Preserving Flowers in Resin
It's expressive, artful simply beautiful the ability to preserve flowers in resin to make a one-of-a-kind keepsake. Whether they are your current favourite flowers or flowers associated with a significant occasion, such as your wedding bouquet, resin preservation will capture their beauty for all time. In addition to creating a nostalgic art piece, you may make a unique piece of practical home décor by preserving flowers in resin. According to Ronni, founder and ambassador of Suspended Petals, who works from her family's Warwickshire home, "ring holders, coasters, and trinket trays are some of the most popular methods to preserve flowers in resin." You can include a variety of intriguing elements, such as gold flakes or tiny corals.
Flowers are a crucial component of all your life's amazing people. Flowers have always made you smile brightly, from your special birthdays to the day of your wedding. You have those flowers stashed in priceless boxes or books, just like the rest of us do. It's time to remove those dried flowers and turn them into elegant jewellery or a stylish display item to preserve them for all eternity. Get ready to discover how to resin-cure your favourite flowers.
Why Would You Want to Preserve Flowers in Resin?
It's difficult to conceive of any aspect of creating that resin can't facilitate or improve because the resin is such an incredible material that it enables us to do so many things. Resin can be used for everything from painting, covering surfaces, creating jewellery, producing toys, duplicating forms, and even protecting flooring and worktops. The practice of encasing flowers in resin has become one of the most well-liked resin art techniques in recent years. This not only looks lovely, but it also enables you to preserve any kind of flora for all time.
Let's look at why you might want to do this before we examine how to preserve flowers in resin. We can all agree that flowers are simply amazing to look at on their own, whether you enjoy their vivid colours, their distinctive and unusual shapes, or the way they have the power to enlighten a space just by being present. They have a short lifespan, just like most lovely things in nature. However, unless you have the power to stop time, your flowers will ultimately wilt and die, which might be depressing, to say the least, if they stood for something significant to you. We do, after all, exchange flowers for truly momentous events like birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, graduations, and, for that matter, even funerals. Why wouldn't you want to preserve the memory of these events forever? Flowers represent different things to different people.
Even if you don't have a strong sense of sentiment and only appreciate how beautiful flowers are, preserving them in the resin can still be helpful. The best part is that you don't have to use these flowers all by themselves either; you can add items like glitter or bits of memorabilia to make your workpiece stand out above the others. Many expert epoxy resin painters use preserved flowers as part of their workpieces.
Should Flowers Be Dried Before Being Preserved in Resin?
While you may get away with keeping flowers in resin without first drying them off, you should think about the potential long-term effects of this. Flowers can deteriorate over time because of substances like moisture and chlorophyll that they contain. Many flower species won't last very long if they aren't dried out beforehand, though this isn't true for all flower species. It is crucial that you dry out your flowers before preserving them in resin because doing so doesn't take long if you prepare ahead of time to account for the drying process. Thinking of drying flowers? You've probably seen a sad rom-com or two when the heartbroken character keeps a flower from their first love story in a book. This is essentially how it's done, but there are some crucial additional stages.
All you need for efficient flower drying is some time and a book of reasonable size. The flower should be placed in the centre of the book. If the flower is slightly crushed, it won't matter because it will recover quickly. After about a week, open the book and remove the flower. At this point, the flower ought to be fully dried and prepared for resin encasing. If you're on a tight schedule, there is another approach that might help you dry your flowers a little bit more quickly. You may speed up the drying process by compressing your flower and putting it in a microwave for a brief amount of time; just be careful not to keep it in there for too long or you might wind up with no flower and no microwave.
If you have a spare plastic container, some silica gel, your flower, and the container's lid are all you need. Place the flower into the container and cover it with the lid after adding some gel and giving it some time to settle. When you take the flower out of the container after two to four days, it should be totally dry.
How to Dry Flowers - The Best Methods
The best way to dry flowers will depend on the kind of flower you're working with and one of the numerous drying techniques. For instance, flowers with compact, sturdy heads, like hydrangeas, lavender, and gypsophila, respond well to air drying because their reduced moisture content makes it possible for them to dry out successfully over a longer time.
Heat drying works best on larger, denser flowers with several layers of petals, such as roses, tulips, and chrysanthemums. It is advisable to dry more delicate flowers, such as dahlias, pansies, and peonies, with the use of a desiccant to hasten the process. Although not all flowers will dry properly, it's fun to try out different kinds.
