Detailed Guide for Epoxy Resin Starters
Resin Glory have created a guide to epoxy resin crafts so you can start making your own with confidence. We cover from what is epoxy resin to the materials you'll need, tips for where to begin.
Epoxy resin has become a very popular craft over the past few years, and we can see why. Resin is an exciting and unique craft that you can use to produce useful and beautiful items. Resin has qualities similar to plastic and glass, making it ideal for a range of crafts. Yet, unlike plastic and glass, you can make resin items at home without complex machines or fire!
If you love to make gifts for friends and family or even build a business, resin is a useful craft to know. Make everything from jewellery to cake stands and buttons to tabletops! The joy of resin is that each piece is so unique. With the addition of glitter, pigments and dried flowers the creative possibilities are endless!
What is epoxy resin?
Epoxy resin is a two-part liquid that when mixed together causes a chemical reaction and cures to form a hard object. The resin is mixed with a hardener, and as they are combined they react and produce heat. The epoxy resin comes as a liquid which, when mixed with hardener, after some time, creates a solid material. The ratio of resin to hardener varies between our types, can be 1:1 or 2:1.
How to use epoxy resin safely
To ensure you are using resin in a safe way you must follow some basic safety principles and read/follow enclosed instructions carefully.
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Make sure your workspace is well ventilated
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Wear PPE / gloves
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Wear a respirator mask if ventilations is poor.
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Wear safety glasses, to avoid any eye rubbing.
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Keep product away from children or pets
Our epoxy resin is low odor and no VOC's so its safe to use, but in very rare occasions people can be allergic for it, if you notice any sort of skin irritation or breathing problems stop using resin immediately (in this case you will be allergic for most brands of resin)
Select your tools and materials
Resin and Pigments
We have few types of epoxy resin and you need to choose one that is appropriate for your project. In this case please use our technical guide tab, it will help you to select. If you are a beginner we recommend starting with our 1L 1:1 Universal Epoxy Resin Kit, it gives you a great selection of accessories. For coloring you can use our 6 Color Paste Set, it's very concentrated so need very little.
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Moulds or Coating
There is an endless world of epoxy resin moulds to discover available to buy online and suitable for any budget. The beauty of the moulds is you can use them more than one time, but they have a life end. Each time you use the mould you can create a new style by mixing colours and additions. If you want to step up your game, you can even make your own moulds using silicone rubber.
Our 1:1 Resin is great for coating things or creating painting, it's an amazing way to personalize or give shine to your art.
Tools
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Resin and hardener
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Measuring/Mixing cup
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Gloves
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Stirring sticks
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Mould(s)
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Toothpicks
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Protective cover for your table
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Heat gun or lighter
Optional
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Epoxy Resin colourants
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Glitter
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Dried flowers
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Beads
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Gold flakes
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Heat mat
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Alcohol spray
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Baby wipes
Let's start
Read the instructions. To make sure your epoxy resin technical data, like measuring ratio, curing time, pouring depth, working time.
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Plan your project
Before you start, you should plan out what you are going to do. Unlike many crafts, there is no undo when it comes to resin. Once you have mixed your epoxy resin, you have a limited amount of time to work with it. So having a clear plan ahead of getting started will make the process more relaxed and a lot more enjoyable.
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1. SETUP
Prepare your workspace:
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Ensure you have a low humidity environment
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Find a workspace that will have a warm, consistent temperature
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Have a clean and tidy workspace (to avoid dust in your projects)
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Cover your working surface to avoid drips and spills.
Pro tip: If you don’t have somewhere with a warm temperature, then you can use a heat mat.
Pro tip: Cold temperatures and moisture may slow the curing process and cause the resin to have flaws.
Warm your epoxy resin kit if it was stored below 21C. Using warm resin will help to reduce the number of bubbles within the epoxy resin and allow it to cure.
Pro tip: If your resin is cold, immerse the bottles in warm water. Dry thoroughly before opening.
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2. MEASURING
Before opening your bottles of epoxy resin kit, put on your gloves!
