#resincrete

Male Lion

Sitting Cat

Chibi Dragon 1

Chibi Dragon 2

Gorilla

Predator (Yautja)

Alien 1 (Xenomorph) *broken lower jaw

Draconic Kitten

Rose Dragon

Dragon With Roses

Hatching Dragon

Meditating Fox

Laying Cat

➡️ 💕 Watch on YouTube 💖🌈⭐️

I do this way too often 🫠

We're back on the subject of the little Owl Tea Light Candle Holders! The other thing wrong with those molds were... they don't actually fit tea lights, lol 🙃

But, they will fit fairy lights.

Unfortunately, I don't have any so I had to order some 🙃

This morning I broke out my ResinCrete, for the first time in a while, actually... was kind of like seeing an old friend, but an old hobby that you missed doing, if that makes sense? Because it's been at least half a year since I've used ResinCrete.

Don't take this as me complaining or ranting or whining, but they kind of jacked up the pricetag on ResinCrete by a whopping 20$ USD or something crazy. It wasn't a small increase. So, I just stopped buying it.

I took economics, I have a degree in accounting, I took business classes, I get it. It's called supply and demand. When your product is doing good, you raise prices. And then there's other economic and political things you take into account and add onto it that I'm not going to dive into because I'm not trying to turn my blog into some controversial debate club or woe-is-me hotspot but what I am trying to say is- it's not in my budget unless it goes on sale.

[Which hey, right now as I'm writing this, it is on sale on Amazon. I'd order more but I have a brand new bag still waiting for me 🙃]

I also wasn't using it as much as I used to, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because it's been a good while, I actually had to look at the back for ratios. I couldn't remember 🫢

I didn't know how much these took and I'm bad at guessing, so I went with 300g ResinCrete and 90g Water. Though, I like to add a bit extra water to make the ResinCrete a little more crepe-like consistency and easier to work with. It also allows me the ability to work with it a bit longer and removes more bubbles, AND gets into nooks, crannies, grooves better.

Another thing I've noticed that I do differently from a lot of people who work with ResinCrete or other art cast-like mediums is that I add my powder... to my water. Re-read that if you need to.

A lot of people will add their water... to their powder.

Nuh uh. I can't stand that. Gets way too many lumps doing it that way.

I'll also add about 1/4th of my powder at a time, mixing it completely before adding more. I know it risks curing because I'm taking longer by doing it, and maybe that's why I like adding in more water, but I really do get out all of the lumps by doing it that way.

Everyone has their own way and that's mine 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was after pouring the first 300g + 90g ⤵️

I was prepping another 150g ResinCrete + 45g Water for the last owl. Thing is, I ended up making extra things and if I didn't make the extras, I probably could have made ALL the owls with just 400g of ResinCrete and 120g Water. I'll try the next time I make these.

You can see I have some leftover ResinCrete in my bowl there. This is what I do with it ⤵️

Let it finish drying/curing, crunch it up, break it up, save it in a container for later use like Terrazzo.

If you don't want to leave it in a silicone cup like I did, you can spread it out on a ziplock bag, or a piece of cling wrap and wait for it to dry/cure and then break it up.

I'd advise to wear gloves or something before breaking it though. It can get sharp. I know in the photos I did not- mine was still on the hydrated/wet side, barely dry/cured, when it wasn't sharp but it's better to be safe than sorry. This is one of those cases where I'm doing that "do as I say, not as I do" 🙃

Here's the owls demolded after 30 minutes or so ⤵️

That's one of my favorite things about ResinCrete; Quick demold.

And here's the Owls after cleanup ⤵️

The past couple of days I've made a few Epoxy and ResinCrete things inbetween other tasks.

I found this painting palette mold and wanted to try casting it because I started working with watercolor and acrylics again. If I could make my own palettes in themes, designs, and colors that I personally like, why not make some to sell also?

Thing is, I know generally watercolor artists are quite particular with their paint palettes and will typically aim for "glazed ceramic" because of its smooth surface. This got me thinking... ResinCrete is kind of seen as a type of Ceramic, or similar to it, or on par with it in many respects. In many ways it's stronger and more reliable. So, why couldn't I make a painters palette with ResinCrete instead and seal it?

I didn't just stop there, because I also know that Isopropyl Alcohol cleans acrylic and watercolor paints away easily. When we resin artists decorate any type of Epoxy with a chrome or acrylic marker, we wipe it off with alcohol so technically I should be able to make the palettes with Epoxy also and if they're cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol in worst-case scenarios, they should still be shiny and smooth.

