Fire Mountain Gems and Resin

Today's Silver Price: $30.55

Fire Mountain Gems

I've been doing some browsing on Fire Mountain Gems today. I got one of their catalogues in the mail yesterday and dammit I was suckered in. What drew me in was the glass heart shaped beads on the cover for $2 per strand. Check em out! While Rio Grande is great for metals (wire and components), Fire Mountain Gems has some awesome deals on beads.

Probably the most badass thing about Fire Mountain Gems is that when you buy a large quantity of items, you get a discount. Now I'm not talking about bulk pricing per item. When you buy a large quantity of any assortment/combination of items you get a discount. I believe the first price break is at 15 items. And that's ANY 15 items. 15 bags of wooden beads... or 10 bags of glass beads plus 5 charms... or 2 bags of glass beads plus 7 strands of pearls plus 6 sets of earwires... you get the idea!

Anyway, those heart beads are an awesome deal and just in time for Valentine's Day items. I'll be placing my order next week!

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Resin

I was watching videos last night on creating pendants and components using resin. Resin is a clear liquid that is poured into a mold and then left to harden. The cool thing about it is you can put items into the liquid and the item will become encased once the resin hardens (think mosquito encased in amber... a la Jurassic Park... although I won't be using mosquitoes). The resin has to be mixed with epoxy in certain measurements in order for it to cure correctly. I'll have to do a little more research, but my understanding is that you can drop anything into the resin and it will become part of the pendant. Once the resin has hardened you can drill a hole in it to insert a bail or jump ring to hang it from, or it can be wrapped with wire. I could sell them alone or put them on chains to sell as necklaces or bracelets. Lots of possibilities here!

There are also different colors of resin that can be used both to color the pendant and also to create designs. I'm looking into getting a resin starter kit from Rio Grande which is $145. I'll have to purchase some molds separately but they are not expensive (around $8 for a tray with different shapes).



There are so many materials and techniques out there that I am dying to learn about! I've only just begun my relationship with wire, and now I'm looking at a totally new material! I think having a diverse set of skills will only help my business as I would be able to offer a wider variety of jewelry to my customers. Bring it on!