazzed up the designs with crystals. I used
this gorgeous pack of mixed colored flatback Swarovski crystals courtesy of Fire Mountain Gems as well as some smaller vintage crystals I had.
I first mixed up a batch of clear 2 part resin (
I used Little Window's Brilliant Resin) according to the instructions. I then added a thin layer over the dried nail art. This served as the glue for the crystals.
Just so you know, things do go wrong! I messed up the hearts for the second ring. I may have changed the surface tension beforehand as I sprinkled some fine silver glitter. So I embraced the error and did a little abstract art!
Once the nail polish bits were dry, I poured over more resin and made sure it domed over the rings without overflowing.
As with all resin projects, you must cover the work during the 24 hour curing process to protect it from dust.
Covering the crystals does dull them somewhat as shown in the right ring below. That is because the crystals can't reflect or refract the light under the resin.
I did not bury the crystals in the pendant under resin and the difference is marked.
Certainly the photograph of the crystal ring was more challenging to capture with differing crystal effects happening :
But the project is definitely fun and funky!
DisclosureI do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation.
PhotographyI used natural light, my iPhone 6S with the ProCamera app and the Modahaus TS400 tabletop studio for final product photography. The tutorial pictures were taken with the same equipment but with artificial lights in my windowless basement studio. Check out my
How to Photograph Jewelry Webinar .
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