A few weeks I got to try a new to me craft – eco resin! I won a Eco Resin craft book and eco resin coaster craft kit from MAKEetc on Instagram and I couldn’t wait to try it out at home. It feels like a while since I was able to try something new.

Easy eco-resin coasters

The eco resin coaster craft kit from Badger and Birch contained almost everything I needed to make two large coasters in a white coaster base colour with ‘speckle’ terrazzo coloured chips.

There was a bottle of epoxy resin, a bag of hardener, a bag of terrazzo chips, biodegradable mixing pots, mixing sticks, a reusable round coaster mould and sandpaper for finishing the coasters. Everything was packaged in sustainable packaging with a reusable amber glass bottle and recyclable mould.

All I needed to provide was scales. I roughly measured half of the coaster making powdered hardener.

And mixed it with half of the epoxy resin liquid from the bottle in one of the paper cups.

Then I poured in half of the colourful terrazzo coloured chips.

When everything was thoroughly mixed I poured it into the plastic mould and left it for 30 minutes. When the two components are mixed a chemical reaction takes place so that the liquid resin gradually hardens to a solid plastic within hours. When it had set hard I removed it from the mould and repeated the process with the rest of the kit contents.

When I had two coasters I was able to sand them to remove any rough bits. I used different strengths of sand paper with water which helped sand the surface and reveal the colourful terrazzo chips inside. You can see the difference between the coaster I sanded on the left, and the un-sanded coaster on the right.

I loved the little workshop kit in a box. Everything was biodegradable and compostable and all elements of the kit could either be reused or recycled. It was a fun couple of hours and now I have two handmade eco resin coasters to use at home.