Finally.  After a lack luster spring, northern gardens like mine are blooming away.  This is the time to harvest and make real flower jewelry!

I have written a number of tutorials on how to make real flower jewelry over the years. So this is a round up of some of my most popular posts...sweetened with a giveaway from  Fran Valera of Little Windows (Resin Jewelry Making Supplier). Note : All readers can get a 15% discount from Little Windows- use this code BG1516).

Little Windows will be giving away a 6 oz set of Brilliant Resin .This Californian-made resin is superb for making glass like resin jewelry.  I have used it for years and love it.  It is totally clear both before and after you mix the two parts together.  Brilliant Resin has a long shelf life i.e. it doesn't yellow for a long time. But no resin lasts forever, so use resin up sooner or later.

Brilliant resin is also a low bubble producer.  I follow Fran's recommendation to give Part A a quick zap in the microwave before mixing with Part B. This helps reduce bubble formation.

Brilliant resin is also a great doming resin. You will see it mound up.

There are two styles of real flower jewelry. Either way, the flowers (and leaves) must be totally dry before you encase them in resin. Otherwise, the organic material will rot.

1. Pressed Dried Flower Resin Jewelry 

The traditional way of pressing flowers is to sandwich them between paper and adding heavy weights on top.  This obviously takes several days which alas, means the flowers and leaves would have lost some of their color.

Today we have the microwave method of drying and pressing flowers!  It is fast and easy.  By drying rapidly and then moving quickly to resin work means the colors will look fresh.

In my tutorial on How to Press Flowers Using a Microwave, I demonstrated how to do so with and without a microwave flower press.  I got mine from Lee Valley.



But you can also purchase another microwave flower press called Microfleur from Amazon. Vicki Entrekin (Etsy | Facebook) who is a regular blog reader, sent me the pictures below of her results using Microfleur. Thanks Vicki!  Your pressed flowers - especially the roses - look lovely.

She said, "I really love the way it works. If you don’t over cook it, you can retain the colors." It goes without saying that you do have to experiment as smaller flowers will need less time than larger ones. And not all flowers will fit molds and bezels if you intend to use them for jewelry making.



Check my full tutorial on Pressed Flower Resin Jewelry I which shows you how to use Brilliant Resin, molds and bezels.


There are different kinds of flower pigments. Some will fade faster than others. So try and get freshly pressed flowers into resin as soon as possible. There may also be flowers which just won't work. Experimentation is necessary. 

See my Pressed Flower Resin Tutorial Part II | Tips and Tricks  on how to protect pressed flowers from the resin and to deal with faded flowers. You could try spray glue instead of using Mod Podge as a sealant.



2.  3D Real Flower Resin Jewelry

The other style of real flower resin jewelry is to put them in deeper molds.  So you will need to bury the whole bloom or leaves in silica gel crystals.  You can buy silica gel crystals for drying flowers.  But I used a different route - simply with an inexpensive batch of crystal cat litter.

Again experimentation is necessary - as you can see from my tutorial How to Dry Dandelions and Flowers with Crystal Cat Litter,  I had some interesting results!


Once the flowers are dried, I then embedded them in resin. The dandelion clocks (the post flowering stage) were my favorites in this How to Make Real Flower Resin Jewelry tutorial.



Giveaway 

If you'd like to win this giveaway for a 6 oz set of Brilliant Resin,  please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info below if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Email subscribers need to scroll down the post they receive, click on Share Comment and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank.

This giveaway is for US and Canada only.

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments. (The exception is Facebook - just like/comment on the giveaway status there!!)

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday, July 1, 2019. I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

Before You Go :

Disclosure
This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation.
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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