Introduction: Jurassic Park Pendant

About: Finally have enough of an internet connection to get back to Instructables.com! And the infinite number of emails that are clogging my in box ?. Guess living on a mountain top has some drawbacks- but who care…
Back before the movie even came out, I had a really cool pendant with a mosquito captured in some amber. Of course when the movie came out, my daughter thought it was just too cool not to sneak out of the house and to school for show and tell. That was the last time the pendant was seen.
I decided that if she wanted one, then maybe I could figure out a way to make her one, and make myself another one.  Not from real amber of course, but after all amber is a resin. 

So I collected dead mosquitos for a while (yes that is a little disgusting, but they had managed to get in a drain trap, come out and die). I found them on the back of the sink, and sometimes in the sink, in corners of the shower room and on the floor.  I finally had enough to try to make some and this is what I came up with (except the final result is not the same because my can of resin had obviously not been stored in a cool enough place and ended up hardening and I had to use some 5 min. Epoxy from the auto store, so if you try this, get the 15 minute type so you don't end up with your mosquitoes almost escaping the resin). I also did not have time to get the bail inserted into the resin. I will change the photos and repost once I can redo the process.  

**Please note no animals or insects were harmed doing the making of this instructable, or the jewelry.  They all (assumably) died of natural causes.
To make this you will need:

Resin & Catalyst
Yellow chalk (the type for drawing)
A resin mold
Dead mosquitos or the insect of your choice (you can of course opt to put something a little less morbid if you want or                even leave it clear).

Step 1: Mix the Resin

I like using the little plastic pill cups from the hospital, so I keep them every time I am in there and use them for mixing resin.  

Take the yellow chalk, I chose to mix too different colors of yellow so it wasn't quite such a bright yellow.  Place this in the bottom of your mixing cup.

Measure out about 1 ounce of resin and put the appropriate amount of catalyst into the cup. Stir gently so not to form bubbles.
If you are using an auto-mix epoxy you do not have to measure both as they will come out of the syringe in the right proportions.

Do this in a cool well ventilated area.  The warmer the area, the quicker the resin will cure.  

Step 2: Pour and Insert Your Insect

Once you have mixed the color in well, pour a small amount of the resin into the mold.  

Add a mosquito and cover with remaining resin. 

And yes, we have big BIG blood suckers down here where I live, but a pair of tweezers makes it much easier to handle the mosquito. 

If you have trouble with bubbles on top of your resin, you can use your breath to help clear them.  Just blow on them while leaning close in.  The warmth and humidity from your breath will help remove any bubbles.  


Step 3:

Allow the resin to cure until hard.  Remove it from the resin and you have a beautiful and unique pendant that is sure to be a conversation piece! 

I will post photos of the finished pendant once I redo the process.  I wasn't thinking about the fact it was so warm in my shop which accelerated the curing process of the resin.