Resin is a two-part, clear epoxy which resembles liquid plastic, and when parts A and B are mixed thoroughly, it becomes rock hard and transparent. You can make endless things with resin, including coasters, trays, bowls, plates, wall art, and tabletops, just to name a few! Leaves and dried flowers can be imbedded in it, making for stunning displays. I have created beautiful bowls and ocean wave art with it, but I have found the most stunning of all to be resin flowers suspended in clear resin—and that’s what I want to share with you today!
We will make a most beautiful piece of art—even if you thought you didn’t have an artistic bone in your body. But if you’re up to the challenge of following these instructions, you can create something amazing!
Today, we’re going to create a burgundy resin flower suspended in a clear resin coaster. There are lots of brands and styles of molds to choose from. The mold I have chosen is 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter and ⅜ inch (1 cm) tall. Many sizes and edge styles of silicone molds are available, but those I find most artistic are round ones with irregular edges.
Here is a list of materials necessary for creating resin art. As we proceed, I will explain each as is necessary: rubber gloves, paper towels, plastic cups, stir sticks, a dull pencil, piping bags, a plastic drop cloth, rubbing alcohol, a silicone mold, resin, white resin paste, resin dyes, mica powders, small crushed glass chips or glitter, and a heat gun.
The brand of resin I use is Puduo. It has a cure time of 24 hours, with a working time of 45 minutes at a room temperature of around 72°F. Puduo also makes a super-fast-cure epoxy which you can unmold in one hour—DO NOT GET THAT. There are some elements in creating resin blooms (like dyes and mica powders) with which you can use various brands and get the same results, but resin is NOT one of them. Even if different brands of resin list the same specifications, the cure time will surely be different for each. To get the results seen here, be sure to get the exact resin I use.
Once you have your supplies at hand, place your mold on a table with a protective piece of plastic beneath. Make sure the mold is clean and level. Also be sure to remove the seals from your mica powder canisters and snip the tips of your resin dyes beforehand. Time is of the essence once you begin mixing your resin. Now let’s get started!
First, if your work room is fairly cool, like mine (about 72°F), set both canisters of resin into a container of hot water for a couple minutes to make it pour better. Then put on your gloves and mix 3 oz of resin in a cup (1.5 oz of part A with 1.5 oz of part B). Mix it thoroughly for about three minutes, using a stirring stick.
Now warm your cup of resin with a heat gun. Then pour just enough into the mold to completely cover the bottom (about ⅛ inch or 3 mm thick). Do not pour it too thick, or your flower will not bloom properly! Then pour one ounce of resin into another smaller cup and the remainder into a third cup. These two cups will contain your flower petal edge mixtures.
Now take a moment to quickly heat gun the resin in your mold. Always heat resin at a lower temperature setting to avoid burning your mold. The heat will burst any surface bubbles in the resin.
After that, it’s time to mix your petal edge colors. In the cup containing 1 oz of resin, mix in one drop of Let’s Resin Ocean White pigment paste. Pigment paste is heavy and opaque, and it is the key element in giving resin petals substance and form; but don’t use too much of it, or it will cause unsightly blobs in your bloom. Now mix in a little white mica powder to add sparkle and iridescence to the petals. I use the 24-color set of powders by Changtikeji, and they work great. They come with a small spoon—use about ¾ of a spoonful. It doesn’t take a lot of mica to make a big difference.
In the other cup of resin, mix in a heaping spoonful of coffee mica powder, nine drops of ruby red resin dye, and three drops of black resin dye to form a rich reddish-brown color. Resin dyes are not the same as resin paste. Dyes are lighter and more transparent than paste, and they suspend in resin rather than sink. Also, when they combine with the paste, wonderful colors and textures occur within the resin. I use the 16-color set of dyes from Let’s Resin. Now take a moment to heat gun your two petal mixtures and the resin in your mold once again.
Next, pour your white petal mixture into a piping bag. I have a large supply of sandwich bags, so I currently use them for piping bags. After the mixture is bagged, squeeze out the air above the resin, twist the bag around several times, and tie it off with a wire bread tie. Then snip off the excess bag and set it aside. Now do the same with the brown petal mixture.
If you (like me) have never used a piping bag before, by all means practice beforehand on a piece of cardboard. It is also helpful to trace your mold onto white paper before you get started, and draw a flower center and six petals on it. Use this for reference when you pipe so you can see approximately how big the petals need to be to fill in the space.
Now it’s time to begin forming your flower! First, drop a small spoonful of glass chips onto the center of the mold and mix them into the resin. Glass chips come in a variety of colors, and gold always looks good (Step 1). A much cheaper alternative is glitter. If glitter is used, it must be mixed with resin first and then applied, to ensure that the glitter sinks.
