 Hi everyone, my name is Carmen, owner and artist of Carly D. Paintings and Creations. Today I'm going to share with you how I use Art Resin's flexibility to shape and mold different creations, such as this plate, as well as these little mini bowls. So let's get started and have some fun! Alright, so I'm here with Joanne from Art Resin and she's going to help me with my project that we're going to do today. I'm so super excited to have you at Art Resin. So we've been following you, Carmen, for a long time now on Instagram and your work is absolutely beautiful. Carmen makes the most gorgeous tiered trays and coaster sets and dishes and so many beautiful things. So maybe you can let everyone know a little bit about yourself and your artwork and your process. Yeah, so I started using Art Resin about three years ago, so in 2016 when I first started Carly D. Paintings and Creations. It was more focused on fine art, so it was more used for glazing over panels, giving you that really shiny and glossy look. And then I soon realized how, you know, flexible they are and how useful they are. And the most important thing for me is safety. Art Resin, as you all know, is non-VOC and non-toxic. So for someone who has, you know, an infant or a baby at home, that is a very very important aspect for myself. And I'm sure for a lot of you all, now today we're going to visit some of the ways that we could use Art Resin's flexibility to make your own personalized vows, bowls for your fruits, some, you know, very personalized customized pieces for your home decor. And we can get started. That's awesome. I'm excited to see a little bit of your process. So what do we have going on here today? So we have some greens, blues, some whites to kind of break up the greens and the blues. And then I kind of left quite a bit of clear resin to make sure we have enough to maneuver the colors. I love your palette here. It's kind of an ocean-inspired palette, which I love. Yes, we got it all over the ocean. And then here in terms of material, we have here a cut piece of shower curtain actually. It was very flexible, as well as it has a very shiny surface. So to elevate the fact that Art Resin has a shiny gloss, it kind of keeps that gloss when you use something shiny. Yes. That's a really good point. A glossy surface will maintain the gloss of Art Resin, whereas a matte surface will give you a matte finish on your pieces. That's right. And for this project, I really want to showcase how glossy Art Resin can be, even with the flexibility. And then here we have another piece of household item, just a regular vase, and it doesn't have to be a vase. Anything that's hard and it's got a nice surface is really good for the project. And today we're going to use Art Resin that's already being premixed. It's been sitting for about 10 to 15 minutes to allow for the fluidity of it to harden just a little bit so that when I pour it onto the clear matte, it doesn't completely overflow and it has a bit of form. So essentially we're going to free form, pour onto the plastic, and then drape it over the vase to let it dry on the vase. And that will give you a nice flowing, free form, organic looking like glass vase. So let's get started. So I'm going to go ahead and start with the green. As you can see here, it's quite a bit thicker now at this point. And this is what you want, because it's been sitting for about 20 minutes now, and you want this to not fall off your sheet because it's not exactly like a mold where, you know, you have something containing the liquid, right? Yes. Because freshly mixed Art Resin would naturally start to spill out, right, and this is not moving at all. So let's go ahead and add some glue. But as you can see, although it's thickened up, it's still very fluid. That is like the ocean, isn't it? These colors are gorgeous. So this is all done with resin tint. Again, I use the resin tint with Art Resin so that we can make sure that there's no toxicity when we fire it up to get rid of the bubbles. And then we have our clear resin where we would just go right on top of it. So you're just filling in, you left some space, I see, in between your colors. So I'm going to go ahead and do this. So as you can see, it's really holding its form. The other thing I've noticed as well is it's holding its color. That's right. So this was freshly mixed resin. All of those colors would start to blend into each other, but here they've stayed separate. That's right. And I don't pour all the way because it will eventually still spread a little bit, right? And I don't need to go all the way out here because I'll let it spread. So you're not going to smooth it out, is what you're saying? I'm not going to smooth it out. I'm just going to let it sit. And this time, I figure we add some glitter and make it fun. So we can add some embellishments to the side. And this is optional. You use a lot of glitter and metallic leaf, gold leaf in your work though, right? That's right. And it just adds that beautiful pop of that shimmer, which is so nice. And this time I'm only doing it on the edges because I really want the edges to stand out. And you basically just let it sit until it gets a little bit less tacky. And I just want to touch a little bit about torching. I just want to make sure that people know this is at the end of the day plastic. So be very, very careful when you are torching it to get rid of the bubbles. So I would only focus on the resin area to get rid of some of the big bubbles like this one. That's a big one. So get rid of that and just really quickly and there you go. And again, we're trying to mimic what the real glass looks like. And so it's okay to have the bubbles because no glass, you know, unless it's crystal clear, all the vases, they have a little bit of bubble in it to kind of give you that real feeling. It's very, very easy to start the project and just dive in because you can get all this material anywhere. