This article will be a godsend for those who want to make incredible creations from epoxy resin. Here we will look at products that are created using wood, epoxy resin, and photoluminescent powder. Such a simple combination of various materials will create amazing decorative elements. If you want to know how to make luminous furniture with your own hands, look further. This article will help you enjoy the unique products that you create with your own hands.
When you buy a resin, research its properties and specifications, what exactly it can be used for. After the reaction occurs, the composition will turn into a transparent, solid product.
To obtain the material at home, the resin is heated - this is done before adding the hardener. As a result, epoxy resin can be used to make different types pretty elements big size, however, it must be taken into account that the viscosity of the composition may decrease. Used for heating water bath. The resin is immersed in a prepared tank of water and cooled to +50°C.
Now you need to mix the resin and photoluminescent powder, choose your favorite color, and achieve a comfortable brightness of the glow by choosing the optimal proportion of resin and powder. The back side is sealed so that the resin does not leak out.
In addition to its practical purpose, the apron will serve another purpose no less useful function– namely, decorating the interior of the kitchen.
Epoxy resin and wood are very good combination materials, simple and effective - the result is a perfectly smooth surface. In this case, pouring requires a small consumption of resin. The main material is wood, which is covered on all sides with a thin layer of polymer resin.
You get an endless number of table top color options by simply choosing your favorite epoxy resin color combination.
To make it, first wash and dry the silicone mold. We mix the resin and hardener, using in our case a ratio of 1 to 3. It should be taken into account that each manufacturer of epoxy resin components may provide a different ratio. Stir thoroughly until you get a homogeneous consistency and set aside to remove any air bubbles.
We prepare the dry leaves, take scissors and cut off the excess so that they do not stick out from the silicone mold.
We wait 10 minutes for the resin to settle and pour it into the mold. The resin should be poured as carefully as possible so that later ready product There was no need for much sanding.
Take a toothpick and place the leaves in the resin, carefully straightening them. To remove remaining bubbles from the resin, and also for the resin to harden faster, the mold with the bracelet should be placed in the oven for 10–15 minutes, which we preheat to +80°C and turn off. Then remove the pan from the oven and leave it for a day. After the bracelet has completely hardened, carefully remove it from the mold.
If the bracelet has sharp edges, take sandpaper and polish them. After this, we cover our decoration with a thin layer of any acrylic varnish. The bracelet is ready!
Advice: Before you shop, make sure you have a suitable workspace. If you live in a one-room apartment with your grandmother and mother, you will have to wait a little while making jewelry from resin. At a minimum, you need a separate room where you can inhale harmful resin vapors (if you don’t take care of ventilation) in splendid isolation.
This work is dirty, noisy and generally not conducive to health, but a few simple manipulations will help reduce the negative influences of creativity to a minimum.
Leaves (petals, flowers) must be well dried. This is not a quick task (4 weeks), so prepare them in advance. I place fresh petals in folded white paper, then in a book (this is to prevent the letters from imprinting on the flowers). The thicker the book, the better (old Soviet textbooks work great). Magnetic photo albums can be used to store dried leaves.
If you decide to work with buds (for pouring into balls), you will need a dark, dry space, such as a closet. Thread the thread into the needle, tighten a thicker knot at the end of the thread and pass the needle through the stems of the buds (it is for this operation that these very stems should be left). We tie the resulting garland to two hangers and hide it in the closet. Four weeks and the material is ready.
It is worth keeping in mind that many petals visually change during work, and completely cease to resemble what you picked in the garden. Some shrink to something awkward, some turn black or completely discolored. And if you don’t feel sorry for a stupid daisy at all, then ruined expensive hydrangea flowers will definitely make you sad.
The lion's share of the pleasure of working with jewelry is the choice of accessories. It's simple: the more expensive it is, the better the quality. You can save money in the entire process of creating jewelry, but not on accessories; this is exactly the case when the stingy pays twice. Not only do fasteners made in China regularly break, but they also look downright pathetic and, most likely, you won’t be able to stick something like that on your painstakingly nurtured leaf.
Well, all preparations are completed, we can begin. First, read the instructions for your resin - mixing proportions vary from brand to brand. Personally, I use Crystal resin, 4 ml of resin per 1.2 ml of diluent.
We take both the resin and the hardener with syringes without needles, naturally different ones. It’s better to throw them away after using them; they cost pennies. It is better to carefully lower the hardener along the wall of the cup so that it does not splash.
