Hey baby, let's go to Vegas!

Excited to announce that my next show will be at ACRE Las Vegas!  You read about my time at the ACRE Orlando show in January, so get ready to hear about Las Vegas!  (Yes, I swear to you I am going for business purposes.)  The show runs from June 5 to June 7.  If you are a wholesale customer and interested in hearing more about the ACRE show, or to get on my wholesale customer mailing list, drop me an email to kmsdesigns@hotmail.com. 

Look for more posts between now and June about getting ready for the show!

Random resin jewelry photos

A few random photos from the week.

A large wholesale order.  These will be sold online.  They are individually packaged and each has an organza ribbon necklace.

An assortment of pendants for a wholesale order.  These are going to Wild Ruby in Framingham, Massachusetts.












Detail view of the same group of resin pendants.












A group of delicious designer art deco jewelry.  (Had to insert some literary skills here)  Actually they are mostly flower and snowflake pendants.











These jewelry trays have more contemporary necklace styles: asian flowers and "kaleidoscope" patterns.

A close up of some of the flower pendants in green and pink.  Some need the silver tone bails attached.










By the way, in case you missed it, I put some new resin scrabble tile pendants on the KMS Designs website his week.

Finishing up my last big resin jewelry order

In terms of my resin jewelry orders from the wholesale show last week, I saved the biggest until last.  It was an order for 160 of the scrabble tile pendants.  I decided to save this order until the end because there were so many patterns involved; I needed to make sure to keep everything straight!  Things were going well until I started to pour the epoxy resin.  Let's just say, I learned only to pour about 75 to 100 pendants in one day.  Between smelling the slightly noxious odor and seeing bubbles in my sleep (in the resin, not the kind in the picture, although that would have been nice), I had enough resin pouring in one day to last an entire week.  The good news is that they're done and curing and should get shipped out by the end of the week.  Maybe I will open a bottle of bubbles to celebrate.....

New retail locations for KMS Designs resin jewelry

Announcing several new places across the country to purchase my resin and scrabble tile pendants.

Florida:

Lyonia Environmental Center, Deltona

Vickie Lynn's Salon, Lakeland


Massachusetts:

Prelude Gifts, Needham

Missouri:

Trova, St. Louis

New Mexico:

Lilly Barrack, three locations in Albuquerque

Pennsylvania:

The Malone Flower Shop, Canonsburg

Tennessee:

Dandridge General Store, Dandridge

Stop in and say hi.  (Even if you don't buy anything, please tell them you think they're pretty cool.  *wink*)

What jewelry questions do you have?

Have a burning question you're dying to ask?  Looking for answers to your jewelry making questions or just have a curious question about art jewelry?  Leave your response here or if you want to remain anonymous, send an email to kmsdesigns@hotmail.com.  I'll post the answers to the questions next week!

#Cybermonday and December holiday special

For any of my resin or silver jewelry you purchase between now and December 24, I will gladly gift wrap or gift box at no additional charge.  I can even send it directly to the recipient!  Just let me know in the "special instructions to seller" box when you checkout on Paypal, or let me know when you call to place an order.

Items under $25 are packaged on a card and included in a cellophane bag.  It is then wrapped with tissue paper and finished with a holiday ribbon.  A gift card with your personal message is included as well.












Silver jewelry or Resin jewelry pieces priced at $25 or more will be included in a purple, cardboard gift box.  It is finished with a raffia bow.  A gift card is included with these as well.














I ship all jewelry in a padded envelope (for those placed on cards) or a recycled cardboard box.  All my jewelry pieces ship via U.S. postal service with a package tracking number.  I am happy to ship UPS or FedEx for an additional charge.

Need your package shipped internationally?  No problem!  Please contact me with the destination address and will let you know of the additional postal charges.

Pouring resin jewelry pendants

 While I was getting ready to pour resin jewelry a couple of nights ago, I though I would grab a few pictures. 

Resin always starts as two separate parts.  When they're apart, they're completely inert.  Once they are mixed together though, a chemical reaction starts and the mix eventually hardens.  The cups at left show the measured resin.









Here I'm mixing the two parts together.  It is important to wear gloves.  I also use disposable cups and wooden toothpicks.










This shows my digital art affixed to the scrabble tiles.  They are placed on a layer of wax paper in the case that some resin rolls off the pendants, it won't stick to any thing permanently.

For these pendants, I have to drop on the resin to each pendant individually with a toothpick.  I have to work quickly as I only have about 15 minutes before the resin starts to get too firm to work with.









Once I have placed the resin on top of the jewelry, I cover it with a dome and allow it to harden.  It takes approximately 3 days for the pieces to fully cure.  Once they're done, I can adhere the bails to the back.

Scrabble tile jewelry in progress

 I have been concentrating on the Scrabble tile pendants over the last couple of weeks.  The early comments from my customers and wholesale accounts have been positive, so I have been focusing on them.









As I was working on them yesterday, I loved how the random assortment of them on my tray looked like art itself.  I've been having fun working with different colors, patterns and simulated textures.









This is just a preview of what's to come!  Stay tuned.

A new style resin jewelry pendant

If you're reading this hoping for the next step in the resin bracelet making process, it is still forthcoming.  I have a slight detour in the jewelry making series.

I blogged a few days ago about my visit to Yum Cupcakery in Gainesville, Florida.  The owners and I discussed if I could do a line of jewelry for them that would fit with their bakery.  I had an idea in mind and decided to go with it. 

This is a resin jewelry pendant with a cupcake image on the front of a scrabble tile.  The cupcake image was digitally created and printed onto high quality laser paper. 

The image is sealed with decoupage glue (just like the bracelets) then adhered to a scrabble tile.  Resin is placed on top and allowed to cure.

The pendant is finished with a silver tone bail that will allow most any chain, cord or ribbon to pass through the bail opening.  The pendant comes on a 24 inch, silver tone ball chain.  The chain can be cut to fit as desired.







This is just the first in the series of several cupcake styles.  I will post pictures of new pendants along with the resin bracelets also in process next week on this blog.