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And we use a lot of our materials from the hardware store, from the dollar store as well. So yeah, you don't have to spend a lot of money to create beautiful art. That's right. So as you can see, it's starting to kind of harden up already. Yes. Give it another two hours or so. We're going to go ahead and drape it over. Now to move it, what we're going to do is use this foam board and just slide it. So as long as your object, your board is flat and sturdy, that's the most important thing. Great. So I'll put the dust cover on. Okay. We want to prevent any dust from getting in there while it dries for the next couple of hours. That's right. All right. So we're back. It's been a couple of hours. It's cured to the touch so you can see it's not tacky anymore. It's amazing how it's held its shape and it's held its color as well. It looks beautiful. And this is all from just having the resin sit before pouring it on. So I think we're ready to shape and mold this project now. And if you can help me, Joanne, put that right under there. And now we're just going to place it on top of your surface. And again, it doesn't have to be a vase, it could be any object. So I would take this, the extra ends that are not covered with resin and just pinch it. Oh, I see. And pinch it. Yeah. Look at that. Just kind of lift it. So you're tucking the edges in. Yeah. Now once you've got it all nice and pinched, you tuck your edges. It almost looks like blown glass. Yeah. And that's the whole vision with this project is to have a really elevated way of making your home decor very personalized. And, you know, as you can see, it was a very easy project as well. Yes. Yeah. I love the simplicity to get this elegant, as you said, elegant look. Amazing. Thank you. I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow when we unmold it. I can't wait either. Awesome. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye. All right. So we are back and it's time to reveal our piece, which is cured now for 24 hours. That's right. Yeah. I'm so excited to see this. Me too. I'm very excited. This is, I'm sure you guys all know, the best part. So we're going to go ahead and undo a little bit of unmolding. But before I jump into unmolding, I just want to mention that we decided to put an extra layer of the shower curtain on top. Maybe because as this was sitting, it wasn't sitting as flat as I wanted to. Because the resin had thickened a little bit more than I actually wanted to. So it's just something to really keep in mind is, you know, that 20-minute period for it to thicken up, make sure that you keep within that time frame. I've let it sit just a little bit over that period and it's thickened a little bit too much. What I've done is I just put another piece to make sure that it's flattened. Right. So this top piece kind of has kept it in place, right? That's right. Yes. And of course, you know, you don't have to use this as a solution. You can actually use it as part of your process. So if you prefer to have something on top of it by all means, please go right ahead to do that. Oh, that's a good tip. Okay, Joanne, are you ready? I am so ready. Okay. So we're going to first remove the first layer. Just to make sure it's nice and sturdy. So as you can see, it comes right off. It does. And you'll have those little edges where it'll get stuck, but we're just going to set this aside, free up some working space if you can just put it on your side. Thank you. And then what we're going to do is go ahead and remove this base just to make sure that it comes up so nice and clean. Very nice. And then we're going to go ahead and take off the insides. So here, you just have to do it slowly because as you can see, these little extra pieces. Okay, little drips, right? It will drip. And it's okay. We just always have a pair of scissors handy. You continue to do that. It should come right off. Just very carefully pull it out. Oh my gosh, it looks so beautiful, Carmen. It really does look like long glass. It is so pretty. Thank you. And then as you can see, you've got these extra edges. You can leave it. I typically trim it and all you have to do is trim that. Regular scissors are fine because it's a very, very thin piece. If you wanted to, you could use like a file though or a sandpaper to smooth those edges out as well. Absolutely. Sometimes it does get sharp and with these extra edges, I would go ahead and use a nail filer or sandpaper. Just be very careful of not scratching the surface. But otherwise, yeah, definitely use filer, whatever