Need Small-Scale Resin Assistance!

[Miyu]

Hey there mer-folks! I have several small jewelry pieces that I would love to have coated with a clear, high-quality, marine-grade resin - obviously to mermaid-proof them! :p Some are various metal charms I've collected over the years; I have a couple of actual aquamarine stones and I'd like to have at least one encased in resin so I can go swimming with it; and one is my most precious of all pendants - the necklace I made out of the chandelier bead from the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera that Echi bought for me! I'm also interested in creating a piece or two or Orgonite.

Problem is, even if I were to be able to afford resin of the quality I'd like, I absolutely CANNOT work with the stuff - I have way too many chemical sensitivities, asthma, etc. I hardly even use E-6000 (I manually secure pretty much everything in my creations) because most chemicals are too risky for me to be working with. It's even an issue for my mertender to be handling such heavy-duty chemicals.

Is there anyone who already has the resin to work with who would be willing to thoroughly coat a few items to my specifications? Of course I'd be willing to pay you for the materials/time/etc! I really wish I could just do this myself, because I have a lot of fun ideas for resin, but I just can't risk my health working with the stuff :(

Thanks in advance!

[Miyu]

...I still need some items coated in resin, is there anyone at all who can do this for me?

[Anahita]

I didn't even realize you needed this. If you can't find anyone closer to you, I could probably do it. I'm just all the way in CA, so I know you'd have to ship the stuff to me instead of me being able to pick it up... Which would add to your costs. I usually encapsulate stuff, but I've coated things with the same resin before with no issue. You can see on my "for sale" facebook album I have some of the encapsulated things in there if you want to see what the resin looks like dried (it's pretty hard and when I hit my nail to it it makes a clicking/tapping sound, and it's pretty scratch resistant, and I've not hat a problem with it being submerged as of yet)

[Miyu]

I had already figured I'd have to ship it off to someone and back, since I (oddly) don't know anyone locally who has marine-grade resin at their disposal :p

I don't need too thick a coat on the majority of my items, just decent thickness to protect it and preserve it well. I have one idea for a piece of "orgonite" which is kind of this new-age combination of stones and metals inside resin, it's supposed to amplify the "energies", and I'd like to try playing around with a piece made of a few stones I have.

I have a lot of pendants I've made that I want to do mermaiding with, LOL :lol: And then there's the Moldavite I set in a wire wrap, and that stuff is pretty rare so I'd love to protect the whole thing from the elements! But mostly I want to be able to swim with my aquamarine and not worry about the chlorine/salt water damaging it.

[Anahita]

Understandable. Protecting jewelry is a big reason why, as much as I want to, I don't swim in a lot of my epic paste-stone pieces.

Word of warning though, resin can change the opacity and coloring of some porous things. (My sand dollar in the sand dollar pendant got a bit translucent after it was encased in the resin because it was so porous) I want to say that now, because if you do want me to coat things with resin, this could be a risk factor to the pieces. Shipping costs aside, depending on how large the piece is, I could probably coat most things for only $5-10. But even $10 would have to be something either big, or something that requires an insane amount of coating. I don't know if that helps or hinders your decision. But I like people to know what they're getting into before hand. I'd hate to get a piece, coat it, and then have it change color or opacity and not have warned you before hand that might happen; then you'd be out the money and the item, and that would suck and make me feel like a crappy friend.