Resin Time!

This weekend we managed to get hold of some epoxy resin and some dyes. We decided to try pouring it for the first time to check the ratios for the mixture between the resin and hardener and also to test how the dyes turned out.

We started off pouring a plain clear one just so we could see what plain resin looked like when it was cured.

Then started to add a few drops of dye into each one to test out the dyes that we had bought. We had 15 colours so we tried each one of those first.

We tried 5 drops of the dye in each one to start with but once we had stirred it in we decided if we thought we needed to add a little more. Some of the dyes seemed to change the colour of the resin easier than others

 Any excess we had we poured into moulds on the right hand side so we could see what happened if we mixed little bits together.

It was fun pouring it into the moulds 

We had to make two batches of resin as the first one ran out when we still had 3 of the colours to test. Which meant that we had extra to try out a few exciting pours at the end. We both really liked the way that the “pearl” dye looked - all creamy and milky so we both wanted to try a marbles one with white and another colour. Adam went for blue and I went for a pink colour.

We tried mixing these in different ways - Adam mixed up a cup of the pure white resin which he poured into the mould and then added a few drops of dye afterwards and mixed with a stirrer in the mould. I used the rest of the white he had already mixed up and added my pink dye to it a few drops around a few places. I then stirred it slightly just to marble it a bit before pouring into the mould.

These in the middle are my favourite of the batch.

With the final little bit of resin left we left this one clear and just added a drop of two of a few colours into the cup. Marbled it slightly and then poured it into the final cube.

This looked awesome in the cup before pouring.

And then we wait...

We had to leave them to set overnight.

This morning we tested them and they seemed to have set ok so it was time to pop them out of the mould. We were both really excited to do this bit. We just wanted them to have all set properly so we knew we were mixing the resin properly and that the dyes weren’t a problem for it setting.

These are some of the best mixed ones that look really good with the light behind them.

This is my favourite. This was the very last bit of resin mixed with all of the different colours.

Here’s how they all came out. I even tried a time lapse for the first time with these (I hope it works!)

We’re both pleased with how they worked - we think perhaps we should have kept a record of which colour was which for future reference and also how much dye we added to make each one turn out the way it did - some were much more opaque than others. Also it’s interesting how the mixed ones came out. The way that they were poured definitely makes a huge difference to how they look at the end. We found on one when we dropped a bit of white in at the end it mostly sank as well. Perhaps all dyes do this. Or is it just the white? I’m sure there will be more tests coming soon.