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Epoxy resin. Lessons, trials, mistakes. Part 1.
I prepared for this process for a long time, as I understood that it would be a big job. As a result, everything took more than a month. But now I have a clear experience.
Before taking on the practical part, I read a lot of different texts with reviews and experience of the craftswomen. Therefore, please heed the safety tips, because no one wants to lose their eyesight.
Epoxy resin for decorative works- it modern material, allowing you to make many discoveries and accomplishments. But on it enough one-sided and limited information. Therefore, when I decided to create a report on technical operation and exploring the possibilities, I really lacked any one source in which you can find the maximum number of answers. I hope now I will be able to do something that will create a more complete picture of the possibilities and technical features in working with epoxy resin.
Introduction
despite the fact that in the phrase "epoxy resin" there is a word _resin_ associated with a natural material, in fact it is actually very chemical product. In order not to go into details and chemistry lessons, I will simply explain some of the safety features.
Since "epoxy" is used in both construction and finishing works, I propose to share which of the resins for which work. Modern epoxy resin for decorative work from trusted manufacturers does not harm your health (subject to safety precautions), while technical resin has a pronounced chemical aroma, fumes irritate mucous tissues and, unfortunately, cases of visual impairment and other health complications after work with epoxy resin for technical purposes. Therefore, do not skimp on the material for creativity and do not ignore the contents of your resin package and you will be fine.
Chapter 1.
We study the content.
The material for my experiments was kindly provided by the store-
hobby center "Creative Hands" And I will experiment with this product:
Epoxy Crystal Resin. Two-component.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES:
- Avoid contact with the skin of the hands and mucous membranes. In case of contact, remove the resin with a napkin or cloth, rinse the place of contact.
- Do not use on items that come into contact with food.
- Virtually odorless, does not irritate the eyes and mucous membranes of the nose, but how general recommendation However, it is best to work in a well-ventilated area.
Package content:
Two bottles: the resin itself and a fixative to it.
- two measuring cups
- two wooden sticks designed for mixing elements
- plastic gloves for safe work.
Well, in fact, you see that the manufacturer has taken care of our health and safety from the very beginning.
Description of features and applications:
Allows you to achieve the effect of a glass surface, transparent and durable. Used to create jewelry, decoration various surfaces. The recommended maximum allowable layer is 5 cm. A thin layer creates the effect of a glossy surface on the product. Used on plastic, glass, faience, metal, silicone, painted wood. Resistant to light and water. It can also be used as glue, after drying it proved to be one of the strongest adhesive substances, much stronger than any super-glues and just glues; firmly glues metal parts, porcelain, stone.
Hardening time: surface -12 hours. full - 24 hours. During curing, air must be allowed to enter the coated article (i.e., curing does not occur in a tightly closed space).
Store the components in closed vials for 6 months after opening, at a temperature of 15°C - 25°C. Mixed components are no longer subject to storage. Protect from exposure to low temperatures. To clean the decorated surface, you can use ordinary soap and water.
Chapter 2
Let's get to work.
Manufacturer's instructions:
1. Dry and clean dishes place 1 dose of Cristal B fixer, then 2 doses of Cristal A epoxy.
2. Mix well throughout the container (incomplete mixing does not guarantee curing, mixing too fast may cause air bubbles).
3. Pour into a mold or onto a surface, depending on the application.
4. Leave to dry for 24 hours. Fixing occurs gradually and depends on the ambient temperature.
I used a clean plastic cup, in which, as recommended by the manufacturer, I added (measured with measuring cups included in the package) 1 serving of fixer (bottle "B") and 2 servings of epoxy (bottle "A"). For information, after you have finished the work, the tools (mixing stick, measuring cups, as well as the dishes in which you mixed it all) can be wiped with a dry cloth, after which your tools can be reused. But only of course we will no longer use them for eating or cooking.
Why is it important to keep proportions right?
In case of violation of proportions, our resin simply will not harden. It may remain sticky to the touch or cloudy. Cracks and other things may appear on the surface. Therefore, if you are afraid that the dosage with measuring cups may let you down, you can use plastic disposable syringes for greater accuracy.
