resin over and over is not a good plan. The catalyst/hardener will turn yellow (amberfication) if you heat it too high. To minimize this risk, buy a small amount of resin and use it up quickly instead of trying to make a giant bottle last a long time.
TIP: Cold resin is a no-no; bring it to room temperature to reduce bubbles and make it pourable.
• Warmer = Faster
• Colder = Slower
aperturesound
You can use molds to make clear or colorized resin casts in any shape. Resin is especially great for “preserving” items, as it essentially surrounds things in clear “plastic,” which tends to look like glass. You can put thousands of things inside resin. Anything you want to add to resin needs to be dried first. You can put tiny dried flowers in resin, but they might lose their color and turn brown. Experiment with dried flowers first so you can push the boundaries later. You can press them, colorize them with markers to add to their brilliance, and then add them to resin. They will be glorious forever.
Reduce photos to fit your projects using a printer and regular printer paper. Try using apps or programs that supersaturate or recolor photos, or use black and white copies of photos, for vivid, impressive results.
Here is a long list of other items, in no particular order, that you can set into resin. Some are also great to cast into a mold into which you can then pour resin to make a resin cast of the item (see info on mold making on page 44). Your imagination is the limit!
Annari
TIP: Don’t put anything juicy or wet in resin, like a fresh flower or a small grape, because water ruins resin.
Gay Isber
The Fly Butterfly necklace is made with butterflies printed on transparency film. The butterflies that I used were ones I printed off more than a dozen years ago for an art installation in my studio. I repurposed them instead of throwing them away!
Gay Isber
Fly Butterfly necklace project on page 80.
Gay Isber
Cure UV resin in a sunny place. This is my workspace at home, where I cure mine.
Gay Isber
UV RESIN
UV resin is a special kind of resin that works a little differently than the normal casting resins discussed in this chapter and used throughout this book. It cures in direct sunlight in a few minutes.
When you are getting ready to cure something with UV resin in it, think it through: if the sun can’t get to even a small part of your piece, because you have resin underneath something, for example, then that part will not cure. You can work around this by curing your pieces in layers. I love UV resin, but I don’t make big things with it. I tend to use it for small projects and touch-ups like repairing a scratch. Gel nail polish works in a similar way to UV resin. For days when there isn’t much sunlight, use a small UV light made for curing nail polish. Many of these cost less than $20, and you can get a lot of use out of one.
UV resin is great for adding a dome effect to flat pieces of resin. You can put UV resin on top of a cured resin item and allow it to pool. Do it drop by drop.
Buy UV resin in totally opaque black bottles so that the sun can’t reach the liquid and cure it inside the bottle. This happened to me when I bought some very expensive resin in a dark brown bottle. The bottle was quite dark, but I left it sitting on my worktable while the sun was shining brightly, and it cured the resin—a costly mistake!
MUST-HAVE ITEMS
♦ Disposable gloves. Buy them sized correctly so you won’t be as tempted to take them off. Do not work without them.
Always wear disposable gloves when working with resin.
Gay Isber
♦ Safety goggles or glasses. This will ensure that chemicals don’t splash accidentally into your eyes. I wear glasses all the time, so my eyes are protected.
♦ Wet wipes. Use these for all cleanups before, during, and after using resin. Though alcohol-based wipes work better for both resin and epoxy clay (you can improvise by adding drops of hand sanitizer to your wet wipe), they might irritate your hands. Baby wipes are less effective as a cleaner but are safer for your skin. Wet paper towels are not a replacement. Don’t flush the wipes down the toilet—just throw them in the trash. Denatured alcohol, not acetone, should be used for cleaning big messes like a spill. Always wash your hands with warm water and soap after working with resin.
Sarah2
♦ Heavy-duty plastic freezer bags. These are so useful; resin doesn’t stick to them. Keep a box of them handy. You can use both sides. A swatch of a thick, clear shower curtain or other vinyl will also work.
♦ Wooden stir sticks (popsicle sticks). This is what you will use to mix the resin. You can throw them away after each use or reuse them once the resin on them cures.
♦ Plastic disposable 1-ounce (30ml) measuring cups. Make sure these are marked with graduated measuring lines, like the kind included with liquid medicines. Use a permanent marker to accent the lines on the cups so they are more visible. Don’t skip this step, as measuring accurately is essential to successful resin casting.
Kimberly Hall
AlenKadr
Charles Brutlag
Nail Bikbaev
