Fabulous 'Faberge'

After disappearing down a YouTube rabbit hole, my latest craft phase involves Resin. I started out with 2 part 1:1 Epoxy Resin, and have dabbled in a little UV resin as well (have to say, love UV resin for smaller pieces as it cures within just a few minutes!).

I wanted to make something 'Easter-y' but was a little disappointed in the very generic moulds available; I didn't want a rabbit shaped egg holder or a solid egg shape...then I discovered a three-part mould that was an egg shaped jar. It's big enough to put a whole smaller chocolate egg inside, or a bag of smaller eggs in the bottom.

The mould has incredible detail on the outside, it has full lattice work and small indents that were perfect for small flat back pearls to be glued in place.

I ordered the mould, and didn't have to wait too long for it to arrive (AliExpress was selling exactly the same mould by the same seller as Amazon but for a fraction of the price). I was also able to find a YouTube video by Poffle's Creations, who had also purchased the same mould. Ria detailed how she turned the mould inside out and 'painted' the details with mica powder before flipping it right side and filling the mould with coloured resin.

I made a rookie mistake in painting the mica powder the night before, then turning it right side out the next morning, only to find that the mica had 'travelled' where it had settled, so had to carefully run a cotton bud dipped in isopropyl alcohol around the areas that I didn't want the mica to settle.

I'd used a deep blue mica powder to the detailed areas, and then added a touch of white pigment ink to the Epoxy Resin - I had to add quite a lot of pigment to get the Resin to colour and even then it wasn't really what I'd consider a 'true white', but it was all that I had.

I then almost made another error, I'd made a note of how much resin Ria had used to fill her moulds and was just about to start the pour when I looked at the mould and the amount of resin in my container and thought 'that's never going to be enough!'. I picked up the mould again and it was only then I realised that I hadn't popped the inner piece of the mould back in place where I'd been adding the mica....I had been about to pour a solid egg rather than creating a hollow one!

I poured the resin into the three moulds, and left it to cure...and cure....and cure... It took nearly three days to cure enough for me to demould it, and then I left it again for another 24 hours for it to harden completely.

I'm quite pleased how it turned out, and it's now been handed over to my Mum packed full of Creme Eggs!