A friendly word of warning about resin.

Hi everybody,

This is something I think I should share with you just so you can learn from my STUPID mistake!

So recently I have become very 'into' resin jewellery making. It is fantastic a good craft with lots of lovely results and fantastically simple! Happy

I've been making quite a few bits and pieces and decided to do a large batch of pendants so prepared all the moulds and mixed a large batch of resin.

The problem is when you mix a large batch and fill all the cavites in a 12 or 9 cavity mould is you have to check there are no air bubbles in any of the cavites or it will ruin your pieces.

So being the clever clogs I am because I had embedded paper, fabric and other things at the back of the mould I couldn't see the resin as it was all underneath the things I have embedded. So I decided to lift it above my head and see if there were any air bubbles in it. Yeh there were quite a few and now I knew where they were I could tease them out.

Only as I lifted the mould down from above my head I accidentally tipped it, and resin fell from the mould directly into my right eye.

This was all done at 2am in the morning as I couldn't sleep so had decided to unwind by setting some resin and it would all be ready in the morning when I got up.

The resin in my eye was BURNING. It felt like a fire was happening in there and so the paramedics had to be phoned.. who told me I was pretty silly for using it so late at night and kept asking 'how on earth do you get jewellery making resin in you eye?!!'

They couldn't get the resin out so I was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Happy Both my eyes had to be bandaged up so I could stop moving them and let them rest. I was then put into a wheel chair and taken to a&e where I had to spend 8 hours in total!

I won't go into details about the horrible nastiness of what the nurses had to do to get the resin out of my eye as some of your are fairly squeamish I'm sure and it still makes me feel a bit :s just thinking about it!

I have now been to the hospital 4 times and to various eye clinics. My vision in my right eye hasn't fully returned and I had a lot of reddening.

As the resin went in it caused a chemical burn to the eye. It could have been a lot worse but the situation at the moment isn't great.

Basically the moral of the story is ALWAYS take safety precautions when you are doing any craft!

I had made resin pieces lots of times and never injured myself but now it will be goggles, gloves and no lifting moulds above my head!!!!

I can't tell you enough how stupid I feel, how much agony I've been in, and how much more dangerous it could have been.

So if I post this message and it means only one person makes sure they keep themselves safe when they craft I'll be happy.

Oh and I never did get the air bubbles out of the pendants so I have 9 ruined ones! :'(

xx

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12 replies since 14th September 2010 • Last reply 14th September 2010

Reply #1:

Oh no!! That sounds terrible! Plus the fact you didn't get the air bubbles out, you must be even more annoyed :p

Jokes aside, I hope you recover from this and thank you very much for the heads up. I'm looking into resin since seeing your resin bracelet so thank you.

I really hope you feel better soon and the eye gets better!! You're so lucky it wasn't worst. Best of luck with the future Jewellery Resin making Happy

x

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Reply #2:

Oh sweetie no! You poor thing! When you are better we will get you a glass table so you don't have to do that again. Big hugs xx

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Reply #3:

OMGGGGGGGG!!!!!! I hope you'll get your eye back as good as new. If it's any consolation, my mom once got her eye pretty much ripped open by an angry cat, and it's as good as new now. Hopefully you will be as fortunate. Happy

Still, at least you can kind of joke about it. ;)

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Reply #4:

My Alex commiserates with you deeply and says he used a vibrator to get the air bubbles out (that's his statement and he's sticking to it) Hope you get better soon xx

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Reply #5:

OMG you poor thing, what a horrible experience for you!! I hope your eye returns to normal. I used to be a busy cook in a resturant..one time while shaking up some chicken wings in some hot sauce..the lid came flying off and I got the sauce in my eyes.. it burned for a long time but it got better eventually. Your story makes me sound like a wimp hahaha. I will be more aware of the dangers of crafting now, thanks for sharing your story Happy

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Reply #6:

I hope you soon recover and don't have any long term corneal scaring or scaring on your outer eye.
You must have been in so much pain. Sounds like the paramedics acted fast enough to reduce the damage by keeping your eyes still.
Eye tissue heals fairly quickly and hopefully your vision will return when the inflamation has reduced. It may take time for your sight to adjust and pretty much depends on where and how bad the burn damage is.
I had to wait for nearly 8 months for my eyes to adjust following a untreatable viral infection. I went from 20/20 vision to not being able to see a bus number when I was stood next to it. That's why I wear glasses now.
I wish you all the best for a speedy recovery. Thank you for sharing your timely warning. I'm sure most of us at one time or another have taken a risk where we shouldn't Happy

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Reply #7:

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope you heal up soon.

I'm very interested in working with resin and I'm going to make sure I now wear goggles when I do it.

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Reply #8:

Ouch...I hope you get better soon and that your eye will be like before too!

I never tried resin,and I always wanted to! (the only problem is I dont know where to find any)
But knowing myself I would never ever taught of wearing goggles or gloves or any safety measures.
So...*puts hand up* Im the one person you just convinced and made sure she wears gloves and glasses!

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Reply #9:

I'm completely surprised that hasn't happened to me yet! I used to do resin a lot, but have since moved and don't really have a place available where I live now that's suitable for messing around with resin. I would always hold my molds above my head to see how things were coming along and never thought about it falling in my eyes! Sorry that happened to you! (hugs)

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Reply #10:

That's so awful! I'm sorry and I really hope your eye heals completely and fast! Happy *hugs*

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Reply #11:

Thanks for all the kind words.

I am currently on 9 eye drops a day! (How excessive!)

I had my vision tested today and I have gone from 20/20 to 6/9... I have no idea what it means but apparently still not bad enough to need glasses so that's something I suppose... They don't see why there is any reason I won't get 20/20 back but it just may take a little while.

The eye isn't agony any more and the swelling and reddening is fading. I just feel so fed up and silly! Ah well accidents happen... Happy Stupid thing is I have a pair of safety goggles nearby to where I do all my resin making! doh!

@Bryony
A vibrator!? Haha that's a new one... never heard of that before! Happy
I was told blowing it got the bubbles out as your breath has co2!

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Reply #12:

Glad you're feeling a bit better honey and not in agony any more. Alex used to do a lot of scale modelling and worked with resin a lot. Apparently the vibrations cause the bubbles to go up instead of sticking there. He made his own vibrator using the motor from an old walkman (this is seriously back in the day...)

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