DIY Inspiration: Rainbow Rose Petal Jewelry!

I have something super fun to share with you guys today. BEHOLD!

RAINBOW-LICIOUS EYE CANDY! Woot woot!

So what is all this? Well, a few months back my friend Sharyn and I surprised our mutual friend, Renee, with some of those spiffy rainbow roses from FTD:

Then, just this week, Renee surprised us both with the most amazing resin jewelry - made from the dried rose petals!

She made us each two or three pendants and a bracelet:

 Layered orange & teal! Ah!

The back almost looks like a feather. OoooOOOooo.

PLUS, Renee sent me a box full of her "rejects," which included four more bracelets (which had resin spillage into the links) and a big handful of resin gems she wasn't happy with, saying maybe I could salvage some for future projects.

Operation "Rainbow Fun" is a GO.

I dove in with a zeal, using a pointed craft blade to shave off the resin spills from the metal links on the bracelets & drilling out the clogged holes, salvaging what I could, and then making new pieces from the loose "gems." I've been a supremely happy camper for the past 3 days, and I thought you guys might like to see.

First, I combined two of Renee's "reject" bracelets to make one chunky one:

Which goes perfectly with her teal pendant in the middle.  

(Kinda looks like a butterfly wing, right?)

(Technical note: These shallow bracelet bezels are super hard to fill without dripping resin in-between, which is why Renee had so many discards. Eventually she put small pieces of tape between the bezels to catch drips - but she says you have to remove the tape quickly before the resin dries, or it will absorb and stick to the tape, too! o.0)

Next I snipped off the loop on a tiny seahorse charm, filed down the rough edge, and glued it to the middle of a pretty sea-green gem:

I also added the silver bail, gluing both with E-6000. 

(Seriously, how did we live before that stuff?)

The domed resin acts like a magnifier, so you can see every little vein and color variation in the petal. And the little bubbles! Ack! So perfect!


I found a pair of metal wings in my craft stash, and knew JUST what to do with those:

 I really like that the heart has veins. :)

Again, all it took was a little E-6000, after snipping off the wing loops in back.

My favorite loose gem was a beautiful orange-to-pink ombré, so I made it into a ring:

 

Here's a close up:

Glue and adjustable ring blanks - talk about instant gratification crafting! I highly recommend getting someone to do all the real work making the resin pieces, 'cuz this part was pure fun.

I puzzled over what to do with the long skinny gems, and eventually decided they were the perfect ID bracelet shape:

I glued the chain links directly to the back of each gem. Since the resin tends to be concave on the back, the links don't stick out much, and are quite comfy to wear. (I still feel like they need a little something on the front, though. Maybe tiny initials?)

Here's Renee's final bracelet in the middle, flanked by two discards that were cemented in place with bits of spilled resin:

I managed to get all the links moving again by yanking out the rings, scraping off the resin, and drilling through the clogged holes with a pointed blade. Then I changed the order of the top bracelet so the colors won't match up when I wear them together. (Because MORE RAINBOWS.)

Every time I think I'm done, I get another idea I want to try. Here I was toying with some little silver filigrees from my stash:

I figured I could bend one into a kind of Art Deco clasp:

Hard to see, but I bent the metal like a stair step at the edge. The hardest part was applying the E-6000 so it wouldn't leak out all over the place. (You can clean up a bit with a toothpick before the glue sets.)

I still have one final necklace in the works, but I'm stumped on the placement of this dragonfly charm:

You can see more of the petal if it's off to one side, but the center position is pretty classic. Which do you guys like best? I can't decide!

I'll be adding that green tear drop as a dangle, since I like the colors together.

And then maybe I'll make another ring or two. And another necklace. But that's IT. (I can stop whenever I want, honest.)

 

I hope this helps inspire some of your own jewelry out there! Talk about a fun way to preserve a special flower; how about a pendant made from an anniversary rose? Or a bracelet from a birthday bouquet?

And the biggest, rainbow-wrapped "thank you" EVER to my friend Renee, who doesn't like this kind of attention at all, but is seriously one of the most talented crafters I know. (Did I mention this was her very first time working with resin?) Tell her how awesome she is in the comments, and maybe we can convince her to show off more of her brilliance in the future.

Happy Friday, guys! May your weekend be filled with rainbows and lazy crafting goodness.

*****

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