Making a locket with hair

[Katherine Swift]

This question comes through email by Anne:

Hi,

My sister passed away and her husband would like to have some of her hair as a keepsake – I make a lot of jewelry so I offered to do it.
The idea is to seal a lock of her hair in a flat glass locket. I was thinking that resin would be the best way to do this for a clear set and permanence, but I have not done very much resin work.

Is there a specific product or technique you could recommend for sealing hair in a flat glass locket?

I guess this is kind of a weird question, and I do plan to experiment and get it right before trying it on my sister’s hair, but I hope you can help.

Thank you for your time.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Anne,

When you say glass locket, I’m not sure if you mean that you are using a glass bezel or if you are using a metal bezel and want to finish with with a glass dome.

First, I would suggest sealing the hair with a layer of our resin gloss sealer spray. http://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/tools-and-supplies/products/castin-craft-gloss-resin-sealer-spray This will keep the hair looking its ‘dry’ color. If you are going to use it in resin, it will soak up the moisture and look darker because it is wet.

At this point, if you are going to place it under a glass dome, I would suggest gluing the hair to the bottom of the bezel with a clear drying glue. Allow to dry, then adhere the glass bezel to the top. I have concerns doing it this way that you won’t be able to get the bezel flat enough to get good contact for adhesion. You could put a layer of resin down, but it is not going to cure completely flat, so you would still run into the same problem.

If you are going to use resin in a bezel, you can pour in some mixed resin, add the hair, then add more resin. As for a resin choice, there are a few you can use. This blog post gives the specifications on the ones we sell and should help you narrow down your choices: https://www.resinobsession.com/resin-frequently-asked-questions/resin-casting

I realize you may have more questions. Feel free to share additional details about what you want to accomplish.

[Anne]

Thank you! My brother in law chose this locket, which has more of an interior gap than I was expecting.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/208843994/bright-silver-round-floating-locket

So I *think* your idea of treating it as filling in a bezel should work perfectly. Thank you and I will reply on this thread as I come up with other questions.

[Katherine Swift]

Got it! The picture was really helpful.

Yes, I think filling it with resin will work well. I don’t know how well the glass and metal are sealed, so I would suggest adhering the back of the pendant to masking tape to keep resin from running out. Once the resin has cured, you can peel off the tape.

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