After this we begin mixing. There’s nothing phenomenal here: you can stir it with your finger for 3-4 minutes. Don't be embarrassed by the abundance of bubbles in the resin, let it sit and they will go away.
Stir the resin periodically. The ready-to-use mixture should have a consistency similar to honey. It is difficult to explain with your fingers exactly how much to mix; it naturally depends on the number of prepared petals, their size and, notably, the thickness of the resin. Fresh ones instantly spread and it turns out that you have tarred the tray itself more than the petals. So it’s important to seize the moment here.
While the resin is settling, prepare workplace. Clear the table, take out the tray and flowers. It is advisable to do wet cleaning, because there is nothing more offensive than potentially beautiful decoration, covered in dust.
You need a flat table that you don’t mind getting dirty, and a tray. The key point here is the choice of coating, which should have a number of properties, such as:
A store-bought plastic bag immediately comes to mind, but unfortunately it does not satisfy point 3 and sticks tightly. At one time I used food bags for baking, but they also periodically failed and ruined entire trays of decorations.
Advice: Cover the tray with tape and forget about the problem of decorations sticking forever.
So, the resin has thickened, the petals are laid out on a surface covered with tape, and we begin to create. We take our fighting stick, dip the tip in resin and apply a drop to the petal.
In principle, you can smear it over it, holding the leaf with your finger (with latex gloves so that there are no greasy marks left), but it spreads quite well on its own. Here you will check how level your table is. Having covered all the prepared petals with the first layer of resin, cover our miracle tray with a lid and leave it all for 24 hours. Then we apply another layer of resin (for now both layers are on the front part).
After a day, we turn the petals over and apply the last layer, but on the back sides of our products.
Now these shapeless epoxy blots with petals inside need to be processed.
It's time to uncover our mini drill. Attach an emery attachment to it and sharpen the jewelry (with a shudder I remember how I sharpened them by hand with a nail file). Keep the edge of the product perpendicular to the drill. After turning, you can coat the edges of the products with varnish or do another fill.
If you are satisfied with the resulting decoration, make holes for attaching rings. We make holes with the same drill, but with a drill (diameter 0.5 mm).
In general, we have done the most difficult work, now all that remains is to attach the fittings. We thread a ring into the drilled hole and a wire into it. Our earrings made from real flower petals are ready!
Epoxy can be used to make various items; it is actively used in industry and construction. Unusual jewelry is made from this material, they are poured into prepared molds, and after a day the material hardens thanks to a hardener.
Epoxy items have a number of advantages, first of all, they have good resistance to acidic environments, and chemical compositions. After curing, the workpiece does not emit toxic substances and does not shrink. The items are durable and have a low level of moisture absorption. The resin has a long service life, that is, increased wear resistance.
It takes time to harden; adding a larger portion of hardener does not make the process faster. In order for the resin to quickly harden, the material is heated, increasing the temperature by 10 degrees of the required value.
Some material may harden without heating. The speed of hardening is affected by temperature and the type of material with which you have to work.
In order for the composition to harden, it is necessary to perform work at a certain temperature -5, +190 degrees. That is, resins can be of two types, cold and hot curing. When doing work with your own hands, you usually use cold-set material, this makes it possible to make products if heating is not possible for some reason.
In order for manufactured items to be resistant to aggressive substances, it is necessary to perform the work by heating.
Epoxy resin is used in different directions, it is used to impregnate fiberglass, which is used in mechanical engineering or radioelectrics. The material can serve as an excellent waterproofing material, thus the resin can provide reliable protection basements, swimming pools or flooring. Made from resin various decorations for premises to give originality to the interior.
To make resin products, it is necessary to prepare materials, that is, epoxy resin and hardener. When working, it must be taken into account that when a lot of resin is heated, it may release a large number of heat.
There are several types of resin that can cure instantly or after mixing with a hardener. When working with such material, you must comply the right technology, otherwise the resin may boil and deteriorate. Therefore, when choosing a material, you need to consult with the seller about the method of preparing the resin. After hardening, you should get a transparent, uniform piece.
To make large or bulky items, a plasticizer is added to the composition and the temperature is increased, heating the material, the viscosity of the epoxy becomes less. Heat the resin in a water bath, then lower the material into a bowl of water and cool to 50 degrees. This heating method can increase the curing of the resin. If the composition boils, foam will appear on top and the liquid will become cloudy. This mixture is not used; it is necessary to reduce the viscosity of the material; for this, a solvent is added, but this will affect the quality of the product.