Although learning how to dry flowers takes some time, there are ways to make the process go more quickly. One of the finest methods is to put the blooms in a bowl of desiccant, which will hasten the process of drawing out water. The ideal product for this task is silica gel. Desiccant-based flower drying can be done more quickly than air-drying, in as little as a few days. While it will aid in the petals' colour retention, air drying may better retain their form.
How to air-dry flowers
The simplest method for learning how to dry flowers is to air dry them. The best way to preserve them intact, however, takes longer than the other approaches. You should be aware that the colours are prone to fading, giving them a vintage appearance.
Prior to air drying, choose the best flowers. Ideally, they should have just begun to blossom.
Trim the stems and remove any leaves or other foliage from the area below the flowers.
A few of the blooms should be grouped together, and the stems should be securely fastened with twine or a rubber band. A thumb tack and tooth floss are suggested. You may find you can quickly dry a bouquet by wrapping the floss around the thumbtack after tying all of the flowers and stems together. Remember to divide larger bouquets into smaller portions as they won't dry as quickly as smaller ones.
Attach the stems of your flowers with string to a hook, nail, or coat hanger to hang them upside down.
You can preserve flowers by the air dry method on a flat surface which will help with preserving.
To accomplish this, gently fan the stems out to generate stems that are both straight and curled.
Put the flowers in a room that's warm, dry, and dark, such as an attic or a sizable cabinet. "Direct sunshine can fade the flowers," so be sure to pick a location with excellent airflow as this is a key element when wanting to preserve flowers. All this will help with the art of crafting dried flowers from home.
The blooms should dry out over a few weeks at home; check in on your flowers occasionally to see whether they're ripe. The flowers should rustle when you move them and be dry and stiff.
You can remove your flowers and put them on display once they have dried. It's a good idea to give them a light sheen and preservation by giving them a fine mist of hairspray.
Do not place your dried flowers near your home heater or in direct sunlight.
How To Dry Flowers in the Microwave
The easiest approach for drying flowers at home is to microwave them; this keeps their brilliant colours intact. To dry flowers in this manner, silica gel is a requirement.
Trim the stems and start by removing any leaves or other foliage from the area below the flower.
Put on gloves, add a layer of silica gel (about 1 inch thick) to the bottom of a microwaveable container, and then arrange your flowers on top. Only do flowers of the same type since you can only dry a small number at once and you don't want them to dry out at different rates. This is a key step towards getting your dried flowers correct the first time.
More gel should be carefully added on top of the flowers until an inch or so of gel is present.
Heat them in the microwave in one-minute bursts until dry. Place the container in the microwave. To avoid burning the flowers and your home, you must examine them between each interval.
When the flowers are completely dry, cover the container loosely and let it cool for at least an hour, preferable for 24 hours so they can have time to set.
Carefully remove the flowers from the gel without crushing the petals. To remove any last bits of silica gel, use a delicate brush.
Your flowers are now ready for display. Spray some hairspray on them to help set them.
How to Dry Flowers in the Oven
By baking your flowers in the oven at home, you can dry them. Apart from speed, this approach offers few benefits because it is more likely to result in petal loss and does not keep the colour of the flowers as well as microwaving does.
Trim the stems and remove any leaves or other foliage from the area below the flower.
Set the oven's temperature to roughly 175-200 °F.
Bake the flowers for one to two hours on a wire rack set over a baking sheet.
After an hour, check on the flowers to make sure they are not shrivelling up, and then check on them about every ten minutes after that.
Remove the dried flowers from the oven and let them cool fully in your home.
Care For Dried Flowers
You must take care of dried flowers to ensure that they endure as long as possible, whether you have them arranged or gathered in a wreath or other creative project. Indoors, where they are shielded from the weather, display dried flowers. Keep the flowers away from regions of bright light and direct sunshine to prevent colour fading and possible brittleness. Keep dried flowers away from areas with high humidity levels. Some flowers kept in glycerin solutions have the ability to "weep" from the stems or pores and leak onto surrounding surfaces when exposed to dampness. Best way to preserve them recommended keeping them in well-sealed storage containers for the best results regarding dried flowers. Don't keep dried flowers in plastic.
Which Resin Should You Use for Resin Flower Preservation?
The first step in creating stunning resin flower preservation art forms is learning how to prepare your flowers properly. The next step is to decide which resin you'll use to enclose your bloom. There are a huge variety of epoxy resin brands available, but not all resins are created equal or even the same. Here is a resin product we discovered that we believe could be among the best on the market for keeping dried flowers in resin, in the hopes of making your life a little bit easier.
