Jewelry with Hard Resin

Jewelry Discussion
1

At a show recently, I saw some beautiful beaded necklaces and
earrings where the vendor said that they were made with “hard resin”
and beads, and that the resin was dyed to match the beads. She
emphasized that it was not polymer clay.

After a bit of research, it looks like “hard resin” is probably
urethane resin (not sure on this as there are several kinds.) My
question is (a) is urethane resin the kind used for jewelry and (b)
has anyone on this list worked with it? Please discuss your
experiences. (I also read that it has quite harmful fumes.)

Susan
Sun Country Gems
www.suncountrygems.com

2 
    After a bit of research, it looks like "hard resin" is
probably urethane resin (not sure on this as there are several
kinds.)  My question is (a) is urethane resin the kind used for
jewelry and (b) has anyone on this list worked with it?  Please
discuss your experiences.  (I also read that it has quite harmful
fumes.)

There’s a good overview of these sort of things at:

http://users.lmi.net/~drewid/resin_faq.html

Ken “Wirehead” Wronkiewicz \ \ /
http://www.wirewd.com/wh/ \ \

3 
    At a show recently, I saw some beautiful beaded necklaces and
earrings where the vendor said that they were made with "hard
resin" and beads, and that the resin was dyed to match the beads. 
She emphasized that it was not polymer clay. After a bit of
research, it looks like "hard resin" is probably urethane resin
(not sure on this as there are several kinds.)  My question is (a)
is urethane resin the kind used for jewelry and (b) has anyone on
this list worked with it?  Please discuss your experiences.  (I
also read that it has quite harmful fumes.)

About a hundred years ago I was an ass’t. costume designer working
for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. For the
Christmas Mystery Cycle (in the Medeieval sense, not the Raymond
Chandler) I spent several days in the basement, like Rumplestilskin,
creating large multi-colour ‘gems’ to apply to the massive patchwork
cape (@82 lbs) worn by the actor who played G-d (6’ 6"). The
intended effect , overall ,was that of a stained glass window. It was
a 2-part resin with catalyst, filling little plastic tray-moulds to
harden the stuff. As they hardened, some heat was generated, as I
remember. I referred to them oh so fondly as ‘Jello Jewels’. Toxic
fumes? - Hoo - boy!!

Margery Epstein