Making acrylic dirty pour jewelry wasn't just about miniaturizing the ever popular paint craft.  There is inevitably leftover paint!  So why not use it up?

I used the laser cut wooden shapes from my Etsy.  These come in two different sizes. I used the larger sizes in dagger and reverse teardrop and both sizes in the round shapes for this tutorial.

The preparation of the acrylic dirty pour medium and paint mix has been covered in my past tutorial on how to make such coasters.

I place the laser cut wood shape on a medicine cup.  At first I did my layers of paint in a tiny glass vial so that I could disperse the paint mixture as I did with the larger coasters. This didn't work well as I had trouble trying to get the paint mixture to come out!



What worked best was to use the same method as the coasters except I poured a bit out, first on one wood shape and then on the other. Alternating like so meant that the colors were more consistent in both pieces - very important when making earrings.

Wearing gloves is best. But because I had to strip off gloves every time I took a picture, I ended up just wiping my hands dry on a rag and proceeding! Hence the state of my fingers!



Once the pours were done, I sanded each piece with 180 grit sandpaper to smooth down the back where there were some paint drips.



I folded a small piece of sandpaper and used the folded part to sand the awkward places.


I then used a gunmetal acrylic paint to color the backs and sides of the wood pieces.


I painted a gloss varnish all over the reverse teardrop pair to seal them.  Tip : use wax paper as the surface. The varnished pieces will not stick!


But for a glass like finish, I preferred to use resin to coat just the front of the remaining pieces.  I used Little Resin's Brilliant Resin for this - it is an excellent doming resin for jewelry making.  (15% reader discount - use code BG1516).

Mix up the resin as instructed and then carefully add a layer without spilling over the side.


It is hard to show the difference in photos. The gloss varnish on the reverse teardrop was flat but the resin ones look as if someone has placed a piece of glass on each piece. I certainly preferred the resin finish.


Notice that the paint pattern on the reverse teardrop earrings are not as complimentary as the dagger pair?  That is because I poured the paint mix on one before going to the next instead of alternating the process.

I was quite surprised to see that tiny cells managed to form on smaller scale work! Not as many as with big pieces likely due to the way I was pouring. Or perhaps the pouring medium formula needs to be tweaked.


My favorites were the ones where I did add a little glitter in the paint before the resin step. Don't they look like alien planets?  The bails were courtesy of Tierracast.



Photography
I used my iPhone 8+ with the Camera+   app. I used  the Orangemonkie studio which comes equipped with LED lights - for artificial light photography in my windowless basement studio. The Foldio2 is particularly affordable. I use the Foldio3 because I need the room for tutorial photography.  Some of the tutorial pictures and the final project ones were taken in natural light. 

My online class Easy Guide to Smartphone Jewelry Photography is now available. Read more about it here.  

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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