The epoxy resins we use produce a colorless material unless we add pigment. Craft Resin may be tinted in several ways, with various colorants available.
In this week's post, I'll go through a few of them so you can make an informed choice about the colorants you use in your resin sculptures. 🌈
This list isn't exhaustive, and there may be other additives that you can use to color your resin creations; some of these may require experimentation to determine whether or not they work, how they turn out, and whether or not they can be manipulated to create different patterns in your projects. Taking risks is part of the excitement of being creative, so go wild with color!
An important rule to remember when adding colors to epoxy resin is to add no more than 6% of a colorant to the total volume of the Craft Resin mix. This means that if your resin and hardener mixture is 150 ml, you should add 9 ml of color at most.
Likely, you'll only need 6% colorant because most colors that work with epoxy resin gallon provide rich hues with only a small amount of additive.
Now, then, let us begin...
Mica Powders:
We're going to tackle these first simply because we provide them. Mica powders are one of the simplest colorants in epoxy resin projects, making them ideal for novices.
We provide Mica Powder in packs of 30 different colors, ensuring that you and your customers always have a good selection. Each packet contains only 0.18 fl oz of color, yet some vibrant hues may go a long way. Keep in mind that the 6% rule doesn't apply at all when using Mica Powders.
Mica Powder may be easily incorporated into the resin by adding it to the mixture, followed by additional stirring for one minute. At this point, you will have colored resin ready to be poured into molds.
A useful piece of advice to remember if you are incorporating colorants into a combination is to first combine the resin and the hardener in a clear state for five minutes before adding the colorant. By following this procedure, you will be able to determine whether or not the mixture is suitable for usage since streaks will be visible up to that point.
Therefore, you can add the Mica Powder to your mixing pot, combine many separate pots if you want to utilize a variety of colors, or use a paint brush to paint the Mica Powder onto the mold you choose. This may leave a fairly subtle coloring impact on your products, and it is fantastic for things like creating mermaid tails or fish with scales on them.
Mica Powders are of a cosmetic quality and may thus be utilized in goods such as make-up, candles, and other similar things since they can be used in various mediums outside only epoxy resin creations. Mica Powders are a lot of fun to play with, and you'll be amazed at the fantastic things you can make with them if you try them.
Acrylic Paints:
Acrylic paints may be used with Craft Resin without any problems; however, doing so can lessen the glossiness of your resin project and, as a result, give your work a less glossy appearance. This effect will work incredibly well for some people, but for others who are going for more of a glass-like appearance in their work, it might not work.
Alcohol Inks:
Many people utilize petri dish art as an example of the fantastic effects of alcohol inks, which can also be used to color epoxy resin sculptures. As a result of its ability to produce strikingly vivid and attractive hues, it is a popular choice.
Using a heat torch might ruin your resin product if you've used alcohol inks. Since alcohol is combustible, using it to eliminate bubbles may result in more than just a loss of eyebrow hairs.
Instead, wash the surface of your curing item with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles, warm your resin and hardener in sealed bottles in a sink of warm water for a few minutes before using them, and mix your resin very gently to prevent air bubbles from developing.
Make sure your workspace is adequately ventilated and that you are wearing a mask if you plan on using a lot of alcohol ink in your project since this can impact both the flammability and the toxicity of Craft Resin.
Bombay Ink:
In terms of appearance, Bombay Ink or India Ink is comparable to Alcohol Ink; however, when mixed with resin epoxy starter kit, the color will remain translucent. Alcohol ink, on the other hand, is a dye-based medium, whereas Indian ink and Bombay ink are pigment-based mediums. This indicates that alcohol ink will fade with time, although India ink and Bombay will not.
These days, many well-known resin painters are converting from Alcohol Ink to Bombay/India ink since the former is a fantastic alternative to the latter. You can find several instructions on how to use Bombay/India Ink if you search for it on Google or YouTube, and we are confident that a lot more will be added soon as well.
You must be aware that you should NOT use oil paints with Craft Resin since the two substances do not combine well and will cause your resin mixture to be very difficult to work with.
Craft Resin may be used to coat oil-painted artwork; however, before applying the resin, a foundation layer of a sealer such as Mod Podge must be used, let to dry, and then Craft Resin can be applied on top of this layer. This ensures that no resin and oil paint will mix, which would cause problems. Please don't get in a hurry with the drying process since your oil painting may need a few weeks to cure before you can apply the sealer to it completely.
Adding Colourful Objects:
You may also use additives to color your clear epoxy resin UK. A splash of color may be added in many ways, such as glitter, Dichroic inlays, temporary tattoos, dried flowers, and even Legos!
Once more, unleash your imagination and play around with your designs by including various colorful materials and accents. You can only tell if something will look good or not if you give it a go.
Check out our Instagram account if you're looking for creative motivation. Check out the ingredients they're putting in it and use some of those in your creations. If another artist's work inspires you and decides to try out a method, pattern, or additive they utilized, that's not plagiarism. You can't steal someone else's work since no two epoxy resin projects will ever turn out the same.
Our YouTube channel has many tutorials that teach you how to add colorful items to resin. Check them out today:
Lastly, have fun getting colorful with your projects. We'd love to see what you're creating and all the beautiful colors; please do tag us if you share your Craft Resin epoxy resin creations on Instagram @craft.resin.
Topic Of The Week Giveaway:
We have attached a giveaway to this Topic Of The Week announcement on our Instagram platform. This is helping us to spread the knowledge of how to use epoxy resin further. But also enabling anyone who helps us to share this information to win free resin and mica powders.
To enter the weekly giveaway, please see the latest post pinned to the top of our Instagram feed and follow the instructions to enter:
Team Craft Resin
