Whats the best resin to use for resin jewelry? And cheapest?
I need to buy bulk of resin at Home Depot but dont know whats a good easy resin to work with for begginers thats cheap for a lot of it and what silicons are compatable with these resins? I want to re create a shape over and over again with silicon. Remember i want to but a lot for cheap but need something durable and that has a hard cast not gooey at all when dry.
Posted in Jewelry | 
Tags: Depot, Don't, Home, resin jewelry, wholesale body jewelry, wholesale jewelry stores
One Response to “Whats the best resin to use for resin jewelry? And cheapest?”
I’m not sure you understand the differences between the types of 2-part resin you can buy, so that could cause real problems for you.
In general, “epoxy” resins are used for thickly coating things or for casting in shallow cells or molds. “Polyester” resins are used for casting in deep molds… the kinds of polyester resin that are sold for making fiberglass/etc though are not suitable for jewelry/art/etc though because they often won’t be as clear as the “craft” polyester resins.
They’re both “hard” though once cured (if you want really hard, I’d stay away from the tweaked epoxy resin called Easy Cast).
If you’re shopping at Home Depot, you can buy a “bar top resin” (perhaps Glaze Coat by Famowood if they still have it) which is a clear epoxy resin and would work for jewelry and be a little cheaper than buying a craft epoxy resin at a craft, hobby, or art supply store, or even a most hardware stores. Otherwise, the cheapest epoxy resins might be online.
(The most common brands of regular craft epoxy resin would be Envirotex Lite and Ultra Glo, though there are others.)
If you want to use deep molds though, you’ll want a craft-quality polyester resin (by far the most common brand of that is Castin Craft’s Clear Polyester Casting Resin). Polyester resins are somewhat cheaper than epoxy resins, but fiddlier to use and worse for lungs.
You wouldn’t want to use a polyester resin though for coating things or in cells because polyester resins won’t always fully cure in the presence of air, leaving stickiness (that’s what helps it stick to fiberglass cloth). (Stickiness can also be caused by not thoroughly mixing any kinds of resin though, or mixing/applying in the wrong temperature or humidity, etc.)
There’s a lot more info on the kinds of resins, brand names, how to use them, etc. on this page of my site, if you’re interested:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/other_materials.htm
As for your question about “silicons,” I’m not sure what you’re referring to. I’ll guess that you might mean “silicone” and even silicone putties (silicon is something else), but really don’t know what you have in mind.
Two-part silicone putties though can be made into flexible molds or even cast in other molds or shaped a bit by hand, so if you’re interested in those, check out this page at my site under the category called *2-Pt Silicone Putties*:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/molds.htm
Neither the resins above nor the silicone putties can be used over-and-over though. For that purpose, you’ll probably want a thermoplastic plastic like Shapelock, Polymorph, or Friendly Plastic:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=ShapeLock+Polymorph+Friendly+Plastic
There are other plastics you can buy that you can actually melt too. Or to melt plastics you might find at home, use things like empty plastic prescription bottles, little army-men toy figures, and many plastic craft beads, etc:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/MISC.htm > Melting, Softening Plastics)
Diane B.