Working with Epoxy Glue Clay and Resin

by Grim on 2009/09/04

Epoxy: Glue, Clay and Resin.

Epoxies are a co-polymer, that is they come in 2 parts a resin and a hardener.

I use them in my studio for various things, as a glue, as a top coat (they add a wet shiny glossy mess to just about anything), and as a sculpting compound.

Working with Epoxy Glue Clay and Resin Epoxy Glue: You can get epoxy glue/adhesive at any hardware store. It usually comes in a syringe type device. You squeeze it out and mix it together and then apply it to your project. I keep a large stack of index cards in my studio that I use as paint pallets and mixing cards for adhesive. I also have a big box of tongue depressors that I mix everything with. For most purposes I use clear 5 minute epoxy. This makes a very good thick glossy effect for eyes, and drool for props and art pieces, as well as a strong adhesive for most things. I used to use fingernail polish for making eyes glossy but using multiple layers just didn’t give me the effect I wanted.
Working with Epoxy Glue Clay and Resin Epoxy Clay: Epoxy clay is a very cool product, I use it for certain things in my studio where no other thing will do. I make fangs for my vampire skulls from it. I make transitional pieces between unlike materials out of it. It is also a 2 part product, a resin and a hardener. I have only used http://www.magicsculp.com/ you mix the 2 parts together and knead them together for several minutes and then apply them to the object. You can then work it almost like clay. It tends to crumble a bit. To avoid this behavior you can wet it slightly but the water will speed the hardening process. It has about a 2 hour working window. Once it sets up it is almost ceramic hard. Very cool stuff. The picture to the left shows a piece I made using a piece of aluminum and Magic Sculp. The transition from the flat of the shovel to the handle and the rivets are all epoxy clay from Magic Sculp.
Working with Epoxy Glue Clay and Resin Epoxy Resin: Two part epoxy resin is generally used for hollow cast objects in my experience. What I have done is rotocast a mold manually with it and once it sets up I back fill the mold with 2 part polyurethane foam. I have only done this to make hands such as when I made The Carver

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