What's a good brand of casting resin?

Specifically for casting charms, pendants and other jewelry parts. I'm looking for something that doesn't require a ton of space to use, though I do have a table set up to do crafting and art projects, it's not in a very large space.

The most well-known crafter's casting resin is Castin Craft, but there are a few others. Most craft resins are actually made by the same company (ETI) so they're pretty similar.

You don't say though whether you're wanting a "casting resin" which is a *polyester* resin, or a resin you can put charms, etc. into which won't be in a removable mold which is usually an *epoxy* resin (both come as two parts but epoxies are mixed one to one and are a little "safer" for lungs as well as other things... they're usually not used for making one *deep* layer though).

You don't need a lot of space to use either polyester or epoxy resins, but you will need ventilation (esp. with the polyesters).

Either one can be purchased in various sizes, and the ones you'd normally find in a hobby, craft or art supply store would probably be only around 8 oz (two bottles of that size for epoxies).
For truly small quantities, you can even use a two-part epoxy *glue* rather than a regular resin in the same way (I've heard that Devcon's 30-minute is the best brand/line for clarity/etc though...it should give about 7 minutes "working time").

If you want a lot more info about brands of resin as well as the differences between them, how to use, links to videos, etc., check out this page at my site:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/other_materials.htm

HTH,

Diane B.

Jewelry Making : How to Cast Jewelry