In this blog I will present commented discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of various art resins; discuss how to prepare flowers for use with resin and which flowers have worked best/not worked for me. I will be presenting interviews and discussions with other pressed flower and resin artists. I will have a "tip of the day" section.

I'm hoping that lots of you contribute; comments, arguments and disagreements are always welcome. Resin is such a complex medium that we all have something to learn. Besides, tweaks and even new resin products are coming out all the time.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Those pesky bubbles!!!

Bubbles are the bane of any resin artist.They appear for many reasons, and generally once they appear there is often little you can do except ignore them or toss the piece.

I've found that there are three main types of bubble problems: the first is the tiny bubbles throughout the resin, making the piece look either ethereal, or cloudy, depending on luck and your intention. The larkspur earrings, above, had bubbles throughout. 

The other day our house was very very hot as the air conditioner was broken. I was going to pour resin; in my wisdom I decided that the resin surely would not need to be heated, since the house was so hot already. I ended up having to toss 2 ounces of the resin because it was so full of bubbles I could barely see the flower! I'm not sure what running the two resin bottles under hot water for  a few minutes does, but when I prepared the next batch, I did heat it up and had no problem.

All the posts I've seen describe several causes of bubbles: not heating the resin; stirring too vigorously; old resin (in my experience, older than 6 months, are a few.

The next couple of posts will discuss two other types of bubbles: reverse mold bubbles under flowers, and surface bubbles you can often "blow" off.

Hint of the day: don't store clear resin jewelry in a gold-or silver-paper covered gift box; the resin will take on a yellow ugly tint.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Chris
Posted by Flowers at 5:36 AM
Labels:

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 20, 2010 at 6:06 AM

    this is a very cool blog , thanks for starting this . I have had a fear of trying this so far. I will keep reading ,then I may get up the nerve :>)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MickiAugust 21, 2010 at 9:40 PM

    Chris,
    nice blog. I am excited to learn more tips. Your jewelry is pretty. I checked out your etsy shop.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 22, 2010 at 2:42 AM

    Great blog topic! I had never heard of heating the bottles of resin in hot water. The stuff I have done involves just a thin coating of resin, so usually only have surface bubbles. Blowing on the pieces through a straw eliminates that for me.
    Lynn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marie AnnAugust 23, 2010 at 5:49 AM

    Very interesting blog, Chris! I will check here often as I am also experimenting and learning.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)