DIY Steampunk Resin & Leather Cuff

Here's another resin experiment I've been meaning to show you guys, since it's the one I actually wear the most so far of all my experiments. I whipped it up last month, I think, and it immediately become one of my top three favorite cuff bracelets. (I am a huge fan of leather cuffs; they're perfect with jeans, and they don't snag or pinch the way most of my chain bracelets do!)

The centerpiece of the cuff is a vintage ray gun charm from a box of Cracker Jacks. You might remember I initially considered using it for my steampunk medal:

After this was taken I removed the loop, painted the gun silver (it was initially gold) and aged it with a little brown paint.

Next I dropped it into my resin mold along with several tiny watch gears:

Once the resin was cured, I tried two or three different metallic papers for backers:

 I loved the silver foil, but was afraid it'd look a little too Buck Rogers. Plus the gold foil has some nifty ridges in it that get magnified and warped by the resin's shape, which I think looks cool.

From here I grabbed an old leather belt, cut off a section, and began laying out my cuff design:
 

 Happily I didn't have to buy anything for this project; I already had all the pieces I needed in my jewelry craft stash.

I rounded the edges of my leather strip, added a snap, and then marked where I wanted the chain to attach with a piece of wet chalk:

As with my previous cuff, I sealed the cut edges of the leather with clear glue before painting them with black acrylic paint.

Next I drilled tiny holes in the leather with my Dremel, and attached my chain with large O rings:

 (I later swapped this chain for a more delicate gold one.)

After a few failed attempts I realized no adhesive would hold my resin cabochon onto the curved leather - the strain was too great, so the edges just kept pulling away.

My solution was to sew the cabochon on like a button. Kind of.

With the resin piece in place on the leather, I drilled two tiny holes on each side, making sure the drill bit went all the way through the leather as well. Then I used thin brass wire to "sew" each side of the resin piece down:

My drill holes were large enough that I could loop the wire through four times one each side, which makes the piece incredibly strong and secure. No more lifting edges!

Next I bent two filigree pieces to fit the side curves of the cuff:

 (I also snipped off the rings on the ends.)

...and used brass brads to attach them, plus a touch of E-600 to make sure they wouldn't twist:

 I like that nothing on this cuff is attached with glue alone. Ever since I lost a piece off my favorite cuff (which mercifully John found again a few day later) I've been paranoid about bits knocking off my bracelets!

Here's the finished cuff with the smaller brass chain:

And one more shot in the daylight, after I added a second loop on the front chain:

The first time I wore this out John and I visited an Indie craft fair, and I had several of the artists compliment it and ask me where I got it. (!!) Talk about a head-sweller!

And speaking of head-swelling, my oh-so mild sickness decided to blossom into a full blown head cold yesterday, and today I gave it to John, so we've got this awesome sniffling-in-stereo thing going on. :) We've also decided that "snot" is a verb, as in, "Did you just snot on my neck?"  -  which is a thing John actually said to me a few minutes ago. (And for the record, no, I did not.)

The hardest part for me is that I can't take any kind of decongestants on account of my anxiety. (Even the mildest stimulant - like the stuff in Sudafed - can trigger episodes.) I don't miss the medicine head feeling, but toughing through a cold with just pain meds and comfort food gets to be a real drag. Plus - and yes, I KNOW I'm whining but I'm sick and it's my blog and I'm GONNA, dang it - tea and OJ and spicy stuff all give me the most raging awful acid reflux. Seriously. I had two cups of herbal tea last week for my sore throat and had to sleep sitting up two nights in a row. And I took Prevacid and antacids and everything! URG.

So I guess you could say my body is just being a poopy-headed jerky jerk at the moment.

This concludes my whining, because I just remembered we bought Epic Mickey 2 today, and wheee video games!

Hope you have a great weekend, guys!

*****

Come see ALL of my craft projects on one page, right here!