Amazing Casting Products: Summer CAN Last FOREVER! Make an AMAZING Faux Coral Necklace with Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Crafting Products tutorial! I wanted to try out the new Fluorescent dyes but wasn't sure what to make. After a trip to the beach I knew I had to try a coral branch necklace!

Many seaside shops carry coral jewelry but it can be very expensive and is often harvested in harmful ways, so I thought up a way of making my own coral branch necklace.

Supplies:

Amazing Mold Putty
Amazing Casting Resin
Alumilite Dyes in Red, Flo Red and Flo Orange {Flo = Fluorescent}
Polymer clay
Ceramic tile
stylus
acrylic block
Jumprings in sizes 4mm, 5mm and 7mm
18 inch chain necklace
Connie Crystal 6mm bead strand (has crystal beads, pearls and one teardrop)
Two mini flat nose pliers
Small hand drill
Craft knife
Sharp Craft scissors

I started with carving some branch like shapes out of scrap polymer clay using a craft knife. I placed them on a ceramic tile and used a stylus to draw lines into the clay. I then baked them on the tile to manufacturer's instructions. Once cool I removed any jagged edges with nail file, then they were cleaned with water and soap and let dry. These pieces I made to make the molds for the coral beads.

Placing the now-finished coral shapes on an acrylic block flat side down, I mixed up some Amazing Mold Putty. I use acrylic blocks to make sure that the molding putty is plumb to the piece and that there is little to no creases forming when placing the molding putty on the piece. You can use small clear glass titles as well. I then let the mold putty cure.

Alumilite Dyes are super concentrated and normally one has to be careful not to use too much when tinting the resin. Since the original Amazing Casting Resin is an opaque white resin, it needs more dye to make a color-rich piece. In a small measuring cup I put 4 drops Fluorescent (Flo) Orange, 2 Flo Red and 1 regular Red dye (see the size of the drops I used compared to a US penny). I wanted super vibrant color so I added more than normal otherwise the coral piece would come off more pastel.

I then added 1 TBSP part "A" of Amazing Casting Resin to the dye and mixed thoroughly. You want to make sure the dye is mixed in the part "A" only first. If you were to mix both parts and then add dye the resin would start to set up before you could add all of the dyes you want. I then added the tinted part "A" to the "B" part, stirred well and poured them into the coral bead molds.

Once the resin was completely cured and set up in the molds I popped them out and trimmed any drips and sharp edges off with scissors and a craft knife.

I drilled small holes through the top of each coral "stem" to be able to put jumprings through each coral piece. I opened up a 7mm jumpring with the flat nose pliers and put the jumpring through the coral bead and then closed the jumpring with the pliers. I repeated this for all 10 coral beads.

I then added a 5mm jumpring on to each coral piece; the extra jumprings allow for more swing of the beads and nice cascading effect.

I then opened a 4mm jumpring stringing on the coral pieces and hooked the jumpring into a loop on the chain necklace. I then added the Connie Crystals pearl beads and tear drop in the same manner as the coral beads.

There you have it! A fun and simple way to create a faux coral necklace. :)