How To Make Clear Resin Crafts

How to make clear resin craft products is slightly different from how to make talc/fiber resin and stone resin. As the name implies, the resulting resin product has clear, transparent, translucent, glossy and glass-like properties. Some examples of products using clear resin materials are trophies, plaques, company souvenirs and key chains. However, in this article we use an example of making a bag handle.

In the process of making this clear resin product, we do not use stuffing material, but rather apply the resin coloring process and the sanding and polishing steps. An example of the product we will make is a yellowish green resin bag handle with a dark green pattern with a thickness of 8mm and a diameter of 17.5 cm. If you wish to learn more information on resin crafts, you've to navigate to https://resinaffairs.com site.

Materials and Tools Used to make clear resin crafts:

Mold, use silicone mold.
Clear Resin.
Catalyst
Color Pigment
Sandpaper
Slab cloth
Sandpaper sizes 240, 450, 600 and 1000
Compound polishing
Resin dough container
Mixer
Slab machine, for polishing and sanding.
Kerosene/Gasoline, to dissolve green stones.
Yellow Glue, used to attach sandpaper to the machine.

Steps, Techniques, Processes and Stages of how to make clear resin crafts

Mold Preparation

Since we are going to make a transparent resin, make sure the surface of the mold is really clean so that there is not too much sanding work to be done later. Also, the first time you make a mold, the model used must have a smooth surface.

Make a resin dough that we will use for casting or we will fill it into the mold. We have discussed the methods and steps for making resin dough in the previous article. This time, because the products we make are different, the methods used are also slightly different.

Giving Resin Color

Make the color on the resin. In this case there are two stages of coloring. The first is to make the resin dough color. Pour the resin into the container then add a little green pigment. Sometimes finding the color of resin dough you want is not easy, it takes several tries to find the right color. For efficiency purposes, it is best to experiment with using a smaller container with a small amount of resin, so that not much is wasted.

Catalyst

In contrast to the use of catalysts in the manufacture of talc and stone resin products, in the process of making clear resins, the use of catalysts should receive more attention. Because the handle of the bag that we will make only has a thickness of 8 mm and the final result is transparent, the amount of catalyst used must be reduced. There are two underlying reasons:

Remove Air Bubbles

Avoid Air Bubbles (air bubbles). Reducing the amount of catalyst will increase the drying time. This will give the opportunity for oxygen (air) that is trapped when we pour the dough into the mold to get all out so that nothing is trapped into hollow spheres in resin craft that are already dry or hard.

Avoiding Resin Products bend (uneven). Because the final product is thin, the drying process must be slow. Drying too quickly will make the resin warp.

Giving Color Patterns

After the green-yellow resin mixture is ready, then pour it into the mold. Add a little dark green pigment at the desired point. Make a slight movement to give the impression of artistic flow. Wait for it to dry. Remove the dried clear resin product from the mold and soak it in detergent water for several hours (overnight).

Make Resin Shiny

Sanding Process

Perform three to four stages of wet sanding, starting with size 240 sandpaper to the finer one. For the first two stages of sanding, use a machine to speed up the process. At this stage, also use a sanding machine to make indentations, shape edges, remove sharp corners, etc. For the final stage, use the sanding process by hand while doing a visual check of the results of the previous sanding process.

Slab Process

This process is used to smooth and polish the resin surface. Use a slab machine that has been fitted with a slab cloth (buffing wheel). To be cheap, use a slab made of denim jeans or patchwork.

The material used to make the resin surface shiny is green stone. There are two ways to use it; Grease the resin surface with a green stone that has been soaked in kerosene or gasoline or put a green stone on the buffing wheel. Start the engine and do the polishing by sticking the resin on the buffing whell. Do this step until the surface is completely smooth.