Hi, welcome to my podcast jewelry as your side
hustle with sugar gay is for now today's gonna
be fun It's not about jewelry because I have
lots of times do shows with other entrepreneur
teachers, et cetera, that are not in jewelry.
But we do have jewelry on this topic. So it's
going to be a lot of fun. So today we have Bieber.
And she is a quilter extraordinaire that people
follow her from all over. And she is in Oakland.
I almost said Sacramento, but I'm like, I've
had a lot of California locations on my plate
today. Thank you, and your view is beautiful.
So welcome so much and welcome. We're out of
applause. We're so glad you're here. Okay, so
let's just dive right in. Tell me about you.
I'm really excited to learn. Well, thanks, Sugar.
This is great. So, yes, my name is Bea Byrne,
and you probably tell I'm not native to Oakland
from the accent. I came over here from the UK
about 10 years ago, and I've been living in the
Bay ever since. And I am a teacher and a kind
of crafty entrepreneur who's working throughout
the Bay Area. And one of the things I work with,
which I really wanted to talk about today, is
UV resin. And I really want to evangelize about
it and just share how useful it is for anyone
who makes jewelry or anything kind of small and
relatively flat. It's a really wonderful medium
to work with. Do you remember the first time
that you used jewelry resin or heard of it? I
do. I do, actually. Yeah, I used to live in Tokyo.
Oh wow! Yeah, so it was for a couple of years
before moving to the US and after the UK, so
it was just sandwiched in there. And UV resin
was something I kept seeing in their dollar stores.
You know, we have Daiso here in California, I
don't know whether you have the same chain of
dollar stores where you are, but Daiso is of
course a Japanese company, and they have these
super stores that are dollar stores, which in
itself is quite the experience to visit. But
I would see all these UV resin tubes and being
like a multi -crafter, I was always thinking,
what is this stuff? Like, what is it for? And
started looking for videos and so on and had
some fun with it then. But it wasn't until a
few years ago at a craftcation conference. Have
you heard of craftcation? No, but I want to know
already. It sounds like a vacation crafting.
It is, it's like 50 % crafting, 50 % business
for creative businesses and you can mix match.
It's amazing, you should teach that. But anyway,
so I was at Craftcation a few years ago now and
they offered the UV resin class and I was kind
of like, oh yeah, I remember this stuff. But
of course there was a lot more equipment, there
was a lot more instructions and that was where
I kind of got started again. Fast forward a year
and I'd been playing around with it a lot and
decided that I wanted to start teaching this
which coincided with being laid off from my big
tech job a few years ago and deciding to start
my own business. So UV Resin is now probably
at least a quarter of what I do seems to involve
UV Resin nowadays. I think it has so many applications.
I remember the first time that I heard about
it and I bought a little tiny bottle. It was
expensive. So this is like, it was another brand
I won't mention, but they had a little brownish
bottle and I. I totally got it. I'm like, I get
this. It's just good for doming and you know,
like if you had like some layers that you could
see through, like that was kind of the hiccup.
I had to figure out like, oh, this is kind of
tricky. If there's anything blocking, there's
no sun getting there. And then I had it sitting
near a window, not by a window, but near a window.
And it turned solid and it was like, oh my God,
that was like $30. And then I like, started looking
around and go well maybe somebody else has it
and then now it's definitely part of my arsenal
especially for doming you know that's like you
know just to put a little layer that's going
to kind of dome up if you're not a resin person
and it's going to add it's kind of like a glass
cabochon kind of like that round exactly even
flat it could be flat um you know just to kind
of give that last layer and here in the texas
sun we can put it outside. I do have my little
fingernail cure thing that I use. It's so janky
now. Yeah, exactly. You get these little UV lamps.
You're better now. And they are exactly the same
as the nail lamps that you get in nail salons.
But yeah, you can equally, you can cure it on
a windowsill, but it does mean that this is not
an outdoor activity or a kind of sitting indoors
on a sunny day. You'd need to put the blinds
down because just natural UV light will stop
curing. Oh my gosh, yes, for sure. I mean, you
can't take it outside and then start doing it.
