Resin Flower Coaster Tutorial

1. Introduction To Resin Flower Coaster: Hi, my name is Kassie, and today I'm going to be teaching you how to make these resin flower coasters. I'll be showing you the supplies and the techniques I use to make these cool designs. 2. Supplies Needed to Make Resin Flower Coaster: I will go over all of the supplies you need to make this. First is a respirator for safety. I got this off of Amazon and this is a 3M respirator with organic cartridges. You can order them replacements and they just snap into place. I use many types of resin in my projects, but the one that I've found works the best for these flowers is Art Resin. And it comes in two parts, so you need the resin and also the hardener. The mixing is a one-to-one ratio. You will also need some type of glitter or you can use gold leaf for the center of flower, which we will mix with resin. Next we need a couple of cups, and this one, primarily for mixing. It has the ounces on the side there you can see. So this is great for resin. And I'm going to try using a paper cup today for the white part of our design. also just some extra plastic cups that I like to use because they are reusable. We will need these mixing sticks for mixing the resin. And these wooden ones are great because you can wipe them off and also reuse them as well. A butane torch, this is for popping bubbles and a heat gun for popping bubbles and moving the resin around. So you get that 3D effect in the flower. You need a pair of nitrile gloves, that are powder free to protect your hands while you're working. And it's always good to have extras just in case you end up getting a lot of resin on your fingers and need to change it quickly. Will also be needing a mold for the flowers. The circle ones work best for this design because of how the resin moves to the outside and then gets pushed back to the middle. I use plastic garbage bags to put down my workspace so that I can protect my surface. And also, they're great because the resin doesn't stick to the plastic. You can peel it off after and also reuse your resin pieces in a future project. You will also need a toothpick for making the designs in our coasters and a tweezer for picking out any dust particles that might fall in the resin. We also need our pigment, which is the white I use for the flowers. So you can use this and also you can mix it with other pigments, such as like these powder pigments. I've used this before. Make sure you're working in a well ventilated area. And also if you have a portable fan you can plug in. It's sometimes nice to have so that you can blow around some of the fumes. 3. Set Up and Measuring the Resin for Flower Coaster: Okay, so now that we've covered the supplies, Let's get started on getting set up to do our resin. Now is the time that I wouldn't usually put my respirator on and I usually will put my hair up too. So if you have long hair, make sure to do that so you don't accidentally dip it in the resin. And also wear clothing that will protect your skin. Just because of the chemical reaction that's going on with the resin when you mix it. All right, now I've got everything set up and ready to go so that I can just get into it once I get my resin mixed. Now I'm going to pour my resin and I have my measuring cup set up. And first, I actually do the hardener. So since we are going to try doing two of these, I'm gonna do about six ounces total. So for my hardener first I'm gonna do 3 ounces. I will pour that in now. It's best to get eye level so that you can really make sure you're getting the correct amount. You don't want to go over with this. So once you get close to the 3, taper it off. You can see how it's just on that 3 line. Now, once I get this closed up for my hardener, I mean my resin, I actually do it this way because I found that it gets a better mix when you pour your hardener down first as opposed to the resin. Now I'm going to do the resin. I'm going to go up to that Six ounce mark. We are going to stir this up for three minutes. At least. 4. Mixing Resin for Flower Coaster: And then also make sure when you're doing this that you are scraping the sides because you want to make sure that all of your resin gets mixed properly. And you'll be able to tell that it's mixed when the striation lines that you see here now are gone. I just wanted to show you guys it's starting to get a lot more clear. But there are still a few of those striations that I will keep mixing. All right, That is looking pretty good, with the exception of a few bubbles, actually quite a few, but we will take care of those with the torch and the heat gun. I have not seen any strings, so I think we're ready to pour it into another cup. And I do this so that I can then flip this upside down and let the resin pour out onto my garbage bag and then I can peel it off tomorrow and it's cured and reuse this cup. So we'll grab another cup, pour it in there, and also start mixing our white pigment and our center glitter. Now I'm going to stir up this little amount that I put in here. I'll probably have to add some more resin, but this will be the center of our flowers. And then I've just poured a little bit resin into this cup. And this is how I'm going to mix our pigment for the flowers. So we're just going to put a little bit in. You want to make sure the things that you add are 10% or less of the what you have in the cup. Because you don't want to add too much of something, otherwise