Water should not get into the resin or hardener, otherwise the composition will begin to become cloudy. A plasticizer is added to the resin, gradually heating the material. To thoroughly mix all the ingredients, use a special electric mixer or drill with an attachment. Plasticizer is added in amounts up to 10 percent.
Then the hardener is poured, the resin is cooled to 30 degrees in advance. In this case, the ratio of substance and resin is 1 to 10. All components must be well mixed to obtain a high quality product. The hardener is poured in gradually to avoid boiling of the resin.
When performing work, it is necessary to act consistently, adhering to a certain technology. The manufactured item must be of high quality, transparent, and free of air bubbles. It is necessary to achieve uniform hardening of the resin from the inside, and outside.
The resin is poured into prepared molds, which are lubricated with Vaseline so that the workpiece can be easily removed. To give the workpiece a certain color, various dyes are used in powder form. Three hours after pouring the mold, the resin begins to harden. Complete hardening of the product occurs within a week.
Then they begin cutting and sanding the product. When using dyes, the powder in the composition must be thoroughly mixed so that the coloring is uniform. Coloring elements must be different high quality, otherwise the resin may become cloudy.
When working, you must remember that the resin releases toxic substances when heated, so you should use all protective equipment.
To make earrings you will need resin and dried flowers of forest grass. First, prepare the epoxy composition using the instructions, mix all the ingredients, then leave the material until the required viscosity appears, this takes about 2 hours. After this time, air bubbles will disappear from the mixture.
To make a resin bracelet, you need to use special form, mold. In this case, the pouring is performed slowly; the more accurately the work is done, the less sanding needs to be done. Twigs and leaves of dried flowers are placed in a circle and straightened with a toothpick. To remove air from the product, place the mold in the oven for 15 minutes, and the temperature should not exceed 80 degrees. Then the mold is taken out and the product is left to harden.
When the bracelet has completely hardened, it is removed from the mold and everything is polished uneven areas sandpaper. To add shine to the surface of the product, it is coated with acrylic-based varnish. Countertops are also made from epoxy resin; for this you need to prepare old surface, build formwork around the edges, and pour the composition evenly. Dried flowers, coins or other decorative elements can be placed inside the resin. Using resin, they make an original bathroom floor with shells, starfish or others unusual jewelry. Printed drawings are used for beautiful pictures. You can also make unusual decorative ornaments for rooms that will highlight the interior.
Transparent epoxy resin - universal material, allowing you to do original table, jewelry, 3D floors. See how to create it yourself.
For home crafts, epoxy is most often used. But in addition to making jewelry from it, souvenir products, this material is used to create polymer floors with a fashionable 3D effect. Thanks to this, the lower part of the room resembles the ocean with its underwater inhabitants, flowering fields and everything you could wish for.
Products made from epoxy resin are durable, resistant to water and sun. One of the most popular epoxy resins is Magic Crystal-3D. It is used to create costume jewelry, decorative items, for 3D filling and glossy coatings.
Epoxy resin is sold together with a solvent. Typically these two substances are mixed in a 2:1 ratio immediately before use.
Transparent polyester resin is also used to create sanitary products. But this type of polymer is most often used in industrial production, and not at home. Transparent polymer resin is used in the automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, and auto tuning. Fiberglass, known to almost everyone, is made from polymer resins.
The most popular for home crafts is epoxy resin, as it costs less than acrylic. But for the production of small pieces of jewelry, it is better to take acrylic, which does not absorb air bubbles like epoxy. However, there are subtleties that will help prevent this trouble when working with cheaper material. You will soon learn about them.
The coins will need to be washed. There are several ways to do this:
See how to make a stylish bracelet from this material.
To measure the exact amount of thickener and epoxy resin, use disposable syringes. To create as few air bubbles as possible, mix these mixtures slowly.
If air bubbles still remain, let the mixture sit for a while until they disappear. But don’t let it get too thick.
Pour the stringy mixture into the bracelet mold. Place dried flowers cut with scissors there, helping yourself with a toothpick. You can also use them to pierce air bubbles so that it comes out.
See what other wonderful resin jewelry you can make with your own hands.
If you don't have round molds, then take a plastic ball. It needs to be sawed in half, greased inside with Vaseline. After pouring the resin, seal the cut with plasticine so that it does not leak out.
It is important to dry these blanks well, since if the process is not performed well, the flower or part of it will rot over time while in the pendant. To ensure that the plant retains its color for as long as possible, use epoxy resin that protects against ultraviolet radiation.
Assemble a mini-bouquet by gluing flowers, petals, and leaves using epoxy resin mixed with a thickener.
