I've made a number of jewelry pieces with dried flowers and leaves embedded in resin (see this tutorial). They were mostly pendants and earrings.  I've also covered how to make a basic resin bracelet with gold flakes.  However, I was intrigued with the possibility of making resin beads with embedded organics.


Check out Katherine Swift's tutorial on how to make resin beads over on Resin Obsession. She uses clear acrylic tubing (commonly used for aquariums) as a mold. But she cleverly doesn't remove the tubing since it is transparent.

She said she had trouble cutting the tubing using a metal cutter and ended up using her jewelry saw.  I used to cut all sorts of plastic tubing when I worked in a lab. You can get clean cuts if you use a cutter designed for plastic tubing such as this one.

I agree with her - a drill press is the only way to be sure you get a vertical hole through the bead.n But someone on her blog suggested using Resin Obsession's "toobies". This are fine and stiff plastic tubing which are used to make instant channels in resin jewelry making. See this video :



It would be a little trickier to use toobies in an upright application, but I don't think it is impossible. You could seal one end of the toobie as you do with the acrylic tubing piece. The issue is to keep the toobie upright and properly centered. I am thinking it would be best to have the toobie longer than the acrylic tubing piece. Perhaps cut a wax paper circle with a hole in the middle so the toobie could poke through. Center the paper disc over the acrylic tubing so the toobie remains in the center.  Does this make sense?

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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