Eyes of Jewels Tutorial - with Apoxie Sculpt

Betsy Youngquist is my inspiration for this piece. I couldn't believe how fast it was completed. The most time consuming matter was finding the right brooch to begin the project. 

Difficulty: Easy

Materials Needed:

1. Two Part Jewelry Epoxy but any 2 part Epoxy will work, even Bondo! Just make sure the kind you'll use is pliable like putty (not sloppy and runny) and has some working time before hardening. Perhaps an hour minimum. 

2. Old rhinestone brooch. Really anything which is solid will work but if you'd like to repeat this eye, find a brooch. 

3. Seed beads and bugle beads. Some come on thread when purchased and can be used just like that. 

4. Old rhinestone flexible necklace or bracelet. 

5. An eye. I got mine from a baby doll's head from the second hand store. 

6. E-6000 glue (optional)

Front of brooch with center stone removed.

Back of the brooch

To begin, I removed many of the stones on the brooch which caused too much relief and would have proved problematic. I secured a short chain to the brooch for hanging. This step may not be easy to do once te epoxy has been added on the brooch.

Then I mixed equal parts of the epoxy to form a small ball and shaped it around the eyeball.

Mix equal parts of the two-part epoxy. Here one is gray, the other black.

Form around the eye.

I then began gently pushing the strung beads into the putty. Don't push hard or you will distort the putty and have to reshape it. 

Begin pressing your strung beads into the epoxy.

Continue by adding multiple rows of beads and rhinestones. When it looks how you want it glue your putty piece to the brooch. If you have enough exposed putty remaining you may simply push the beaded eye onto the brooch. The putty is quite tacky until it dries. 

Continue adding beads until the epoxy is covered.  Glue it to the brooch.

Set it aside to dry for 24 hours or however long your epoxy directions say. Voila!