I was recently commissioned to make a resin tray as a gift for a couple of crazy kids who just got married.
Wow! Gosh bless em, right?
First, here’s a list of supplies I used to make this tray:
- Rectangle Tray Silicone Mold for Resin Casting in 8×6 from Zapp3DDesign on Etsy
- Art ‘N Glow Clear Casting and Coating Epoxy Resin
- Ranger Alcohol Ink in Stream
- Art ‘N Glow Pearl Pigment in Pearl White
- Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets
- Heavy Duty Scotch Shipping Tape (this is the nicest packing tape I’ve found for resin!)
- Natural Dried Pressed Flowers
- Double-Sided Adhesive Dots
- Heart Shaped Glitter
- Iridescent Green Glitter
- Cricut Premium Textured Metallic Vinyl in Onyx
- Self-Adhesive Clear Rubber Feet
I’ve never made anything quite like this. I’ve made plenty of resin trays with one element in the center, usually a photo, postcard, or sticker. For this, the person who commissioned it wanted to incorporate six of the couples’ favorite photos.
When I’ve made trays in the past I’ve had a problem where the photo shifts while the resin is curing and I end up with a crooked photo. This is usually when it’s just one photo in the middle of a piece.
To solve this I made a plastic infrastructure in the tray. I started out like I always do, by laminating my photos with self-adhesive laminating sheets. Photos always need to be sealed before they’re put in resin. I figured out my layout and made sure that all the photos fit since the lamination sheets make them larger. I had to clip the corners of the photos that ended up in the corners to fit within the mold.
Then I used my handy dandy packing tape to attach the photos to each other in this configuration.
We wanted to incorporate some dried flowers into the design. I used double sided adhesive dots to keep them from shifting or breaking while getting this whole thing face down in the mold. I ended up cutting the dots into quarters and they were kind of a bitch to work with! But it held them securely.
The bride and groom’s favorite colors are turquoise and black so I made the edge of the tray transparent turquoise. The person who commissioned this has purchased a few of my trays so she already had an idea of the kinds of things I like to make. She asked for glitter like a couple of the other trays she has. I used iridescent glitter and lots of little heart shaped confetti.
I mixed up some turquoise resin with my glitters and poured the edge of the tray first. Then I poured clear resin through the entire face of the tray. I added some more colored resin to where the clear and colored resin meet, making sure there were no gaps. After my bubbles were popped, I set the infrastructure with flowers attached face down in the resin. From there I used a popsicle stick to push out any air bubbles.
I let this cure overnight. The next day I poured the back. To get this white satin texture I marbled together a highly pigmented white resin, a less pigmented white resin, and a little bit of clear resin. Using a clean toothpick I swirled the resin together in a figure 8 patterns. After about 20 minutes while the resin was in a gel-set phase, I repeated this same process.
This is what I ended up with the next day. Before I add my lettering I used a toothpick to open up any larger air bubbles. I’ll fill them in with the next coat of resin we use to seal the lettering.
The last thing I wanted was an errant piece of glitter accidentally blocking someone’s face so I decided to be modest on confetti when I poured the front of the tray.
I like to put little rubber feet on most of my projects that lay flat on a table. It gives them a little grip and makes the finished piece look more polished.
And here’s how it turned out! Making things like this in layers is time consuming (this took 3 days) but the finished piece is well worth the effort. The couple loves it!
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