Coffee Bean Ideas & Resin

   So this coffee bean bag was just sitting around my house and I thought it was time to use it. However, didn't want the beans to go bad from being open too long so I thought I'd use the leftovers for some art things after baking some under some cookies. Here is the recipe for the cookies (the amounts don't have to be exact):

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp maple Extract or vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup skittles
• 1 egg
• mix sugar and butter
• mix everything else (alternatively mix baking soda and flour first)
• bake at 350 degrees for 19min (less if u made tiny cookies) with the coffee beans under the cookies as an extra layer

Resin is a easy way to make sculptures, keyrings, stamps, mats or anything you can think of. There's so many things resin can be used for and many things you can preserve in it. I didn't want to chew through all the coffee beans, and I didn't want to make coffee so I thought I'd just put them into some resin molds. If I was rich, I'd have bought more interesting resin molds, but I'm not so I'm just working with what I have. Epoxy Resins is mixed in a 1:1 ratio and have around a 30 minute working time. This is the time during which you can work with the resin before it begins to harden. Usually resin takes 72hours to cure fully, however, this Puduo resin advertises ▶Unique FAST Curing Resin that finished casting can be remove from mold after 8 HOURS ,One to one mix ratio is fool proof and has a forgiving 40 minute work time. All resin is the same as far as I can tell, so just find one that's good for your budget. Puduo was just a random result from Amazon. 
Depending on the size of your mold, you can add glitters, wheel gears, sequins or anything you want (in this case, coffee beans). I found that tie dye works fine, although people usually use mica powders, glow powders and alcohol ink. Although I've never been bothered by bubbles in resin, if you want a slightly stronger surface you can put it in a vacuum Chamber, or try pushing the bubbles to the side of the cup after mixing it well. If you want the powder to have a powder look, sprinkle it on top of the clear resin after it has been poured into the mold. I did this with, tie dye and it sunk to the bottom and clumped in the middle. However, in another batch, I mixed the tie dye into the resin with a popsicle stick and it looked much nicer (like any other dyed resin).
I leave my resin about 24 hours before adding another layer (so the colors don't mix), however, you can add another layer as soon as the first layer is mostly dry or solid. I also put something on top of the mold (eg. a piece of paper) so it doesn't gather dust and clean it with acetone or water before the next layer. If you want the colors to mix slightly for a sort of fade effect, mix several cups of colored resin and pour them one by one from one edge to the other of the mold while holding the mold at a tilt to control the color flow.
Finally, you can add a coat of nail polish or spray the resin with a sealer before taking it out of the mold (after cleaning it).

Resin is really hard to remove from anything, so be sure to use a newspaper or something under the area you are working with. It also gets stuck to your hands so you want to wear gloves. If you don't wear gloves the resin will hurt your skin if you try to peel it off. However, I didn't wear gloves and I ended up with some funky, multicolored nails which I found interesting to look at. 

Be careful to tip all the hardener into the cup and not leave any on the edge of the bottle because the cap can get stuck if you close the bottle with hardener on the spiral neck of the bottle.

When I have my own house I'm going to coat a table in resin and bottle caps. I might even add some coffee bean resin creations to the top of the table as well, although I'm not a big fan of the color brown in something as permanent as a table. I'd rather put coffee beans in disposable resin pieces like keyrings. You can glue the keyring ring onto your resin molds, although I've found that by placing the ring into the wet resin works as well.

Cleaning up is never as fun as making resin things, but I'd say its worth it. 

I'm making the coffee bean resin hearts later tonight after I finish making the resin mat (if Amazon delivers on time). I might put some beans on the bottom of the mat as well. Follow me on instagram as ill post pictures on there when done. https://www.instagram.com/dogecoin44567/

If you have any ideas for the bottom hanging part of the Crochet Rainbow, Spiral Dream Catcher I'm making, (if I can be bothered) then tell me because I think adding feathers to it makes it look funny. Also need ideas for what to do with the feathers that I don't want to add to the dream catcher.

I usually buy small bottles of resin as I work in a small area. However, I suppose larger ones are more economically viable. There are also different types of resin that dry faster than epoxy, however, these require a UV light, and I don't have a UV light.

If you have time, you can make your own silicon molds and then sell your keyrings on Amazon. Maybe ill do this one day with this cool design I found. I'd make it in rainbow strips, and I think it would be cool if the customer could request the colors or the design (eg. if they want extra large glitter, coffee beans).