How to use UV Resin with Polymer Clay?

Looking to give your clay a glossy shine? In the world of crafts, resins are a clear liquid applied on the polymer clay to get a smooth finish. Resins are used for casting and coating handicrafts, jewelry and other decoration accessories.

UV resin uses ultraviolet rays of light emitted from a UV device to harden and dry the polymer clay piece. The UV resin can cure smooth and crystal clear thereby providing good scratch and stain resistance in a short time. Let us look at the different ways that we can use the UV resin with the Oytra Polymer Oven Bake Clay-

1) Dome the Polymer Clay Pieces: This is the most widely used method of using UV resin on polymer clay. For this method, place the clay piece properly on a tile. Then dome the clay pieces by dispensing the UV resin. For this start from the middle and put a good quantity.

Then using toothpicks spread the resin out from the center to the edges. You want the resin to reach till the edge of the clay pieces. You need to be careful to pull it off the edge until the toothpick slides off. Now place the piece in the UV light for about 5 minutes. Once it dries off, you will get a good dome effect on the clay piece.

2) Brushing the Polymer clay pieces: This method is used when you want a high gloss finish on the clay piece but not a thick finish. For this, put a little quantity of the resin in a cup.

Using a good quality brush, dip the brush in the resin and brush using long sweeps on the clay piece all the way till the edges. Now place the piece in the UV light for about 5 minutes. Once it dries off, you will get a nice and smooth effect on the clay piece. As long as you brush it thinly there will be no dripping off the edges after drying.

3) Casting the Polymer Clay Pieces: For this purpose, take a good quality mold and pour a clear layer of the resin into it. Now spread it around with the tooth prick to cover the whole mold.

You can also get creative here and mix some glitter in the resin and spread it in the mold. Now place the piece in the UV light for about 5 minutes. On curing, the clay piece will be dazzling with glitter and shine.

4) Baking the Polymer Clay Pieces: You can also bake the resin if you want to use it in jewellery decorations. You need to bake for 30 min at around 275-300 degree temperature. At the end of curing, you should get a stunning crystal like piece for your jewellery project.

In either of the ways, you may get bubbles coming on spreading the resin. In that case, run the lighter quickly over the clay piece so that it pops the bubble.

Now you know how versatile the UV resin is. Do check these different ways of using the resin and let us know how the outcome was!