The next stage is polishing. A polish for plastic or for headlights, purchased at a car dealership, works well for this. Apply it to a felt nozzle, go over the workpiece from all sides.
These two materials are also the main characters of the next video. From it you will learn how to make a table using a similar technique.
Today, there are many materials from which you can create aesthetic and practical furniture, and epoxy has recently been one of them. With the help of wood and this glue, quite interesting designer tables and shelves. Next we will tell you everything about the technical process.
Until recently, this two-component adhesive was widely used mainly for reliable connections. various materials, then they began to use it as a component for self-leveling floors. At the same time, such properties as low surface abrasion, high strength, and durability were noted. Further, separate transparent stamps began to be used for very interesting dioramas, where epoxy resin with dyes imitated water. Moreover, the creators made entire tables depicting various landscapes. Perhaps it was precisely such experiments that prompted the creation of designer furniture made from wood and epoxy glue.
Epoxy resin can be molded into any shape
The main thing that can be noted as an advantage of the above-mentioned polymer resin is the ability to give it any shape due to fluidity in the liquid state and plasticity at the hardening stage. In addition, the hardened glue is quite easy to process, in particular: it is ground and polished, if necessary, it can be drilled and grooves made in it. There are brands that are absolutely transparent after hardening, and those that have a red, brown, yellowish or whitish color throughout their entire depth. At the same time, in a liquid consistency it is possible to add various components that improve or simply change the properties of the composition. Main positive attribute glue - no shrinkage due to the fact that the composition hardens solely due to chemical reaction, and, as a result, an even surface plane is maintained.
Now let's talk about the disadvantages. The fact that cured epoxy resin can be easily processed is sometimes also a disadvantage, since scratches easily appear on the surface. The rest is wear resistance of this material very high. Another factor preventing the widespread use of glue for furniture production is its price, which is quite impressive and allows you to create only single designer products. Brands that are absolutely transparent after hardening are considered especially expensive. And, of course, we should not forget about the toxicity of polymer resin fumes, work with which should be carried out in well-ventilated areas and always wearing a respirator.
Today there are many brands of domestic and foreign production. Essentially any type of furniture is suitable for making furniture, unless you have special requirements for the result, but if you want to combine wood with epoxy resin, you definitely need transparent compositions. Otherwise, you will not be able to show the beauty of the wood fibers in the depth of the pour. As a rule, among import options you should pay attention to the brand YD-128 characterized by a high degree of transparency. Has also proven itself to be excellent MG-Epox-Strong, used for filling and obtaining transparent optical products. If you need color coating, please use MG Epox White– This type has a milky white color.
To fill, you need glue with a liquid consistency
All of the above options are two-component glue with a liquid consistency, which you, in fact, need for filling, since a paste-like one is not suitable for this purpose. It should be noted that different brands can be quite successfully combined with each other; in this case, milky inclusions of one type of glue can be enclosed in the thickness of a transparent fill. This will look especially impressive when adding dyes and in combination with wood inclusions. The main thing is not to mix too large portions, since in this case the reaction with the hardener heats the composition, which is why it polymerizes faster.
There are 5 states of glue. If it has a liquid base, its consistency after mixing with the hardener will be appropriate, such an epoxy resin should have good fluidity. It is recommended to fill it with it when making a furniture panel, be it a shelf shelf or the future wall of a chest of drawers. A thicker version, similar to honey or molasses, is suitable for gluing and for applying fill in layers. Thickened to the point where there is almost no fluidity and the individual parts are difficult to separate, it is sometimes suitable as a putty. Next, the glue begins to resemble rubber or plasticine, although it remains very sticky, which does not prevent you from giving it any shape with a stick or wire. And finally, the last state is completely hardened.
As mentioned above, 2 types of glue are used to make furniture - transparent and matte, and each of them can be colored. Now we will look at both options in more detail. For various combinations with wood or other inclusions, it is best to use transparent mixtures, especially those used for optical castings. In this case, even through a thick layer of glue, every detail of the inclusion will be clearly visible, be it fibers from wood trim or metal elements(such as old icons or gears). When adding a special dye, the transparency decreases somewhat, but not completely, but the fill gets a rich color.
You can create interesting interior items from colored epoxy
If you want to get a high-quality colored mixture, add a color from the same manufacturer that made the adhesive mass.
