Epoxy resin, few people mention in the list of the greatest inventions of humanity, and in vain is a fatty in processing, but at the same time durable, reliable and durable material. At least for creativity and crafts, it is very useful, not to mention the fact that in skillful hands he can turn into various useful things for the house. In short, if you still know little about epoxy resin, it's time to start correcting.
Peculiarities
The material was called resin due to some similarity with thick adhesive liquid isolated by trees, but in fact it is a purely synthetic product in which there are no natural components.
The specificity of the material is such that products from epoxy resin can be successfully applied in a variety of spheres of human activity - both in needlework and in construction.
The mass consists of two components, one of which is actually a resin, and the second is a hardener for it. It is necessary to impose the components according to the instructions on the package, but at the same time the master focuses on its needs, selecting the correct proportions. Due to this, it is possible to obtain both very liquid and fluid, slowly shocking mass, and more thick, and even quite dense.
The wide range of epoxy resin is due to a number of useful properties:
- high strength;
- resistance to abrasive wear;
- transparency;
- the ability to waterproofing;
- The absence of toxic impact on a person after frozen.
It is important not to confuse a resin with epoxy glue - It is made on the basis of resin, but is supplemented by several more components, among which plasticizer, solvent and filler. Such a substance sweat strictly for a certain time and it is impossible to influence the process; It quickly begins to yellow, losing transparency, does not have the same high elasticity.
The glue is sold ready and adapted only to connect the parts - conditional beads from it, like from the resin, to do simply will not work.
What equipment is applied?
If you just start working with epoxy resin and have never had such experience before, it is most reasonable to start using moldes - special filling molds. This is true, the option is predominantly for women, because the moldes are good for the manufacture of jewelry, but you will not do the table top with their help.
In modern shops for creativity, the variety of moldes is large enough so that you can freely include fantasy - most often there are forms for the manufacture of various beads and pendants, key rings and suspension, but there are more original - for the production of bracelets and rings. Molda Moldam Molds are good made only from high quality platinum silicone.
Having bought such a mold, you can not doubt - it will not collapse with the casting material and glue to it, and the frozen craft will be quite easy to remove.
Alternatively, the framework is also used as an alternative - they look like flat metal rings of one or another form that does not have a bottom, no lid. It will be more difficult to work with such a handicraft, because the temporary "bottom" is likely to be created using a scotch. In the future, the product is not removed from the metal, as well as remains in such a rim that holds it in the right form.
Since the bottom and the top of the crafts were almost no limited, their surface will be uneven and needs to be subsequent grinding.
If creativity, including complex, consisting of several stages, you are not alien to you, and you do not want to limit the flight of our own fantasy with ready-made mits and scrap, you can create your mold yourself. Polymer clay, wire and wood are best suited for making self-made rims - select what option you like more.
Selection and preparation of material
Epoxy resin is a stable material that all manufacturers are approximately the same. The mass for the fill can differ significantly in the thickness, but you will cook this very mass yourself, mixing the resin with the hardener, which, too, buy separately.
Instructions for kneading is always prescribed on the epoxy package, it can also be indicated on the hardener. For convenience, the procedure should use either Measuring cups appropriate size or Disposable syringes - So even more convenient. Please note that the measuring cups used to phasing the epoxy for other purposes can not be applied - they are not laundering. Thick mass will need to stir something, so cook Sucks, toothpicks or any other sticks If only they came up in length and thickness and at the same time were clean.
The kneading occurs at a temperature not higher than + 25 ° C. Do not embroider a lot of "stock", because in a cup it will be polymerized in the same way as in the frame. Stirring, make the most accurate movement, without adding air bubbles into the mass.
If the absence of experience still led to the appearance of bubbles, let weight stand a little, and then warm it - and the air itself will disappear.
Safety rules for manufacture
The finished handicraft from epoxy resin for a person is fully safe, but this cannot be said about an unrestal substance. Thinking, it highlights not only harmful pairs, but also heat, therefore there is a definite instruction for working with epoxy.