It's going to be in the shadows. It'll start
curing as it's coming out of the thing and you'll
be like, oh, no, it does. And this is why it's
so great. And I think as well, I imagine a lot
of your listeners have used epoxy resin and UV,
even if you're a dedicated epoxy user, UV is
great for prototyping because it cures in like
a minute. If you've got it under a lamp and a
minute and you're ready. You could have finished
piece in less than five minutes. And you can
do it in a mold. Oh absolutely and in fact I've
got, I had all these things handy just in case.
Yes of course I want to see. I've got a whole
selection here and really they come in all sorts
of shapes like there's a cat. Look at that little
pretty cat. And then there's more of an earrings
one, there's a room mold. And then you can even
do pens. as well which is extraordinary. Yes
because the price has also gotten a lot less
expensive because I buy it in like a black container
now it's like they've gotten smarter and it just
has a little tip on it and it's so good for like
little stuff or like if you have like a little
mess up or a little bubble and you can kind of
like fill it in like it really is great and it
doesn't take that 24 -hour cure time before it's
really done so it's done in like minutes, depending
on how thick your piece is and how strong your
you absolutely and you also don't need to um
have kind of like special ventilation or a mask
or anything which of course you should use with
epoxy although i know sometimes it's easier not
to but um yeah you don't need to worry about
the smell because the smell is less than nail
polish yeah and you're just using a smallish
amount i mean it looks like some of those molds
are pretty big so again let's just talk about
so if you were going to use a mold you're going
to have it on a tray yes somewhere where you
could move it maybe if you had to, but not not
where there's any sun like direct sun coming
in because any kind of a UV is going to start
curing that pretty fast. Yeah, absolutely. and
yeah once you've once you've poured it and started
it cooking you want to avoid moving it too much
because it does it sets very differently from
epoxy where epoxy is that chemical reaction between
the two parts and so it kind of sets all the
way through at a steady rate whereas the UV resin
is setting the bit that's most exposed to the
UV is setting first and so you can end up with
a piece that's kind of cooked on top and most
of the way through but it's still sticky on the
bottom so in fact one of the things you do once
you once you've filled up your piece and cooked
it from the top is then you turn the whole thing
upside down without demolding it. Exactly without
demolding it and that's why you want the see
-through silicone molds rather than the colored
ones that you can use for things like baking
and cake decoration. And then I also use a lot
of like a open frame on the resin tape. Yes the
bezel molds is that right is that what they're
called? I'm sure you know This is just like metal
frames in there. Absolutely in there. Right.
Jewelry resin. Yeah. I you know, I had to tell
you. So I've been doing this a really long time.
And and number one, I love it that we need to
talk about, you know, ventilation and safety
things, because I don't think there's near enough
discussion about. the effects of all of these
chemicals because I'm in a studio and I have
full windows and fans and I don't have like a
circulatory fan that's going out like if you
were a metal smith person that's really why I
don't do metal smithing I'm not going to get
into all that but yeah we do need to be careful
of all these these things are you know kind of
a you know they're a bit toxic we got to have
some open windows or ventilation or a fan blow
it away from you that's really an important thing
this weekend I got a order it was some old somebody
found some old pieces on fair and they were before
covid so you know when i pulled them out even
though they had been packed away in the inventory
you know in a darkened room there's no direct
light there was still a little of that amplification
a tiny bit of that yellowing just that happens
you know too bad that resin does have a bit of
that yellowing happening over time like I don't
know how we can really stop that there was no
reason that these pieces had a hint of yellow
but I felt like horrible and there's no way I
could remake them because I didn't have those
bits anymore so I added to the order a whole
separate thing that I made and you know just
really bumped up the order with a lot of freebies
like she got a lot of stuff but that was fine
with me because It is kind of the trick, you
know, we put in all this work and all this love
for stuff and, you know, time goes by, you know,
COVID, everything kind of stopped. And then these
pieces just kind of languished on the online
and didn't get bought. Have you ever had anything
like that happen? Like I was so horrified. My
husband couldn't see the difference, but we know.
