Resin

[Seahorse]

Im really interested in trying out resin.
Has anybody here used this medium?

[Seahorse]

Ive found a bondaglass product thats resin which says it is suitable for pendants.
HAve any of yuo or know someone who has tried this make?

[Seahorse]

Just ordered soem resin!!More goodies to play with!

[the felt fairy]

I've never heard of bondaglass but have tried Poracast and Jesmonite and cold enamel all with good results.

The jesmonite was water based and therefore easier to clean up but not clear - no good for you!

The cold enamel and poracast were really smelly, sticky and impossible to clean up but totally clear and worked fantastically.

If the bondaglass isnt waterbased just make sure you use disposable stuff to mix it in.

Let us know how it works out.

[Seahorse]

In the end i didnt get the bondaglass but proper jewellery clear resin from another company.

Hope it doesnt smell!

Got a 7 shape mold with it, inc a butterfly shape and rounds, hope they all have holes in them so I can attatch things, if not I can see alot of dodgey drilling apporaching.

[the felt fairy]

Got a 7 shape mold with it, inc a butterfly shape and rounds, hope they all have holes in them so I can attatch things, if not I can see alot of dodgey drilling apporaching.

lol good luck. Try inserting a tiny tube bead or straw shaped thing into the mould before pouring the resin in?

[Seahorse]

Yep, good idea.
I think i can see from the pictue that 1 of the moulds has a little tubey bit for a hole.But I hope most of them have.

[Seahorse]

Got my resin.
The molds are quite small and only 1 has a hole to attatch things too.

I receieved half a bottle of catalyst so Ive emailed the company and queried that.

The resin says flammable but it says to get air bubbles out it should be heated to 25*!!!Im a bit worried about that.

I shall experiment at the weekend.

[Seahorse]

2 days ago I poured some resin into a mold and added a drop of catalyst,mixed it a bit, and placed in a few things to see how they would look.

I was informed it should only take a few hours to solidify but 2 days later I managed to get it out of the mold after hacking at it with a pair of scissors.
As you can imagine i need to experiment more, I dont think I mixed the catalyst in enough.
One side is resonably smooth but the top side isnt flat at the edges, dont know how to resolve this, plus the mold is a little worse for ware after hacking away at it.

[the felt fairy]

The cold enamel I used to work with was a mixture of 2 liquids (2 part epoxy resin) and unless you got the measurements spot on you got disastrous results.

I used to mix it in those tiny plastic measuring pots, like you put kids medicine in and mix it with a matchstick. Unless you mixed it well and measured it exactly it didnt work.

Keep trying and you will get there in the end!

[Seahorse]

I made some more last night, put the resin in a measuring jug(tho I didnt measure it exact)just poured in enough to hopefully fill 3 molds added a guessed 2%(as stated) catalyst and mixed thoroughly.
Then the fun started, as I was mixing the bottle of catalyst fell into the jug, luckily the lid was on but the bottle got covered in resin, so I was trying to fish it out, got resin over the sink, tape handles on my hands which were sticky all evening(picked up the fluff off my fleece), then had to wrap the catalyst bottle in loo roll, luckily I wiped enough off it so the lid wasnt resined shut.
Then I attempted to pour the exact amount into the molds, completly misjudged so there was major overspill which I then had to either redistribute in a sliding fashion into a nearby mold or try to soak up with more loo roll!!
Then I added thengs into it, a rose petal from my borthers wedding and a dried flower into a flower mold, only to realise afterwards taht I put the flower in the wrong way up as the flower faced up yet the mold detail would be under it!!

Looked at the rose petal this morning and its dried with a odd air bubble in it as a fold of it poked out of the resin.But it seems to have dried more quickly and look as tho it will pop out of the mold alot easier than my first attempt.

[swirlyarts]

Practice makes perfect!!

[Seahorse]

Practice makes perfect!!

I hope so, sadly Im a very impatient person when it comes to my craft.
I can sit at work and twiddle my thumbs all day but when I actually want to achieve something and cant, I get annoyed.
Im a bit like a young Sherlock Holmes but with less intelligence and no violin.

[Lauren1983]

Resin....

Hello,

If u need help or have questions bout different types of resin, mould release or pigments etc I would recommend gettin in touch with ABL (stevens) resin and fibreglass supplies, they are so so so helpful and I have dealt with them for years, they can't do enough for u!!!

They have a website too,

Lauren x x