Amazing Casting Products: Having an EYE for DIY Jewelry at #Cre8time... Tutorial by Tracy Alden

Thursday, March 13

Having an EYE for DIY Jewelry at #Cre8time... Tutorial by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Crafting Products tutorial! This week I was inspired by "Eye Miniatures" or otherwise known as Georgian Eye Jewelry. “Eye Miniatures” as wearable art was a fashion trend that came into favor in the Georgian period of the late 18th century as a token of love, memorial or remembrance. They most likely originated in France quickly gaining interest in Britain among the aristocracy and wealthy. These simple but intriguing little miniature portraits showed only the eye or eyes of a loved one, child, spouse or lover.

Encased in thin cut clear crystal or glass these paintings were placed in a frame, encircled with gems, pearls or beads and worn as a pendant, bracelet, ring or lapel pin. While some of the eye jewelry has inscriptions identifying the person depicted in the painting (in the case of a memorial piece) many were left anonymous, only the wearer of the piece would know who was depicted! These secret tokens of love and affection could be worn openly without anyone being the wiser.

Being so rare and the very personal nature of these jewelry pieces the few surviving pieces can command high prices from collectors. So I thought why not make my own more economical versions of Eye Miniature jewelry with Amazing Crafting Productss!

Supplies:

Amazing Mold Putty
Amazing Casting Resin
Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Alumilite Metallic Powders
Soft bristle brush
Craft Knife
Polymer Clay
Stylus
Cookie cutter
Lapel pins, jewelry bails or loops
Glu6 - Adhesive for Non-Porous surfaces
Rhinestone chain, glass pearl or beads
Liquitex Gloss and Matte Varnish
Printed images
Sharp Craft Scissors
Plastic grocery bag
Plastic wrap

*A simple search using Google or Pinterest with the search terms “Georgian Eye Jewelry” or "Eye miniatures" will get you many lovely photos to inspire you and more information about them.

Starting with a sheet of polymer clay, I used a cookie cutter and a measuring cup from Amazing Casting Resin kit to cut the frames for the eye jewelry. By placing a piece of clear plastic wrap on the clay and then pressing the cup and cutter through it creates a beveled edge.

Using a stylus I created a channel on the edge of each piece. These channels will later hold any beads, rhinestones or pearl embellishments chosen.

After creating the channels the shapes were a little distorted, so I placed the plastic wrap back on the pieces and used the cutters to recreate a clean edge.

After rolling out thin pieces of polymer clay, I placed them onto the frames to create the inner lip that will hold both the eye image and the clear resin later on.

Using a small stylus and a silicone tool I made sure the clay creating the inner frames were blended well with the rest of the pieces. Little details or pattern design wanted on the frames should be done at this point. I then baked the clay pieces on the tile to manufacturer's instructions.

After I bake the polymer clay, I lightly sand and trim the edges of the pieces with a craft knife and an emory board. Once the polymer pieces are cleaned of dust, I used Amazing Mold Putty to make molds the pieces.

Before pouring any Amazing Casting Resin into the molds, I used a soft bristle brush to dust the inside of a molds with Alumilite Metallic Powders. The outer edges of the frame are the most important part to be dusted since that portion will be visible. You have to make sure not to leave any clumps of powder as too much powder will cause the resin to resist the mold, making a uneven resin casting.

Once all of the pieces were demolded I painted on some Liquitex Gloss Varnish and reapplied the metallic powders. I sealed them with more Liquitex Gloss Varnish to give it a nice shine.

Using a thin grocery bag I cut little pieces of the plastic to use as templates for the frames. I simply placed the pieces of plastic in the original clay pieces, traced the inside of the frame and cut it out. This way I can cut out images to fit perfectly in each cast resin frame.

Using a cosmetic sponge, I applied two layers of Liquitex Matte Varnishto the front and back of my printed eye images. Photos, scrapbook paper and other printed sheets can be used but just remember to seal them before you cover them with clear resin.

Using the grocery bag plastic templates I cut out the eye images. I placed the eye images into the frame, fixed them in place and sealed them with Liquitex Gloss Varnish.

Strands of glass pearls, rhinestones and glass beads I cut to size, fitting them in the channels of each frame and glued them in place.

I then made up a small batch of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and carefully put resin in inner portion of the frame covering each eye image completely. Once the resin is cured you can glue on lapel pins, jewelry loops or bails to the back of the eye frames creating any number of eye jewelry pieces!