First, it is not necessary to allow contact of open skin and resin - at least, it will be extremely difficult to wash it if it freezes in this form, so you will definitely be gloves . Secondly, you should not breathe pairs - you have to stock respirator or protective mask. After completing the work, you still take protection, and the pairs in the room will remain, so it is reasonable to ensure Good venting.
Warn others that dangerous conditions will be created in the process of your work, and therefore it is impossible to enter the improvised workshop until you allow.
So that the craft is high-quality and beautiful, it is necessary to properly organize your workplace. Imagine that you are already working, and think about whether everything you need right at your hand. If not - do it so that everything is, otherwise you will have to be distracted in the process, and in favor of the case it will definitely not go.
A newbie in this case is certainly there is no special boards for working with epoxy resin, but a tabletop, for obvious reasons, sorry to spoil. In fact, the problem is easily solved - take a dense food film or an ordinary file and work on them.
A variety of crafts
Epoxy resin is good because of her with their own hands you can make various useful or just beautiful things in a unique design. Ready items can be used to decorate your own home, to give different reasons or even sell if it turns out well . With a set of experience to make funny crafts, it will be easier, and for beginners it is worth looking for detailed master classes with a step-by-step description of the manufacture of a particular thing. We have collected ideas that you can do yourself from epoxy.
Decorations
It was the decorations that the kind of crafts from which the newcomer should begin. The first product that is extremely easy to manufacture and allows you to fully estimate all the properties of the material - these are beads. Simple forms for such rounded products are sold everywhere - for the start, it is necessary to simply pour epoxy resin into silicone and wait until the mass freezes. Then carefully remove your first handicraft and appreciate it - how smooth and neat it is.
Do not worry if it comes out not very successful - for the first time it is normal. But it is in this case that can be at the same time to try and grinding to try to bring the product to perfect condition.
Develop your own skills, acquiring the molding of other configurations. Be sure to try metal rims for filling - beads are not too popular today and they will have to collect them for a long time, but the stylish pendant can be made from one attempt. At the same time, you can experience another technique, bay epoxy resin small flower or twig.
Having mastered the simple decorations in the form of jewelry, you can move to the decoration of your own dwelling. The coil manufacturing circuit can be tested on a large scale - take a whole bouquet of wildflowers and fill it with epoxy to get a small refined picture.
If you are not alien to work with different materials, and you yourself are capable of making complex forms to fill, in the future you can come to the manufacture of the most impressive crafts.
Own sea wave or clouds right on the table - these are subjects that will make your interior indescribable cozy.
Animal world
As decorations, small pendants and key rings are also used, in which there may be an insect, fish, a small crab and so on - you probably saw similar crafts on sale. Not all similar specimens are a sign of missing humanity - you can easily do something similar by purchasing a plastic copy.
Artificial figures of factory production are often sold as souvenirs, so no every person guess that you made your own decoration personally. However, just this will be the best compliment to the master.
Furniture
Men, as a rule, perceive epoxy resin from the most serious point of view - it is durable and durable, and therefore, it is possible to make high-quality homeworkers from it. The most famous and chassis of a home product - a tabletop . As it will look, it depends only on the fancy of the master and materials available at his hand.
Very often, the tabletop is made of two large pieces of wood, which cannot be folded together due to the inconscribing edges. And it is not necessary to cut anything and grind - among themselves they will be connected by a transparent "crack" filled with epoxy resin. It looks spectacular and remembered for a long time.
At the same time, it should be remembered that the mass of the thin layer is applied over the entire surface of the wood - only it is, being a holistic, reliably "grab" half the table and protect them from moisture.
Even more unusual, but it is more difficult, it looks completely epoxy countertop. So that it looks bright and unique, a large amount of glitter is mixed into the composition of liquid mass, kneading them in epoxy even before the fill. As a result, instead of the countertops, you have an improvised piece of the night sky, and if it is correct to highlight it, such a subject of the interior may be almost a center on the scale of the apartment.
The kitchen apron, of course, is not entirely correct to call furniture, but the principle of its manufacture is very similar, so such an exercise is also here. In fact, it is necessary to make the same countertop from any materials - from a clean resin, with the addition of wood, colors, which you like. After that, the stove is installed vertically above the working surface and is attached to the wall.
The main thing - do not forget to diligently cover the resin all the details to protect them from rotting.