As soon as I started mixing the resin components, my contents looked a little unsettling:
A liquid has a denser or more viscous substance than plain water, therefore, when mixing (let it be long, slow and tedious), you really should not rush. I sat, watching TV, making smooth stirring movements with a stick inside the dish with the mixture. Sometimes, with careless movement, air bubbles appeared in the liquid, but I squeezed them out with the same stick and continued mixing.
After 15 minutes of gentle stirring, my mixture had already reached the diffusion stage I needed:
At this point in my work, my mixture is too thin for my goals, so I put the cup aside and wait about 40 minutes - 1 hour. During this time, the mixture becomes more viscous, similar to jelly of medium density.
Well, then I'll get to work.
Chapter 3
Surface application. Filling out forms.
Application / filling option No. 1. Using molds to fill.
In shops with goods for hobbies and needlework, you can find special silicone molds for pouring epoxy resin. For example like these:
They are good because they are made of a plastic material that makes it easier to take out the frozen form, and the material itself does not react with epoxy and does not stick together.
There is also the experience of other craftsmen that you can process the shape you need with various preparations that will not allow the resin to stick together with your shape. For example - vaseline, but after it the surface becomes cloudy and bumps from your "spreading" may remain. Or use the contents of colorless gel candles. They also protect against sticking and contribute to the further unhindered removal of your workpiece from the mold.
I didn’t have such “aggregates”, so I experimented.
To begin with, I tried the silicone molds I had available for working with plastic.
It looks like this:
Since I am not sure that this form is suitable for epoxy, I fill a small area with the finished liquid mass at my own peril and risk.
Later I will find out that this experiment was successful. But more on that later.
In the meantime, I leave the mold with resin and proceed to the next stage of the experiment.
Application / filling option No. 2. Filling in the given forms.
Attention. Forms to fill out polymer clay I prepared in advance, i.e. before mixing the epoxy resin components.
I really like glass because it retains its transparency and purity, while at the same time I can work with color filling. And when I was making a plan for myself to experiment with epoxy resin, I decided to make an imitation of stained glass figures.
To do this, I climbed into the Internet and began to google suitable pictures for myself.
Having found what I need, I print them out and use them as a stencil, placing them under glass. Now I'm starting to work with polymer clay. I squeeze out the plastic cords from the extruder syringe (if you don’t have one, roll out the cords with your hands, you can directly on the glass) and lay out the cord (slightly pressing down on my glass surface) along the lines of my stencil.
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It is very important that the forms laid out by me are evenly and tightly pressed against the glass, because. in a subsequent experiment, we will need their even base. But you just can't smudge them, because we also need some even height of the sides of our forms.
After the work on laying out the forms is completed, I send everything to bake right on the glass. The temperature for baking polymer clay is 110-130 degrees. Baking time 20-25 minutes.
After the molds are baked and cooled down (we follow safety precautions, don’t grab onto something hot and wait for it to cool completely), our polymer clay is very easy to remove from smooth surface glass.
Our blanks:
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Now after all this big preparatory phase Let's start filling :)
Thanks to Maria Glukhova for her lesson.
To do this, I stretch on the surface (my old glass, on which I sculpted polymer clay molds) the usual wide adhesive tape sticky side up and start laying out my forms to fill.
Can be used for filling different forms. For example (you can see it in the top picture) I used a round flat metal base with wood inside. I pressed it against our tapered surface, inserted metal flowers there.
I also use other suitable forms. For example, for more than 2 years I have had furniture frames hanging around idle, which I did not know where to attach. Looks like they have a use now :)
Filling for these frames can be anything. I took small charms with a flower, removed the eye for fastening with pliers and put them in the frames.
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I do the filling with the same mixing stick. My epoxy resin, which has settled for about an hour, is already quite thick, so I scoop up the amount I need with a stick and apply it.
"Epoxy does not contain solvents, so it does not shrink when cured. In addition, it is viscous, so if you pour it "with a slide", it will leak to the edge and stop there. But it is important not to overdo it here."