you know yeah and i i always say to people no
one will ever look at these things as closely
as you do because as the maker like you are inspecting
and noticing everything it's our ego it's our
everything it's our polish like we presenting
ourselves in this work so they're absolutely
so like Yeah, it's not something I've noticed
with resin. The manufacturer says that it doesn't
yellow, that it doesn't, that doesn't happen
with the UV resin, but of course it hasn't really
been around in kind of craft usage for long enough
to verify that. What I can say is I made my necklace
probably at least three years ago now, and it
just kind of hangs up on a jewellery stand that
I've got, and it's showing no signs of going
yellow at all. So possibly the I'm not saying
the manufacturers lie, of course, but possibly
the manufacturers claim that these things don't
yellow might be true Yeah, I'm I'm not kind of
excited to see that so when I'm doing a piece
for example, I use I use all kinds of chemicals
in my UVs in my tricks and you know the two -part
resin is in my tricks and I think the only thing
that's tossed me from using UV resin even more
often is so say for example if I had a metal
frame that was hollow and I'm going to put a
charm in there and so it's going to be a layer
of UV resin just a few drops just to keep that
back in and kind of let it spread and then go
cure it and then come back put my charm on and
then do another layer on top because why because
the UV isn't going to get underneath that charm.
Yeah. How do you explain that to people when
you're talking about layering? Because it might
be kind of hard for new people to understand.
Yeah. Well, I don't often work with the open
charms, just because I tend to teach beginners.
And so, well, I'll leave that for their own exploration
later on. So the way I always do it, because
I'm generally always working with a silicon mold,
I'll tell someone to imagine that they've got
a picture in a frame, and the frame has glass
in it. The picture is face down on the table
so the first layer you want to add is the glass
layer and that's basically going to be the front
of your piece so you're always working front
to back in the silicone moulds. It also means
that because the moulds are flat you're going
to end up with a nice flat front to your piece.
and so I'll tell them put the glass layer in
which is again just a few drops you know enough
to cover the base and then put in whatever you
want to be most visible so it might be a charm
or a flower or or I've had all sorts of things
I had a baby's umbilical cord which was extreme
but there we go um it's forever preserved now
it is now, so put whatever you want to be most
visible in and cook that and then put in whatever
you want to be in the background whether it's
glitter or mica or just clear resin and and fill
the mould with that. And then when you cook that,
everything will cook from the back. And then
of course you're going to flip it over and cook
it from the other side. So I don't know with
your open frames, are you able to turn them upside
down? I don't know if they're thick enough to
- Yeah, no, because, well, I guess once the resin
is cured, you could take the tape off. Right.
And then turn it over. and do that, but usually
I just do that, take the tape off as the last
step and I haven't really thought about that
before. Because I know that one of the things
that often happens is people forget to cook them
from the back and then when you take it out of
the mold you get a kind of rippling across the
tape and that just shows that it was still a
little bit uncooked. And another great thing,
of course, is that you can't, or at least I've
never managed to burn this stuff. So it gets
hot, but not, I always say, not like McDonald's
apple pie hot. It's not dangerous hot. And you
can just keep cooking them, like alternating
sides under the UV lamp. I say cooking, but it's
just UV light. And you can keep doing that. If
you're unsure whether it's fully cooked or not,
just carry on alternating it for as long as you
like. Let's turn it out in the sun. Like, it's
crazy how powerful this is, the most powerful
tool there is. Absolutely or just ordinary daylight
if you leave it on a window sill for a day then
that should sort it out entirely and there are
some limitations so like with the um one of the
great things about the epoxy like I was saying
earlier because of the way it cures consistently
throughout you can make pretty large pieces and
it's not going to distort or deform um and you
can also um oh the other thing's just totally
popped out my head but with UV you need the light
to be able to penetrate into the piece and you
also need to be aware of the shrinkage because
with UV I think epoxy I can't remember what it
is but it's like a fraction of a percent or something
but with UV it's as much as five percent and
so you can imagine if you're making something
with multiple layers you really start to get
a curvature after a while if you're adding trying
to add a new layer on top of something that's
already cooked and it's still going to shrink
five percent you start getting a curve so you
really need to keep it for just things that are
fairly flat and where you're going to be able
to get the UV consistently against throughout
it. So like for a tabletop, unless you had a
tabletop sized UV lamp, you would not want to
do that. That's, that's definitely like take
it inside and then outside. No, it's like the
second the sun is hitting it is cooking. Yeah,
yeah. I don't, I think that it's good to know.
