Creating Jewelry With Acrylic Paint Skins

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Mary. I'm excited to introduce you to one of my passions, acrylic paint skin, jewelry making. During childhood, I was always creative and inquisitive. Unfortunately, an art teacher in high school told me that my art was not good enough, so I stopped creating it. However, in my adult years, I discovered acrylic paint pouring and fell in love with the way the paint decides how it will move and it's final look. Once I accepted this process, I really started to enjoy painting again, and my passion grew. I explored different surfaces to pour onto using a variety of techniques. I share this passion with the children I taught in elementary school. Then I wanted to take it even further and searched for ways to use the drips from the runoff paint. That was my journey to making acrylic skin jewelry. I will show you how to prepare the paint using multiple mediums. How to put the pieces together, and where you can buy the materials and tools from. Your jewelry will always be unique, as the paint process takes it's own path. You can make different types of jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, hearings, pins, rings, and even cufflinks to either give as gifts or to sell. I offer clear, easy instructions that anyone can follow. Not too fast, not too slow. So come along with me and give yourself the freedom to create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry. 2. Your Project: Your class project is to create and put together a one of a kind piece of jewelry. It could be a necklace, earrings, a bracelet, cufflinks, a pin, or rings. Select and mix your paint colors with the medium of your choice; Floetrol, Glue, Liquitex, etc. Choose your method of making a critic skin, pour onto canvas, a page protector, or into a plastic bin, allow it to fully dry from 24-48 hours. Select the jewelry item you wish to make, decide which color of metal to use. Choose the type of chain if applicable, cut the unique skin into the desired shape, adhere it to the cover as shown, secure it into the vessel. When your creation is complete, post a picture of it to the project gallery. Don't be afraid to ask any questions. Good luck. 3. Tools and Materials: Here's a list of tools and materials you may need. The list is extensive but you won't need to use everything. It depends on how much you enjoy on making unique jewelry pieces. Silver, gold, or bronze vessels to put your paint skins into. Glass or brass and [inaudible] to protect your art. Chains, cord, or wire, for necklaces. Findings such as clasps and jump rings, cuff-links, rings, bracelets, or pendants. Jewelry glue to adhere the paint skin to the [inaudible] and pestle. Gloves to keep your hands clean. Acrylic already mixed paint. Pouring mediums such as glue, Zinsser, flow troll, or liquid texts, pouring medium, sticks for stirring, plastic cups, a bin to pour into, page protectors, canvas, rubbing alcohol, cotton pads, pliers, tweezers, scissors, and jewelry boxes. I've put together a list of places that I have purchased, some of these tools and materials. You can find it in the projects and resources section. 4. Paint Preparation: For this class, you will need acrylic paint, bottle, cups, stir stick, gloves to keep your hands clean, pouring medium; could be floetrol, glue, Liquitex pouring medium, there's also a product called Zinsser. These are paint extenders. It'll extend the paint without changing the color of the paint. Your acrylic paint could be regular paint from an art store, paint from a dollar store. Those are regulars. Then you can get something called a hard body. You will need less of this paint. You'll also need water. Let's get started. The recipe I use is two parts pouring medium to one part paint. Then you add a little bit of water to get the right consistency. I always use floetrol. I find I have the best results with this. That is what I'm going to show you today. I found these bottles at the dollar store. I like them because they have measurements on them. You can measure directly into the bottle. I'm going to measure four ounces of floetrol. [NOISE] I'm going to measure two ounces of paint, [NOISE] which will give me six ounces. Before I do anything else, I'll screw on the lid, put on my gloves [NOISE], and shake the bottle. [NOISE]. You want to shake until it's mixed very well. It still looks pink and red, so we need to shake more. [NOISE] I can tell by the sound that it's too thick, so I'm going to add some water just a little bit. You can always add more. You can't take it away. With the water added and the lid tight, finger on the top. [NOISE]. You can hear it's slightly less thick, [NOISE] but I'm still not happy with it. Actually does look a little better. I tend to do a pour test. No, still too thick. We will add a little more water. You can see it's a lot more liquidy. You don't want it too thick, but you don't want it too thin. You don't want it running like water, more like a thin yogurt texture. Now we'll try the dollar store paint. Two-thirds floetrol, one-third paint, and stir. [NOISE]. You can see that's very thick. We'll add some water. Still too thick. A little more. Just a little at a time. You can see it's a little runnier. Now, we'll try the hard body. You tend to need less paint for this. [NOISE] I'm going to use three parts floetrol. Two one paint. [NOISE] Still a little thick. [NOISE] Perfect. That is from hard body. This is dollar store and this is our store paint. Basically, it's the same color. Hasn't lightened up very much. Now, you're ready to pour. 5. Pouring Your Paint: In this video, you will need mixed paints, a bin to pour into, a plastic page protector with cardboard inside for stability, a canvas, latex gloves, a butane torch, and plastic cups. Decide if you'll pour paints into a cup first, that's a dirty pour, or directly onto the surface, that's a clean pour. You can use a wire cooling rack or two plastic cups placed upside down on the table or in a bin. First, put on your gloves to protect your hands. I'm going to be using black, blue, light blue, and green. I'm choosing a dirty pour. Pour the paint in slowly, not