Dishes
Given that in the frozen form, epoxy resin for a person is completely safe, it can be used even for the manufacture of dishes. Basically, You can buy the dishes in the store for a penny, so in this case the point of manufacture is not exactly in saving money, but in the implementation of its own creative potential and creating something unique.
Love flowers - Please let them be literally everywhere, even directly in the thicker tray or bonorars (stands are hot). You wish to enjoy the beautiful color of your beloved tea, even through the cupboard - it is easily realized due to the transparency of epoxy.
Some masters are made from epoxy resin even plates. In a sense, they are still better to use more in decorative purposes, because they can be damaged by cutlery.
In any case, such an exercise in good performance will be an excellent souvenir gift.
Other
Oshiving all the above and having the skills of working with materials for the manufacture of moldes and forms, can be experimenting with other crafts. Implementation will be difficult, but it will be a real masterpiece at the output, which can be proud of.
Probably the simplest is an epoxy telephone cover that protects the body from shocks and scratches. As a relatively inexpensive, but a stylish gift will fit a large desktop ball on a stand with flowers or other decor inside, a transparent photo frame, a flash drive with the same case or the icon on which it is written as the donor's expensive its owner.
Nobody makes it make a deliver entirely from epoxy resin - You can make the factory product to make a resin "squeeze" with the decor, thanks to which the subject will become more individual. Similar can be done with boxes, press papier, vases and even calculations!
Even at a level harder - a full-fledged homemade souvenir. For example, a chess or backlock board can be made transparent, to embed a LED backlight into it - this is a task for a professional, but imagine the delight of the one who gets it.
If a person likes the wildlife, but it cannot start fish because of a dense schedule, make an aquarium for it, completely poured from epoxy resin, with bright plastic fish inside. A lovedant of geology will certainly like the sting or a slice of a stone protected by a resin from crumbling. By analogy with a cut, you can do entire dioramas in the entire wall.
How to process?
There are two ways to fill the resin into the moldes. If you do not at all use decorative elements or to their exact location there are no specific requirements, then First, the bottom of the form lay the decor, and then the thick liquid is poured on top of the thin flowing , Satisfying half an hour. At this course, decorative parts can carry in one angle, and if it does not suit you, use another method. It is to First, fill the Molds with liquid, and then neatly with the toothpicks immerse the decor - There, where he should be.
If you work with simple silicone moldes, then after the complete frosting of problems with the extraction should not occur.
The fill of the liquid mass in the form is only half the way. Even after the frozen of the workpiece, it is not yet a fact that the product is already ready - in some cases the edge turns out uneven, in others instead of a transparent material, muddy is formed, and unevenly. The mistake of many newcomers is that they are disappointed and thrown out a "unsuccessful" craft, although in fact it could simply be modified.
The nature of muddy consistency is usually the same as in irregularities - On the surface, the relief is too uneven, so the light is actively refracting, or air bubbles hit the material near the surface. Both problems are solved equally - grinding. If the needlework does the lady, and it has a milling mill, you can use it, but men use old good sandpaper.
In advance, note that in the polishing process, the frozen epoxy resin gives huge amounts of dust. To protect your respiratory tract from unwanted penetration of dust particles, work only in the respirator.
To protect the interior of the room from pollution, do not forget to periodically make the sandpaper with water - then the dust will not fly away.
Beautiful examples
Epoxy resin - excellent material for making small jewelry. Use similar crafts as you want - they can serve as buttons, broochs, cabins, pendants for earrings and even components of the bucset.
From epoxy you can make very stylish Christmas balloons. Who said that the New Year should be strictly associated with the winter and cold - in it someday there will be a summer, which is particularly strong in the crackling frost.
Epoxy aquarium In general, it is worth considering one of the most beautiful souvenirs, and what it is less, the more the dignity and delight causes.
Of course, such work is very complex due to the huge number of small details that still need to position correctly, but it is unlikely that anyone will remain indifferent to such a bright manifestation of your talent.
Epoxy plates at first glance may seem somewhat awkward But in a certain interior, they look most authentic, besides, tune in creative ways.
About how to make a pendant from epoxy resin, see the following video.