Here’s something new for me. My blog partner, Rings and Things, sent me a package of goodies to try out. I got some glass tiles and bezels along with some base metal bails in various finishes. What first?
The resin pieces that are part of my regular stock are made by soldering sterling bezel cups to sheet, then filling the cup with resin. I started doing it that way after discovering that resin would find any possible microscopic opening to leak from, and the bezel cups prevented this. Rings and Things sent a few glass bezels to play with. They have much thicker walls than my metal bezels but the same basic idea. Being clear, they just disappear in the finished piece. I also like making something interesting for the back. They’re also deep enough to embed just about anything you might want to drop inside. The little metal rose here is completely submerged. I found that if the resin has any drips down the glass walls outside the domed surface, a light hand on a buffing wheel after full cure will clean that right up. The glue-on bails make these a snap to hang. I used a 2-part epoxy.

The glass tiles were a bit more of a puzzle to me. I’ve seen these for sale but never looked too hard into how to make them myself. The Rings and Things description page says to “attach an image to the back,” then attach a bail. What’s the best way to do that exactly? Epoxy? Mod Podge? Spray mount? White glue? I tried all of those, by the way. I painted these images on watercolor paper, but I think next time I’ll use something a little less textured. I liked the spray mount because it didn’t smudge the paint I used like a liquid glue did. Acrylic paint would prevent that, I’m sure, but I used a highly saturated, glittery watercolor paint for the bright colors and sparkle.

Now that the image was attached, I wanted to seal the back. I’m in Florida, after all, and it rains daily in the summer. Paper backed by glue isn’t going to last long here. I floated a thin layer of resin over the back, which worked pretty well once I got the hang of how much to use. Again, the buffing wheel helped clean up any cured resin that didn’t stay precisely where I put it. (If you’ve ever worked with resin, you know how it tends to creep slowly.)
Then I got to thinking, what else can I do with these? Would it be possible to fuse metal clay to them? I think it’s a possibility, but I ran out of time to experiment much before posting this. I fired some of the tiles with syringe designs on the top, and I planned to paint on the back between the silver designs. It appeared to work after a 30-minute firing at 1150. I tossed them into the tumbler, where the silver slid right off the tiles. Perhaps it would work if fired to 1450 and the glass started to slump, trapping the metal into the surface? I’ll give a shot later, and if anyone reading this has tried it, I’d be curious as to your results.
Overall impressions on the glass bezels and tiles is that they’re very handy and easy to use. I’ll be watching for more sizes and shapes to come out in the bezels. As for the tiles, I’m not sure if I was doing it right to end up with a durable product. If I knew what I was doing, however, I’d be all over them. They certainly do have a sturdier, more substantial feel than the thinner ones I’ve seen elsewhere. I’ll have to play more with them to see if metal clay can be used to come up with an interesting look. Thank you, Rings and Things, for giving me a reason to experiment!