Things That Can Be Done With Epoxy Resin - Beginner Level

Hi All,

This instructable about total fun things you can with Epoxy Resin, This is new to me, so of course posted this for amateur's like me, who are interested in resin art but thinking their way to start it. I hope this is useful to those budding resin artists.

Basically resin art is about mixing resin and hardener in correct proportions, so chemical reaction happens and when get what we intended to make with it by turning those two liquids into solid pieces.. like coasters, jewellery, pop sockets decor, home decors, resin art wall clock also protection layer to your painting leaving glossy finish. What all you be seeing in this instructable few of the above mentioned. I was very excited while and now double excited to share this experience.

Step 1: Supplies & Safety First

Epoxy clear resin - 225 g

Hardener - 75 g

My resin and hardener mixing proportions is 3:1, follow mixing proportion as per manufacturer instructions. Always mix in the exact amount, without tolerance

Solid pigments for resin art (necessary colours will be shown separately in each topic)

Opaque pigments - Blue & White

Coaster mould

MDF coaster - 2 Nos

Jewelry moulds

Paper cups

Popsicle stick

Weighing machine

Gold foil sheet

Safety warnings, Always wear

1) protective glass,

2) Mask covering your nose and mouth

3) Gloves that fits you well

Never compromise here, while mixing resin and hardener, unpleasant smell comes which is not good when inhaled for a long term. Resin art is all about fun. But safety before fun is very important

When its touch bare skin, immediately spray rubbing alcohol/IPA and wash thoroughly with soap and water.

Your safety is always in your hand

Step 2: Setup Your Art Area

Resin doesn't sticks to everything its being touched. Resins doesn't stick to silicone( so most of the moulds are silicone based), polypropelene, most of the PVC, Plastics, greasy area, shiny side of wax paper

So its all prepping your work area with plastic covers or polypropelene sheets, so that it doesn't stick to unwanted area. Don't worry these can be reused next time you do it too.

So i added newspaper as base, covered with old plastic sheet. My silicon mat, where my perfomance will happen.

Done with all the specifications, now lets enjoy the work.

Place the coaster mold above silicon mould

Step 3: Measure Volume

Everybody knows basic mathematics of calculating volume as per the specified shape, but for a irregular shape?? how will be determine.. Two pages long integral ??.. Don't sweat. Just pour water in mold, fill it with required amount and pour the water back to measure the quantity.

Now measure the quantity of resin and hardener to that amount, for eg, My mold required 45g for filling one coaster. I wanted to make two coaster so 90g of resin required. My resin mixing ratio is 3:1 so 67.5g of resin and 22.5 grams of hardener will be correct proportion to yield 90g combination for two coasters

Step 4: How to Mix and How Long to Mix

This is FAQ (First Arising Question) in mind, your manufacturer should have mentioned clearly below process

Mixing time

Pouring time (pot time)

Curing time

Mixing time is for combining resin and hardener correctly. generally few mins

Pouring time is for how long you can play with your resin, that is your decoration time. Generally 30 minutes to 1 hour

Curing time is how does this take to dry completely, pouring state to gel phase to solid phase generally this will be 12 to 48 hours depending upon the size.

If mixing time is not given mix until it turns transparent (image 4)

Another trick to always mix slowly to avoid creating bubbles. you really don't want bubbles ruining your art work

Step 5: Colour Up the Party

I divided the 90 grams ratio into 50g, 25g, 15g segments. When i bought these solid pigments, first colour i wanna try was pearl pink it was so mesmerizing. Take a pinch and mixed it in 50g resin. Pearl violet in 25g resin, and gold foil sheet in 15g clear resin

Step 6: Pearl Pink Beauty

Pour pink shades from the corner to center, when they are half running pour pearl violet mix and fix pour resin gold sheet mix in the edges.

Step 7: Swirl It

Now is your time to enjoy, you carefully play with the combination to get the expected design you are looking for..

Step 8: MDF Coaster

MDF coaster basically wood type of coaster, it very economical.. and they make good heat resistant. Before doing the work, mask it with masking tape, so that you remove unwanted resin droplets sticking to your base or sides of coaster while removing the tape

Step 9: Setup

Give your base a height and non touching surface, place it above a paper cup. Measure your resin.. i consider about 20g on each coaster. Hence 30g of resin with 10g of hardener, extra 3g is from popsicle stick and paper cup weight.

Divide the resin in required divisions

Step 10: Opaque Pigments & Solid Ones

For Blue theme, i chose dark blue & White opaque, mixed those two separately and combined colour of white and dark blue to obtain light blue.. as anticipated it gave beautiful blue hue.

For galaxy theme, pearl black, pearl grey, red matte and pearl violet

Step 11: Pouring Therapy

Pour dark blue mix precisely

Step 12: Add Second Colour

Add light blue and touch the merging edges to create beautiful.. this is purely in a way of each person creativity.

Step 13: Adding Waves

Pour white and give beautiful swirls with tooth picks to give waves, add light blue again to fill the other end

Step 14: Galaxy Coaster

Atleast that what i tried.. ;P

First pour the red planet , add the black beauty.. levelise

Step 15: Galaxy Part 2

Add little of violet resin, here and there. now pour pearl grey mix and let the resin flow take care of rest. set aside

Step 16: Pop Socket

Pop sockets are very trendy these days, they are attached behind mobile, helpful for taking selfie watching a movie perhaps.

For that i used this beautiful moon stages mold. Where the full circle makes the pop sockets specification perfectly.

I just love moon crescent, so i mixed violet glitter with resin and poured in

Step 17: Halloween Special

In full moon, pour pearl black and give required shape. Give silver moon on top, wait for few minutes and pour the pearl orange beauty.

Step 18: Cover Your Art

Take any of your art work, say acrylic or oil paintings.. Of course dried one.. how will you protect your master piece? few other methods are practically. out of which resin protection in one of the best protection. Based on the size take required amount of clear resin, pour all over your work, spread it evenly and set aside

Step 19: Jewelry Making

Best solution for your handmade jewelry with creative level unlimited. you make any shape (given in mold) in any colour you prefer, you never have to worry about someone else wearing your earring design. Also you can fill with your leftover resin too. for eg., this pearl pink is leftover of first coaster shown. Even though you calculate everything, there might be 2 to 3g remaining, which are perfect for jewelry.

pour your resin into resin mold, using syringe will be perfect fill. in case you couldn't have it. Be ready to clear away the mess out of the shape, I use earbuds to absorb excess resin, so that my jewelry size and shape stays intact.

Step 20: Pendant

I want explore my metallic shades, so i mixed metallic copper and leftover pearl orange and white from previous show case.

Pour metallic colour into pendant section

Step 21: Earring 2

Now experimented by combining two shades for one earring set. Pearl orange and opaque white

Step 22: Finally Done

I can't wait to check out the results of these beauties

Step 23: Left Them for One Night

But my resin cure time is 24 hours, so i have to wait for 12 hours more..

Step 24: Demoulding

Next morning i started demoulding, i started from the one which i started first.

It was my first try, i loved the outcome

Step 25: Cute Little Leftovers

Filled these tiny gems mould, from the colours where i couldn't make jewelry out of it. These could very beautiful Add ons to your next project the way you like.