Pendants to Keychains

 It seems to me that the Keychains have become pretty popular as of late. It has come to my attention that kids like to hook them onto the zippers of their backpacks. Unlike the pendants, which people purchase to have something to wear that is light, colorful, and stylish. The pendants though have had a limited appeal. For a while, They have been ignored on my display table at the market. It still takes around the same time to produce both the keychains and the pendants. 

The solution I came up with was to turn the pendants into keychains. No problem. I just got some extra lanyard cord, beads, and ring loops to transform each rock creation. The glow, bling, and image appeal are still there. 

The resin casting has been a little tricky. Some resin will be set up quicker than other brands I've tried. The Industrial strength UV light will usually cause the resin to harden in less than two minutes. The resin I've experimented with lately works better if I place the rock outside in the sun.

The step I didn't mention is rock drilling. A diamond tip Dremel™ is perfect for making a hole even if it takes a while to drill through sandstone. Eventually, the bits will get chewed up if you don't place the rock on top of a wet sponge in a small bowl when drilling. Pushing the rock down to have the water covering the rock is the trick. It keeps the bit wet, causing less friction than trying to drill the thing raw. Below are some samples of the pendants I've turned into keychains.

The pendant shown below was transformed into a keychain without much effort. The design is from an early watercolor I had painted.