Making my own beads … part 1
So for months now I have been searching for a way to make my own beads. There are many options I considered.
1) polymer clay - cons - polymers clay is made from petroleum products, is not recyclable and opaque
2) Silver metal clay (Art clay) - though Art Clay is made from 100% recycled silver (PMC is partially made from recycled silver), to burn away the binders you would need to A) use a torch which burns butane (fossil fuel) or B) use a kiln which use quite a bit of energy ( here is hydro electric but still). Also to color the silver you would need to use enamel or paints which again as far as I can tell are made with petroleum products.
3) Glass - lampwork beads require again a torch (fossil fuels) and glass is not recycled ( as side note did you know you can actually decolorized glass once it has been colored)
4) Paper - recycle wrapped paper beads - well I use some already, but again limiting, opaque and to protect them from getting wet i need to use a resin coating.
5) Wood or Tagua Nut - lets just say the combination of me wood and moving blades in not good, plus the outlay for a mini lathe and all the wood working tools is more money and space then I have. Other con - only opaque. Plus side you can get some great eco colorants for woods.
6) Resin - a two part epoxy - AKA a plastic, most craft resins are made from petroleum products, but the can be transparent, or opaque. Generally I have read they are toxic to use and off gas VOC’s. Colorant are also made from fossil fuels. But what did interest me was encasing natural elements like leaves, flower etc.. much like Rosella Resin does. When reading their descriptions I realized they were using …
7) Eco friendly Resin epoxies, I had found last year Entropy which makes biobased clear epoxy resin, made from non-food sources. Down side it I was going to be ordering it from California and shipping was going to be expensive and left a high carbon foot print. Then through the magic of the internet I stumble this week upon a Canada company that was making a biobased clear casting resin, and it turns out hey based in my hometown - woot! woot! So one short trip to the locally own art store (which is the local distributor) and I have my very jugs of ecopoxy craft resin. No VOCS, Odorless, non toxic and freeze thaw resistant, end less shelf life and dries from the outside in eliminating bubbles
But wait - ecopoxy is plastic … . yes it is but there is no commercial biodegradable clear biobased epoxy resin yet. . but we are close … Chemists Develop Fully Biodegradable and Recyclable Synthetic Resin
