*Intro Music* and welcome to my new
channel. Today I'm going to be showing you how to
make these resin and feather the paperweights. Okay so the first step you're
going to need is a mould, I've got a latex mould that I've pre-made, but you can use
anything from a silicone mould, metal, plastic, you can buy one, or you can
make one yourself, it's completely up to you. You're going to need to secure your mould, I'm just using a plastic cup with a little bit of pva in
the bottom, just give it a little bit of weight, but you can use anything it
depends on the material of the mould you've chosen, and the shape of it. You
can use pegs, all sorts, so it's completely up to you. I'm just using something very
simple just to give it a bit of stability. Secondly you're going to
want to pick whatever you want to put into the mould, into your paperweight. I'm
just picking a selection of colourful feathers, you can use anything you
want it doesn't have to be feathers, just try to avoid real fruits and flowers,
especially if you're using polyester, because the heat will react with the
object, and the water will leak out, and that will destroy your cast. Because
resin absolutely hates water or moisture. So avoid that at all costs, epoxy
you can get away with it a little bit, but polyester gets so hot you've got
absolutely no chance. So I am using feathers and I'm just gonna put as many
as I can in, I don't wanna put too many in but I want enough so that it
goes all the way from the top of the mould, all the way back to the bottom,
quite separate and spread out. Next we're gonna start mixing our resin, I'm using a
polyester resin from easy composites, but you can use whatever resin that you've
got available. Just make sure that you're using it in a well-ventilated
space and that you're wearing gloves. Especially if it's polyester, it throws
off horrible toxic fumes, and it's something you really don't want to be
breathing in, so make sure it is in a well-ventilated space. You're gonna
want to mix your resin with your catalyst, depending on what make, and
what brand you've got, depends on how much catalysts you should mix, but all
the instructions will be on the tin or it'll come provided when you buy it.
You don't want to mix too much catalyst into it because otherwise your resin can
crack, it can go yellow, and very brittle. But you also don't want to put too little
in because otherwise it's just won't set And you'll just end up with a gloopy, sticky
ball that you won't be able to do anything with. And once you've got that
mixed up you're just gonna want to pour it into the mold with the feathers
already inside, and make sure it goes all the way up to the top of the mold,
because resin will shrink, and shrink quite significantly. So get it all the
way to the top as high as you can get it without spilling it, I ended up
spilling it anyway, but that's besides the point. Once that's all done you can sit back
and relax for between four to six hours and wait for the resin set, but preferably
leave it 24 hours just to make sure that it's a hundred percent solid. Once it is
solid, just give it a quick tap on the top just to double-check and now you can
de-mould the paperweight. It will be a bit of a struggle, and a bit of a chew on
trying to get it out, but you will eventually get there, It'll just take a
little bit of time and a little bit of strength. What I did realize with the
paperweights that I get out, because of the mould I've used, and the resin I've used,
I get quite a rough and sharp finish to the paperweight, which isn't something I
wanted. So I am going to sand all of that off, make sure it's nice and smooth,
and polished, because this isn't the surface I want my paperweight to have. So
I'll show you how to send the resin and the paperweight next. This next step is completely optional,
because if you manage to get your paperweight out of your mold and you're
completely happy with it, it came out nice and smooth, or you like the rough
surface then that's fine you're done, you might need to do a little layer of
varnish afterwards but that's it. If you
haven't and yours turned out like mine and you do want a nice smooth surface on
it, you're gonna want to sand it. So for this I used an orbital sander,
power sander, you can hand sand the paperweight afterwards as well, but
it's just a lot more labor-intensive so if you do have a power sander, feel
free to use it. But you want to start from a coarse grit, so a low grit, I
started at a sixty, and then a 180, then a 320, a 1,000, and then 2,000 to finish it
off. So you're gonna go very coarse, and then slowly as you sand away the layers
you want to go higher, and higher, to a much more fine sandpaper, and that'll just
eventually start and buff off all the scratches, and leave you with a nice
finish. One thing I usually do is I use a green kind of scourer, and I wash the
paperweight in between the sanding so I can see how it looks. If you pour
water over the top of it, usually it gives you a good indication of how it'll
look once you've put the final layer of varnish over the top of it. So that is a
trick so you can see if you've missed any bits, if any bits need a little bit
more attention, or if it's looking really good and fine. You will need a dust
mask and I'm wearing sunglasses in this, but I would recommend wearing goggles.
The only reason I didn't wear goggles is because it kept steaming up.
So I whipped out my sunglasses, but definitely use a dust mask because you don't want to
be inhaling all the resin dust particles. I don't know what they do but
I can't imagine they'll do your any good. So yeah just keep sanding away,
sand the layers, it will look quite scary when you first
start doing it because you're like oh no I've ruined the surface of it, but don't
worry It'll get better, just keep going, and going, and soon you'll start to see it
becomes a little bit more clearer, and a little bit more clearer. And once you've
finally finished your final sanding layer, it'll become quite an opaque
frosty looking surface. You can keep it like that if you want, if you're happy
with that, it does look quite nice, but if you want a very transparent, glossy
finish then you're going to want to apply a little bit of varnish afterwards.
And the reason you apply the varnish afterwards is it fills in all them
little scratches and little crevices that are caused by the sanding, and just
totally finishes, finishes it off, and makes it look really nice, transparent
and glossy. But I'll show you that next. And we're finally at the last step which is
now just to apply a thin layer of varnish. I'm just using a glossy, interior
varnish, from ronseal, it's very quick drying, and the trick is you only
wan a very, very thin layer. You don't want it too thick because you'll get a
little white spots, so just use a very thin layer, you can use a spray
varnish if you want, but I just find you have a lot more control with
applying it with a paint brush. You can make sure you get every bit, once you've
done the top bit, flip it over, do the bottom, and then you're done! Right so that's done, we're finished. And this is the final product. I think it looks
pretty decent, I really like the color combination, but again you can experiment
and play around with different kinds of colours, and different materials as well.
You don't need to use feathers, you could use anything you want like I said before.
It is a lot of fun, it's a lot of hard work though, but I think it is worth it.
But I'll leave a long list of instructions down below in the
description, so go check that out, and comment down below if I've missed
anything out, or I haven't explained anything properly and I'll try and get
back to you the best I can. Give it a like! Subscribe! This is a new channel, I'm
just trying something new so support would be really appreciated. And I'll see
you in the next video! Byeee!! and welcome to my new
channel, today I'm gonna be teaching you how to make these, resin and feather
paperweights, but let's crack on. No.. that's shit. Hi everyone.. No! No! Terrible! Hello everyone and today I'm going to be showing you how to make these resin and feather
paperweights...That's shite! Argh! God! Thanks God for that!