You can fill your free time with various activities, how about casting with synthetic resin? With the creative hobby you can easily make your own jewelry or make beautiful pieces of furniture. BRIGITTE will show you how this works.
In order to do justice to your own creativity, there are many ways to let off steam. It starts with knitting, continues with watercolor painting and continues with sewing the bag. Another option is resin casting. Not only can you use it to make your own jewelry, but you can also create unique art and furniture pieces. You don’t even need a lot of previous knowledge, just the right objects.
What do you need to pour resin?
In order for the resin casting to be a success, you must first think about what you would like to produce. You can make art in the form of furniture or pictures as well as jewelry yourself and decorate it with glitter particles, gold paint or dried flowers. The essential components for this hobby are the following:
If you want to make jewelry, you may also need:
Alternatively, you can also click on a starter set fall back on, which either already contains silicone molds for coasters, cutlery and Co. or accessories for jewelery making. The resin and a hardener are also included in each set, so you can start tinkering right away.
How do you cast resin?
Casting resin takes a little practice. It is important to ensure that no blisters while making your characters. For laypeople, this means that you should already prepare the mass – i.e. the epoxy resin and the hardener mixture work calmly and slowly. Best use one beginner set, which contains the basics. Rapid stirring can cause bubbles to form. Also, reseal the containers immediately after adding each liquid to the mixing bowl.
A distinction must now be made between two methods. If you want to make a tabletop, then use a frameto prevent the epoxy-hardener mixture from running down. By the way: The resin needs the hardener so that it later develops into a solid plastic and can no longer melt or deform due to external influences such as heat or cold.
Tables that have a multicolored plastic strip in the middle and are made of wood on the sides are now particularly popular. If you want to try your hand at it and play with different colors, you have to to work in shiftsso that the masses do not mix.
Synthetic resin is now also popular for making jewelry at home. However, you are working here prefabricated silicone molds, which, thanks to their coating, do not require a release agent to later release the finished product from the mold. mix everything exactly according to instructions, which is mostly included. The great thing about epoxy is that while it’s not dry, you can with help of a hot air dryer smooth to even out any unevenness. A normal hair dryer isn’t very suitable here, as it doesn’t get hot enough to work against the bubbles. Toothpicks can also be used to smooth out any imperfections.
Once the shapes have hardened, you can use them on your ear hooks, the calottes or with the jewelry wire.
Can you pour fresh flowers in resin?
Flowers are always a welcome embellishment when it comes to jewelery and small accessories. But We advise against fresh flowers, because they can quickly lose their color when incorporated into the epoxy resin. Best pick up here dried flowers back. You can do this either by pressing them in a book or with the help of silica gel. Just make sure that the balls are as small as possible so that they don’t leave any marks when the flowers dry. Here the process takes two to six days to completely dry the flower. The advantage of silica gel is that the color of the flowers is pretty much preserved, which is not the case with pressing some species.
Alternatively, you can also dry salt resort, which will also dry out your flowers after about a week. To do this, place your flowers upside down in a container filled with the salt and then seal it tightly.
Is this dangerous for me?
If you attach great importance to protecting the environment, you should either avoid crafting with synthetic resin altogether or be very careful. epoxy resin is difficult to remove and should therefore only be used with caution and should not be released into the environment by rinsing the mass off surfaces. Synthetic resin is considered plastic and is especially in the liquid state toxic and irritating. Therefore, wear a mask when working with resin.
Because of the chemical ingredients, in addition to irritation of the mucous membranes and eyes, the skin can also be attacked, which easily absorbs the toxic substances in the resin. So always wear gloves!
Once the epoxy resin has hardened, you can safely touch it without gloves because it is now non-toxic and can no longer penetrate your skin. The product also no longer emits dangerous fumes.
Resin and the Environment
Not only we as humans can suffer serious damage, but also the environment. This starts with the production, because every plastic is made obtained mainly from petroleum productswhich are notoriously unfriendly to the environment. There are also toxic chemicals, which of course not only irritate us, but also flora and fauna. As already mentioned, residues must not get into the waste water. Instead, use disposable products to mix the clay when crafting your objects.
If you want to dispose of something with synthetic resin, there is no way around the landfill or incineration. Unfortunately, normal disposal is not possible because the chemical processes involved in hardening cannot be reversed. It is therefore not biodegradable.