you feel comfortable with in terms of using your tools. So it's still a little bit flexible at this stage, but Art Resin, the longer it sits, the harder and harder and harder it's going to get. This is only a 24-hour cure, right? So after a few days, this should start to harden up. Yes. So I typically would not put any objects in. I would let it sit for about three days to five days. That would give it a nice curing period and that's when I'll start putting stuff in, jewelry, trinkets, whatever you want to use this beautiful elevated bowl for. Excellent. So now with these edges, how can you treat these edges now? With the edges, you can leave it as is. If you don't want to touch it, you want to give it that organic feel. Or you can use any type of metallic gilding and leafing. You could also use leafing or any acrylic paint. And here I just have some bronze gold paint that's mixed. And all you have to do is dab it and then you can go ahead and start. And that actually changes the way the entire project looks. It does. It looks so dainty and elegant now with that little line of gold. And you just need a very little amount. So this is what it would look like with the gold. And then this is what it would look like organically as if it's just regular glass. But yeah, it really depends on how you like it. Here I would probably let this dry and put another coat on. Carmen, this looks absolutely gorgeous. And so I hope you guys all enjoy the process and yeah, you know, get your creativity caps on and be inspired. Awesome. So should we move on to our next project? Absolutely. I can't wait. Me neither. Okay, Carmen, so we're moving on to our next project. And what are we going to make now? So right now we're going to go ahead and make a decorative tray. We're going to use a silicone mold. Here we have a nine inch silicone mold. And again, I just want to reiterate that these are all day to day easy to find products that you can find anywhere in the house. You can probably get it online or the local dollar store. So Carmen, does it matter that the silicone mold has kind of a rippled surface on the bottom? Actually, for the silicone mold, I actually purposely chose it with the ripples. Okay. So you'll give your decorative tray a very nice texture once the resin is cured. Oh, that's a great idea. And we're going to move over to the palette that I've chosen. Okay. My favorite, a bluey turquoise color. And then we have the purple. And then I always have some clear resin on hand just to break up any other colors that are meshed together. Another quick tip is my recommendation for the thickness of the resin to be poured into this mold is about a quarter of an inch. And that's something that through experimenting, I found that it is the best way to shape and mold the project. Of course, we don't want to waste any resin to measure it. So what I do is I use water, and I first measure the water in a measuring cup, then pour the water into the mold, and they'll tell me how much total resin I'll need. Perfect. That note, always make sure if you are using water to determine how much resin you need, that you thoroughly wipe out your mold before you actually pour the resin in. Because as we know, resin and water are not friends. So even a single drop of water can cause your resin to cure cloudy. So we want to make sure it's thoroughly dry before we actually. Thank you for that. Yes, of course. I'm just going to go ahead and start the pouring. Okay. Excellent. So I typically do it as I just let the creativity go. And as you can see, because we're making a decorative tray, I've decided to really focus on the edges, where all the colors will concentrate. And then what you can do is have little embellishments in the middle. And now really elevate your play and make it into a very elegant piece of decor where you just have a little bit of sparkles. You could do glitter. We're going to try gold leaf this time. Okay. But let's go ahead and pour on the last little bit. So this will break up any type of color build up. And make sure you get that last drop. Now in some of your other projects, you've allowed the resin to kind of sit and thick it up before you pour, but it's not necessary for this one, right? This one, it's not necessary at all. Because you do have a confined space with the mold. So you don't have to worry about it seeping through anywhere or spreading out too thin. And here we are. So what I do is I like to mix the colors in a little bit. And again, we can see some of the bubbles, but what we're going to do before we embellish it is just to give it a quick torch. Again, it doesn't have to be too overdone. And you actually don't mind some of the bubbles in there. We almost want the bubbles to give it that real glass look. And I just tipping it a little bit. And then in the middle, as I mentioned, you can embellish it with different items. You could do crystals. Right. You could do glitter. This time I chose to do leaf. The leafings come in different metallics. They come in the silver. They come in the copper as well as the gold, which is one of my favorites. I'm just going to go ahead and torch it really quickly again, and that's it. Now are you concerned about this part here not hitting the edge or do you kind of like