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Well, now I will tell you about my mistakes during the experiment.
Well, firstly, we must fill the fill on a horizontal surface. It should not have any slopes and irregularities, otherwise after we apply our liquid, it will flow over the edge.
Secondly, my mistake, which occurred when applying adhesive tape to the surface. I didn't check the duct tape. Where the joints were weakly glued, the epoxy leaked out under the tape.
Thirdly, using forms glued to the surface of the adhesive tape, I did not control or simply accidentally missed the snug fit and gluing of the form.
This is what my mistakes look like:
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I left everything as it is. It's too late to correct the situation at this stage. I will return to this later.
I also continued to experiment.
On the tape surface, I drew a shape with a stained glass outline.
Then I filled it with epoxy. Looking ahead, I’ll say that this experiment was a success, outwardly, the bead after solidification looks the same as in the photo just filled in. But since I gave it a stupid and sloppy look from the very beginning, it does not represent a great aesthetic value. So I won't go back to her. Just know that this option is also quite possible.
I continue to experiment.
I was told that epoxy resin can be dyed stained glass paints. I'm doing an experiment.
I dip the tip of the toothpick into the paint, and then I color my liquid.
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Application / filling option No. 3. surface coating.
Epoxy resin is very popular as a coating on a product. It creates extra thickness and gloss.
For the experiment, I took one of the ready-made beads made of polymer clay. Made a drawing. After you've dripped your epoxy, you can help it spread over the surface using a toothpick. Just stretch it by moving the tip, the resin will obediently "run" where you need it.
After curing, my bead looked the same as after application - the surface of the bead is covered with a lens.
I also checked this theory, so I will not return to this bead anymore, everything seems to be clear with it.
More interesting, it seems to me, will be the next experiment. I had a theory in my head that I wanted to test.
For this we need the so-called. "skeletonized leaves" (these are real leaves, from which the "pulp" is removed, and the skeleton of the leaf is dried and tinted with paints. They are sold in shops with goods for hobbies and needlework). I cut out smaller leaves from them, the size I need. Then I cover them with nail polish (so that the porous surface of the sheet does not conflict with the epoxy and do not form unnecessary air bubbles) and leave to dry.
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After the varnish on the leaves is completely dry, I glue them to my tapered surface. And then I put epoxy on them. Next - I leave to harden along with all my blanks.
Application / filling option No. 4. Filling of vessels.
I had small glass bottles left after the glitters. Very pretty little cutesies. Also, I messed up a little. home flower. Well, as you can already guess, filled it all with epoxy.
I left this jar to harden in a slightly tilted state. We will see what happened later.
Well, now I would like to additionally say about this method of filling natural materials. Over time, they fade and lose their color. And it doesn't matter if you poured epoxy resin on a "live" object or already dried one.
The first major theoretical part of the experiments is over. Now I'm waiting for the epoxy to cure.
To be continued.
Epoxy resin, which usually does not have its own color, in some cases needs to be tinted, and it’s not even just about casting decorative items. In these cases, special colors are used.
A variety of dyes can be used to color epoxy resin. It is only important to make sure that they do not react with the resin and do not change color when interacting with them. You can use dyes in the form of a powder or emulsion, but the paints on water based will not mix with epoxy. Various unexpected effects, achieved by using such "handicraft" dyes, are actively used in the manufacture of decorative castings. However, when uniform coloring of epoxy resin is required, it is most reliable to use special colors. Their use ensures staining over the entire thickness, while the physical and mechanical characteristics of the product do not change or change slightly.
Specialized epoxy colors are supplied as pastes. Such pastes are colored viscous mass. It has a color corresponding to the color of the pigment, the shade of which does not change when working with epoxy. The paste contains microscopic particles of pigment dispersed in some kind of binder mixed with epoxy resin. Dyes can be very diverse and you can always find the right one or mix several available to get the desired shade. At a concentration of less than 0.5%, the color will be light and transparent. When adding large quantities dye, the color becomes more saturated. As a rule, the content of tinting pastes does not exceed 6% of the volume of the mixture. In order to accurately assess the appearance of the product, it is better to prepare the solution in a transparent container, so that you can see the transparency of a layer of the same thickness as the thickness of the planned casting.
