Not a Good Craft Day
I decided to try out Lisa Pavelka’s Magic Glos today on a polymer clay pendant I’m working on. I spread out the material, being careful to use enough product so that the edges wouldn’t pull back. Happy with my progress, I set it under the UV lamp that I bought from her. I clicked on the light, which promptly burnt out. I had only used it twice- once at home for 10 minutes, and another time for a class– maybe a 1/2 usage time.
Sigh.
Then I went to her website to order a replacement bulb, only to find out that the price of Magic Glos has gone up again- twice since I wrote my original review. When I bought it, it was $8.00 an ounce- pricey enough. Now it’s $9.50. Yikes!
I’m thinking I’d better find a replacement for Magic Glos, too. There’s gotta be a UV curing resin available at a better price and quantity. Anyone??
(((NOTE: I got an e-mail from Lisa Pavelka APOLOGIZING for the damaged lamp…and an offer to replace it for free. How sweet is that?? Just goes to show that when you deal with a person, verses a corporation, integrity means something. She was wonderful and replaced my lamp right away, and now I’m back to using Magic Glos happily. Read my initial review of Magic Glos here.)))
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Hi, I have stumbled upon UV cured resin when researching a safer way to work with resin and wondered about its use for jewelry design as well. I have found something called “Solarez” but have not yet bought it and tried it. It appears to be the same stuff as Magic Glos but at about a tenth the price.
They have a couple of different types = I’m not sure which version to buy. Read more here:
http://www.smartfrogs.com/solarez_safe_resin.html
I liked the fact that it is low VOC. It seems to be readily available in surf shops (they use it for surfboard repair) but you can also order it online.
I also came across this doming UV-cure resin. It does not specifically state low VOC though I suspect it is, and is 1/3 the cost as Magic Glos. I have not contacted the manufacturer directly for pricing (likely even less than this outlet.)
http://www.ultradome.com/products.html
The second product appears to be made specifically to “dome” like a crafter would want, but I do wonder if that may not be simply a marketing slant==worth trying the Solarex to see. Would love to hear back if you try either and I will report the same when I get my hands on some.
Hello,
You might want to check out my products at UltraDome.com. I have UV curable resins and supplies for much less. I also pride myself on great customer support. If you would like to try a sample of my epoxy let me know.
Thanks
Gosh, We’ve used Lisa’s lamps for many hours, and many separate times, since we got them (right after CHA last year).
Please let her know what happened. I believe you got one with a “problem”.
Myra
Hi Jenny,
I’m sorry to hear about the problem with your light. The bulbs typically last for thousands of hours. The failure of the bulb after so few uses is highly unusual and I am happy to replace it if you contact me.
There has actually on been once price increase since the product’s release and not two. This was mandated by my parent company. The cost is based on manufacturing of the product and material costs have increased substantially since we introduced it.
I realize that not every product will be ideal for each person or every application, but if you find something that works better for you, I completely understand. Please feel free to contact me about replacing your bulb at: coveredinclay@cox.net. Best of luck with your creations.
Creatively Yours,
Lisa Pavelka
I tried to contact you for a sample multiple times… and never could connect via phone. I requested a sample via e-mail through the company, and never got one. So much for customer support….
Hmm, maybe I’ll try that UTEE again.
I just want to say again– that Magic Glos is really the best resin product I’ve found that’s NON-TOXIC. Hooray! PS…. Grand River Beads in Rocky River will be carrying it for use in my steampunk/polymer projects. Double Hooray!
I love Magic glos, and even put a video demo of me using it on the website http://polymerclayproductions.com/videos- if you like to seal your clay or do interesting things with clear windows and such, you can’t beat this. EVERY other product either softens in heat, or is not waterproof- just remember that when you’re sealing with UTEE, Future, or Diamond Glaze. In Florida, that stuff is important to me! Also, if you research the UV resins commonly used for jewelry- like the kinds metalclay artists have been using for years, they are 3x the cost of Magic glos, around $30 per oz!!!! Believe me, I checked because I also thought MG was too expensive in the beginning but I guess now I’m a convert 🙂
Looking up Solarez, it sounds very promising and sounds as if it offers the same results as Magic Glos. I just watched a bunch of videos on their site showing how the repaired surf boards and this is a UV cure as well.
In the next week or so, I shall be trying this out as well. I did try to research it to see if anyone else has tried this and nothing…but on their site it is listed for crafts and for castings.
OH and for a 4 oz bottle of Solarez, is $8.25 Which for that price, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out……..
(And this product is safe to use, non toxic and is mainly used for surfboards, but has many, many other uses as well.)
I have been testing Solarez and for some reason when it cures, the top layer is still tacky. I have stumbled across other products that cure the same way. But speaking to Gary at solarez, he suggested I get a UV lamp, which since I am in the market for a UV cure epoxy, it will be an investment. Will come back and update with my findings. 🙂
Sara I hope you report back, because I’m having the same issue. I spoke to Gary too and he suggested curing with a layer of plastic over the surface(still sticky though).
