Experiments With Resin

This past week has been full of one experiment after another in order to find ways to improve and progress with my dragon eye notebooks! I've loved all the dragon eyes I've made so far, but I want to be able to take them to the next level, which means figuring out how to make them more authentic and unique. Resin has a very smooth finish, at least that's what the typical hope is when it comes to epoxy creations... but I really want to be able to add more texture, depth, and character to my dragon eye notebooks, so I've set out on a path to find out what may or may not work to help me achieve that!

As you can see, these have a very glossy finish, which looks very cool! But I want to be able to make a variety of options, and ones that have more of a unique look. So the first thing I did was start to find other dragon eye molds to work with in addition to the ones I have been using.

I wasn't sure about this new style at first, but after using it some I really really love it. Its thinner than the other dragon eye cover, which some people might prefer, and the back cover has the scales/spine as well instead of just the flat back like the other one. So I was starting to find some good variety. But that shininess... I really wanted to figure out how I could make something that feels completely different than resin.... I wanted to make a dragon eye notebook that looked and felt like stone, which meant it was time for some brainstorming!

If I wanted the scales to feel like stone, why not try adding actual stone to the resin?? So I headed outside, gathered up some rocks, and literally just smashed them with a hammer... (I've actually done that as an activity in the classroom, and the kids LOVED getting to SAFELY crack open rocks and then try and figure out what kind of rock it was!)

My intent was to make a gravel type mixture that I could mix right into the resin before pouring it into the mold.

Normally when I make the dragon eye notebooks I paint mica powders onto the entire mold before adding any resin, but I didn't want the mica powders to block the view of any of the rocky bits, so I only added a little bit of blue coloring to some of the outer scales and the eye, and then left the rest alone. It ended up being a lot more transparent than I wanted, so it was the perfect chance for me to try out a little bit of acrylic paint with it after it had totally cured.

Usually I would use UV resin and mica powders to go in afterwards and add a bit more color, shadows, and small details, but that gives it the glossy finish I was trying to avoid, so I went with acrylic paint instead. I was nervous to try it, I thought I'd ruin it to be honest, but since this was an experiment I decided to just go with it. I really wanted to leave some of the stone still showing though, even though it didn't give it the rough texture I was looking for, it still looked pretty cool.

I spent the entire day (no exaggeration, it was hours and hours) doing some dry brush painting to add depth, dimension, and color without covering too much of the stone. At first it was looking kind of bad, but then I remembered that with acrylic paints you really do need a base layer of paint, so I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to continue layering if I was going to achieve the look I was going for. It wasn't until I put the cover next to the first glossy one that I really noticed the difference, and that it was starting to get that matte/stoney finish! It definitely wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I could tell I was headed in the right direction!

One of my sisters has been working with resin for a long time, so we would get into brainstorm sessions thinking of what we could try next or what might work. So although the stones look cool in this one, it didn't give it the rocky texture, so the rocks probably needed to be smashed up some more, almost to a sand consistency, but not quite.

The acrylic paints at the end definitely helped with more of a matte finish though, so I knew it was time to start doing some more with those instead of just the uv resin!

I've done quite a few more experiments since this first one, so keep an eye out for those posts within the next couple to days!