Not all of us live in an environment in which our favorite flowers grow year-round. Whether you’re a gardener or are perhaps looking for a way to preserve those flowers for safekeeping or to brighten up your décor, you could consider preserving flowers in resin.
Both dried and live flowers can be encapsulated in resin. However, live flowers fade in color, and bubbles may form as a result of the plant’s natural moisture. Therefore, for the best results, we recommend drying your flowers before encasing them in resin.
Process of Drying Flowers for Encapsulation
There are numerous methods of drying flowers. A relatively quick and easy way is to use flower-drying silica gel. If you like, take a look at the video below or continue reading for a summary of the process.
To begin, gather the flowers that you would like to dry. You can use live flowers from your garden or purchase some from a florist.
Pour your silica gel into a container that will hold the flowers you want to dry. Be sure you can cover the container!
Set your flowers upright in the silica gel.
Add more silica gel to cover the flowers completely.
Seal the container and set it aside for 2 to 3 days. Based on the silica gel used, most flowers will dry in a 2 to 5-day time frame.
Open the container and carefully dump the top layer of silica gel into another container.
Pull your flowers out of the remaining gel.
And there you have it—your brittle bouquet, ready for the resin!
The Process of Casting Flowers in Resin
Flowers can be encapsulated in resin for many types of projects. For now, we will focus on showing you a step-by-step guide through a specific example. In this video, you can see the process of embedding a dried flower in resin with a bottle-shaped mold. The result is then turned into an epoxy resin lamp.
What You Will Need:
- Promise’s Deep Pour Epoxy Resin
- Dried flowers of your choice
- A measuring cup or container in which to mix the resin in
- Popsicle sticks for stirring and suspending the flowers
- Glue
- A mold of your choice (we use a bottle-shaped one!)
- Gloves and Safety googles
For this project, we use our Promise’s Deep Pour Epoxy Resin which is perfect for object encapsulation. This product has a 2:1 by volume mix ratio that results in thicker pours and longer working times.
Before you begin this process, it is crucial to look over the instructions for Deep Pour Epoxy Resin. We also recommend pouring no more than 2″ per application for smaller projects. Our flower encapsulation was done in one pour, but it may be easier to pour multiple thinner layers over time.
Make sure that your two-part epoxy resin is thoroughly mixed before preparing your dried flowers to be encased.
It helps to have an anchor supporting the flower such that it sits the way you’d like it to in the resin mold. Here, we firmly glued the flower’s stem to a popsicle stick. Apply pressure until the stem is secured to the stick and the glue is dry.
Rest the stick against the bottom of the mold, as shown below, so that the flower will appear to be growing out of the bottom of the resin bottle. You can also dip your flower in a layer of resin before hanging it up and pouring into the mold. There are a lot of ways creators are discovering how to best preserve objects like flowers for their projects!
Hold the stick and flower in the spot you’d like it to stay while pouring Deep Pour into the mold. You should stop pouring just below the edge of the stick to retain the unique shape of the mold. It helps to have enough of the stem sticking out so that you can break the stick free after the resin has cured.
If you’re looking to prevent bubbles, you can always use a pressure pot. Typically, you will want to put your project in the pressure pot before the open time of the resin is done and leave it in there until the curing time is up. Pressure pots apply pressure to minimize bubbles, and keeping your project in them for the entire curing time will avoid allowing air to expand those bubbles again.
Whether or not you use a pressure pot or not, be sure to allow the resin to cure for the appropriate time, as shown in the instructions.
Remove the stick from the stem. Try to break it such that only a small portion of the stem sticks out from the bottom as possible.
Gently loosen the mold from the bottom edges of the resin bottle.
Continue to carefully peel the mold off the resin.
And your resin-bottled flower is complete!
Use it as a decoration, or turn it into a customized lamp, as we did. You can even use these methods during different seasons, such as for encasing autumn foliage and leaves.
Please be aware that we do not recommend using Deep Pour Epoxy Resin for outdoor applications.
Casting Flowers in Resin Ideas
A number of projects involve casting flowers in resin, including making bookmarks, jewelry, and paperweights, as well as encasing wedding flowers in resin. Encase flowers to make them last, preserve a cherished memory, or to create decor inspired by Mother Nature.
Do you have any questions about these processes or our products? Contact Us or visit our FAQ page for more information. You can also share your favorite flower encapsulation products on all of our social media!
We look forward to seeing what you create and, as always, we wish you happy crafting!