Casting resin tutorial

Hello guys! Okay, first up: I’m sorry for being inactive for the past few… I don’t know, months? I got busy here and there, even though now I’m unemployed (again, but I chose this). I did however, crafted something in anticipation of participating in a market, so watch out for those goodies as they come along. (^_^)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a number of requests for a tutorial on casting resin, because you guys liked my jelly (picture up there). So I thought, why not, this is a fairly simple procedure that anyone can do, and yields great results too if you do it right.

So let’s start!

This is the resin I’m going to be using, because it’s the only one I can find at the craft store. You can use other brands if you want, just follow the instructions printed on the booklet. I like this EasyCast resin because it has an easy formula, one part resin and one part hardener.

And these are the tools we will need for the casting: two plastic cups, two ice-cream sticks, and a measuring spoon.
You can use any kind of measuring spoons you like. The one I’m using is about one tablespoon I think? I am not too sure, but the amount is just right for the kind of stuff we’re going to cast in the long run. (^_^)
Also, please do not use paper cups for resin, because they are absorbent and can potentially ruin your cast.

Since my casting resin has an easy formula, this is one part resin going into one of my plastic cups. Fill up the spoon to its brim.

Depending on the amount of resin you want to cast, you can pour another spoon of resin into the cup. But I decide to stop at one spoonful of it because my mold is kind of small. Use a ice-cream stick to scrape out any leftover resin in the spoon to get it ready for the next step.

Here’s one part hardener going into the cup. Just like before, scrape out any leftover hardener in the spoon so it’ll be easier for you to wash it.

Now we’ve got the formula right and ready for mixing. But don’t mix it yet, because we’re going to add some colour to the mixture.

I decide my finished product is going to be red, so here I’m using some paints to achieve that. As you can see, I’m using water-soluble glass paint, and two kinds of red because each of them isn’t quite the red I want, haha! A bit of Vermillon and some Carmine gives me the shade of red that I love <3
You can use printer’s ink, pen ink, or just ink in general for casting resin. You can also use the resin dyes sold alongside the casting resin at the craft store, but I find those to be really expensive for me. As for watercolour and acrylic paints, I’m not too sure about them but I don’t think they are good for colouring resin, because they would be quite difficult to mix well with the resin mixture.

Just a few drops of paint will do; I don’t want my product to be in such a deep red it’s practically looking gloomy. Have fun with experimenting with colours though! Did you know violet and yellow makes a great shade of brown for coffee? (^_~)

And now, time to mix! Remember to scrape the sides of the cup as well when you are mixing! Most of the time when you mix, the colour pigments will just be force to the side and stay right there.

Once you’ve gotten the resin mixed well and uniformly coloured, it’s time to transfer the mixture into another cup for another round of stirring.

By now you will be seeing a lot of tiny bubbles forming on the surface of your mixture. Do not panic, this is quite normal. EasyCast resin is a self-degassing resin, so most of the time they will disappear by themselves, but if you’re a perfectionist like me, you can exhale lightly on the surface (or get some kind of heat close to it) and the bubbles will pop and disappear. I admit, this is part of the fun in castin resin: watching the bubbles disappear. xD

Pour the mixture into a mold of your choice. Just a note, polypropylene and silicone molds are great for resin casting, as they don’t need a mold release agent most of the time. But silicone molds wear out faster this way, so if you’d like to prolong its life, use a mold release spray prior to resin casting. I usually use silicone ice trays and baking molds for resin casting.

Once you’ve filled up a mold and you have some leftover, you can pour the remaining into another mold. Don’t worry about the colour not right or anything like that, you can always paint over the cast. Here I’m using a soft polypropylene mold.

Leave the molds alone for the resin to set (this usually takes about 12 to 24 hours), and pop the cast from the mold. Attach eye pins, paint them, embellish them, do whatever you want with them! So many possibilities!

And that’s it! That wasn’t so hard, right? (^_~)

If you have anything you’d like to see, a tutorial or review or just yell at me to update my blog, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me! I love getting emails from you guys! :D

Thanks for reading!