like the sped up version here. I've decided to add some white. Now, I'm taking the canvas and putting it on top of the cup, holding it in place carefully, I'm flipping it over. This is called a flip cup. I'm going to wait for 30 seconds. Slowly, lift the cup from the canvas to reveal something beautiful. To get as much paint out of the cup as I can, I tap it on the canvas. Look for the edge that you like the most. It could be here or here, and here you'll see some cell formation. I'm using a butane torch to pop any paint bubbles that have formed. I'm going to tip this way first because that's the side I liked, and now this way. See how the paint is stretching and bending. I'm tipping the paint so it runs off the canvas, like here. I'm tipping the paint to cover the entire canvas. You can see the paint coming off the corner here. There is a sneak peek of the runoff paint in the bin. Here's the bonus, a beautiful painting. Now to reveal inside the bin, some amazing paint drips. Leave the bin and the painting in place undisturbed for 24-48 hours. Here's the painting 24 hours later. The paint skins in the bin still aren't dry. They will likely need at least another 12 hours. Now a demonstration showing how to use a page protector. Again, you need gloves, put two cups upside down in a band or on a table. Take your page protector with the cardboard inside, and place it on the cups. This time, I'm going to be using yellow, orange, pink, red, and white. We're going to do a clean pour. Pour puddles of paint directly onto the surface, mixing them as you go or just putting them randomly on the surface. Do not use a butane torch, we don't want to melt the plastic. Now we can have some fun by manipulating the paint. Tilt the page protector, this will move the paint around the plastic. Here you will see some paint in the bin, but this is actually going to be your paint skin. Some tools you could try are a popsicle stick. Just move it around the paint. Make interesting shapes, squiggles, and lines. A toothpick makes thinner lines. You could use a straw, blow through it to move the paint around. This not only moves the paint, but it mixes the paint, and you can see the colors from underneath coming through. Leave the page protector in place undisturbed for 24-48 hours. The painting is now dry. 6. Jewelry Selection: In this class, you will select a bezel, glass or resin cabochon, chain and findings if you're making a necklace. You could also use wire or cord, pliers, glue, scissors, rubbing alcohol, and a pad. Ensure you have the matching size cabochon to fit inside the bezel. If you're using a chain for pendant, measure the appropriate length. When using a jump ring, using pliers, open sideways to fit onto the chain and onto the clasp. When you do it up again, push it back sideways. 7. Cutting, Gluing and Covering: First, choose the jewelry bezel. For this demonstration, I will choose a pendant necklace. Then you need to decide which part of the skin would look best with this pendant. I feel that this part is perfect. Everyone has different tastes, so choose what you like. Take the matching glass cover shown, and do a rough cut around the glass. Being very careful, this one is super thin. Once you've found exactly where you want it to be, do a more precise cut using the rubbing alcohol and the pad, clean the flat side of the glass. This will ensure there's no fingerprints on there. Taking the jewelry glue, put a small amount onto the glass. Using the tip to spread. Put the glass on top of the piece you just cut. Cut any pieces away that don't match the glass. [BACKGROUND] Take the bezel dependent tray, squeeze on a small amount of glue and spread it around using the tip. Place the class with the paint skin on into the tray and push down firmly. Use your alcohol soaked pad and wipe again. This will remove the glue. Finally, add the chain of your choice. I've chosen a waxed cord that comes with the clasp and jump rings already attached. There you have a beautiful unique piece of jewelry. I'm going to show you an alternate way to put together the pendant. First; we'll clean off the cover shown using the rubbing alcohol. Clean off the flat side, ensuring there's no fingerprints on there. Then taking your glue, put the glue on the glass. Using the tip again to spread the glue around. Find the piece on your skin that you like the most, and put it directly onto the skin, pushing down, making sure there's no air bubbles and you're going to let that dry for a few minutes. Now, the glue is dry enough. This is what we have so far and I'm going to cut around. This is an easier way than the previous way. [BACKGROUND] Now we'll take the bezel and again, put a small amount of glue inside, [BACKGROUND] knowing this is the top, decide which way you want your design to go. It can be this way, this way, this way, this way. For me, I feel like this is a landscape with a mountain in the background. So I'm going to put it in that way and push it down. Once again take your alcohol soaked pad, clean off any glue that may have seeped out, clean off any fingerprints that may be on the top. You can cut your chain, which I've done already. My previous video, I showed you how to attach the jump ring and the clasp to the chain. I'm going to add the second jump ring to the other end of the chain. I always put the clasp on the right side so this is the way I'm going to thread it on, [NOISE] so that when it goes on, it will be that way [NOISE]. It's done and if you look here, you can see, in my opinion, it looks like a landscape. 8. Final Thoughts: I'm excited to share this. My first class on Skillshare. Thank you for choosing. My aim is to instill in you the same passion that I have for jewelry making. The lessons you have learned here should motivate you to make your own unique jewelry. Please take picture of your finished piece and upload it by clicking the Create Project button. Don't forget to leave any feedback you have. It will help students decide if this class is right for them. Please ask any questions you have in the discussion section. I will always answer and other students might have different insights too. Have fun creating and enjoy the project.