Since my coaster molds are a bit out of shape, I thought I would experiment with a couple of new colors of pigment I haven’t tried before while I wait for the new molds. I also wanted to make some other accent beads, so I thought this would be a good chance to try the colors in those molds as well.
I used the purple pigment last week, and I wanted to make some additional beads using it. However, I hadn’t tried the Bronze or Gold pigments yet. The gold pigment is extremely light and flew all over the place when I was trying to mix it with the resin. I piped the colored resin into the bead molds right away. I wanted to do this quickly, since it is difficult to get the resin into them when it starts to thicken. I made several with the gold and purple and one with the bronze pigment.
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After pouring a thin layer of Envirotex Lite resin into eight of the coaster molds and removing bubbles with a heat gun, I added the pigmented resin on top. I then swirled them around a bit with my craft sticks. I also waited about 20 minutes before adding shells to two of the molds.
I also have some new material to try using as the water element in the beachy coasters. It was very expensive, so I will likely limit using it to particularly special projects after today.
I waited until the resin was starting to thicken before adding the shells, and waited even longer (maybe 20 minutes) before adding the sand and the glass chips to the resin in the mold.
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I decided there wasn’t enough of the gold pigment in the gold coaster molds, so I mixed up another medicine cup full using some that was left over from the initial batch of resin and added it to the molds. If all goes well overnight, I will add another clear layer of resin to the coasters tomorrow and demold the beads to see how they turned out. I am a bit leery of pouring another layer of resin today after the experience the other day with the resin turning yellow during curing. The manufacturer got back to me and recommended I use a different product, EasyCast, for molds / thicker applications. I can continue to use this type in 1/8″ layers, though. I can’t wait to see how they turn out!