it won't cure properly. So we're just going to add a couple of drops or more. And then we will mix this. And this is highly pigmented, so it doesn't really need much to be opaque. And normally I would just use this as is. But today I'm actually going to try putting in some of this white glitter pigment, micro Pearl. Just to add a little pop of sparkle. Give this a mix. I might add just a little bit more resin to this I'm not exactly positive how much I'll need for the flower. But I don't want to run out. 5. Making Resin Flower Coaster: Centers so we can kind of mark our middle. Okay. Now, we are gonna get into pouring the outside. So I like to do it in a circle around the middle. And this is also the part where I kinda have a mini freak out, but if you feel that way Just push through. We got this. I didn't measure this exactly, but just use enough resin to have the resin pool out and cover to all the way to the sides and stretch over the middle so that there aren't any open spaces. All right. And I want to save just a little bit in case I end up needing to make more white. I'm going to use our torch. Just quickly pop some of those bubbles moving in a circular motion too. And we want to go quick and not do too much because I don't want the mold to get too hot and end up sticking to the resin. And we're going to use our heat gun as well. And you'll notice that how I'm going in a circular motion focusing on the center and this will help the resin to spread when we add our white pigment. If you see any other little bubbles let's just go over them quickly. Right now I'm just going to try and pop anything else I see that didn't come up. You can move some of this back to the center if any of it has escaped and spread it out a little bit, if it's not sitting down very well. Right now we are ready to pour our white. So we're gonna go in a circle around spiral. And then we will do the designs with the toothpick. So we are going to be very careful. I've sped this up a little bit, but I wanted to leave in most of it so that you can really see how to do the spiral. This first one that I poured was a little bit wiggly, and the second one now is little bit smoother. But it's not really going to have a difference on the design. And I still had some leftover. So I'm going to do more so that it gets a thicker effect of the 3D movement. (Pour this thicker the first time, instead of having to do a second layer). And you just want to go right on top over it so that it stays together as the flower petals. So now I'm going to take a toothpick and I'm first going to sweep it in. And then I'm going to go out, so start. It's good to get a paper towel and have it ready so you can wipe off the white. You can see how I drag down and then kind of just let up in the middle so that the white kind of just goes over the top center portion. What we're looking at is actually going to be the underside of the coaster and the bottom side will be the top of the coaster. I'm just going to fill in this little spot right here just because I didn't like that there was such a big gap. I'm going to swipe it the other way. And look how cool That's starting to look. I love how you can just see the flower instantly. Starting to look awesome. Not too worried about this section because it's going to get pushed around anyways with the movement of the resin inside the coaster. So I'm just going to move on to this next one. And I'm going to fill in that middle section a little bit just so we don't have that same problem on this one. All right, so first we're going to go in now we're going to drag it out. So we just start in the center of that pedal and we drag it to the outside. For our final step, we are going to take our heat gun again in a circle. If you notice any pieces of dust, now would be the time to pick it out. And then we're going to cover it up with a box and let this sit. And this is to protect it from having dust get in it. Now this needs to cure for 24 hours, but I usually will take it out really early at around seven hours. Just to see how it's doing and also so I found that it doesn't stick to the sides if I take it out early. All right. Now we're back. It's the morning. This is the best part. We get to take it out and see how it turned out. And I didn't try and take it out around the seven hour mark. to kinda just remove the edges there so it wasn't sticking to the sides and I left it in longer just because it was still pliable. I should also mention that you want your room to be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit in temperature or warmer if you can, just so that the resin properly cures. Wow, it's beautiful. I love it. I do still notice that part where I had to redo it a little bit. But it doesn't bother me too much because then it really does look like a real petal. And I will say these do look a little bit different than the ones I've done previously. And I think that's because I did the two layers. ooh lala It's beautiful of the white, So if you want it to not have that kind of double layer section, then make sure you pour your white thicker the first time around. But I love it. Woohoo! 6. Questions & Thank You for Watching!!: I hope you enjoyed this class. I would love to see your projects. You can upload them here or you can DM me on Instagram. My handle is @Kassieink Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them as fast as I can. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.