Resin Stained Glass: Viewer Suggestions!

Peter, Opaque pigments and UV resin do not work together. UV resin cures with light and opaque pigments block that light. That white pigment I sent you all those years ago was titanium dioxide the red i don't remember exactly what it was, but it blocked the light enough to stop the cure. You could put very thin layers of those mixtures and you may have some success, but i would reserve opaque pigments to an A/B epoxy.  P.S. i haven't missed an episode since i started watching all those years ago. I am glad that lately you have been uploading more often, and that you are still finding use of the stuff i sent (despite the fact it caused so much mayhem on this project). Also i still work in adhesives, but I am a leatherworker now too if you want to try to work leather into a project let me know.

You need stronger UV light and translucent pigments. That white pigment is probably opaque so the moment the top layer cured it stopped the light penetrating towards the bottom of the "pool".

Peter, a few tips for this. UV resin doesn't do well with massive amounts of mica powder due to it blocking the light. 2 you need to follow the amount of time the resin on the bottle tells you to cure it. You were curing way too little with the UV light you have. Also, to get a proper stained-glass look, use a resin pigment like alcohol inks or translucent colorant for it.

Hey Peter, my wife does a TON of UV resin work, and she suggested that instead of using your torch to pop surface bubbles, a little dollar tree spritz bottle full of 91% Isopropryl Alcohol is the perfect thing for popping the bubbies. Just a light misting across the surface will make all the bubbles disappear. The reason why a torch is not recommended is that you could accidentally set the resin on fire or even burn your form. She has set the resin on fire before, and learned from that particular lesson that the smoke detector in her craft room is a good investment. She also agrees with most of the other commenters that the white and red mica powders were probably too opaque for proper curing. But hey! New tool in the arsenal!

Save the offcuts and do a revers stained glass piece. Have the resin hold them together in between. Keep them glued down so it stays in place properly

The "super white" pigment probably has titanium dioxide in it. It's a very common white pigment, even used in some foods. But it's also in sunscreens because it blocks UV light. That would explain why the surface cured but the UV was unable to penetrate very far into the resin gel.

Peter, it's more valuable to fail and learn than to get it right. Look at all the discussions going on in your comments, which are as far as i can tell, mostly positive and informative. You have probably saved so many people from so much headache. Thank you for being our guinea pig and showing us that a project doesn't always go right and being an example of how to act decently when things go wrong.

Very cool. That lemon colour almost looks like it was so opaque it blocked the UV from penetrating all the way through the resin. Also I thought it was quite interesting how the mica resins seemed to almost bloom when you were putting them in there, like spots of mould would, but nicer looking of course. Not sure if that blooming carried through after they cured or not, or if it was just the camera picking it up where it's not so obvious in person.

Awesome salvaging of what could have been a disaster, and your colour choices at the end were great! I think one thing the copper plating has going for it, over the copper spray paint, is that the laid-down copper softens and rounds off the sharp finish of the plywood and makes it look more like real leadlighting, whereas the paint doesn't really disguise the fact that it's cut wood rather than metal and solder. That said, if the paint is both cheaper and easier, it's hard to argue with that! :)

Next time you should make a color key that sits behind the cut out. Just a white image with a letter or number code for each color. Kinda make it into a paint by numbers.

Not from experience, but I would suggest using a bigger UV light to cover more area and leave the light sit in one place instead of waving it around. Then, when you have the top cured, you can turn it over and cure it from the bottom, too.

I really appreciate that you let us in on the frustrations of it not working. I think just knowing even the awesome guy on YouTube has the same struggles on projects helps not feeling quite so crushed when hitting a stumbling point.

The answer to why it curled and you had uncured resin is because the pigments were opaque and you only cured on one side directly, the other had the tinted tape impeding it. Using too much mica or other opaque pigments means the UV light can't penetrate the resin properly and therefore doesn't fully cure. Transparent liquid pigments and much smaller amounts of powder will give you a proper cure. I'd also suggest a light you can set up above the piece (a la Evan & Katelyn) to give a more even/powerful exposure.

A lot of people cure UV under fingernail lights for 90 seconds on both sides. The more opaque the color, the less light penetrates. Even opaque molds cause an issue. I'm amazed the blues cured!! 💙 Great job trying new things!! 👏 UV and Epoxy resins are very different animals! 😮

Others have covered the issue with translucency with using UV resin, but I just wanted to say that you did a great job with not being a regular UV user! I messed up so many of my early projects when I was learning with it haha

The darker it is, the more uv it will absorb and cure faster. It's like when people use black paint to get better results with the laser cutter, it will absorb more energy. I think you need to leave the UV light on WAY longer, and probably need a better source than a little flashlight.

Quite likely the white and red pigments were too opaque for the UV to reach the resin. Also, I've noticed that UV resin needs a lot more time under the light than it's advertised for most brands. Lovely dragon, and excellent save, as always!

You know this would make a great craft kit idea for resin just because it does look exactly like stained glass. Lots of resin artists would love to be able to work with a frame like that. Somebody could make some money from manufacturing the frame. I know it had me scratching my head wondering where I could find a frame like that. The tools you have are way beyond what most people can come up with.

I love that you actually take the people’s comments into consideration.

I love how you addressed the pigment failure. The thought process you went through to work through each problem separately was really well thought through. And the color 'repair' was spot on. Thanks for walking through this on camera, it really taught me a couple things. Do tests on your color ahead of application and keep it as part of the label. You can even keep track of the color certain pigments are under black light or uv and have the piece be a specific look that way as well. Then you could display both ways.