What not to add to resin
One of the best things about using epoxy resin is the ability to add a huge range of colours, textures and objects to create unique one off pieces and preserve your memories.
But, did you know there’s some things that are best left out of resin? We talk about what these are and why not to add them.
Fresh flowers and resin
Fresh flowers contain moisture and even though you’re preserving them in resin, the flowers can rot over time if they are not fully dried. See our blog on ways you can easily dry flowers ready to add them to resin.
Too much pigment
As a general rule, you want to ensure you keep your pigment to resin ratio at around 5% (e.g. 1ml pigment to 20ml resin).
Alcohol inks and resin pigments contain small amounts of water which can affect your resin from curing.
Also, adding too much pigment that is not mixed with your resin can mean that it will float to the surface and cause cracks to your final piece.
Adding fresh food and sweets to resin
Just like flowers, fresh food and sweets contain water. When added to resin, food and sweets can appear to be fine for the first few weeks or months (even years!). But, eventually, they will begin to decay, and moisture can seep through your resin causing it to crack and even split open.
Precious items in resin
Remember – once you add something to resin, it Is extremely difficult if not impossible to get it out.
We recommend using copies of precious items where possible and make sure you do a trial run with less precious items before jumping in to using your one-off irreplaceable memories.
Photos that have not been sealed
Unsealed photos can smudge and de-colour. We highly recommend never using original photos and sealing copies by laminating them.
Check out our blog on how to seal photos with Mod Podge.
Adding insects and bugs to resin
If you’re looking to preserve insects or bugs that have passed due to natural causes in to your epoxy resin, you need to ensure they are fully dried. Moisture in the animal can prevent your resin from curing and will cause decomposition over time.
