Having designed and written about jewelry for many years, I've taken for granted my ability to handle the basic steps of jewelry making.

Not so with resin.

I'm working on a resin project for the March issue. Up to this point, my experience had consisted of pouring Diamond Glaze into lockets.

With this project, though, I've been challenged by the precision required: mixing equal parts of EasyCast (between 70 and 80 degrees) for two minutes, then one minute. Then just a drop or two of colorant.

Also, resin work requires much more time than designing jewelry (at least, for me). It's a hurry-up-and-wait process. Three minutes to work the silicone putty into a mold. Three minutes of mixing the EasyCast. Then 24 to 72 hours for curing. And there isn't much fixing that I can do — I'll just have to learn from my mistakes.
 
I am a true beginner here. My lesson learned: Read all the instructions first.