I'm just unsure of the life span of them because most things degrade over time, and even faster when exposed to things like alcohol, acid, vinegar, repetitive scratching, etc.

So I made several to "test" for myself and see how they hold up, among other things ⤵️

These are the ResinCrete ones, with about 4 or 5 layers of sealant because each layer looked like it "wasn't enough" and I just kept adding another layer, and another, and another... lol 😅.

The "lines", as if you see some cross-hatching, or textured pattern in some, was not coming out no matter how many layers I added. I even tried to add more sealant on some, less on others (practically dry brushing), and I tried dabbing it on there too, but nothing seemed to remove the "sponge strokes" though some things helped more than others.

[I live in a dry, hot air climate- and I think it just dried too quickly on me. Adding water helped some of the time but it also made it patchy and I don't know what this does to the integrity of the sealant formula.]

But you can see even with the slight texture, it's still smooth-ish and it's completely sealed ⤵️

Definitely needs more trial and error to find a technique that works with my climate.

This is the Epoxy stuff I made ⤵️

I wanted to make the paint palettes AND cast the molds I had all of that copper leaf in 🙃😋 (to get it out)

The copper leaf DID come all out, so that was a relief. And all of the things with it turned out really pretty!

[Any remaining copper leaf that was surrounding the outside of my molds was able to be removed with some tape, mostly. Might have to use a few pieces but it works decent enough.]

This round jewelry tray though... ⤵️

The bottom part came out perfect, but that lid got a couple bubbles under the rim. I tried to fix them but even after patching them up, I'm not a big fan of how it looks.

[I thought I double checked it for bubbles before I walked away, but now I'm questioning if I actually forgot 🙃🫠]

And here's the palettes! 🎨 ⤵️

These were done in two layers. Clear + Flowers, and then I came back about 8 hours later to add the white pigment paste combined with white mica layer.

One petal got a giant bubble under it and there's a couple tiny bubbles in others but I actually really love these. I'll likely keep up with this theme, and if I have white flowers maybe swap the back color with black instead of white for a contrasting pop.

[Which means I need to keep drying flowers with my Silica Bead Gel, to keep up flower stock, lol]

I'm going to be fully transparent here and say, the Epoxy with the two layers is WAY easier than the ResinCrete and multiple layers of sealant because each layer of sealant takes hours to fully dry + you end up with those texture problems I had.

[The sealant seems dry after 5 minutes but it's deceptive. This is what was happening to me.]

There's also way more possibilities for decorating your paint palette with the Epoxy and in this case I used a Tabletop Epoxy (by JDiction) so it could handle more wear and tear and have more of a lifespan vs. an everyday casting Epoxy (ones that aren't meant to be handled so much).

[Looks at clock 🕧, 12:30am 👀]

I've been playing with ResinCrete today. Mainly because I need another layer added to my jewelry tower.

Instead of just making one layer, I made two so I could gift one to my Mom as well because a while back I also made her a tower and I figure if I'm running out of space in it, she likely is too.

The color I chose to go with was purple, or lavender. I wanted it to be light but one of them came out darker than I intended. I mean, it happens 🤷🏻‍♀️. Usually it's the reverse with ResinCrete and you end up with lighter colors than you intended because the powder is pure white, lol.

And unlike the other layers I did previously, I wanted to try adding a different touch- something I haven't done with ResinCrete yet. ⤵️

I took copper leaf/foil sheets and burnished random flakes into my molds.

These are something I use commonly in Epoxy Resin, and fairly often in UV Resin too, but I've never burnished with them before with any medium. I didn't know what to expect with trying this, or if the ResinCrete would even be strong enough to pull it off of my molds 🤷🏻‍♀️. It's water based and not exactly sticky like Epoxy or UV Resin, y'know?

I mixed up my "Acrylic Water" and my "Mica Water" for my ResinCrete as usual ⤵️

And poured the jewelry layer (200ml) ⤵️

I'd like to add (and I probably sound like a broken record) that if you use Acrylic paint with ResinCrete, the directions do notate to add a bit of extra water to help with the consistency and to prevent flash curing (they phrase it differently but that's basically the gist of it).

So, interestingly enough when I demolded this, it came out like this ⤵️

And the other extra pieces came out like this ⤵️

SOME of the copper leaf came off, but majority of it remained on the mold.

