Finishing Resin Jewellery and Embedments

FINISHING RESIN JEWELLERY AND EMBEDMENTS

After your resin embedment or piece of jewellery has fully cured you can apply numerous finishing techniques to refine the appearance and use of the article. It can be drilled, sanded or polished. As always when the possibility exists of inhaling resin dust particles, wear a dust mask.

HAND SANDING AND POLISHING

Initial sanding can begin with coarse sandpaper of 100 to 180 grit to remove any obvious imperfections that have occurred during casting using sandpaper adhered to wooden blocks or plastic cosmetic nail files of various grits. One of the best sanding tools we have used are the hobby ceramic Glit sanding sponges available at any ceramic studio.

Following this rough cleaning, which with any luck, may not have been necessary, use wet and dry sandpaper in grits starting at 320 and going through to 400 and ultimately 600, working under water if necessary to reduce dust. If you wished to refine the article with further sanding, papers up to 1000 and 1500 are available at auto supply stores.

To achieve a final polish we often use a soft cloth and Brasso available at any hardware store. To maintain this finish a carnauba wax polish helps fill in any imperfections and provide a highly polished finished article. This wax is available at auto supply stores.

Please note that unlike the polyester resins, epoxy resins such as Clear Cast and Easy Cast will not develop a high gloss on polishing. To achieve a high gloss finish you can recoat the surface with the epoxy resin or use Aristocrat or Envirotex Lite

Machine Buffing: Resins can be buffed on a machine providing it is not done at too fast a speed that softens the resin and leaves white marks on the finished surface.

DRILLING

Aswith the machine buffing, drilling must be done at slow speeds to prevent the bits from being clogged with melted resin particles. It is essential to hold the piece firmly in a vice while drilling to get a straight hole. We have found that a couple of pieces of scrap leather will enable the resin to be held firmly without marking, while drilling your holes.

Any drilling mistakes can be repaired with additional resin mix.

ATTACHING JEWELLERY FINDINGS

Use5 or 30 minute Araldite. If time is no object you can apply a mix of the original resin with a brush to the part and leave overnight.

TO ACHIEVE A MATT FINISH

A different and very attractive finish can be given resin jewellery by sandblasting the cured piece. If you don’t have access to a sandblaster, pumice rubbing compound gives a matt finish (available at paint and hardware stores)

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