Glittery Mermaid by Lori Mendenhall

I use a lot of brass stampings in my work. They generally are silver-plated, gold-plated or raw brass. They also come oxidized or shiny. These stampings can be beautiful, as you can see the mermaid below. In order to give her more interest and give my pendant sparkle and more pizzazz, I embellished her tail with glitter! While it’s a subtle look it does really make the piece much more special.

I found this gorgeous mermaid at VintageJewelrySupplies.com. First I used Designer Dries Clear adhesive along with #86 Angel Dust, Ultrafine Transparent on the mermaid’s tail. Using transparent is really important so that you can still see the details on the stamping. The Angel Dust gives just enough sparkle and iridescence to accent the tail without overpowering.  Let glue dry thoroughly.

You might be surprised at what I used for the setting – it’s an empty make-up tin! I buy them in bulk from TKB Trading. I put in the mermaid and filled in around her with seed beads, pearls, and glass.

I then encased the whole thing in resin. I love the resin with these glittered stampings because I feel secure that the glitter will never come off and it’s a higher-quality piece of jewelry.

Once the resin cured I glued on a bail.

You can see the same technique used on the fairy wings in the mosaic below.  Adding glitter to butterfly or dragonfly wings would look amazing too! 

Note, I received free product in exchange for this article. However, I’ve been using Art Glitter products for years and love them!