Let’s have some {colorful} resin fun, shall we? Today, you’re learning how to use alcohol ink in resin to make awesome color patterns. But, not in the popular Petri resin pattern, but instead, something even easier. And you’ll be able to wear these when you’re done.
Resin supply list:
- Resin Obsession super clear jewelry resin
- Resin pendant mold
- Mold release
- Resin Obsession white resin pigment
- ICE resin tints
- One ounce mixing cups
- Stirring sticks
- Nitrile gloves
- Pipettes
- Insulin needles and syringes
- E6000
- Glue on jewelry bails
A note about how to use alcohol inks in resin before we get started:
The alcohol ink you use is pretty darn important. You can’t use any alcohol ink and get the colors you’re expecting. Alcohol inks for resin will get you the best results. If you aren’t using inks specifically designed for epoxy, the colors can change or disappear altogether.
Step 1: Prep the mold
Apply a light light mist of the resin mold release 30 minutes before you want to use the mold. This ensures your cured resin slips out easily and protects your mold from microtears that shorten mold life.
Step 2: Mix and color resin
Mix 1/2 ounce of Resin Obsession super clear resin. This jewelry resin is perfect for this project because it’s meant for molds. It mixes in a way to release bubbles easily. And it cures hard. No bendy resin when you’re done.
If you’re wondering how to measure that small an amount, it’s why the graduated mixing cups are necessary. There are lines on the side to make sure you measure the right amount of resin.
By the way, inaccurate measuring is one of the biggest reasons why your resin doesn’t cure.
Color the epoxy resin with a couple of drops of white pigment.
Step 3: Add to the mold
Pour a small amount of white resin into each cavity. You don’t need much — only enough to cover the bottom.
Allow the resin to cure.
Step 4: Add clear resin
Mix more clear epoxy and pour it into the mold. You only need enough to cover the white layer. In other words, don’t fill the mold.
Step 5: Add the ink
This is my favorite part of how to use alcohol ink in resin. It’s time to add your colors! While the resin is still wet, add drops of the ICE resin tints to the mold cavities.
For the first resin layer, start with lighter colors. Otherwise, they will disappear when you add darker colors. (You’ll see what I’m talking about in a minute.)
The bottle creates drops approximately 1 cm wide.
Yes, this will be your favorite step too, but don’t go crazy with the colors. You want to leave a little ‘white space’ for your next layer.
Let the resin fully cure, or at least cure long enough that you can pour the next layer of clear resin without it blending with the inks. With the super clear resin, this takes two hours. (Another reason to love this resin. Not all resins cure this quickly.)
Step 6: Add more clear resin and ink
Mix another 1/2 ounce of Resin Obsession super clear resin and add it to each cavity.
Here’s one of my favorite hacks for how to use alcohol ink in resin. Use a pipette to draw up some alcohol color, then squirt it onto the wet resin. Don’t be delicate here. Squeeze the pipette like you’re sneezing onto the resin. (without a COVID mask)
Once again, let the resin partially cure before pouring the next layer.
Step 7: Add a third resin and color layer
Mix and pour another 1/2 ounce of Resin Obsession super clear resin. Then, here’s how you bring it all home.
Grab an insulin syringe (which has a 27 gauge needle) to draw up alcohol ink. Then, you can drop micro drops of color exactly where you want them.
Let everything cure one last time.
Step 8: Demold and finish edges
After demolding, you can use a fine emery board to go over any sharp edges.
Step 9: Attach a bail
You’ve made this great resin charm. How are you going to make it wearable?
Attach a glue-on bail with E6000.
If you haven’t used E6000 to glue on bails before, it’s pretty easy. Here’s how:
Look at how the resin and alcohol ink come together. Each pendant is a mini work of abstract art.
The pictures don’t do the pendants justice. Seeing them in person, you can appreciate the layers of resin and alcohol inks and how the pendants have depth to them.
What do you think? Which color pattern is your favorite?
If you want more details, you can see exactly how to use alcohol ink in resin here:
Want to learn other fun jewelry-making techniques with resin?
Then you will want to get your copy of How to Make Resin Jewelry Making in Bezels. It’s helped thousands of artists worldwide make resin jewelry that has people saying, ‘I can’t believe you made that?!’ Buy a copy of the PDF ebook now and download in minutes.
Unpublished Blog Posts of Resin Obsession, LLC © 2023 Resin Obsession, LLC
So neat! Thanks for sharing and can’t wait to try it!
Buongiorno, vorrei acquistare l’ ebook, è posselezionare la lingua italiana durante la lettura?
Grazie, arrivederci.
Love these pendants I need to get me some white resin mix . Thanks for the tutorial! Awesome as usual!
Thank you!
Can you use regular alcohol ink or does it have to be intended for resin alcohol tints?
Alcohol inks will work, but depending on the color you use, may change colors in the resin. I have seen this happen with the pink/purple ones.
Hi, could you recommend inks to use and where you’ve found them for the best price. I’m brand new at this and in general what types you need. What does alcohol ink mean? Can you mix food coloring with resin? I’m just collecting all my stuff now to get into this. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work and helping others learn!
Alcohol inks are colors that are an alcohol base. We have several alcohol base inks that work well for resin here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants/products/ice-resin-color-tints Unfortunately, food coloring does not work well with resin.
Have you tried making your own? There are several videos and tutorials out there (free) telling how to make it from sharpies and/or acrylic paint. I’ve tried the acrylic – it works okay for the white but I’m not sure what the real white alcohol ink would do. It’s really hard to find alcohol ink here (Hawaii) and most every place I’ve found online considers it a hazardous substance and won’t ship it.