Next, add one drop of black dye over the gold center and four more drops around the edge of the gold (Step 2).
Then add six drops of ruby red dye about ¾ inch (2 cm) out from the center and surrounding the center (Step 3).
Now add six drops of black dye to the centers of the red drops (Step 4). At this point, the resin bloom looks more like a resin blob, but do not lose heart, because something wonderful is about to happen!
If you work at 72° and the same speed I do, it is almost time to begin piping your petal edges. I piped them between 25 and 35 minutes after the piping resin was mixed to ensure proper viscosity for the petals to bloom.
I was using time rather than temperature to make this flower, so I am mentioning times. However, a lot of folks use temperature as their guide, and I am moving that way myself. Experiment to learn what works for you. When using a laser/infrared thermometer, you are looking for the white resin to be 95°-104°F (35°-40°C).
If you watch the temperature, keep notes concerning what you do so you know what to tweak if your first experience is a “flop.”
When the piping window approaches, snip the corner of the white resin piping bag with a small nail clippers. DO NOT snip too big an opening, but rather a very small one, so that the flow of resin is easily controlled! The thickness of the flow should be about ⅛ inch (3 mm). Pipe six rounded petal outlines extending from the center to around ½ inch (1.3 cm) from the outer edge of the mold (Step 5). No need to be concerned if your petals are wavy, because petal shape is not that critical. If you get some wavy lines, don’t worry—they will still blend and look great! And if your petals turn out a little big and you can only fit five in, don’t sweat it. Five look as good as six!
Next, snip the brown resin bag and pipe brown petals inside of and touching the white petals (Step 6).
Now it’s time to form ribs in our petals. This is accomplished with a dull pencil by inserting the pencil’s tip into the resin and scribing a line from the center through the base of each petal upward beyond each tip, to the edge of the mold. No need to insert the pencil tip deeply. Just break the surface of the resin and pull some of the dark color at the center up through the center of each flower petal (Step 7). As you scribe up through each petal, this will also move the resin, forming interesting pointed flower tips.
Notice what is beginning to happen—the dyes and paste are spreading and interacting, and the gaps between the colors are filling in! Use your heat gun now to further accelerate the blooming process. Twenty-five minutes later, look what has happened in Step 8—the ugly duckling has turned into a beautiful swan! I told you this is an amazing art form; and the best is yet to come, because greater things than these are happening down below that you will not be able to see until your masterpiece is unmolded. After this step, it’s time to let your flower rest for at least six hours.
After six hours have passed, the resin will have set up long enough to allow you to create a second set of petals which will give your flower depth and a 3-D effect. So, repeat the previous steps of mixing and pouring a thin layer of clear resin into the mold over your first set of petals. Mix and bag the white and brown petal edge mixtures—only this time make sure to leave a little brown mixture in the cup. Remember to watch the time or temperature carefully to pipe the petals at the proper time.
After piping a complete second set of petals between the first set, dip your pencil into the brown mixture and apply some of that color to the upper portion of each petal to develop a vein (Step 9). Then scribe each with the dull pencil as you did previously. After scribing the petals, the blooming process will be complete within ninety minutes (Step 10). Excitement builds as we anticipate the wonderful things yet to be seen on the front side!
When another six hours have passed, you have some important decisions to make. Some artists like to back their blooms with colored resin. Remember that your petals are semitransparent, so whatever you put back there will dramatically affect how your bloom will look. If you choose the wrong color, you will end up bitterly disappointed. When in doubt, leave it clear; that’s my advice.
If you decide to leave it clear, choose whether you want to leave your coaster ¼ inch (6 mm) thick or make it a little thicker. I chose to make mine thicker and so poured in another clear layer of resin.
After 24 hours, it is time for the greatly anticipated unveiling! Slowly peel away the mold at the edges, then finally the middle. Don’t forget to breathe as you flip it over, revealing your stunning masterpiece!
After unmolding, I tested various colors of paper beneath my creation to see if I had made the right decision in leaving it clear, and was delighted with my choice. I also decided that I liked the clear parts near the outer petal edges, but felt that the bloom itself looked best with white behind it to brighten it up. So, I turned it upside down, mixed a small amount of resin and white paste, and brushed it over the flower’s bottom, being careful to fade it out before reaching the petal edges to avoid harsh lines—and the results—well, I’ll let you be the judge!
What an amazing and unique process! I hope you will take this information and let your imagination soar! And be sure to share your stunning resin blooms with Nature Friend! More of us would delight in seeing them.