both kinds of resin so that you could like put
the small bit of resin UV resin down then your
charm and then fill it in with the regular two
-part resin and then now it's going to be like
you don't have to do it like overnight and then
overnight you can just do it like one night process
and then you're done i kind of think that there's
nothing i haven't done in resin like i i look
around i'm like yeah i've done a lot of resin
i'm gonna probably you know i i go through a
lot of it you know i do because it's just like
glass yeah and it's so useful and you can embed
i mean practically anything in it i'm just holding
up random things here oh i love it like a little
pattern weight oh that is um alphabet beads oh
yeah yeah you did that with uv resin that right
yeah yeah I wouldn't think that it would do that
great, but that's really great. And in fact,
I've got another one on my wrist at the moment,
which is a kind of pride cuff made with all the
glitters. Because as long as it's thin, the UV
will penetrate. And with something like this,
of course, you build it up in layers as well.
That's beautiful. The only thing is, of course,
the bracelet molds all tend to be made in China.
you know, anecdotally, people in China tend to
be more petite, especially the women, and so
the bracelets are all tiny. I did manage to get
this on once and then half skinned myself trying
to get it off again. I know it's crazy and of
course you can add in glitter and mica powder
as well or stickers you can put in. Yes pictures
translucent picture printed from the printer
on transparency. I love to use those. Absolutely
and you can with the mica makes it opaque so
it looks more like a kind of enamel type texture
but of course with the with the glitter or or
just using it plain, you still end up with this
translucent, so that you can get these really
lovely things and a kind of almost like a stained
glass effect with some of them. I think that's
why we love resin. Like it has so many ways that,
I mean, I have done, I'm looking around going,
yeah, there's nothing around me that I made.
Like, I don't know. Yeah, here's one, hold on.
Here's one so this would be a typical like gay
is for Pete I'll drop everything right here Opal
either moonstones in there. Oh Totally like so
this is probably done. Yeah, just right. This
is just regular resin I This is this is what
we're talking about open frame This has got the
tape down. At first I was using just regular
packing tape, but it has like, you know, the
packing tape that you have, the nice clear packing
tape, and it has like lovely kind of things when
you pull it off. It does. It has a bit of a texture
just from the adhesive. And then now they have
a new kind of tape that's resin. And I noticed
this weekend, again, yeah, that it kind of curls.
It's thicker. But if you don't trim it really
close to your project, the kind of the curl on
the edge could kind of lift up a, you know, it's
a tiny, it's a fractions of. That makes sense.
I think, I mean, it comes in different thicknesses.
I imagine the thicker stuff is probably less
likely to curl, maybe, although I haven't used
it very much. But this is silicon tape is basically
what it is. And it's just got that adhesion on
one side for the frame to stick to so that the
resin doesn't run out. But yeah, this is also
sold just on its own for all sorts of different
things. I think, actually, it's a bizarre segue,
but during COVID I was diagnosed with breast
cancer totally out of the blue and of course
had I well luckily I just had an lumpectomy nothing
more serious but had the scars from that and
I actually use silicone tape on the scars because
it will reduce the amount of scarring and reduce
the appearance of the scar as well. So strange,
but it was on all the Cancer Federation, you
know, cancer charity websites and the Kaiser
website and so on, is to use the silicone tape
and you get medical grade silicone tape. That's
what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. Because they used
to have that silicone medical tape and it was
impregnated with I'm gonna think of something
there the wrong word I'm gonna not use it right
because blah blah blah but that stuff is really
good is what I'm it had it like a healing property
in within it. So it really does. Yeah, I've seen
them with like aloe vera or something in them
to kind of suit the skin at the same time. And
certainly, yeah, that was good during radiation
treatment. But yeah, it's just so funny how silicone
pops up in different places. Because it flexes,
I guess. Absolutely. And I guess it's relatively
hygienic and easy to use, easy to cut to shape
just with scissors. So it has so many uses. Yeah,
I'm still trying to come up with that word of
what it was. I'll think of it after we're done.