Open and measure each part as per the instructions. Replace the cap on the bottle before moving on to the next bottle.
When using a 1:1 ratio and measuring in a graded cup, you can pour it into one cup, but make sure that you pour the same volume of each element. If cups not graded scale, use two of the same cups, find the line up to which you want to pour, mark two cups that had the same grade than pour your resin and hardener separately, after pour hardener to resin together and make sure that you scrape it as much as possible.
Pro tip: Make sure you replace the correct lids on the bottles - if you mix them up the lid may get stuck. (This is due to the resin mixing and curing).
Pro tip: If you have lots of items to make, mix in several small batches. You will have roughly 45 minutes for each batch before it begins to cure.
4. ADD PIGMENT OR GLITTER
This step is optional, but now is the time to colour your epoxy resin and/or add glitter.
Glitter
If you are making a clear piece with glitter, most of the glitter will sink to the bottom of the mould. If you want your piece to look full of glitter, you’ll need to do at least two pours and glitter needs to be added in both layers or it can be added when epoxy resin gets thicker. Be careful when you mix in, glitter creates lots of bubbles.
There are different types of glitter, most of the glitter sinks in the bottom no matter what. For best results check before buying and test before making your piece.
Pigments
You can use a variety of materials to colour epoxy resin; however, each material has advantages and disadvantages you will want to be aware of. DO NOT USE water or oil-based pigment to colour resin.
By itself, Resin Glory is a colourless formula that is used to coat paintings, photos, wood, puzzles, etc. or mold casting jewellery making.
Here are some colorants commonly used with epoxy resin, and what you should know about each one:
3. MIXING
Your measured amounts of nicely warm resin and hardener stir together SLOWLY, CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY for 3 - 5 minutes.
Use a slow and steady motion to avoid working extra air into the mixture (this stops bubbles from forming). Make sure to scrape the sides of the cup and the bottom to ensure an even mix. If you miss parts of it, your resin might not cure and could have soft patches.
You can expect to see streaks, bubbles and cloudiness as you mix – this is a normal part of the chemical reaction and your resin will turn clear as it mixes.
After you have mixed, leave it to sit for two or three minutes to allow bubbles to rise and pop before you pour it into your mould.
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1. Alcohol ink
Alcohol ink is a very popular epoxy resin colorant that offers gorgeous, rich saturation. It is also the specific colorant needed to create epoxy resin petri dish art. Alcohol is of course flammable, so while Resin Glory epoxy resin kit is non-flammable on its own in its liquid state, this is not the case once alcohol ink is added to the mix. For that reason, a torch should not be used on resin that contains alcohol ink. As well, ink tends to move into the centre when starting the curing process in the mold, so don’t be surprised, there are techniques to get event results.
2. Mica Powder
There are many colours to choose from, for best results use the high-quality mica powders. You can do crafts with one colour or blend a few colours together by mixing in separate pots and pouring in one mold and gently blending them, not mixing too much if you like to see a few colours(dirty pour), the same you can do on canvas. As well, before pouring, you can brush your mould with mica powder, this way you will get a shiny/coloured surface of your project.
Mica powder must be mixed well, it takes a bit more mixing than liquid colourants do. If the mica isn’t mixed your pieces might show striping or patches of different colouration.
3. Acrylic
You can actually use acrylic paint with Resin Glory, but because acrylic is a plastic and has a matte finish, it tends to take away the glossiness of the resin. Generally, people who work with epoxy resin like the glossiness of it and will want to preserve that look or you need a coat finished piece.
5. POURING
When you pour the epoxy resin out of the mixing cup, avoid scraping the sides in case there is any unmixed resin or hardener stuck to the sides. Pour slowly.
Resin Glory is self-levelling, just make sure that your work surface, where the piece, level.
Fill your moulds. The size and depth of your mould will dictate how you pour your epoxy resin.
Large moulds: Pour straight from the mixing cup. If you do deep pour, please do it in a few pours to get the best result and to avoid overheating. Allow 4-hour cure time between layers.
Small moulds: Use a stirring stick or small plastic spoon.
