Projects: SARAH CONWAY uses bio-based epoxy to make coasters and art flower blooms
From her garage in Bedfordshire, Sarah Conway has discovered that Entropy Resins® products are the best epoxy for coasters and all the other stunning art creations she produces. With an online following of 25K plus, Sarah’s epoxy pours with alcohol ink are shipping through Europe and to places as far off as Alaska, Australia and New Zealand. Looking at her work is, quite simply, like looking into the universe being created. Colour explodes and draws you in, whether it’s a coaster, jewellery, paperweight or custom installation.
“Colour is my main inspiration,” says Sarah, “even my clothes patterns inspire me. Wherever you look – a sunset, flowers, clothes – you can replicate the colour combinations with ink.”
This is something which she does beautifully, even creating worms in her epoxy pours with alcohol ink.
White is the magic ingredient for making art with resin
“White alcohol ink creates the magic,” says Sarah, “when used with the best epoxy for clear casting. White alcohol ink is heavier than coloured varieties, so it clings to the colour and drags it down to create the billow effects. Coloured inks aren’t heavy enough to sink, but in order to get the blooms, you need that weight. If you make an epoxy pour with alcohol ink and just use colours, they’ll all mush together.”
The best epoxy for coasters and art resin creations
Sarah makes all sorts of fantastic creations from coasters to art installation commissions and moulded pieces in between.
“I use Entropy Resins epoxy for everything now,” she says. “The properties are quite different from my previous epoxy supplier. I had many worries about the previous art epoxy that weren’t being resolved. Then I moved to Entropy Resins epoxy. It’s taken me a little bit of time to replicate the techniques, but there are so many benefits.”
Heat & scratch resistant, and bio-based benefits
“Entropy Resins products have a higher heat resistance, they’re scratch resistant and more solid,” Sarah continues. “They’re also much greener – the production chemicals and components are much better. I can now use all of my old techniques and new ones. But best of all, they’re super clear. I have never had micro-bubbles with Entropy Resins epoxy.
No fumes
“It’s really easy to work with, there’re no fumes and no smell. I always use a respirator, but Entropy Resins products don’t stink out my workspace. My old resin was thicker, which helped with the effects and movement for the ink, but higher viscosity is the only thing it was good for, thickness. The fumes were many times stronger than a nail polish; Entropy Resins products have no acrid smells at all and no residual smell post-cure.”
Sarah’s work is so popular and stunning that she now regularly has her work images stolen and used by other unscrupulous manufacturers and creatives to advertise their wares.
When she’s not making her beautiful creations, Sarah leads a planning and performance department for a global media agency. Her passion has always been creation though, since she was in her early twenties and worked on summer camps in up-state New York teaching silkscreen, digital darkroom techniques, photography and casting resin. She says she never put epoxy down after that. Eighteen months ago, when she was diagnosed with MS, she decided to do something productive with her time off work, and returned to her low-energy passion, with its fixed time working windows. How wonderful that she has, as her epoxy pours with alcohol ink are stunning.
