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New crafting rabbit hole – Resin casting

Waterdrop resin keychains

I’ve always been a multi-crafter and that hasn’t changed, even though knitting and crochet have stayed a constant as far as crafting is concerned. The most recent rabbit hole I fell down is resin – both epoxy resin and UV resin – to create jewellery, keychains and more. Youtube has provided me with so many ideas, tutorials and general information, my mind is full of ideas and I want to buy all the supplies and make all the things. Does that happen to anyone else with new crafts?

Can you combine fibre arts and resin?

Resin necklace with black yarn and pink beads

It all started with the idea to add yarn to resin and represent my main crafts in the new one… but yarn is difficult, as there is lots of air in it and that creates tons of bubbles. A few pendants came out nice as you can see above, but fluffy acrylic yarn definitely wasn’t the best choice for my first experiments. I’m currently looking into ways to seal the yarn before adding it to the resin, to get past the problem with too many bubbles in the finished item. I’ll keep you informed if I find a solution.

The end goal is to include micro crochet flowers, mandalas and more in resin jewellery, but that’s not the only thing I plan to do. There will be more tie ins to fibre crafts, maybe handmade resin beads and charms for stitch markers, or crochet hooks with customised resin handles. Again, all those things are still in the planning, I’m more experimenting with colours and techniques at the moment to make small things to sell at my upcoming markets and here in the shop.

All the techniques, all the things

To help with my experiments, I have bought so many molds, tons of glitter, mica powders, chameleon flakes and other inlays for my pendants. I started by adding some glow in the dark pigment (Lit from Culture Hustle, not affiliated, I just love the product) and some yellow holographic flakes and made two adorable dino charms. One was turned into a magnet and sits next to my partner’s desk and crafting area. Isn’t the glow phenomenal?

And of course there are flowers and beads and sprinkles and many things I still have to use, as well as transparent and opaque dyes for my resin. I’ll show you some more things soon, I currently have a batch of items curing that I can photograph soon. There’s still way too many days with barely any daylight, so getting good photos isn’t always that easy. But some items have already been finished and even listed in the shop, like this mother’s day keychain with letter beads and dried flowers. Since it is mostly for my market in Germany, it says “Mama”, but of course I can customise something like this with any short word (max 5-6 letters) and different flower colours.

Customisable keychain with letters and flowers

 

If you want to know which products I have used so far, here are some links to Amazon UK

As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases.
All links will go to products I have used and can wholeheartedly recommend.

Resins

Let’s Resin UV Resin https://amzn.to/4gZjXBy
I first tried a cheap UV resin, but this hardens so much faster and better

Let’s Resin Epoxy resin https://amzn.to/4kBA5fN

Inlays and additions

Dried flowers https://amzn.to/3EYzMLo

Letter beads https://amzn.to/4i0Ogce

Gold and silver foil flakes https://amzn.to/41mG6UL

Aurora candy paper flakes https://amzn.to/3F0SJNH

Chameleon powder https://amzn.to/4inOCcK

Moulds

Dinosaur resin mould https://amzn.to/4i2cnr7

Pendant resin mould https://amzn.to/3XqBwnc

Set of keychain resin moulds https://amzn.to/3XpJrRP

 

 

 

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What’s going on?

What’s that? Yes, yes, my blog will actually be used this year!

There is so much happening at the moment, both in my life and the world in general, community became even more important to me. So I’ve decided to start blogging about things that are important to me. I know, that’s a vague statement, so I’d better clarify it a bit.

First and foremost, this will be about knitting, crochet and any other crafts I might be doing. But again, this category can be split up some more:

Fibre Arts 101

In my online community I came across a lot of the same questions over the years, so instead of answering them again and again, I will make some posts about for example fibres and their properties, which fibre is suitable for which craft/item and why, comparision between knitting and crochet and other topics. I’ve been using yarn for over 20 years now, trained to sell clothes where I was taught a lot about fibres and fabrics, and since I am allergic to most animal fibres, I have a lot of experience with substituting yarns.

If you have any topics you would like to see covered, let me know and I’ll add them to my list.

My Designs

I’m still designing patterns for knitting and crochet and will keep you updated about the progress, test calls and pattern releases here, as well as sales or events I might be participating in. And let’s not forget about the free patterns, because there will be some more of those as well. Besides the blog, you can stay up to date about those things by signing up to my newsletter.

Things I make for sale

Last year, I started selling handmade items at markets, and will keep doing that this year. On top of that, most of the things are available for sale in my shop, and I am occasionally taking commissions if time allows. All those things and reports about markets will make an appearance from time to time. Currently that includes knit and crochet accessories and clothes, resin creations and stitch markers with beads and charms. However, if a new craft obsession takes hold of me, I might expand on those.

Personal projects

Everything I make for myself, friends or family. That’s going to include paper crafts and other not yarn related things, because I’m a multi-crafter, always have been. Every once in a while I try a new craft that I obsess over for a while. And then I put it on the backburner to only dig it out on occasion.

General

Important life events, random ramblings and whatever else I feel like sharing on here. Basically everything that doesn’t fit into any of the above categories.

I’m really looking forward to this and am excited about where this year will take me – both on this blog and as a business. I hope to see you around!