Battle of the Jewelry Sealers, Part Two...The Bead

Last time I explained to you how I was going to experiment with putting a solvent based sealer over a polymer clay bead that had already been sealed with a water-based polyurethane sealer. I also posted two pictures showing how the bead looked just a few hours after I put the coating, ProtectaClear, on one side of the bead.

I am here to tell you that so far so good. Here are the new pictures of the same bead. Again, there isn't much difference, except the ProtectaClear side is just a little shinier.

The original urethane coating

The ProtectaClear side two days out

 I did get an email from Everbrite, the manufacturers of ProtectaClear, stating that I should wait four days before I started "picking" at the finish on the bead. That will give the solvent coating plenty of time to cure, which made sense to me. Putting one type of coating on a different type of coating can take time before you really know how it will react. I could get anxious and tell you," Yeah, I see no difference," and at this time, that wouldn't be a lie. But it is the long-term effects I am curious about.

I will tell you this, I was naughty and tested the surface with a fingernail, and yes, I was able to put a slight dent in the ProtectaClear finish. That was, however, before Everbrite told me I probably shouldn't. Guess I'm bad...

While this experiment continues on this one little bead, I am going to be purchasing some water-based urethane to try on another copper wire piece, a beadless piece. I have read other blogs whose experiments with this materials yields varying results. Some say that over time, a water-based urethane will still let a small amount of oxygen through to the metal, especially copper, and that could cause an aging process to begin, even though it might be a minute amount or take some time to happen to the degree that might be unacceptable. We shall see.

Next time I will provide you with more details on my little bead experiment, and I will start a discussion on using Renaissance Was on your wire projects. Until then...

Stay Wire Up! Gail