The resin is colored before the hardener is added to the mixture. An exception can be made for special decorative resins - they have a long "life" after adding a hardener, so you can tint an already prepared mixture, which makes the final result more accurate. It is recommended to do this immediately before starting the curing procedure and not to store the resulting colored resin. Color is added to the resin in the desired amount and mixed thoroughly. Before use, just in case, you should check the instructions for the color to clarify whether it affects the rate of curing of the resin, as is the case with some coloring pastes.
Epoxy resin is a multifunctional substance. synthetic material used as in industrial production, as well as in household to bring creative ideas to life.
How to tint epoxy resin? A uniform shade or beautiful color transitions, mother-of-pearl shine and even glow in the dark are given using both special and improvised means.
special means
For successful staining, the easiest way is to purchase a special dye for epoxy. The paint is monophonic, mother-of-pearl, with sparkles, fluorescent. If you add a drop of dye to the substance, you get a translucent shade. To obtain a rich color, the epoxy is first dyed white, and then the desired color.
Advice! You should choose those paint manufacturers that offer the epoxy itself. Such products meet all the requirements for coloring as much as possible. Examples: POLYMAX DREAM, MG-EPOX-COLOR.
improvised means
The basic rule of coloring epoxy - the dye must not be water-based. How can you tint epoxy resin:
- Ballpoint pen ink. Minus - they can change color, and the result of staining will be unpredictable (for example, green ink sometimes gives a brown tint).
- The ink of gel pens is more reliable, and they also provide vibrant color.
- Oil paints from art stores. Gradually introduced into the resin, and only then the hardener is added.
- For the purpose of coloring, polymer clay ink is also used.
- Alkyd paints, nitro paint for cars.
- Printer toner or activated charcoal is used to impart black.
- The hardware store sells dry pigment dyes and stains on alcohol based.
- Colored powder, talcum powder, baby powder.
- Idea: shredded colored pencil leads.
- Pastel colors make the resin colored, but not transparent.
- White color will be obtained using chalk powder, kaolin (white clay) or tooth powder.
- Bright green gives the usual pharmacy brilliant green.
- Non-water-based stained glass paints are also used successfully.
On a note
In order for the staining procedure to be successful, follow these recommendations:
- The mass of oil paint should not exceed 10% of the mass of epoxy resin, otherwise it will turn out too soft.
- Use protective gloves when working. In case of contact with skin, wash immediately with soap and water.
- Do not allow water to enter the substance.
- Ventilate the room.
- Work with epoxy at a temperature not lower than 22 degrees.
The proposed staining methods arose as a result of experiments. Perhaps these are not all ideas, and you will discover other ways.
Today I have very little material. I continue to collect materials on epoxy resins in one place and it is time to talk about their coloring. There are several ways. The simplest and most logical is, of course, the acquisition of special dyes.
I periodically buy bubbles of various colors. I can suggest a couple of places: hobbymagic.ru and master-fimo.ru. And dyes can be purchased very diverse: transparent, mother-of-pearl, metallic, neon, etc. Usually add a small amount of dye to the resin, mix. Then the hardener is added and all components are finally mixed.
The maximum amount of dye added is sometimes specified, and sometimes not. As a rule, such a dye is a concentrated pigment diluted in the “A” component of the epoxy resin. So when you add it to a resin, you are essentially mixing one resin with another, and the proportions aren't that important. Everything is determined by the shade that you want to get. Proportions are important when adding component "B" (hardener).
And one more thing: if you buy dyes, then do not forget about the basics of mixing colors. The point is that if you decide to buy red and yellow dyes, then it makes no sense to take orange. It is enough to drop a drop or two of red into yellow and you have orange. Blue and yellow make green, blue and red make purple, and so on.
I think it will not be difficult to find information on mixing colors. And in the end you only need three primary colors (blue, red and yellow), from which you can get a lot of derivative colors.