Colored mixtures are initially somewhat cloudy, they can be called rather translucent, and they are unsuitable as the main fill covering wood. The reason is simple - any inclusions simply will not be visible. But you can do the opposite and fill all kinds of cavities in the cut of wood, voids from knots, and woodworm passages that open on the cut. A luminescent dye combined with glue will look especially impressive. Then the slightest illumination will be enough for the furniture panel or tabletop to begin to glow.
This combination of epoxy and wood has proven itself well for the simple reason that it produces a perfectly smooth surface, and at the same time the filling consumption is relatively small. The main volume is occupied by wood, which is covered on all sides by a thin layer of polymer resin. However, be prepared for the fact that the expense will still be noticeable. It is easy to calculate that 10 square centimeters of fill with a thickness of 1 centimeter will require 100 grams of glue. Accordingly, at 1 square meter You will need 10 liters of the composition, and for a tabletop 1x2 meters - 20 liters. And this is only for the top layer, but if you make a thicker layer of epoxy in order to immerse wooden scraps or boards into it, you will need at least 2 times more mixture.
There are quite a few subtleties of using glue. In particular, an interesting effect can be achieved by adding a little water to the composition. Milky-white stains similar to a nebula form in this place. That is, with small drops of water you can get beautiful inclusions in painted epoxy. You can make a multi-color coating by pouring portions of different colors in portions or separating them with small thin plastic barriers. But such fills should be quite thin, no more than 0.5 centimeters, and another, transparent layer will be needed on top. The composition can be colored with ordinary dry gouache, as well as with ink for writing (including paste from rods ballpoint pens), oil and nitro paints.
Epoxy has very strong adhesion to almost all materials, in other words, if you choose the wrong formwork, the glue will stick tightly to it. The only thing that epoxy resin does not stick to is plexiglass, the main thing is that there are no scratches or chips on it. Also, some craftsmen recommend using strips and sheets of polished aluminum. If you want to finish the table only on top, epoxy resin is poured into the formwork, fixed along the side edges of the panel. Accordingly, the ends of the tabletop will not be covered with glue.
If you need to cover only the surface of the tabletop with resin, you should make formwork
It’s a completely different matter if you need a thickness of transparent polymer, inside of which, like an insect in amber, a cut of wood or its individual fragments will be enclosed. In this case, the inclusions should be fixed using ordinary starch paste on the base, which will serve as large leaf plexiglass. If you want the wood to be in the middle of the epoxy thickness, secure the inclusion to the sides of the formwork. The walls of the mold must be attached to the base sheet only from the outside so that they can be easily detached after the mixture has completely hardened.
It is noteworthy that the reaction after mixing the main component of the glue with the hardener is accompanied by heating of the composition. And the larger the portion volume, the stronger the heating, the faster the epoxy sets. Therefore, it is recommended to use only small containers. Some experts advise adding acetone to the main component, about 10% of the total volume, and only before mixing with the hardener. This will reduce heat and prolong the hardening process of the composition. You can also influence the hardening process by slowing it down somewhat by cooling the dishes. With sudden cooling, solidification will then proceed very slowly, over several days.
There are two types of furniture made from transparent epoxy resin - massive cast or assembled from pre-fabricated panels. In the first case, the stools look like pedestals, the tables look more like thick slabs, while the second option is closer to classic furniture designs. But, whichever type you choose, before the wood and the mixed epoxy resin are joined, the base must be perfectly leveled using a level; this is not difficult to do with your own hands. Otherwise, the mixture will flow to the lower edge. To set the horizontal line, you can place wedges under the edges and strips of different thicknesses under the middle so that the plexiglass sheet does not sag. A table made of wood also needs to be leveled by placing thin liners under the legs.
Now we prepare the filling. To do this, you will need a small container, approximately 0.5 liters, maximum 1 liter, as well as a kneading stick. The measurements should be included in the kit; if they are not, prepare cups with divisions marked on them. We take the main component, measure out a certain amount of it, sufficient to obtain a thin layer. If the epoxy resin table will have large area, prepare several containers at once for mixing an amount that will create a layer approximately 0.5 centimeters thick. Open all windows to allow fresh air into the room.
Be sure to wear special clothes from which threads will not fall, tuck your hair under a cap or scarf, and put gloves on your hands. It is extremely undesirable for hairs, eyelashes, and villi to get into the composition. To ensure that products made of wood and transparent epoxy resin are free of bubbles, if you find any excess inclusions after emptying the container with the composition into the formwork, lightly warm up such an area with a hairdryer, the air should escape out. Hardening takes several days, especially if the filling forms several layers. Next, to smooth the countertop, we carefully grind and polish the surface with the finest sandpaper and felt with special pastes.
