Inspiration: http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/08/photo-tile-coasters-using-resin.html
Desire: Old Nashville photos... there were none. Except in an expensive book...
Result: Quilt square coasters!
They turned out so much better than I was expecting. But then, I had low expectations since I'd never done this before! All my resin experience was pouring into molds, not onto flat surfaces. So, I'm happy. I'd be a little happier with certain things being different, of course, but these are pretty good for a first try. I do wish I'd been able to find thinner tiles. Oh, well. Next time, maybe.
What I did: I cut the quilt squares out of a magazine, mod podged the front and back (as recommended in this resin tutorial: http://skinnerstudio.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-embed-paper-in-resin-part-one.html), mod podged them onto the tiles, trimmed the edges to be even with the tile, mod podged the edges again. After letting that dry for a while, I got the resin ready to go. It took between 2 and 3 ounces of mixed up resin (resin + hardener) to do 8 tiles. After pouring, popping the bubbles, putting the bubblier tiles under a light in the hopes of the heat lifting some of the air bubbles, and putting them all on this tray, Daddy moved the tiles up on the top of a shelf, and I left them alone for over 24 hours. I got them down this morning, and they seem to be fully hardened! They're nice and glossy! The resin had run down the sides of several of them, so I got out my dremel, attached a sanding/polishing bit, and went around the edges, being careful not to hit the top, or even the top of the edges.
Now all that's left to do is add something to the bottom of the tiles, hopefully a thin layer of cork. I might try to find something to finish the edges off a little better too, but that's not totally necessary.
This was a neat project, so I'll probably try it again. I'd like to try using photos, like the inspiration. I'm curious to know if they need mod podge-ing like regular paper does.