This left me with a few questions and concerns. Like;

If I brush/smudge my casted ResinCrete that I just demolded, will the copper leaf rub off?

[A small amount did, but most did not.]

If I re-poured more ResinCrete in the molds, would more of the copper leaf come off with the new ResinCrete, or are they just clinging onto my mold forever until I clean them off somehow?

[I did actually repour into the molds after adding more to one mold, and without adding more to others, and more leaf did come off. Photos below.]

Can I add more copper leaf over the copper leaf still clinging to my mold? And will those cling to new ResinCrete?

[Kind of. I was able to add copper leaf to the empty areas and the leaf could protrude out. If I tried to burnish them though... didn't work because there's nothing for the leaf to cling to. The area is already taken.]

There's also some areas on the ResinCrete I demolded where you can see "blank" areas from where the copper leaf was, that didn't cling to the ResinCrete, and the ResinCrete doesn't have a "shine" from being against the mold. So it just looks "blank" as previously mentioned (or I guess matte-ish?). You can kind of see this in the photos. I might go back and add a layer of UV Resin on the bottom of the circular tray with some embeds and a UVDTF sticker, or something to jazz this up to ~hide~ that, but I'm not sure yet. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look great either.

So, round #2 of trying to add more copper leaf to this jewelry layer/tray and seeing how this goes ⤵️

This time the jewelry tray layer picked up the copper leaf better than it did the first time, and I have no idea why. I didn't let it cure in the mold for any longer period of time than the first one. All I can think of is that the leaf was more loose because it was potentially on top of the first layer of leaf? But that doesn't make sense because of the next molds (the butterfly and kitty ones coming up) 🤔

[These are the same jewelry tray/layer, my phone camera is just horrible with lighting and picking up colors.]

I also simply re-poured the butterfly and kitty mold without adding any additional copper leaf to see if the ResinCrete would pick up more ⤵️

These came out way better too. The "blank" or "matte" spaces are not there. They also picked up a bunch of the copper leaf. Not a clue why these and the second tray turned out way better than the first batch 🫠🙃

Maybe I'll have an "aha!" moment later and realize why, because it's super late (1:30am now) and my brain is powering down, but everything came out really nice. I love the effect the copper leaf gives ResinCrete. It looks like an upgraded form of glitter. Elegant and starry sky-esque.

Oh yeah, I have these small little extras too ⤵️

So much purple today 😋💜

Now I just need to figure out how to get all of that extra copper leaf out of my molds, lol. The easiest way is probably just make another project but with Epoxy because that Epoxy will stick and cling to it.

I've been thinking about doing a thing for a while. Ever since I saw ResinCrete, I've been wondering- how can I use this in an untraditional way? How can I mix this with Epoxy or UV Resin?

Do any of you watch the cooking show Chopped, I wonder? I love that show, I watch it often 😄 and I wonder if it inspires me to think this way sometimes.

So, here I am thinking I haven't done ocean themed things in way too long for my liking because I've built my resin collection entirely FOR ocean themes and space themes, and I want to use ResinCrete to "boost" the colors.

I've also been watching some of this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EpoxyCraftsman

And their tables are amazing 🤩

Sometimes it seems like they're adding opaque blues as their ocean colors, but later the colors shift into translucents & shimmers and I'm just like *blinks* whoaaa~ 💖

Following up on all of that, I decided to add a very thin layer of ResinCrete into coaster molds for a white background that was "quick", because ResinCrete can "set" in as early as 20-30 minutes. But I actually gave mine about 1-2 hours, having totally forgot about it 😅

[I believe I poured it and then went to make lunch and then watched a couple youtube videos from some resin creators.]

It's still faster than pouring 4-hour fast cure or normal epoxy!

[And I'm not messing with polyurethane 😅... yet, anyways. Though that's an option if you have it.]

After that I was ready for the sand + ocean colors, and this is where the fun begins. I have these for the ocean colors ⤵️

The pigment inks are practically my go-to, but I've been waiting forever to try these Meyspring ocean mica powders. I was gifted them nearly 2-years ago and I keep waiting to try them in a project like this. But I went light-handed on the mica powders. I didn't want to be heavy-handed and then the "water" appeared murky or muddy or too opaque, or whatever else. I still wanted it clear-ish and "refreshing".

I guess in a way this is experimental. It is my first time trying all of this together afterall. I've done ocean things before, but not like this. You can scroll back through my blog and see how I've done ocean stuff previously.

