Embed jewellery in resin/acrylic.

Kronos · 31 Aug 2018 at 08:58

Would like to get a bit of my late partners jewellery embedded in acrylic or some such. Looking around I see this is possible to do oneself. Plenty of videos on Youtube for guidance but first I need to source a mould.
This is the item I want to embed, something I bought Edie from Pandora a couple of years or so ago and have added charms on birthdays etc.
Something square, 80/90mm with perhaps 30/40mm deep. Not having much luck as yet on finding this though I have only just started a search.
Anyone turn their hand to this type of thing and can offer advice?

bremen1874 · 31 Aug 2018 at 09:05

You’re only going to get one chance to do this.

I’d think that the biggest risk would be embedded air bubbles. With a vacuum pump you can avoid them, but that’s not really viable for a one off.

Kronos · 31 Aug 2018 at 09:06

bremen1874 said:
You’re only going to get one chance to do this.

I’d think that the biggest risk would be embedded air bubbles. With a vacuum pump you can avoid them, but that’s not really viable for a one off.

I appreciate this but cannot find anyone in Edinburgh that can do it for me though it may well be I am using the wrong search terms.

Thekwango · 31 Aug 2018 at 09:25

dunno if these guys would be able to offer any advice....they sell Epoxy Resin Casting Kits and they have a store in Edinburgh. if they can't perhaps they could suggest someone who can. worth popping in or giving them a call maybe?
https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/scotland

wolfie138 · 31 Aug 2018 at 10:07

shame they don't still make plastikraft :-D

embedding in acrylic should be no issue at all, i've done white metal casts, creating rubber moulds for the items, should be the same sort of procedure. can't see you needing anything like a vacuum pump. be better off popping the question on a relevant craft/hobby forum.

Flibster · 31 Aug 2018 at 10:50

Clear resin isn't the easiest thing to get right and bubble free. Embedding stuff in clear resin is trickier. Any air bubbles will be visible and distracting.

The mould is the easy bit. You can use almost anything, I've used silicone cake pans in the past for small things. Add a good coating of mould release and it's ready. If it has issues supporting it's own weight, I've added a plaster of paris base around the mould just as support (again, would need degassing otherwise could crack or worse in the vacuum or pressure pots).

Personally, it'd be a 2 part pour for me, just to stop the bracelet from sinking to the bottom. Vacuum chamber the resin to remove most of the air, 1st pour into the bottom of the mould, which would become the top of the finished item, then drop it into a pressure chamber to really give it the best chance for minimal bubbles. Once that has cured, add a thin layer of vacuumed resin and arrange the bracelet, then pour more resin on top. Then back into the pressure chamber. All pours would be done slowly from a height, again to minimise bubbles. And after all that you'll need to demould and polish it.

I've tried embedding things in the past and as I didn't have a pressure chamber, there was still bubbles. Lucky I was just doing silly things to test the process. I gave up in the end.

If you can find a company that can do it, and do it reliably, go for it. It'd be less effort, less stressful and less time consuming that trying to do it yourself.

MrWhippy · 2 Sep 2018 at 09:52

Given that it sounds like a one shot deal (if you are going to try it yourself), have you considered mounting it in a frame instead?

AHarvey · 2 Sep 2018 at 10:07

There are lots and lots of videos of carpenters doing this with tables and ornaments online, try instructables (https://www.instructables.com/howto/?sort=none&q=resin+table)

I'd look at getting a wooden box frame made out of oak or something, putting a photo of Edie on the back and then resin and jewelry on the top to fill the box out, or maybe a large wooden heart with it hollowed out and the jewellery in the middle.

Mr Joshua · 2 Sep 2018 at 10:10

I'd urge you not to try this yourself if you want it to look nice. As some have posted air bubbles will be an issue, professional setups will have vacuum pumps to remove these.

Companies can do runs of these, look among the model kit people.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?cli.....0....1.........0i71j0i7i30j0i13.ewyAmCOo4BY

AndyT · 2 Sep 2018 at 21:14

Kronos said:
Would like to get a bit of my late partners jewellery embedded in acrylic or some such. Looking around I see this is possible to do oneself. Plenty of videos on Youtube for guidance but first I need to source a mould.
This is the item I want to embed, something I bought Edie from Pandora a couple of years or so ago and have added charms on birthdays etc.
Something square, 80/90mm with perhaps 30/40mm deep. Not having much luck as yet on finding this though I have only just started a search.
Anyone turn their hand to this type of thing and can offer advice?

My Dad did his PhD at Edinburgh Uni 40+ years ago and has a load of insects / mosquitoes encased in glass blocks from his time there. Perhaps you could contact the Biology department at the university and ask if they still do things like that and if so, who they get to do it, or whether they do it themselves?