Ice Resin 101 by Susan M. Walls

Hello everyone! Today I am doing a follow up from Ursula's post about her art belt buckle. Very cool by the way...I love the stamping and the color!

I thought I would go back to basics and show you how Ice Resin is the easiest. Also I'll throw in some tips to make Ursula's next resin project a breeze ;)

Let's begin with my desk and what it looks like when I'm in resin mode.

You can see all the things I have all over...but they all come in necessary. Well, almost all. This shot is actually at the end of a pour but this is the reality at the beginning too.

Tip #1: You will notice that all, most, of my things are on a tray. I always work on a tray or inside a cardboard box or something that I can move without disturbing the resin. Line your tray with a silicone mat or a garbage bag, resin won't stick to a garbage bag, then place youe pieces, and pour. Then if you need the table space you just pick up the whole thing and move it.

Tip #2: You can see the two bowls at either side of the tray? Those are filled with rice. They make the perfect beds for any bezel...or belt buckle...any piece that might have an uneven bottom. You just nestle them into the rice until they lay flat and your resin will also be even!

Tip #3: Cover everything!! Once poured resin attracts dust like nobodys business!

We will start with those lovely Ice Resin bottles on the right pouring equal amounts from each bottle, resin and hardener, into a little medicine cup.

You can see on the side there are two marks for the levels of the resin. I find that the measurements that are embossed on the cup completely disappear when you pour in liquid so I use the closest Sharpie marker and remedy the situation.

Using a wooden craft stick you will stir this for 2 minutes. At the end of that time your Ice will be perfectly clear and all mixed together.

Set it down and let it rest for 5 minutes. During this time all the bubbles, if there are any, will rise to the top. They either dissipate on their own or you can do this...

The easiest way to remove bubbles is to blow gently through a straw...you will be amazed that all the bubbles will just disappear.

You can see the bubbles in this pic alongside my prepared bezels.

Here are a few more prepared bezels. You can use a myriad of materials in your bezels. the top has an acrylic painted background with an actual gear, glued in place, plus some typed words on paper. The center pieces are also a mix of paint and paper. The bottom was painted several times then the paper was added as I poured the resin.

Here's another way to keep things level. I recycled this box and by cutting some strip out of it I made the perfect spots to tuck in my ring shanks and keep the bezel part level. 

Get resin on the box? Toss it out!

Tip #4: If you've overpoured or dumped your project over and then let it cure before getting the resin off places you don't really want it to be. DON'T PANIC! There are several things you can do. Use scissors and cut off the pieces hanging off. Pick at the resin that's stuck with your fingernails until it lifts (this only works while it's still soft..at least for me). In times of desperation I reach for the rubbing alcohol. Dip a Qtip in it and saturate the unwanted resin areas being careful not to rub it all over the top of your piece. Now you may have to do this more than once but I find it makes the resin brittle and then it will come off. 

If none of those options work then PANIC!

Pour your resin into your bezels and wait for the magic to happen! In 24 hours you have a soft cure. That means the resin fells a bit soft but you can touch it and cut or peel off any resin that pours over your bezel. Three days and you have a hard cure meaning you can now place a piece in a box or bag, wear it without worry of damaging the surface or sell your gorgeous piece!

Here's a few finished pieces so you can see how beautiful Ice Resin is...

Hearts! Hearts with 1955 dictionary words embedded into the resin. What word sums up your personality?

There's that gear again! I literally used a little ModPodge to secure the gear where I wanted it and poured resin over it. There's a bit of mica inclusion laying behind it...but that's another post!

Last but not least we will visit some science fiction. My favorite! The bezels here are all prepped with the paper clip art, sealed with ModPodge, and then resin. 

Way too much fun!

Are you tempted to try it? I like that rubber shape that Ursula used and then pulled off from around the resin. I'm going to steal that idea!

Until next time,

Susan

You can find us all at our FB page: 

Cre8ive Klatch

You can find me at Susan's Art Circus

and also at the Cre8ive Circus where you can also purchase all the supplies to do some resin projects

or at my jewelry shop Charming Trinkets for finished pieces in wacky themes!

Being Susan M. Walls-Beverly

Out of my comfort zone

In this series, Susan, Lori and I decided it would be fun to trade places, and try our hand doing projects that the others usually specialize in. For this attempt I am trying out a resin project using a product that Susan works with all the time- Ice Resin. Specifically, I was trying to make belt buckles, but I also have some additional ideas for what to do with left over resin and those can be found at the end of the video.

