A tip for finishing a molded Sea Turtle bezel

Baked bezel after Antiquing with Raw Umber

We recently brought out a new mold, PJ048 Sea Turtle Bezels with Teardrop Cabochons.

The instructions that come with the mold show how to use mica powders like PearlEx or LuminArte to give a gleam to the details of the shell.

On this turtle pin/pendant, the shell was made using slices of squared jellyroll cane stacked and sliced then molded in the large teardrop cabochon mold.

The bezel was eased up against the edge of the cabochon and the turtle was baked.

After cooling the bezel was antiqued using dark paint that was allowed to dry just a tiny bit, then the high areas were wiped down revealing the green color and accenting the details in the flippers, face and shell. No paint was applied to the shell.

Baked, cooled bezel ready for gleaming accents.

The eyes were painted black.

Using heavy body metallic gold paint a very small amount was put out on a tiny tile and a very tiny bit of paint was picked up on a small, flat paint brush with soft bristles.

Easy does it for the best effect.

Some of the paint was wiped from the bristles so that the bristles were a bit 'dry'. This allowed the paint to be applied in very small amounts. This technique is called dry brushing. It allows a controlled amount of paint to be applied to the highest parts of detail keeping the deeper detail from changing color.

The higher parts were lightly dry brushed with the metallic paint bringing out the detail even more.

The technique was repeated until the amount of shine desired was achieved. If more than one dry brushed layer is needed. Allow the paint to dry between layers. 



After the metallic paint was dry, the shell was varnished using high gloss varnish to brighten the detail.

The high gloss varnish was also used to add shine to the eyes. 

A combo pin back was added that has both a pin and a pendant loop on it so that the sea turtle can be worn as a pin or a pendant. 

Left: Green and Gold Sea Turtle jewelry. 

Below, image of the mold.

 

Above, PJ048 Sea Turtle Bezel mold with Cabs

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Design, sculptures and tutorials by Penni Jo