They are the perfect option for protecting resin-cast flowers because of their unique chemistry, which also guarantees that your flower will be securely fastened in its new home. Pro Marines ProPour composition is not only robust but also resistant to a variety of external forces that could otherwise harm your resin casing. Your workpiece could be harmed by things like UV rays (which could cause the resin to turn yellow), collision, abrasion, heat, and moisture. Thanks to the ProPour formula's total resistance to all of the aforementioned factors, your workpiece will always be completely safe from damage.
Epoxy resin is what many people refer to as pourable plastic if you haven't worked with it before. It essentially consists of two liquids, one of which is resin and the other is a hardener, which you will purchase together. Any choice you make can be utilised to surround objects in the soon-to-be solid resin castings. When mixed, they undergo a chemical process that produces solid plastic forms that can be used to either copy objects or fill a space. The Suspended Petals team has a long history in the resin industry and takes great satisfaction in having one of the most durable resins available right now.
The risk of bubbles emerging inside your casting while it cures is challenging when dealing with resin for any workpiece, but Pro Marine's ProPour formula almost eliminates bubble formation from the initial pour to the final pour. If that doesn't convince you, this mixture cures perfectly clear, so there won't be any hazy barriers standing between your flower and the resin casting's surface.
If this is your first time working with resin, you can be confident that Pro Marine has your best interests in mind. Their self-levelling solution not only guarantees flawless pours but also reduces surface flaws on your castings! It is not, however, the most affordable resin available. You unquestionably get what you pay for with this product, as with the majority of others on the market today, both in terms of number and quality. This is the ideal option for resin flower preservation due to all of these qualities.
How to Preserve Flowers in Resin
It's time to learn how to preserve flowers in resin now that you know what materials you'll need and how to dry flowers for resin. It's better to take your time and work at a speed that is comfortable to you because you only get one chance to preserve a flower.
Prepare Your Workspace
Since you'll be dealing with resin, it's vital to safeguard both your home workplace and yourself from any unintentional resin contact. To make sure that none of your surfaces acquires resin on them, you will need to set down some old newspaper or a covering in your workspace. Keep in mind that resin and harder can react differently with various materials and can be very difficult to remove once they have had a chance to dry on a particular material.
You need to take a few precautions to ensure that resin doesn't get on your hands, eyes, or respiratory system in order to protect yourself. To protect your respiratory system, you'll need a face mask. To protect your eyes, you'll need transparent plastic glasses, which are available in most hardware and/or DIY stores.
Prepare Your Tools
The easiest approach to preserve flowers in resin is to be well-prepared and have all of your supplies on hand and ready to use before you begin. This is due to the fact that epoxy resin, which needs to be poured as soon as possible to get the greatest pour for all of your preserved flower resin castings, is a time-sensitive substance. Finding out exactly how much resin you'll need for the casting you plan to make is the best way to get your tools ready. To do this, you'll need to get your hands on some measuring cups. With these, you can measure out the resin you'll need and pour the resin and hardener evenly.
Additionally, you'll need a couple of clothes, a heat gun, and a mixing stick for resin. The heat gun will be used to pop any air bubbles in the resin. When you have everything you need, it's time to get your mould ready. Get the mould you'll be using and make sure it's clean. This can be accomplished by thoroughly washing it with a moist cloth that has been dipped in some soapy water and letting it air dry. When the mould has sufficiently dried, you have the option of using anti-adhesive sprays or demolding agents to make sure that you can remove the resin casting once it has had time to fully cure.
Prepare Your Flowers
Making sure your flowers and resin are properly prepared is the most crucial phase in the art flower preservation procedure, as we previously discussed. Making sure that your flowers are thoroughly dried out before encasing them in resin is one of the steps you must take to prepare them. Although we did indicate that you could get away with encasing flowers without first drying them out, keep in mind that doing so will contradict the purpose of encasing the flowers in resin in the first place because the moisture in the flowers will eventually cause them to rot and decay.
Your flower should be entirely dried once you remove it from the book, which you should have sealed and placed in a sunny location like your home windowsill for about a week. If you don't have this much time, you could put your flower in a sealed container filled with silica gel for around 24 hours; when you take it out, the gel should have absorbed most of the resin's moisture.
Another way to dry flowers for the resin is to use the book approach, however, you could also just microwave the dried flowers instead of exposing them to sunlight. The flower could be forced to release all of its moisture by being placed in a vented container. Once your flower has dried, you can embellish it with paint, glitter, plastic diamonds, or anything else you believe would make your preserved flower stand out, such as ornaments on the steps. Please make sure to let the adhesive in question completely dry before going on to the following step in the process if you intend to glue your decorations to the flower.
