Hello everyone! Today I will be instructing you on how to make these adorable, personalizable metal flake gummy bear keychains. You can watch my youtube video on it here:
The first thing you will need is to gather all these items:
1. Resin.
2. Metal flake (I used gold flakes from Kinno).
3. Popsicle sticks (or any other mixing tool you use).
4. General use liquid latex (I use Monster Liquid Latex in my video).
5. Depending on which one you prefer, either a screw-in eyelet or a glue-on bail.
6. Glue (I recommend using G-S Hypo Cement).
7. Liquid dye and or pigment dye of your choosing.
8. Pliers.
9. Keychain loop
10. Gummy bear mold (any size will work, I got mine off Etsy).
11. A hand drill or dremel tool.
Once you have everything you need, you can get started!
STEPS:
- Pour the first layer.
You’re going to start by pouring clear resin with metal flakes into your mold and filling it up halfway. If you’d rather have just the metal flake, then you’ll need to do a few layers so the gold doesn’t sink to the bottom depending on what resin you used.
- Wait for the first layer to cure, then mix up the resin for the second/last layer.
After the first layer has cured, choose the color of the background you like and how translucent or opaque the color is.. Once you’ve decided, you’ll mix it up, and fill the mold the rest of the way with the colored resin. After you pour, allow it to cure.
- Demold your gummy bear.
After the gummy bear has fully cured, you can remove it from the mold and examine how it turned out.
- Attach your eyelet or bail.
For this next step, this can be done 2 ways. One method takes more steps but is more secure than the faster method. Whichever method you used is up to you. I will explain both of them.
If you attach your eyelet, you’ll need to be careful not to accidentally break your bit off in the gummy bear, or you may have to start over if you can’t remove it or drill another hole. I did this in my video and I had to resort to plan B because of this. BUT! If you really want to use the eyelet instead, then you will first need to drill a hole into wherever you want the gummy bear to hang from.
The other option is to glue a bail onto the back. You’ll have to wait for the glue to completely dry before doing this next step. You’ll take your pliers, grabbing the gummy bear by the loop of the bail, and dunking it face down into a small container with liquid latex in it.
Be careful not to completely cover the gummy bear though — you’ll need to leave the back open for the next step. After two hours, apply a second layer of latex and let dry for 24 hours.
The next step is to mix a little bit more resin, either clear or with a little pigmented glitter, and thinly smooth it on the back of the gummy bear’s back. The reason for this is to create a layer of resin over the bail to help secure it in case the glue you use doesn’t hold it in place for a long time. Let this fully cure before peeling off the latex.
This is also why latex is important for this step — the latex will peel right off with any excess resin that dripped over the edge and onto the front of your piece.
- Attach the keychain.
After you’ve peeled off the latex, you can now attach the chain to the loop of the bail. Whether you did an eyelet or a bail, the attachment process to the keychain is the same. Once you have it attached, you’re all done!
Remember that you can personalize or choose your own metals and colors to use for this so that the keychain fits you.
I hope you all found this blog to be very helpful on how to create your own mixed metals gummy bear keychain. Have a good day, and stay creative!
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