How To: Inlaying Crystals and Keeping Their Shine When Sealing
As a part of my Halloween Collection this year, I really wanted to experiment with inlaying crystals into Jesmonite wall hangings! And actually, the inlaying part was easy! Utilising jewellers cement designed to fuse stone, I inlaid gorgeous crystal chip tumbles into the engraving of a cat on my Moon Phase Kitty Wall Hangings. It looked marvellous!
However, then came the next problem, I wanted to finish each piece with my usual acrylic sealant, to enhance the colour and ensure water and scuff resistance but as soon as I coated the piece with sealant, and allowed it to dry, the crystals were dull and matte finished. So I had to come up with a method to prevent this from happening, while still getting a total sealant cover on the piece.
It seems like a simple solution in retrospect, but it took some testing and thinking for a few days to come up with the right idea. I did try liquid latex, however it got stuck in between each crystal stone and then took hours to clean out! So, instead, I used a few strips of tape, stuck together and cut out into the shape of the crystal kitty to overlay before sealing. Once the sealant had dried, I removed the tape and - voila! The crystals were still shining and the piece was sealed to perfection.