Eco-Friendly Resin Cake Stands

I recently discovered ResinCrete by JDiction, which is a water based eco-friendly powder alternative to Epoxy Resin. It mixes up rather like a thick, pancake batter and takes acrylic paint very well if added to the water first. The finish is lovely and smooth, and all it needs is a little beeswax sealer to finish it off with a perfect sheen.

The only downside to ResinCrete is the price. The current price on Amazon (UK) without any special offers/discount codes is around £20 for a 1kg bag. When you consider that a two tier cake stand holds between 650 and 700 ml, and a 100g mixed quantity of ResinCrete is only around 90ml...well, a 1kg bag doesn't go very far.

A few years ago, Louise Singleton from Louise Singleton Creations, posted a YouTube video where she made a macaron cake stand using a budget friendly plaster instead of an eco-resin, and Steve McDonald from Steve McDonald Arts and Crafts also posted a video where he compared several alternatives to the eco-resins that were available at the time.

I headed over to Amazon and selected a 1kg bag of Mouldmasters Stonecast, which was only £6.50 for the bag, compared to the £16.99 that I paid for the same amount of ResinCrete. But, would the Stonecast be comparable in my tiered cake stand mould?

The mixing ratio for Stonecast is 100:50, so for every 100g of the plaster it was 50ml of water. I mixed up the colour of acrylic paint that I wanted to add, and then thoroughly mixed that into 325ml of water, before adding in 650g of the powder.

I managed to fill the larger tier of the mould but there was barely enough mixture left to coat the surface of the second tier, let alone fill it up...so, just like ResinCrete you need to mix much more than you think you will need. I made up another 200g of the Stonecast and that was enough to fill the second mould along with a small coaster mould that I'd pulled out of my stash just in case.

The packet directions state that the plaster should be dry in around 30 -40 minutes, I tested mine after an hour and was able to demould the coaster but the larger moulds were still warm to the touch and felt slightly damp still so I decided to leave them overnight just to ensure that they are fully cured.

I did notice that none of the colour had stayed true, and the Stonecast had almost reverted back to the dark cream colour of the original powder, so that was a bit disappointing. They demoulded without any issue, although I did rub on just the tiniest amount of petroleum jelly to the inside of the mould before pouring.

The surface texture was just as smooth as the ResinCrete, and if it wasn't for the extreme colour fade I would be really happy with them. So, I think my next purchase - which will be next month as I've just blown my crafting budget on a job lot of moulds from someone who is destashing their craft room - will be a set of pigments made for plaster and another, larger bag of the Stonecast plaster.

Until next time, happy crafting!