Also have you tried with polyester resin? I did and it was okay, but the ink spread a little further than I might have wanted.
We can ship alcohol based colorants to you in Hawaii, but it takes awhile since they must travel by USPS parcel select. We have these in our store:
https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants/products/ice-resin-color-tints-1
https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants/products/pinata-white-alcohol-ink
A great explanation and photos of the steps, thanks for sharing. I’m anxious to try it👍🏻 I loves the bright colors.
What is a good ratio to go by when using alcohol inks and resin? At what point will the resin have trouble setting up?
The best advice I can give you is to use as little as possible to get the color you want.
Excellent video. Just what I was looking for. Best I have seen, Simple and to the point. No dogs no cats no gum chewing.And pretty.
Last week I asked a question and just realized that there has been no answer. I live in Canada, but I have a U.S. street address, and I get my U.S. mail there quite often. How do I go about setting this up to receive goods?
You only need to provide us with the U.S. address at checkout. No additional set up is required.
I’ve been trying some techniques with resin and alcohol inks but they’re just not working for me. I’ve tried mixing them in but the colour goes lumpy and changes or disappears, and I’ve tried dripping them on top as in this tutorial to make dots or 3D mandalas with multiple drops. In this case the ink just spreads out to cover the whole surface of the resin to form a really thin layer. Has anyone else had problems and does anyone have any suggestions? (I’m in the UK and the ICE resin tints don’t seem to be easily available but I’ve been experimenting with Adironack alcohol inks.) Thanks!
Your experience with the Adirondack Inks has been mine as well. The results in resin are rather unpredictable.
See my post above – I’ve had similar problems and thought maybe because I used polyester resin. I’m in Hawaii and it’s almost impossible to get alcohol ink here but I did find some Ranger inks on eBay that shipped.
I love all the things you can create with this technique! I went to buy the supplies to try it out myself, but I just realized I purchased ACRYLIC inks instead of alcohol inks. I had no idea… Rookie mistake?!
Can acrylic inks be used instead, or any way of adding something to them to make a DIY-alcohol ink? Any help or ideas you will share are greatly appreciated…! 🙂
No, unfortunately acrylic inks have too much moisture in them that your pieces may not cure.
I found a tutorial online that suggested using acrylic to isopropyl alcohol. I think I used about a 3:1 combo of alcohol to acrylic. It didn’t interfere with polyester resin setting up at any rate and stayed in place a little better than the alcohol ink which tended to run across the entire surface.
Thank you both very much! It looks like I might have to experiment, as art supply funds are low, but there’s no shortage of acrylic paint in the house! (haha) I’ll post my results, if anybody’s interested?
If I was still into crafting, this is something that I’d probably enjoy trying. And with your excellent post on the procedure, I have no doubt that it would be successful.
I’m looking forward to trying a resin with eyeshadow and nail Shadows and other things that I can possibly create beads jewelry rings bracelets whatever the case maybe they should be quite interesting to play with others who are interested should enjoy this and do it at their own Leisure and what they are comfortable regardless of the consequences even though it might turn out a different way in the beginning and my tune out a whole different way at the end
How did you get the resin to set so quickly ?
The Super clear resin (the resin used in this article) starts to set in about 25 minutes.
I’ve read that alcohol inks used with polymer clay usually have a color fade, over time (several months).
I wonder if this happens with alcohol inks in resin. Do you still have any of the pendants you made? How long has it been, and Have the colors faded any, that you can tell?
I can’t say that I have noticed them fading in my resin.
How do you cure UV resin with the alcohol ink is there a specific process because I noticed the alcohol ink doesn’t cure with the UV resin as intended
I wouldn’t expect it to. UV resin is a little fussy about taking colorants.
Use as little ink as possible, especially the darker shades. Use transparent molds, and flip over your mold to cure both sides and leave both sides in the light longer than normal when using colored UV resin. It will NOT cure in colored molds, which I know from experience LOL! It is a finicky beast and not my favorite so I reserve it for coating or sealing things mostly. UV also doesn’t dome very well no matter what. Good luck 🙂
I’m so confused by resin lol I am very new to this art . I have read so many different things. Will Alcohol ink cause drying issues with the resin? Some things I have read states that resin will not dry with liquids.
It can if you use too much. Try to use alcohol based colors designed specifically for resin. We have some in our store here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants/products/ice-resin-color-tints-1
Could you comment on using white as the 1st layer of the pendants? Why that over clear? Since most of the pictures are on white backgrounds, I can’t tell what they’d look like if they were clear thru all thicknesses. You’ve got me wanting to try them on both backgrounds. Thank you.
I like doing this over the white. That way, when you wear the pendant, what you are wearing doesn’t affect how you see the inks.
For the last layer you can use mica powders instead of alcohol inks. The way it won’t interfere with curing.
Great tutorial! It’s fun to try different techniques with the inks to see what sort of design you get once the resin cures. Resin dipped earrings also look so pretty when done right.
È possibile selezionare la lingua italiana nell’ebook?
Hi ya,I am using proper alcohol ink for epoxy resin but when I drop the drops in they stay in a drop & sink to the bottom,could you please tell me why this happens? Thanks
Debs x
Hi Deborah, what brand alcohol inks are you using?
Hi ya Katherine,thanks for replying,I’m using
Dipoxy-2K-700 epoxy resin &
Ink lab epoxy resin dye
Debs x
Hi Debs, I haven’t used that brand, but it sounds like they have pigment particles in them that are making the drops heavy. The alcohol inks we sell are dyes and don’t sink in resin. https://shop.resinobsession.com/products/alcohol-color-tints-for-resin
How long do you wait between to add the next layer of resin