Pour Your Resin
It's time for you to get to work now that you have everything you'll need ready. Resin can be intimidating in principle if you've never dealt with it before, but in practice, it's very simple to use, and chances are you'll wind up having a great time doing it. Calculating the precise amount of resin you will need for your workpiece is the first step in using resin. The simplest approach to do this is to determine the complete capacity of your mould or container and mix the resin in the total amount mentioned. How do you combine resin? Two containers, one containing resin and the other a hardener, should be available.
Why do you do this? All you need are two measuring containers, which you should fill equally with resin and a hardener. Each container should contain a quantity that is equivalent to half of the entire volume of your mould. Fill both of your measuring cups to the top, then evenly combine the contents by pouring one into the other (it doesn't matter which goes into which).
Although most resin products should be combined together in a 1:1 ratio, you should make sure to follow the manufacturer's recommended procedure and ratios when mixing resin and hardener. You must choose how you will pour your resin to preserve your rose or blossom once you are certain that it has been thoroughly combined.
When it comes to how to cover your flowers in resin, you have two options. The mould and final shape of the resin casting you're attempting to make do affect this. The first and most popular method for encasing flowers in resin is to pour the resin in two phases, which entails filling the mould to half its capacity before adding the flower. Since it guarantees that your flower is perfectly centred, this is objectively the finest technique to preserve flowers in resin.
The second way to cover dried flowers in resin is to simply place the flower in the mould, pour the resin into the mould, and then wait for the flower to settle into the resin on its own. Alternatively, you could just use a toothpick to help the bloom settle into the resin. Although this is not the ideal method for resin flower preservation, it can be used if your mould is oddly shaped or you don't want to pour your resin in two stages.
It's perfectly normal for your flower to enlarge inside the resin as it is being poured; this enhances the final casting's aesthetic appeal. Before going on to the next stage of the procedure, your flower should be completely submerged in the resin and allowed to cure for the amount of time advised by the manufacturer. Make sure the mould is properly closed if it is a two-part mould to prevent air or dust from getting into the casting while it is curing
Using Dried Flowers with Resin: Tips and Tricks
Although incorporating dried flowers in resin casting projects is a very straightforward process, there are a few pointers and tactics that may be useful to you. To make sure you get the most out of your resin and your flowers for every workpiece, try the following strategies.
Always Ensure That Your Flowers Are Completely Dry
Flowers typically contain a lot of moisture; in fact, their overall weight is typically between 80 and 90 percent water. This means that during the flower drying process, there will be a lot of water to get rid of, therefore you should try your best to get rid of as much water as you can. This requires exercising patience since if you preserve your flowers too soon, they could rot from the inside out, spoiling your product completely.
You can go one step further and apply direct heat to your flower using a heat gun or a blow dryer to get any last bits of moisture out, regardless of whether you have decided to use the book, microwave, or silica gel technique. Just be careful to keep your distance from the bloom to prevent scorching or warping while you're doing it.
Buy Pre-Dried Flowers if Possible
Despite the fact that we have given you a tonne of options for drying your flowers for resin, this may be the best course of action if you ever have flowers in resin project that needs to be finished right away. It is simple to find dried flowers, and they are prepared for usage right out of the bag (literally). These flowers are also very diverse, so you should be able to utilise them for a range of tasks and to give your home handiwork some variety if you plan to encase more than one flower in it.
Can You Put Fresh Leaves In Resin?
You can definitely add fresh leaves to the resin! You may create a wide variety of things with resin because it is a substance with such versatility. You may also try putting fresh flowers in resin! Either genuine or synthetic flowers may be used. Just make sure they are not plastic if you use imitation flowers because the heat from the curing process may melt plastic ones.
How Do You Seal Flowers Before Resin?
Flowers can be sealed before resin by being frozen, having a sealer like hairspray added, or being dried. It is frequently beneficial to mix various techniques. As dehydration occurs very slowly at low temperatures, freezing flowers is the most popular method of sealing them for resin. Put your flowers in an airtight bag or container and keep them in the home freezer until you need them to prevent the drying process from the beginning before you are ready for them. If used properly, this method will retain your flowers' colour and shape better than any other way, especially if they are still fresh!
Conclusion
Since flowers are so unique and they frequently accompany significant life events, keeping flowers from an occasion can frequently feel like slowing down time. Thank you for reading from everyone at Suspended Petals. We hope that by following our instructions on how to preserve flowers in resin, you will also be able to make stunning resin paperweights and so much more using flowers from your special day. Persevering flowers using an epoxy resin can become a fun home art form with a little practice. Time to dig those roses out.