Well friends, Susan is a much better Susan M. Walls-Beverly than I am ;). 

For my project, I would have to say this post will be more about what NOT to do when making a project using resin. Fortunately we have Susan who is very GOOD at resin, and she can show you the right way to do things!

So here is my check list on what not to do with resin:

• First and foremost, if you are filming your resin project for a project- make sure you hit record rather than pause during the appropriate filming parts ;)
• Be prepared as to where you are going to dry your resin piece. It must be a level surface, and you should not, I repeat should not, place it near the area that you are working. Resin takes a good 24 hours to dry without spillage, and if you decide to sneak in a few minutes of project time, you do not want to knock over your project and/or step in it.
• If you want to use resin on paper or paint, use one of the non-stick craft sheets. Make sure the sheets are clean. Resin will pull up any paint or ink left behind on the craft sheet.
• Make sure you use less resin than you think. Thin coats that layer are less susceptible to over spilling. Resin will harden and potentially cause your project to stick to the item it is drying on, if the resin spills over.
• Trim your projects first. Cleaning up a little bit of left over resin is easier to trim than trying to trim the paper along with the resin.
• Don't use a project that is curved for your first project with resin. Filling something flat is infinitely easier than filling a curved surface!!
• Give it a go and Enjoy!

I followed up with some more experimenting on my blog. You can find the post here- http://ursula-smith.com/more-resin-ideas/

Thanks for visiting the Cre8ive Klatch. If you wish to see more of my ideas, tips, techniques and experiments, you can find me here:

Ursula-Smith.com/Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Creative Clearinghouse

Ice Resin Play: Darned Bubbles! From Susan's Art Circus

Hello all!

This is Susan from Susan’s Art Circus. As well as being a painter, mixed media artist and a dozen other things, I am the resident jewelry maker in the Klatch group.  After, and before, being an Ice Resin© design team member in 2012-13 I have played in resin. I love it! And I've started a series of posts over on my own blog with that obsession in mind. It’s all about playing with and experimenting with Ice Resin© and  today I bring an installment of that series over here all about molding putty…

Now there are two posts that came before this one today and you can find them here:

Ice Resin Play: Molding Putty Part 1

Ice Resin Play: Molding Putty Part 2

But today I want to talk about a couple different brands of silicone molding putty. Two brands and two things in particular…time and bubbles.

My favorite molding putty is, of course, from Susan Lenart Kazmer. (if you aren't familiar with her work go see...it's extraordinary!)

You can mix it together in equal parts and use it immediately after pulling out the item you’re molding. This means you can mix, mold, wait about 15 minutes, pull your mold off of your item, and pour resin right into the cavity. This is what it looks like after the resin has a 24 hour cure molding with Susan’s product.

You can see it’s clear, detailed, and beautiful. First try. This took approximately 24 hours total with the bulk of that going towards allowing the resin to cure hard enough to remove the mold. You could manage it in 12 hours if you're really in a hurry.

Now let me show you how another brand, which I won’t name, works if used the same way. I will preface my statements with the fact that the purple product works very similarly to the yellow. It mixes the same, takes the same time period to be able to pull out your molded item, and will mold with great details. But there’s a huge time difference in order to get a clear cast which, for me when I’m busy producing for shows or my shop, means I’m losing money with the time it takes. There is only one of me so every minute counts.

Here is a new mold made with the purple product that has had the resin poured into it.  Both making the mold and pouring the resin happened within about an hour’s time.

Notice anything? Here is another picture taken about 45 minutes after pouring the resin into the mold.

 Notice now? The type of material that this molding putty is made from de-gasses into the resin causing multiple bubbles to form. 

Sometimes this might be a happy accident but, for me, this means I have to make another piece. The only way to insure this doesn't happen is to let the mold cure for 24 hours before pouring your first resin into it. And sometimes even that doesn't stop it completely and you will still get more bubbles than you want or need.

So, for me, I use the yellow/white Ice Resin brand of molding putty and get some wonderful cast pieces in a time frame that I can manage.

No it's not a sheep or a doll...it's a piggie! 

If you try out any of these techniques please come join our group Facebook page at: 

Cre8ive Klatch

...and let's chat!

Until next time,

Susan