Waste not, want not - pyschedelic stripes!

Love funky resin bangles? Hate waste? Here's an awesome way to use up your leftover resin for maximum effect. These psychedelic stripes put the fun back into funky!

 What you need:

- Two part epoxy resin
- Bangle moulds
- Resi-Tint Acrylic Inks

Method:

1. Mix up a batch of two-part epoxy resin to use in any other resin project. For this task I used Mastercast 1-2-1 resin by Chem Resins.

 

2. When you have finished your masterpiece, instead of chucking away your leftover resin, transfer it into a psychedelic stripe by mixing in a few drops of Resi-Tint Acrylic Ink.

 Easy does it - one or two drops are all you need for a vibrant, beautiful colour!

3. Pour a thin layer of tinted resin into a bangle mould. For this project I used a combination of moulds made by Resin8 and myself. You can get totally different effects using thin or chunky moulds.

4. Ensure that you have a thin layer of your first colour poured into the mould. Carefully remove spills along the sides using baby wipes.

5. Once your first colour has cured, you are ready to pour another thin layer of tinted resin. The layers don't necessarily have to be of equal height, depending on what effect you are going for.

6. Continue pouring layers of tinted resin onto cured resin until you have filled up your mould.

7. The end result? Some fantastic bangles. I think of these as "bonus bangles" because they are made out of leftover resin that may otherwise have been thrown away. Perfecto!

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Colour your resin!

Who says resin has to be clear?  From psychedelic stripes to subtle hues, there are many ways to add colour to your resin collections. You can even sing (or paint) a resin rainbow, should you wish to do so!

I was recently asked to test out four of Chem Resin's new Resi-Tint Acrylic Inks - a series of vibrant colours specially designed to be used with resin. Eli-Chem Resins have produced these acrylic pigments to be used for paintings and sculptures - but they can just as easily be used to add some va-va-voom to resin jewellery.

In the past I've used alcohol ink to tint my resin creations so was interested to see how Resi-Tint stacked up in comparison. I tried out Turquoise, Emerald, Flame Red and Scarlet.

Resi-Tint pigment versus alcohol ink

The first difference between Resi-Tint and alcohol ink is that a little bit of Resi-Tint goes a very long way! Eli-Chem recommend mixing up one part of Resi-Tint to 1000 parts of resin.

I certainly found that one or two drops is all you need to colour about 300ml of mixed up epoxy resin - so go easy on how much you pour into your resin!

Luckily the pots come with handy droppers so it's easy to mix up the amount you require.

29.5 ml of Resi-Tint should last a very long time - which makes a bottle (retailing at £9.90 - or about $15) pretty economical if you're planning to do a lot of tinting and colouring! The colours are vibrant and tend to come out more opaque than alcohol ink (unless you mix up an enormous batch of resin)!

Here is a rose petal bangle I made, using turquoise Resi-Tint, Alamould bangle mould and Mastercast 1-2-1 two part epoxy resin.

Verdict

All in all I was very pleased with the different effects I was able to achieve using Resi-Tint. Although it's hard to obtain a very subtle hue unless you mix up a huge batch, it is a very versatile pigment - offering an enormous range of effects. The only limit is your imagination!

Flower bangle using clear resin poured in together with turquoise and flame red Resi-Tint pigments.

Made using emerald Resi-tint and resin mixed into a silicone leaf mould.

Bangle featuring pieces of quail egg shell and sequins with scarlet Resi-Tint.

Click here for a resin tutorial showing you how to make this funky psychedelic stripe bangle using Resi-Tint!

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