that organic look? So for this part, what I normally do is I just, you know, touch it a little bit, touch it up a little bit, touch up the corners. And then every time you go in and touch up something, you always have to do a quick torch. And there you go. Okay, we're going to set it aside and wait six to eight hours, and then we'll check back on it. Sounds good. Perfect. So we're back and it's been just over eight hours, so Kermit, should we have a look and see if it's ready? Absolutely. This is the exciting part. So we're going to go ahead and just check really quickly to see if it'll pop right out. Sometimes you'll see that you kind of have to pick at the edges to make sure that they come off. You've got to coax it out a little bit, right? That's right. And it's only because it's at the minimal curing period, six to eight hours, and it's just been a little bit over eight. So you can see the little pieces that are stuck here, but that's okay. There's nothing to worry about. So you want to dry to the touch. Is it tacky? It's not tacky at all. Okay. Okay. So you can see. It's completely smooth. Oh yeah, yeah, no. That's not tacky at all. And like right here, so be careful with edges like that where you don't pull too hard because then the whole piece will rip apart. Right, okay. So we're just going to go ahead and peel this right out of the mold. It comes out so easily. It really does. Okay, so you can go ahead and set that aside. So here I want to show you all how flexible it is right now. You can literally almost fold it in half. This is the exact consistency and flexibility that you want. And so before I go ahead to shape it, I want to show you guys some of the tools that I'm going to be using for this project. So here we have a plate. So this plate has a bit of a dip which will give you that nice bowl shape. Right, okay. And typically you would need two of the same object for shaping the item. So one to be on the bottom as your base and then you have your resin piece and then one to go on top to give it a bit of a weight so that the piece can shape nicely. And you don't have to use a plate. You can really use any type of object that has a little bit of a dip. Okay. Bowls are great, you know, dishes that you can find at home or at your local cookware store. You just have to be very sure that this is a smooth surface. Right. And that you have two of the same object, right? That's right. Exactly the same thing. Yeah. Preferably exactly the same. Okay. Yeah. So let's go ahead and start shaping this. All right. So I'm going to go ahead. You always have to have a base, I'm going to set this on and make sure that you lightly push on it. Is that to get rid of like air pockets? Yeah, any air pockets or extra space. So before I place the top piece on to shape the resin, I want to make sure that the top piece does not have any markings and it's relatively smooth because any imprint on this side will go directly onto the resin. Oh, you know, it'll imprint or indent the resin. That's right. Unless that is the look that you want to go for, which could be very beautiful as well. And we're going to go ahead and place this on the top and press it a little bit. No, Carmen, do you ever worry that the resin is going to stick to the plate or the top or bottom plate at this point? Not to worry about it because it's not tacky. Once it's fully cured in that 24 hour period, it'll pop right off. Okay, perfect. Good. And lastly, I typically like to use a weight and this is the best type of weight to use to go on top and then we can set it aside. In the essence of time, we have a finished piece here and as you can see here, this is the pattern that's on the back. And it's also matte because the inside of this mold was matte, right? So it took on this beautiful matte finish. That's right. So the matte really does give it a nice clean finish. And then this side is a shiny, glossy finish. And then to finish it all, you can embellish it or gild it with metallic leafing or any type of metallic paint. Right. And Carmen, I love how you echoed the gold leaf with the gilding around the edge. It just ties it all together. Thank you. It's beautiful. And I love how elegant this looks and you made it out of every day like around the house objects. That's right. Yeah. It turned out beautifully. Thank you. I love it. Thank you so much for showing us how to make it. No problem. Anytime. Okay, Carmen, we're here with your finished pieces and they are absolutely beautiful. Thank you. And you know, one of the things that I love about working at Art Resin is that we are always learning from our artists. We're always learning new and different ways to use Art Resin. So I love that you came on to show us how you can use Art Resin's flexibility to shape and mold. I learned so much. So thank you. Thank you so much. It was my pleasure and I had so much fun and I agree with you. I'm also always learning and I hope you guys watching enjoy some of the tips and tricks and just let your creativity go wild. Absolutely. Now, if you have any questions for Carmen, leave them in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe and we will see you next time. In the meantime, stay creative and have fun. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.