Amazing Casting Products: Hydrangea Leaf Dish

I have the most darling leaf dish I bought from a pottery vendor this Summer. I just love it! Looking at it got me to thinking, "Why not make one from Resin?" So I scoured my garden and saw that the Hydrangea leaves were just the right size.

Materials Used: Amazing Mold Putty, a glass ramekin,1 leaf, wax paper for my work surface,
scissors, fine sandpaper, watercolors, spray lacquer and a yellow permanent pen.

I mixed equal amounts of the yellow and white putty until completely mixed. Then I formed it into a pancake shape and draped it over the upside down dish. Before it had a chance to set, I draped the leaf over the putty (#2) while firmly and evenly pressed into place.

While this was setting, I again mixed equal amounts of the white and yellow putty, formed another pancake shape and draped it over the leaf, pressing firmly all over. Before this second part had a chance to set, I flipped the ramekin over and pressed lightly onto the wax paper and then over again and made marks (#3 & #4) onto the top and bottom part of the molds. Two at the front of the leaf and two at the stem. This is a very important step! When the mold is hard to touch, pull apart, peel off the leaf and practice putting the mold together at your assigned markings.

Next using equal amounts of the "A" and "B" Amazing Casting Resin, I mixed this in to a dixie cup until clear. Then I poured the mixture carefully into the bottom of the mold, placed the other mold onto (making sure all the markings were aligned and then place the ramekin on last. Don't be alarmed if some resin leaks out (#5). After about 15 minutes and the resin has turned hard and white, you can remove the bowl and gently peel up the top mold, as seen in step #6, slowly working around all the edges till it's removed.

As you can see on Step #7, more resin was needed. I repeated step #5 and #6 twice ( with out the ramekin this time) till I was happy with the density of the leaf.