Hard Clear

I want to set fabric into a clear, hard block, what should I use?

Basically, I want to capture a piece of fabric into a hard, clear block of ‘stuff’. (plastic/resin – i dunno, im not sure)
Should I use resin? If so, which kind?

There are various kinds of clear craft “resin” out there these days, but what you might use also depends on the thickness you want your “block” to be. (Btw, your fabric would be called an “embedment” in resin.)

If you want the block to be thicker than about 1/4″, you’d want to use a 2-part polyester “casting” resin or the tweaked 2-part epoxy resin called Easy Cast (that one can become a little soft on the surface when exposed to heat or even high-warmth though). The main brand of clear polyester resin used for crafts is “Castin’ Craft Clear Polyester Casting Resin” which should be available at most craft or art supply stores, or online, and perhaps also at hardware stores.

If you don’t need the block to be thicker than 1/4″ then a 2-part epoxy resin would be better (it’s stronger, less fiddly to measure since it’s used 1 to 1, and definitely better for lungs than polyester resins. It can also be purchased in those same places but comes in more brand names (some common ones would be Envirotex-Lite, Colores and Ultra Glo, but some of the ones sold in places like Home Depot will be called “bartop” resins like Famowood’s Glaze Coat).

(Here are examples of putting embedments into polyester resin and also into epoxy resin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXK98Qohjjw …the sealer they use here for the “porous” paper embedment could also be something like ModPodge or thinned permanent white glue, etc)

There are some newer 2-part and 1-part clear resins but sometimes they will have disadvantages too like being much more expensive, yellowing, cracking, softening with heat, spots or cloudiness, etc., etc. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about those to be more specific.

If you’re interested in lot of info about clear craft resins, check out my answers in these previous questions and also the page linked to below at my site:
(some overlap:)

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091115185640AAXBfZF

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqRoGzjtN95Is41Kmm_SHHfsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20091011042033AAytK0x

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100402061140AAD0jwB

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100206091500AA7eXFv

http://glassattic.com/polymer/other_materials.htm

(be sure and check out whether and how to “seal” porous things like fabric so that they won’t darken or become transcluent, as well)

Good luck!
Diane B.

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