And unfortunately, it'll be a lost cause. But
I remember when my husband was a doctor and he
was really sick. We saw that at a medical convention.
We're like, yeah, that's what we need right there.
Get us that. Lots of that. It was impregnated
with collagen for healing and for closing those
wounds. Yes. Yeah. Seriously, like we just went
into medical. We did. We went entirely. I'd forgotten
about that until just now as well. So it just
suddenly occurred to me. How long have you been
doing all this teaching on this? It's really
curious. I'm so impressed that you've got such
a big following. Thank you, well the the UV resin
it's just within the last two and a half years
that I've been teaching this and it is it's so
popular with people you know the classes continuously
sell out and people are so excited at the end
and want to buy their own supplies and so on
but teaching in general I've been doing for more
than 20 years now so back when I was still living
back in the UK I was teaching knitting and crochet
and sewing and embroidery and then in when I
was living in Japan, at one point it was a very
surreal experience. I was teaching Sashiko, the
Japanese traditional embroidery method, to Japanese
women. while living in Tokyo, and I just kind
of thought this is the wrong way around, but
it's okay, we're all going with it, it's like
modern life. So yeah, so I've kind of taught
all over the place, all different things. How
do people find your classes? I think that that's
like something we really need to discuss so that
people that are listening. can find you and find
how do they how do they join with you? Oh, thank
you. Yes. Well, I am just about to put a number
of classes online, in fact, so that everyone
will be able to access them. So those will be
at bburn .com. But the in -person classes, I've
been teaching in Oakland. And when I organize
my own classes, I tend to use Eventbrite because
of the discoverability of the classes, because
otherwise you can need to spend a lot of money
on marketing. And I will sometimes market them
as well using meta ads on Facebook or Instagram.
But then I also teach out of workshop in San
Francisco. There's a location called workshop.
It's workshop sf .org is the website. And I'll
teach out there at least once a week. The UV
resin is usually about every two weeks. And then
I also teach Shibori, which is traditional Japanese
indigo dyeing, natural bundle dyeing, and then
also DIY skincare as well, using all natural
ingredients and aromatherapy. So there's a lot
of teaching going on. And then, of course, I
also just taught at Craftcation that I just mentioned,
and I'll teach at other events around the country
during the rest of the year as well. So it's
all, your schedules are all on your website.
Do you have Instagram? Like let's talk about
your social media. I do, absolutely. So my website
is bburn .com and then my Instagram, my Facebook
and my very new and not very much used TikTok
is at bburnartist. Unfortunately, Bburn had somewhere
else had got in there first. So this is Bburn
Artist, all one word. So we're going to put all
of this will all be linked in the description.
So anybody that's listening, you can find her
spelling because it has an A in it. It's B -E
-A. That's right. And then a little bit like
a B, but it's got that A. Yeah. That's it. And
then yeah. B -Y -R -N -E. Yeah. So it's a little
tricky in the spelling. I bet if they just googled
Bee Burn regular spelling, something would come
up with your name in it. I hope so. I should
check that. Oh, you should. It's a traditional
Irish surname, so it's very common in Ireland.
Ireland and Northern Ireland are the only places
I've ever traveled where I haven't had to spell
it for someone, like checking in at a hotel or
something. That's so cute. Yeah, so where do
you find most of your new customers? How do they
find you? I think a lot of it is word of mouth.
I've just had a student approach me, who I taught
in a previous workshop earlier this year, who's
asked me to do a series of workshops for a foster
youth charity that she works for. And the similar
thing happened last year. I did a series of workshops
for a library, well, several libraries locally.
And I'm doing them again this year in Berlin.