Adding an opaque white back layer like this will also enable me to add cork backings without them being obvious and visible later on.

Here's the first day's step-by-step process, or at least my attempt to catch that through photos. ⤵️

I ended up with a lot of extra resin so I made a butterfly, a snowflake, and a stone cluster.

Tbh, the coaster holders were kind of an afterthought. I wasn't really thinking when I added the ResinCrete into them, and I just piled all of my extra sand into them also, lol 😅

The next day, I unmolded the extras and they turned out really nice. It was here that I realized this snowflake needs another- to lock into this one and be kind of multidimensional. That'll have to be another day.

It was also this day that I added the waves to my coasters and had way too much leftover white resin, so I thought about trying to make tea kitties. Each of these kitties take 25ml of resin (finally figured this out). ⤵️

Later that evening, I came back again to add a top coat so that they'd be domed. This is why I say they "took 2 ½ days, almost 3 days".

And the next day, I was able to demold them ⤵️

I really like how ALL of them came out, even the coaster holders that were an after thought 😂

The ResinCrete kind of reminds me of Pillar Ruins (something I keep seeing pop up in my game). And the ResinCrete is really silky smooth when it's added to Epoxy like this, as opposed to when it's used on its own.

What I need to do now is go around the edges with a deburring tool very lightly- and I do mean very lightly. Or maybe a high grit sand paper and be very cautious because it's raised ever so slightly. I know I domed the heck out of these but they still somehow managed to get a lip around some of them.

I don't think I'll be making those octagon ones again, because that holder was a nightmare to unmold and the coasters kept popping up bubbles around the edges every 15-20 minutes. I've made that one once in the past in ResinCrete only and it was a nightmare to unmold then too (I actually snapped it in half, lol). But the Circle one was very easy to unmold.

The only thing I was disappointed with, was my tea kitties ⤵️

The resin didn't seep all the way through the tea. I guess I should have taken a silicone stick/tool and poked through the resin to make sure it did- but when I poured it at this point, it was already so hot and viscous and setting on me. That's probably why it didn't seep through 🫠

I mean, these were "extras" anyways, but bleh. I'll try to fix them somehow, maybe with some UV Resin, or I'll just leave them and keep them for myself.

In total, I believe I used 300ml of ResinCrete as the base white + 400ml Epoxy Resin (100ml of each color and sand) + 100ml (50ml clear and 50ml white for waves) + another 100ml Epoxy Resin for doming (if anyone is curious). Do keep in mind I ended up with all of those extras though 😅

[Oh yeah! Final note. I like using ResinCrete because it has a high Heat Resistance; up to 392°F (200°C). Pair that with the coaster Epoxy that I use, JDiction; 212°F.

I feel like they make a great combo for coasters 😄

"The average temperature for a cup of coffee, whether brewed or served, typically falls between 150°F and 170°F (65°C to 77°C)"

A tl;dr of that is... it's a monthly subscription based game that I more or less play with close friends, and you can own a house in it. But in order to keep the house, you must keep up your subscription- which I've been doing. But I've grown tired of the game and my friends no longer play as much, like myself. I no longer play it much.

If I just stop playing, I lose my house and everything inside it. So, I have to move everything out of it. The problem is, this game is stingy with "item space" and I had to figure out where to put all these items 🫠🙃

[Doesn't help that I own two houses in this game...]

But anyways, that aside.

In my last post I shared a ResinCrete Ammonite plant/succulent mold/casting with all of these intricate details, and I mentioned I'd be getting another mold similar to it. Well that came in! ⤵️

This one has a much wider opening at the top.

But as you can see it has some deformities- in the mold (that transferred to my cast).

After taking these pictures I took it upon myself to sand the top down, because I had already done that to the bottom last night.

Looks a lot better, right?

The mold kind of looks like it was made in a 3D printer, but at the same time the silicone is incredibly moist, bouncy and flexible- high quality. So, I think the seller made these with the intent for the buyer to use these with cement.

Most the deformities can be sanded out, like the ones on the bottom that took a good piece of my time to sand out last night, and the ones just now to sand out. And I think some can be painted and sealed over, and the sealant will even it out (from the multiple coatings).

My Mom used to paint things like this when I was a teenager (I mentioned this last post) so I'm fairly used to seeing stuff like this. These shouldn't be bad in this state. I just need to actually apply the painting + sealing, lol 😊🎨🖌️