Pro tip: If you overfill it, you can use a stirring stick to scrape across the top of the mould to remove the excess resin. (Or use a pipette).
Pro tip: If your mould has flat areas around it (such as a flat earring mould) you can peel off any excess after curing.
If you have any items you want to add to the mould, such as stickers, beads or dried flowers add them to the epoxy resin now. Tweezers that have a long pointed tip can make this easier to do. Go slowly and watch out for bubbles that might form when the item enters the resin.
Note: do not add porous items (e.g: paper or photos) to the resin without first sealing them.
Pro tip: Keep extra moulds on hand to use up any excess epoxy resin.
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6. FINISH
After you have filled your mould, wait 3-5 minutes for the epoxy resin to settle and for bubbles to form and rise. If bubbles appear, don’t worry—most of them will disappear, but for the best result you can remove them with a torch/heat gun by sweeping 6-8 inches from the surface with a slow motion across the top. Just do NOT use too much torch/heat gun or use after resin starts to cure, it can ruin your artwork, leave some marks/pits or burn your mold, it will be difficult to remove your piece. Be gentle and sensible, you can use a toothpick to pop bubbles up. As well you can use 99% alcohol spray to remove bubbles, but after that you cannot use a torch.
Top tip: use a toothpick to pop and move the bubbles to the surface. Careful not to scratch the bottom of the mould though!
Top tip: If your mould has pointy corners there is likely to be a bubble stuck there! Check them out.
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​9. DE-MOULDING
Remove it from the mould. When you are sure that the epoxy resin has cured you can de-mould your item! This is the exciting part. Pull the mould away from the epoxy resin piece to remove it. If you are using a silicone mould, be careful not to tear it.
If your resin has not cured, you can distort your piece by demolding it too soon.
7. CURING
Leave your resin in a safe place to cure.
There is a variety of factors that affect the curing process:
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Room, resin temperature
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Size of mould
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Project thickness
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Type of resin
Normally our 1:1 epoxy resin kit cures in 12-24h to demould.
When curing leave your makes in a well-ventilated room away from children and pets. To avoid dust getting onto your project, cover with a bowl.
Be patient! It can be very tempting to de-mould your items early, but try to be patient as you can ruin them if they have not been cured.
As resin cures, it can ‘shrink’ and the middle part of the resin can dip down. When this happens the top of the resin piece can feel quite sharp around the edges. You can rectify this by trimming, sanding or doing a tiny pour on the top, and filling the dip with clear resin, best to do that when the piece is removed from mould.
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10. FINAL TOUCH
Sand and finish. As a first time user you may notice some imperfections on your piece, like dimple or sticky patches, its process errors. Don't worry, remove it using some wet or dry sandpaper in a fine grade.
When sanding resin you should always wear a mask to avoid inhaling any particles.
If your mould didn’t give your piece the shiny finish you wanted, you can add a thin layer of epoxy resin to the top of it. Due to the properties of epoxy resin, it will ‘dome’ when it is applied.
Doming resin. You will need to judge the right amount of epoxy resin to cover the surface area of the piece. Too much will spill over the sides and flow off, and too little and will not spread fully over the piece. Go slow and be patient, and gently use a stirring stick to help add extra epoxy resin and spread it.
8. CLEANING
After your piece is stored in a clean safe place, it's time to clean tools. If you use reusable tools, the best time to clean them is when the epoxy resin it’s still fresh. Wipe your cups, sticks with paper towel to remove resin, in the end you can finish with baby wipes or alcohol wipes/spray. DO NOT clean in the sink, as it can block your drains. Please note that cured resin can be really difficult to remove from some surfaces, so clean any spillage while in the liquid form, use rubbing alcohol, mineral spirit or other mild solvents to clean up.
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We hope that this guide was helpful.
There are so many different techniques to achieve certain looks and the list is still expanding. Follow us on social media, to see different designs and join our great community. We love seeing everyone's creations, so tag @resinglory.uk and share with us.
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Resin Art is all about experimenting and being unique!
Have Fun!
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Resin Glory Family
