Heart and beads in a colour palette I love.
I would have snapped up this grouping of beads at a gem show.
It might be hard for you to believe that the necklace you see above started out as these irregular chunky resin beads. I probably would have avoided this grab bag because colouring plastic beads is not easy.
That was before I had Gilders Paste to work with. This paste will work on plastic, metal, gourds, paper, leather and the list of what it will colour goes on and on.
Using a stencil brush (you can use a tooth brush, cloth, your fingers) I applied the Patina colour to the beads I wanted to re colour.
The coverage was amazing. The colour is rich and I was amazed to get this much colour with just one application. I worked with three colours to start: Patina, Inca Gold and Pinotage (red.)
My beads were looking pretty fantastic. I knew I would need to let them dry for 12 hours. I felt I needed to just add one more colour so I applied a little Violet Gilders Paste.
I set my beads up to see how they would look strung. Then I realized I might need some spacer beads. This gave me a chance to test Gilders Paste on wood! I gathered six natural wood coloured cube beads. Like the resin beads, I applied the paste and let these dry 12 hours too.
My last task was to apply a protective coat of acrylic spray. What can I say? The opportunities to make something your own are endless!
