UV Resin Sealed Alcohol Ink Washer Necklaces

Over the last few weeks, I've been putting the T-Rex alcohol inks through their paces. I started out with a test of the warm and cool tone sets and continued to use the sets to try out some standard alcohol ink methods (plastic wrap, flaming, etc...). They've been a pleasure to work with, and though you do have to watch out for the inks getting dark because the colors are so nicely saturated, they are usually in line with the other quality inks (Ranger, Pinata) that I've worked with. So, I decided I would try them out with a classic craft blog project--Washer Necklaces. This would also give me the opportunity to try sealing the necklaces with UV Resin (which has been on my to do list ever since I first tried the stuff).

So I got out a few large washers (the kind you get from the hardware store) and a collection of blue T-Rex inks, some paint brushes, rubbing alcohol, and a small pan for mixing/thinning ink.

I also used a lighter to help move and set the ink. The T-rex ink stays wet longer than some other inks I've worked with, so the lighter helped me dry out the layers of ink so I could build color without it all mixing together every time I applied ink. I used a paint brush to drop ink on the washers; lighting it on fire to move, mix, and dry the ink; and drips of alcohol ink (usually applied with a paint brush for control) to thin ink and break up colors.

I wish I had set up a video to show some of the process, but it's just a lot of dotting of ink and alcohol until I started to like the look of it.

I let my washers dry for a day or two before moving on to the next step. When I did, I noticed that I had scuffed a bit of the ink on one of the washers, so I decided to add some silver ink to cover it up.

After dotting the silver ink on and then thinning it out with alcohol, it created a speckled silver effect. 

I used the ink already on the washer and some rubbing alcohol to move the ink around until I liked the way it looked.

Once I was happy with all of the washers and they were sufficiently dry, I sprayed a light coat of Kamar Varnish to set the ink. I probably could have skipped this step as I haven't had issues with the UV resin mixing or interacting with alcohol ink, but I thought better safe than sorry.

After the Kamar had dried, I got out my UV Resin and laid out a silicon mat. (If you don't have UV Resin--Mod Podge Dimensional Magic also works pretty well for sealing washer necklaces.)

I squeezed out a thick ring of UV Resin onto the washer (which I set on a bottle cap so that any run off would not get on the sides and bottom of the washer). 

Then I used a little silicon tool to move the resin to the edge of the washer. I poked out any large bubbles and then used a lighter to pop the smaller ones.

Then I cured the resin under the UV light. I ran the 90 second cycle twice and it was cured to the touch but seemed a bit soft, so I ran it again (for a total of 4.5 minutes). Then I set the washers aside in the sunlight, just in case they weren't completely cured, and left them for a couple of days.

Once the washers had a nice hard glaze on the front, I could flip them over and clean the excess alcohol ink off of the back. I wet a paper towel and used it to clean the ink off the back.

Then I cut some faux suede cording to string up the necklaces. I cut the cording long to start with--it can always be cut shorter. I fold the cord in half and poke the folded loop end through the center of the washer and then thread the two free ends through the loop that's been pushed through the center--then tighten. Once the washer has been looped, I tie a knot in the ends and trim the cording.

I was pleased with the T-rex ink, and I'll definitely be using the UV Resin to seal washer necklaces again in the future. It works more easily than any other sealing medium I've used on washers and looks great on the finished product.