Are you using the polyester resin? Or the vinyl ester?
Wow! So much resin info for a newbie like me!
I’ve been reading your posts & had a couple of concerns about using resign in bottle caps for jewelry…
1. Has anyone experienced the ink running when the resin is applied? (I have this problem with a straight gel-medium on collage art)
2. Has anyone solved the issue of the Magic-Glos pulling away or peeling from the sides?
3. what do you all use if there isn’t much of a dam built up to catch the sides? I am toying with the idea of hammering my caps flat for a different look.
Thanks for helping out a newbie! I haven’t bought any of the aforementioned products yet!
so has anyone tried the ultradome product?
Allyson– sorry to say I haven’t tried ultradome. The company offered to send me some to try, and then never followed through. Go figure.
Cindy Lietz, the Polymer Clay Tutor, did a video tutorial on the Ultradome UV Resin. It looks like it’s a lot cheaper than Magic Glos. I haven’t tried it myself yet, though. I’m trying to decide between Ultradome & Magic Glos. I was thinking I should just try both and see which is best. But now you guys are mentioning Solarez, so I’m really confused! Where’s the best place to buy Magic Glos, anyway? Is $9.50 the best price for 1 oz? Thanks for this article, and any help you can give me…
Loreen, Wow, takes me almost a year to reply back. 😛 I never did get to try the Solarez with a lamp, which I do have one now. Being as I was trying out Ultradome, which does have awesome results, but for some reason I am unable to get it to cure when using it over an image. (The culprit may be my photo paper, being as Terry uses the paper that has a plastic type backing to it, mine is like paper, but it’s Canon.) Terry has a top seal to use with this, and when I use one coat, the epoxy creates wet marks into the image. So I tried doing 2 coats and for some reason the ink seal becomes gel underneath and the epoxy dome slides right off. (I even tried letting the ink seal dry for 2 days to see if maybe I wasn’t allowing enough dry time before using the epoxy. And if the ink seal is anywhere outside the epoxy dome, when you touch it, it feels sticky and mars up the epoxy dome… *sigh*
But I had someone email me about the Solarez product review I did on Etsy and went to their website and noticed the polyester resin I used from them before now says in the description, will cure to a bone dry finish.
I have emailed them to see if there is a possibility to purchase a small sample versus caving in for the whole 4 ozs, that would be a lot left over for me if it didn’t work again.
And I was also using the polyester product, being as Gary recommended that for what my intended use was for.
BUT I shall give my UV lamp a whirl and see what results I get now, being as I totally forgot to test that….:P
Well, not now now, going to do my top coat and then see what happens after I give my top sealant coat time to dry. 🙂 So give me a day or two and am bookmarking this topic so I will remember!! 🙂
I love the easy use of Magic Glos and the look, but have run into some serious problems. I use a toner-based printer to design my images, not inks…they run. I cover the image with packing tape, or laminate the front and back, apply the Magic Glos, cure under a UV lamp…it looks great. I did over 100 pieces getting ready for a juried jewelry show, I go to pack my stuff (4 weeks later), and all the edges of the paper images are blurry, and the toner looks like it is being eaten away by the Magic Glos. I did a test and found it takes about 3-4 weeks for this problem to start showing. I have tried several different types of paper. I also get water marks around the edges of the lighter colors. I have discovered if any of the magic glos gets under the image, it won’t cure. I use heavy double sided taped to put the image into my bezel, covering the backside well. Still I am getting Magic Gloss underneath, could this be the reason my images are ruined. Anyone else had these problems?
I, too, am having problem with both Magic Glos and Ultradome resins.
I just want to put resin over stamped images, that are mounted onto Vintaj metal blanks, and have had many problems!
I had discovered recently that baking a thin layer of liquid polymer clay, then putting uv resin over, had worked for a couple of my pieces.
I tried, again, yesterday, and woke up to another unacceptable outcome!
I painted a thin layer of acrylic paint onto a brass metal blank. I stamped a word with permanent,black, archival ink. Then, I baked a thin layer of the Kato liquid polymer clay, baked it and cooled it. I applied a thin layer of Ultradome and cured under UV light for 25 minutes.
It looked great, till this morning when I saw the clay layer, underneath
had started to crinkle!!!
I am going to keep working with this process, though. It worked for me
on a couple other pieces that have not morphed out of control!! Yet!!
Maybe I should let the acrylic paint dry for several hours before adding the clay and resin….
I have used the Ranger Glossy Accents with no problems with stamped images, but not sure it is strong enough for sports jewelry.
Let me work on this for a bit…but I can assure you the Glossy Accents will NOT hold up. Have you tried Ice Resin yet? Or the Super Resin I reviewed can be cured under low heat for an hour and it’s DONE. Make sure you read that review….