I am actually not a complete neophyte in resin work as I have been using resin [ an unbranded one] since a couple of years to make handmade resin embellishments using silicon moulds but this is the first time I have used resin as an artistic medium.
If you have never tried working with resin I strongly urge you to first start your resin journey using moulds. Using resin with moulds is comparatively easy and super fun!
Using resin with moulds is a cool way to make your own earrings, charms, bag charms, key-chains etc
And here are some of the numerous ways in which a paper-crafter can use handmade resin embellishments :
Multiple resin elements:
House Shaped Organizer Box
Resin dolphin,cabochon and water droplets:
Ocean themed mixed media Box
Resin dolphin:
House Shaped Organizer Box,
Sun and Sea Photoframe ,
Ocean themed mixed media Box,
Resin Fairy :
Texture Media Experiments ,
Jute Flower Penstand ,
Altered Heart Tutorial,
Resin Fairy Card
Resin leaf :
Collage Clay Crafts;Resin heart:
Mixed Media Mini Book
Resin cabochon:
Mixed Media Altered Box Tutorial
Resin flower vase:
Resin Flower Vase Card
Recently inspired by resin work I had seen my crafter friends [
Tanvi Shah and
Anushree Vaish] post on Facebook, I took the plunge and bravely ordered resin and dyes from a brand called
Epoke which is used by professional resin artists.
 |
Epoke Resin
|
What attracted me to this particular brand is that it is non yellowing[ many clear resin brands have a tendency to yellow over time], non toxic and food grade safe.
Colouring Resin
 |
| Resin Dyes |
You can use Alcohol inks to tint resin to give it a translucent nearly transparent appearance which is good for making resin embellishments. I found that for resin paintings opaque pigments combined with a just one translucent shade gave the best look. Theoretically you can use acrylic paints but whether the brand you are using will be compatible with resin is a risk as it can interfere with the curing of resin and spoil your whole work of art if it acts up! I picked up some metallic, translucent and opaque colors from Epoke.
For paintings...my favourite are the opaque colours and though they are expensive you hardly need a tiny pinch to colour your resin! Just remember that you don"t have to go all out and buy the whole set[ He-he I know that many crafters are tempted to go the whole set way!]
Give at least 2 coats of gesso to your base.
I learnt the hard way that just one coating is not enough...resin is so translucent that you will be able to see even the brush strokes and wood grain on your base if you are using light colors of resin.
 |
| Wood primed with Gesso |
Resin will drip no mater what you do!! To make it easier to clean the backside of your painting you can cover it with tape or use a light smearing of vaseline on the borders of the backside of your wooden piece.This makes it easier to peel of the dripped resin once your painting has cured [
means dried nicely]
 |
| Preparing the base |
Preparing the working surface
Resin painting is messy and exciting but to make sure you don"t spoil your table cover it with thick newspapers and a big sheet of plastic.
Raise your base [which is a wooden plank in my case] on some plastic or paper cups as resin invariably drips and if you don"t raise your base it can get stuck to your working surface
 |
| Leveller |
Now you need to make sure the base you are painting on is level....this is soooo important! I learnt the hard way that if you are not finicky about your leveling...all your precious resin will just drip off one part of your painting [you can still salvage it but you will have wasted precious resin! ] . You can use a bubble level like the one pictured above or use a handy
Level tool from the Art resin website.
 |
| Art Resin Level |
You just have to open the website link on your mobile and place your mobile on your base. As long as the back of your mobile does not have any bumps , your mobile will work as your level tool.
The tool from Art resin is actually super accurate and I warn you it can be in fact frustrating to get the levels to tally zero!!
Tip for leveling : use wooden or plastic ice-cream sticks to raise each corner of your base to get it to level
Plan your Extras [Embellishments]
Start Measuring and Mixing your Resin only after you have everything ready
including any embellishments such as glitters, shells, sequins etc you may be planning to use.
 |
| Chunky Glitters |
Resin will start to cure pretty fast depending on the brand you are using and you cant afford to waste time looking for stuff after you have mixed it!
Measuring Your Resin and Hardener
 |
| Cups |
Resin work involves accurate mixing of the 2 components of resin and depending on the brand you are using you need to measure either by volume or weight.
Use Paper or plastic cups to measure your resin and have on hand some plastic or wooden ice cream sticks to help in the mixing [ I use plastic tongue depressors as you can easily reuse them...resin just peels off from it once it dries ]
The brand of resin I had used earlier required mixing by volume but Epoke requires mixing in a ratio by weight . In such cases your best and easiest option is a digital kitchen scale.
 |
| Digital Scale |
Don't forget to have some cloth or tissue paper to wipe stuff as you go...resin painting is messy work!
 |
| Tissue Paper |
Have gloves handy too unless you want to spend hours washing your hands to get rid off sticky resin!
 |
| Heat Gun |
I saw many artists use a heat gun or a blow torch to move their resin paints around.....Paper crafters may be having a heat gun for embossing and drying paints in mixed media work.
I found the heat gun good to remove bubbles in resin but the Epoke brand of resin which I used had an auto bubble release formula so I didn't really have any problems with bubbles in all my paintings
As far as moving the paints around....it tended to really mix your colours if you were not careful and you could very easily get a more controlled blend of colours with your plastic spatula . So yes the heat gun is
not the most essential tool for a novice resin artist.
Keep a few Moulds on hand
Resin is expensive and you won't want to waste even a drop so have on hand a couple of moulds to use leftovers and even the drips which spill onto the plastic surface you are working on [you can scoop up drips with a plastic spoon and use it to fill your moulds]
 |
| Moulds |
Once you have everything ready.....measure and mix your resin components . Epoke recommends mixing for a good 5-10 minutes and then resting the resin for 10 minutes for air bubbles to release. Each resin brand will have it's own recommendation on mixing time, pot time and cure time. With Epoke you get a good 45 minutes to complete your painting after mixing your resin...if you have everything ready...you will be done without any hassles.
I mixed 6 colors to make my ocean themed paintings and then simply poured the colours one by one on my base and blended in the colours with the heat gun or the spatula...it was cool and exhilarating !!!
Resin Resources
In this post I won't take you into resin painting techniques...there are numerous enchanting videos both on YouTube and Instagram for that but here are two websites with a ton of information
Artresin
Resin Obsession
I love anything related to the ocean and so all my resin paintings are inspired by the sea! Here are 2 more resin art pieces I made ... this time not on wooden scraps but on store bought MDF.
 |
| Resin Art |
Love how the chunky glitter shimmers on the resin.
 |
| Resin Art |
I used shells from our various beach holidays . Resin is a wonderful way to showcase shells as it is a fabulous adhesive and the shimmer of resin showcases the beauty of shells perfectly.
 |
| Resin Art |
Love how the waves/ clouds [ whichever way you think of the white wispy elements !] turned out....I created them by twirling a skewer stick in the resin!
 |
| Resin Art |
The best thing about resin is art just happens!!! I had applied a fairly uniform thickness of glitter in the dark blue area but while the resin cured...the glitter moved to create a beautiful design!
 |
| Resin Art |
I am so happy I could find a way to display years of shell collection in such a lovely way.
 |
| Resin Art |
Hope you like my resin paintings and hope this post will be of use if you take the plunge into the beautiful world of resin art!
 |
| Resin Art |
