Resin art & super quick flower drying

 This is a follow up post to the one dedicated to our cocker spaniel whom we sadly said goodbye to in July 2020 (for the original post click HERE)

As I mentioned in the previous post I wanted to make keepsakes of our old dog for the kids (and myself!). We weren't in a position to bury him in the garden of our rented property and I didn't feel that keeping his ashes was very personal. We could of course have scattered his ashes but the kids really wanted something tangible to remember him by and then I realised we could give resin art a go.

I have never done anything with resin before but thankfully google has lots of information and there are so many youtube videos I won't even bother explaining the entire process. The jist of it is that it's a pretty easy thing to do. You can find the resin mix and hardener on amazon or through other online vendors and silicone molds aren't overly expensive and come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. This is what I got (pictured below); the mixture you get will come with instructions on use - i.e. how to mix the two compounds, safety measures that may be needed (they recommend gloves & goggles, I used neither to be honest! Just tried to be as careful as I could) how long to leave it to dry, etc.

I recommend trying it first before giving children any sort of input. The liquids used are still toxic and you have to be careful when you handle them, a well ventilated space is also important. I of course was not intelligent enough to give it a go on my own... or rather I was too impatient. So I gave myself the mammoth task of trying to finish pressing and drying flowers as well as filling the molds with resin and hair + flowers while the toddler was napping. I probably would have had enough time not to stress but it was also roasting, I was feeling awful thanks to pregnancy 4 and to top it off I had to try to get some chicken wire up on our gate as one of our new dogs had discovered that she could escape through it. My husband was out for a 14 mile hike to Dunkeld with a friend, in hindsight I should've done this when he was about as back-up.

The whole thing ended up being far too stressful to be enjoyable as I wanted the girls to help pick what flowers and shapes they wanted while also being terrified of them or the toddler touching the solution. I opted to do it outdoors which solved the ventilation issues (the heat from the sun also helped harden the resin much faster) but as there was a breeze the flowers and locks of dog hair were flying all over the place.

Point is that ANYONE can do this, it really is that easy. And I would have found it quite relaxing if I had done it alone so I will definitely be making more resin art in the future. It is possible to let your kids participate safely too just do it when you've time to do it safely (or your neighbours will hear you shouting at EVERYONE like a crazed banshee).

As mentioned above I'm a bit impatient (a bit being an understatement). I knew I wanted to use flowers as extra decoration as I felt the hair would be dull on it's own and I hadn't invested in any resin colours. Again very easy to find, I just thought it would be easier to experiment with clear resin. After some research I quickly learnt that dried flowers work A LOT better than fresh ones. Not only are pressed flowers a better size for it but they also keep their colour (obviously they lose a bit when they are dried but when you use fresh ones they brown a lot more). I've dried and pressed flowers but I did not want to wait weeks for them to be ready. 

Again Google came to the rescue. I had seen one of the youtubers I'd watched using a special press made for the microwave. Obviously I wasn't patient enough to wait on one arriving in the post... I also didn't want to spend more money. The resin mix and molds hadn't been overly expensive: I bought quite a big set of liquid to make sure I had enough, I've still got loads left - and the molds came with so many different shapes so my £45 spend had gone far, but I didn't want to spend more on something I wasn't even sure I'd make anything nice out of.

Lucky for me it turns out you don't need any special presses for the microwave. All you need is parchment paper, thick kitchen roll and a plate (plus microwave obviously!). It is as easy as placing your flowers on one side of a folded piece of paper - you'll see what I mean in the two previous pictures in this post. You then fold the other half over and fold the thick kitchen roll piece over as well and pop it into the microwave with a heavy plate on top to make sure the flowers stay pressed. 

All it took to dry my flowers was 90 seconds at 800w heat. I would dry them for 30 seconds at a time as recommended from the links I had found. This is to make sure the flowers don't get burnt - as there's different amounts of liquid in them it's good to keep an eye on the process. I found that 90 seconds total was a good guideline though. I then used a toothpick to carefully move the flowers off the parchment - you'll see that moisture is caught in the two different sheets of paper you have had your flowers in.

I was delighted with the outcome and it was by far the easiest part of the whole process. Glad that I found such a quick and easy way to dry flowers and we will no doubt use this for other projects in the future. 

Placing the petals and hair into the resin filled molds was a bit trickier as it was breezy and the kids were being so rowdy. Recommend tweezers and toothpicks to help positioning things. You need to push everything into the molds so they are fully submerged and covered on all sides. I had filled the molds completely from the start, in hindsight I'd fill them almost all the way next time and then use a pipette (came in my kit) to add a thin layer of resin at the end. Almost all of our flowers were perfectly submerged but some rose a bit so I think this would help prevent a bumpy surface on top. The resin mix I used was self leveling so it was very forgiving thankfully. 

All in all it was fun and easy and the outcome is gorgeous. Most importantly the girls LOVE their special treasures that they have to remind them of their beloved dog. We will no doubt do this in the future when we lose other pets and I already plan on doing it with locks from the kids' hair too. 

Hope hearing how easy this was encourages you to give it a go too! You can make some very beautiful and original art and gifts with resin and there's so many things you could preserve in it too. Do let me know if you brave it, would love to see what other things you come up with. I've definitely found a new hobby, my husband will be grateful that it's quieter than sewing.