Plique a'jour effect using resin/epoxy

Hello all: I’m in a quandry and hoping someone can help.

I’m currently working with resin and epoxy as a “filler”. (Filling
hollow shapes, bezel cups, pretty much anything I can get my hands
on.) And i’ve come across some flat plastic shapes with different
sized holes punched out of it. What i’d love to do is achieve a
plique a’jour effect using transparent-colored resin/epoxy on these
pieces.

How would I go about doing so? What would I put underneath that
wouldn’t adhere to the resin? I haven’t practiced with anything yet
because I don’t have many pieces to spare. Any words of wisdom,
folks?

thanks in advance…
emily

I had some success using Colores resin to fill in what is basically
piercework in silver. I wondered also what would work, and it
occurred to me that I had not yet found anything (tape, glue,
nothing) that would stick to silicone RTV molds. I did an experiment
where I just set the silver piece onto the smooth RTV mold surface
and dripped the resin into the piercework. It ran under the silver a
bit because the silver was uneven, but it did not stick to the mold.
If I wanted to do a lot of this, I’d make an open-topped mold of the
finished piece to create a positive seal against the bottom.

Hope this helps!
Laurie Cavanaugh

How about a sheet wax? Anything that adheres can easily be melted
off at temps that won’t damage the plastic or the resin, especially
if you pick a low melt wax.

Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org

Hello Emily, Super Heavy Duty page protectors. Cut a shape that is
generously larger than your piece tape to heavy card stock or
corrugated card board. Wax with johnsons paste wax(could use ren
wax but johnsons is much cheaper) thin layers buffed in between coats
(about three coats). Lay your flat cut outs down on the prepared
surface and apply a very this layer of 5 min epoxy to holes. this
secures the piece for the “pour”. Once the five min is set and the
piece secured to the base “pour” the resin in the holes. Once resin
is set it should peel right off the prepared surface. This can be a
notoriously leaky undertaking if the holes in the plastic are not
"deep" enough to make a good seal. Hopefully the pieces of plastic
will hold up to the sanding and polishing resin needs after the
pour. Fool around with it a little bit and you should be able to come
up with a system that works for you. I build molds from these heavy
duty page protectors for shapes et cetera and it works pretty well.
It was a bit dicey getting started but well worth it in the end.
Intense transparent color is harder. I like to use a set of primary
color polyester resin dyes(bought at a local craft supply store).
Good quality tube water color pigments work well too but a LITTLE
(literally the tip of a tooth pick) goes a long way. I played
around(who am I trying to kid. I am still fooling around with it.)
alot keeping track of my “experiments” on 3x5 cards when it came to
color. Reproducible results for me is about 75% Have fun. PLAY. I
sure am.

Rene