Your resin moulds are quite an investment in your resin hobby so you want to make sure that they last a long time. After you've been resin crafting for a while, you'll start to get quite a collection of moulds. No matter what type of moulds you have, they won't last forever. But if you look after them, you'll get many, many casts from them.  So, let's break this down into the two main types of moulds you'll use with resin :    PLASTIC and SILICONE ,   and look at what the best practices are for caring for each type of mould . Plastic Resin Moulds Plastic resin moulds are inexpensive compared to silicone moulds but because they are vacuum formed, mould shapes are limited to simple shapes. Because the moulds don't have as much flexibility or stretch as silicone, they need to be wider at the top of the mould or straight-sided to remove resin from them. The plastic used in resin moulds is polypropylene. This is a type of plast......

Don't let bubbles be the undoing of your next resin project. No matter whether you're just starting out with resin or whether you've been working with resin for a while, bubbles are something you will always have to deal with. They can be really frustrating but there are ways of minimising them, or even eliminating them from your projects. There are many different things that cause bubbles and there are just as many ways to minimise or get rid of them. Half the battle is working out WHY you got bubbles. Once you know why you're getting them, it's a whole lot easier to deal with them. Try some of these tips and tricks to beat those pesky bubbles. How to Deal with Bubbles in the Mixing Stage 1. Avoid Vigorous Mixing and Stir Slowly Resin needs to be mixed thoroughly for it to cure. If you stir fast or whip the resin, you'll incorporate a lot of bubbles into it. Try stirring slowly. It will take longer but when you're working with epoxy, you have plenty of time......

Sometimes when you're mixing resin, you underestimate how much resin you need and don't measure out quite enough resin to fill your mould. Disaster! Right? Well, you can make sure that this never happens to you. This video shows you one method to work out the volume of your mould. But what do you do if you have miscalculated how much resin you need? Here's 3 ideas to try! 1. Top the mould up! Mix more resin and try to match the colour. It's really hard to colour match but you might get close enough that no one will really notice the colour difference when you're wearing the bangle. 2. Use the colour blocking technique. Top the mould up with a couple of contrasting colours of resin so it looks like you meant it! Or you could do what I did with this one and work with what you've got! 3. Half-fill the Mould The thing is, you don't always have to fill your mould to the top. With simple shaped bangles (with a flat surface) like the cuff below, you can get away w......

Yesterday, I had a bad resin day! Sometimes, things don't go quite as planned: I had bad pours, spilled resin, bubbling issues, cross contamination, you name it, I seemed to be clumsy enough to do it. It was just one of those days! But that's not what this post is about. Those mess ups give me the opportunity to show you some of the things that can go wrong when working with quick curing polyurethane resin so that you can avoid them. Now, let's take a look at a couple of the things that didn't go according to plan. If you're working with epoxy resin, you might find this video useful: " Dealing with Bubbles in Resin ". Contaminants in Resin The first bangle has a little bit of bubbling in the resin (not unusual for polyurethane resin) but the biggest problem is what I'd describe as warts on the surface. The culprit here is contaminated resin dye . A crack in the lid of the colourant I used has allowed moisture to contaminate the dye. Mix with resin an......