Experiments with Ice Resin

 Hi everybody! It's Toni here and I'm going to share some of my recent experiments with Ice Resin.

I used a 1oz Syringe pack of Ice Resin for all the pieces you will see here. There's a nice little video on the Artist Trading Post by Susan Lenart Kazmer, where she demonstrates how to open the syringes containing the resin and the hardener and how to dispense and mix the two parts together. If you are tempted to have a go with this fabulous medium, I would strongly suggest that you get well prepared before you start. That means covering your work surface with something like a sheet of polythene,big enough to spread out your resin-ed items. Gather together all the items you want to apply the resin to, such as sheets of vintage paper, book pages, jewellery bezels or small moulds for casting.
Here are some of the papers I gathered together....

 

Here you can see some vintage dictionary pages, which have been stamped and heat embossed. There's also a book page which has been stencilled with gesso and sprayed with Dylusions Ink and in the left hand corner, there's a piece of brown wrapping paper which I'd used as a background cover when spraying inks onto different projects. I also had a few jewellery bezels a little silicone mould and a metal heart. I created small collages in the bezels by cutting out images from the Spellbinders Media Mixage Ephemera Papers One, and glueing them into the bezels with Glossy Accents. 

 

 

To prevent the Ice Resin from soaking into the pictures, I sealed them with a couple of coats of Paper Sealant before applying the Ice Resin. 

 

 

Here you can see the metal heart, which has been covered with  a piece of ledger paper from the Ephemera Papers One and stamped with black StazOn Ink. When sealing the paper, it's important to make sure that it is completely covered in sealant, including the edges, You'll be able to see what happens if the edges aren't sealed ! Once I'd got everything ready, I opened the Ice Resin syringes by cutting off the ends and dispensed the two parts into a small disposable plastic container. It's extremely important to have equal measures of hardener and resin. Too much of one or the other will prevent it from setting, it also needs to be mixed together thoroughly. I used a wooden lolly stick and stirred for the recommended 1 minute. I then used the lolly stick to drizzle the Ice Resin into the bezels. It's 'self doming' and creates a very professional look to the bezels with very little effort.

I also drizzled it on to the heart and let it spread out towards the edges. 

 

 

Here's a piece of sprayed, stamped and heat embossed book paper. I applied the Ice Resin to the paper with a piece of sponge. You MUST wear rubber gloves when doing this, Ice Resin must be the stickiest stuff known to mankind ! I'm hopeless at wearing gloves and I ended up with resin on my hands, it's hard to get off.... believe me! I covered several sheets of paper, spreading the resin on both sides. it takes on a wonderful transparency almost instantly. The older fibrous vintage papers worked extremely well. Once I'd covered as many as I wanted, I hung them up to air dry....

 

 

I used the last bit of Ice Resin to cast a cabochon in a silicone mould I'd dug out of my stash. Before I put the resin into the mould, I poured in a few very tiny beads in shades of blue and silver.

 

 

I then had to walk away and leave the resin to harden. It takes several hours to set, I left my pieces over night and they were slightly sticky the next day. I'd say you need 24 hrs before touching the items, particularly the bezels. You really don't want fingerprints on the lovely glossy surfaces !

 

 

Here's my collection of items once the Ice Resin had set. I made the bezels into pendants...

 

 

and attached some of the stamped papers to tiny canvasses..... on this one I added a resin paper die cut deer to the background paper, which was stamped and heat embossed, before the Ice Resin was added....

 

 

on this one, again, the paper was stamped and heat embossed, before the resin was added.

 

This canvas has a die cut butterfly. The die has three parts; the background, has been cut from resin paper, the filigree top was cut from card and heat embossed. The body is also heat embossed. the three parts were then glued together before attaching to the canvas.

 

This canvas features a snowflake which was stamped on vintage paper. A sprinkle of Holographic glitter was added to the resin after it was applied to the paper.

 

 

Here's the cabochon from the silicone mould, I glued this into a brooch blank which just happened to be the right size...there are various ways of 'polishing' the surface of cast items, I gave this a coat of clear gloss varnish.

 

 

and finally.... here is the metal heart.......

 

 

The dark shadow on the right side has been caused by the resin seeping into the paper. This was because I trimmed the paper slightly as there was a slight over hang. This broke the sealed edge and allowed the Ice Resin to soak into the paper and it transparent. It's actually quite  a nice effect, So next time I shall create one of these hearts in the same way, without sealing the paper. You live and learn ! Ice Resin is a whole lot of fun with great creative possibilities. I can't wait to have another go and maybe I'll get to share the results with you. Apologies for the length of this post, If you've managed to take time out of a very busy schedule to get this far, I applaud you ! I'd also be interested to know how many glasses of wine or cups of tea you got through ! 

 

Ice Resin, a selection of bezels and many other lovely things, can all be purchased from  Artist Trading Post just follow the links to be transported there. 

 

Now, all that remains is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and creative New Year ! x