Berlin game and San Francisco, I'm doing like
eight sessions for one and 12 sessions for another.
So it's it's often from people having been students
and word of mouth. And then of course, there
is Instagram as well. And it's always amazing
to have people come into wherever I'm teaching
is how I know you from Instagram makes me feel
like a proper celebrity. And then, yeah, also,
sometimes I will will use advertising to boost
events as well. But yeah, knowing that people
have enjoyed being with you previously and that
they want to spend more time with you to do another
craft is it's just lovely you know it's a real
not only is it an ego boost but it's kind of
a validation of your teaching methods um and
how you made them feel during that workshop i
had 50 people attend my workshop at the library
this weekend we did oh wow making for mother's
day so it was a big hit but that's the second
time i've done it there and it was uh because
it's free to the public so you know i'm just
kind of doing it as a give them back kind of
a thing but i'm with you on you know just get
it out there just get people like learning and
having a chance to create like i think that that
those are hard opportunities for people that
you know life is hard everybody works a lot and
they're you know doing all that and dragging
your kids around here and there Yeah, and some
people don't want to have to pay for a whole
gallon of something and have all that at home.
And some people don't want the mess. I mean,
especially when I mentioned glitter. There's
actually venues now have glitter policies because
the hotel I was teaching in a few weeks ago has
a no glitter policy. And so there's ways around
it because I can premix the glitter into the
resin and people can use it that way so there's
no loose glitter. But people, yeah, my sister
was horrified that I brought glitter into her
house when I did one of these UV resin sessions
with her kids. And she was freaking out much
more about that than the idea of there being
resin that would set with UV light or anything
like that. It was the glitter she was worried
about. So not having that mess in your home can
be really... a great thing, a great reason for
people to go to workshops outside. Well, like
you said, I mean, it is I do know I vacuumed
this weekend or yesterday and I thought, oh,
there's a little piece of glitter. How long is
that embedded in some carpet? I'm like, I've
got to get that out because that's been a while.
But yeah, it is what it is. You know, we love
glitter. I'm actually going to be writing a whole
book about the human. History through sparkle
and you know it goes way back like it's from
you know from the beginning of man because they
could see sparkle on the rise and that meant
there was water. So is in our DNA to like sparkle
for sure. I hope to turn that into a Ted talk.
It's really. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. Why
not? That sounds fantastic. After this, you and
I are going to be friends because the crossover
is real. Absolutely. I definitely would love
to do something with you because that's the fun
of getting to meet us. And you are my friend
forever. I think I met you through the craft
industry alliance. That's right. Yeah. We were
at one of their meetings. Yeah. I know that you're
really big into the quilting, but that'll be
another show that we'll have, because we got
to wrap this up in like the next minute or two.
But is there anything else that you would like
to say to everybody to come join you and come
meet you? I would, I would say, you know, if
you don't want to go big, and this is a bit of
a plug, you can, of course, get starter kits
that come with everything you need, molds, gloves,
lamps, and so on. It's not expensive, and it's
just a great way to get started. And if you love
it, which I'm sure you will, then you can buy,
you know, the big jugs full of resin and so on
and start increasing your mold collection. And
those are available online on your website. These
are, yes, I've got them on my website. I have
a store on my website. So the starter kits are
all there along with various random quilting
things. I call it my curiosity shop because I've
come across things that I love and just have
like three of, and then they're gone. Love it.
I love it. That is so clever. You are so much
fun I really wish this could go on for hours
because you and I we could like solve a few problems
of the world I Really appreciate you and thank
you for your time everybody Read the description,
listen to more. There's lots more podcasts out
there, but it's been a great 45 minutes to spend
with you today. Bea Burns, she is in California
and she is a great teacher of kind of all things
crafting. I'm just going to throw that out there
from quilting to UV resin. Thank you, thank you,
thank you for being on my podcast. This is Sugar
Gay Isbur, and today we are talking to Bea Burns,
and this is Jewelry as Your Side Hustle. It's
for entrepreneur artists. So thanks for listening
and thanks for being us together. Thanks so much
and have a great rest of your day.