Building a Backless Bezel Pendant Using Magic-Glos

I'm not huge into resin but I'm awfully glad I'm not afraid of it. I have had some great successes with it and have always enjoyed using Ice Resin more that other resins.

Quite some time ago I was introduced to Magic-Glos which is a one part resin that needs UV light to cure. Joy, joy, joy, you DON'T have to mix it and get it right. YES!!! And under the light it will cure in under ten minutes, quite hard. In short, it's an instant gratification type crafts product.

When I first used the stuff it wouldn't cure for me. I was disgusted and pitched it all out. In time, I surely wished I hadn't! When Christi Friesen visited us last year for the May Workshop, she showed a great way to use it on polymer clay to get a beautiful hard finish. The trick, she said, was don't pour deep. LIGHT coats. AHA! She was right. I've been hooked ever since!

We got these very cool backless bezels in for B'sue by 1928 :

From the moment I first saw them I wondered, Hmmm! How would Magic-Glos work in those?

But yeah, they are a bit deep. I had to think about it. Determined to try I got out the packing tape and stuck the bezel down, hard, onto it, burnishing the back so no resin would leak through the back:

I then filled the very bottom of the pendant with Magic Glos, maybe only one-quarter of the way up. I was careful not to get any dirt or trapped air into it. Then, I very gingerly placed it under the UV light:

Very easy, then! Just let it go 7-8 minutes, and hard as a rock. Don't worry, it's not hot in that chamber!

I then poured a little more resin, just enough that it would hold my pretty vintage cabochon in the bezel:

And the bezel went back under the light for about the same amount of time.

This was not the first time I'd done this....here is another one I did, the one in the middle:

I noticed that when I had filled it, it was cured, and I pulled off the packing tape, it was a bit gooey. SO: I just poured on a little more resin to even it out and put it under the light again. That took care of the gooey back!

This time, on the one with the vintage cab with the flowers, the back was pretty good. NOT gooey. But I did a thin layer over it again, anyway, and cured it.

Then I flipped it over and did a couple more scant pours and domed it.

I got a nice dome. But you can see, as I did the pours, some must not have gone all the way out to the edge. So that's the down side of it: You do have to do the layers to get it to cure. But each one must be identical or you will have layering.

Honestly, upright, it looks pretty sweet. I'm definitely going to use it and make something nice. Just a part of the Magic-Glos learning curve, I guess! You learn by working with something and experimenting.

I REALLY like the results of Magic-Glos over ICED ENAMELS:

I can't wait to play around with my new components and make them into jewelry! Yes, all have Iced Enamels applied in the standard way, but instead of topping with Ice Resin, I used Magic-Glos, just to go ahead and finish them up. I think they came out great!

We don't carry Magic-Glos at B'sue Boutiques but I will tell you, the deal is that you HAVE to buy the UV light to get it to work. Without it, it does not cure. Some have said it will if you pour it outside on a bright sunny day but then you have to worry about things blowing into it! So if you want to try this stuff, bite the bullet and get a light. I am not sure if the standard UV light used to cure gel nails and manicures will work, it might. I truly believe, though, if you are going to work with resin and you don't want to wreck your work, why not use the tools they recommend?

Once you have the light, the bulb will last a long time and it's not hard to find a replacement for it, either. When you buy Magic Glos, go ahead and spend for the larger bottle too. It's a better deal and, you won't just cooking on this stuff and run out! I always have two big bottles around. It's such a quick fix or finish for so many projects!

As mentioned, Magic-Glos costs more than resin, a two part kit of ICE Resin will go a lot farther. If you are used to mixing it up and using it, you might just want to continue. I would not say that one is better than the other. If time is not important, don't worry about it. But when you need to fix something quick, you will be REALLY glad you had Magic-Glos in your arsenal along with the UV light!

And remember: