Process: Using Polymer Clear Casting Resin

I have been experimenting with Clear casting resin to cast my final photographs in so that they are encased essentially in a clear glasslike box. 

The resin is very toxic and in my flat has is actually quite overpowering - so this is issue number one! However I will come to further issues later.  Here is the process I used to test the resin.

To begin I laid out all the equipment which includes the casting resin, the hardening agent, measuring jug and mixer, syringe, moulds, gloves and newspaper as this stuff is very sticky and powerful. I did this under the extractor fan in my kitchen as the fumes are very powerful and windows all wide open!

Polyester casting resin 

Hardner and measuring jug

Two ashtrays I was using as moulds as I intended to create little paperweights using round photographs.  I vaselined the inside of these so that I could demould the resin once it had hardened 

I added 250ml of the casting resin then 5ml of hardener using the syringe I then mixed this thoroughly to to add to the mould. 

I added some of the resin to the mould until it was about one third full and then added the image on top. 

I then added the rest of the mixture on top of the photograph

I then waited 24 hours while the resin set.

the good part of this is that the vaseline worked and the demoulding was very easy.  The resin set well and the mixture was the correct measurements. The toxic fumes however were quite strong and next time I would not do this in my house!  The finished result looked like this: 

These are okay - if a little rough around the edges - I would say though that doing this with larger images would be problematic.  They need sanding down and they are not as crystal clear as I would like. Plastic moulds may also have worked better and been smoother. With this in mind I will continue with my images however I think that they would need to be mounted on panel boards as final pieces as this would work much better at this stage.