Recently I stumbled across this hot pink wire. I call it “bezel wire” because it is much flatter and wider compared to other wires you normally use. True jewelers use bezel wire to create actual bezels. They work with flat wire that is fashioned from many sorts of metals including very expensive golds and silvers.
I shaped my wire into several pleasing shapes and then pressed it into double-sided tape. This tape is usually called “red-line.” It is very strong, very sticky and as mentioned, it has adhesive on both sides.
When I want to contain resin in flat wire I always do a first pour of Jewelry Resin that just covers the bottom of my shape.
This resin layer will cure solid and then I will be working on the surface of the resin instead of the sticky tape.
My shape will also be more secure now too.
TIP: When you pour thin layers of resin you have to make sure you pop any bubbles that cling to the sides of the wire.
When the first resin pour is cured the fun begins. I pulled out some old books to look for some interesting imagery.
I found this gorgeous painting of Queen Elizabeth and tested to see if it might fit in the heart shape.
After cutting out the paper image I sealed it with several layers of a decoupage medium in the bezel wire shape.
(I have lots of blog posts explain sealing paper.)
My second shape I added vintage text paper too.
I have some very old dried edelweiss that I have been wanted to place in resin.
My second bezel is now filled with dried flowers and a bunch of other inclusions. I have gone out of my way to seal the dried flowers so they will not darken too much when I pour in resin.
Here are my pieces with a second pour of Jewelry Resin. Will so many inclusions I need to babysit this pour for bubbles. Bubbles can be trapped by so many inclusions so I will make sure to pop anything I see.
Tomorrow I will show you what I do next!
The first time I saw bezel wire being used in a resin craft project was in this book by Kathie Murphy. Her book was originally printed in 2002 and I have a well thumbed copy. Luckily it has been reprinted several times. Her book focused on polyester resin which I do not use very often. It was her photos and designer submissions that encouraged me to learn more about resin.
Here is the featured pendant I loved by Robert Johnstone.
Created in 1995 it still inspires me!
My work space hasn't achieved a good heat for resin yet and I have several new molds to test and some hinges to figure out how to make work! I am so jealous. I have seen the new aluminum flat wire in the stores but hadn't thought of it in conjunction with resin. I can't wait to see what's next.
I actually received some of this flat aluminum wire in the mail by mistake once. It was too expensive to mail it back for the cost of the item so I kept it. It's thrown in a box somewhere. I didn't realize it was bezel wire. I'll have to look for it. Now my question is the double sided tape. What does it do to the resin? Will it mar it? Why do you use double sided instead of single sided? Where can you find such tape? I've never seen this in wide widths.
I love seeing your experiments.
Lovely, Carmi. I have some of that flat wire but never though to use it for resin. Thank you!
A great informative tutorial! thank you–everything you make and what you show us is beautiful ! jean xox
Where can I get this hot pink wire?
Hello there! This post was written awhile back and upon searching I can’t find anything just like it online. I did find this awesome hot pink wire, it just isn’t flat like the one pictured.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Crafts-Anodized-Aluminum-Sculpting/dp/B00PJ9EJ6I/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=hot%2Bpink%2Bwire&qid=1565101268&s=gateway&sr=8-4&th=1