The use of the described dyes has, perhaps, only a couple of disadvantages: price and availability. Even if the first one is not very scary (the bubbles are small, but they last for a long time), then the question of accessibility remains. Not all colors you need can be found in ready-made, i.e. either they will have to be mixed, or replaced with something else.
That's what we'll talk about. On the Internet you can find a lot of tips on how to paint epoxy resins. Alcohol ink, ink for ballpoint and gel pens, oil paints, toners for laser printers, dry pigment dyes, powders, alcohol-based stains. There is even greenery from the pharmacy on this list. The main condition is that the paint should not contain water, because. Resin is not friendly with water.
I'm going to experiment today on what's easiest to get. On the way home from work I visit a stationery store, I'm interested in gel pens. Rummaging through the shelves, I settled on two colors that I liked: green and purple metallics.
By the way, while I was digging through the shelves with writers, I read on one of the packages with gel pens that they use oil-based ink (I immediately remembered oil paints from the list).
When I got home, I started taking apart the handles. This is done very simply: it is enough to remove the writing knot with scissors or pliers and hold the rod over the cup in which you will knead the resin. Gel ink flows out of the refill very easily. I remembered how I tried to blow ink out of a ballpoint pen, then my cheeks almost burst. For accuracy, I decided to weigh everything: I dropped about half a gram of ink of both colors into two cups.
Then I added component "A" of epoxy resin to 10 grams.
And then he mixed the ink with the "A" component. The color of the ink is slightly faded. But this is quite understandable: after all, they have become less concentrated.
Now it's the turn of component "B" (hardener). Fortunately, the scales with the “TARE” button allow you to reset the indicator readings. It’s very convenient, because we have a glass, ink, resin and a stick, which everything interfered with.
I pour 5 grams of hardener (my hand trembled a little, I poured an extra gram, it's not scary).
It remains to mix everything completely and let it stand for a bit so that excess air bubbles come to the surface. In the meantime, I prepared a couple of molds. Since this is an experiment, I chose both matte (roses and button center) moldings and glossy ones (button rim and squares).
After a day, we take out remarkably frozen gizmos and evaluate the result. Personally, he quite suited me: affordable, budget and quite nice. Well, it's true, the button in this form resembles just a plastic one, but that's another story.
I'll try something else next time...
If you have questions about this part, feel free to ask them in the comments to the material.
Slide show:
Today we will talk about tinting (staining) transparent epoxy resin.
Transparent epoxy resin (MG-EPOX-GLASS) and dyes, open up an endless number of options for us colors(it all depends on your imagination).
The use of these two materials in pairs gives rich colors, as well as smooth shades.
To obtain semi-transparent flowers, a small drop of dye is enough, then you can mix several translucent shades in the casting, the effect is amazing and very similar to precious stones.
For receiving maximum number shades, first the epoxy must be converted to White color(color) and then add color dye, so we get a smooth color transition from pale to saturated.
Coloring the epoxy white does not mean that the transparent effect will disappear, we add the minimum amount of epoxy dye.
How to check the transparency of dyed resin?
It's very simple, mix epoxy resin and dye in a transparent container, a gap will be visible on the walls and at the bottom of the container, if the product is 5 mm (thickness), then the container should be 5 mm (thickness), only this way you will achieve the perfect result in final product.
There is a very interesting technique for painting epoxy resin and subsequent application:
- The blank of the future product must be placed in a horizontal position
- We are pouring base layer epoxy resin (painted or transparent),
- We take an epoxy of a different color, add solvent 646 or acetone, mix thoroughly until a homogeneous liquid (closer to water) mass is obtained.
- Then, using various improvised tools, we spray drops onto the workpiece.
The effect will be as follows: we dilute the epoxy with solvents and when the drops fall on the base layer, it begins to stretch creating chaotic patterns and craters.
(Watch this video until the end to see what I'm talking about.)
Dyes MG-EPOX-COLOR are compatible with each other, so you can get the maximum shade!
If you have any questions, write to e-mail, leave comments or just call:
