Make amber from pine resin. Production of artificial amber. The process of further processing of the product

Wonderful jewelry, isn't it? But it's just epoxy. And… a little imagination.

If you take the time to experiment a little, you can make close good gift: pendant, brooch, bracelet made of homemade amber, which appearance not easy to distinguish from the real one.

Materials: epoxy resin, which is used by modellers for gluing parts, harden to it, organic glass 1.5-2 mm thick, a little glycerin, sandpaper, GOI paste.

With a heated metal object, squeeze out the shape of your choice in the organic glass. When the glass has cooled, grease the inside of the mold with glycerin. Mix resin with hardener (nine parts resin and one part hardener) and pour into mold. Now drop 2-3 drops of water there and stir a little with a thin daddy in a circular motion so that water combined with resin forms a unique amber pattern.

Remove the hardened product from the mold, clean it with fine sandpaper and polish with GOI paste.

Inside homemade amber, you can wall up a dead insect, a blade of grass, a small leaf, a flower petal. In this case, water should not be buried. It is necessary to pour a little resin on the bottom of the mold, let it harden slightly, then stick an insect to it and pour the mold to the brim.

It is necessary to work with resin in a ventilated area, wearing thin rubber gloves.

Home technology making souvenirs, crafts and decorative items from epoxy resin and polyester varnish

Such souvenirs can be made as follows: We remove the mold from the sample we like, make 8-15 castings. And we are already making the main form from them, so one form will make 8-15 castings in one pour. If you need to increase productivity, it is enough to make a few more forms.

It is good to tint epoxy resin with oil paints, only before that it is desirable to squeeze the paint out of the tube onto old newspaper to remove the oil from it.

By adding bronze or aluminum powder to the resin, we get a solution of gold or silver color. You can dip the castings in an alcohol stain and, after letting it dry a little, wipe it with a cloth soaked in a nitro solvent. In this case, the convex places will be lighter, and the recesses darker.

In order to give additional strength in the manufacture of haberdashery, powder fillers can be introduced.

If the cast blanks stick to your hands, they must be lowered into water with washing powder, that is, how to stretch the product.

Shopkeepers generally don't work with epoxy, they prefer polyester varnish because it's much cheaper and easier to find in large quantities. They work with varnish in the same way as with epoxy, only in addition to it, in addition to the hardener, an accelerator is added to speed up the hardening process. Since the accelerator is added, 5-10 times higher than the norm, the varnish becomes very hot during hardening and may crack. To prevent this from happening, the lacquer casting must be lowered in time into cold water, and then washed in warm water with washing powder.

Due to the high temperature during hardening, the varnish can only be poured into sealant molds. In stores there are products about which sellers say that they are made of artificial bone. In fact, they are made of polyester varnish.

Also produced in a similar way various models toy tanks, figurines, etc.

Casting parts from epoxy resin

A radio amateur designs miniature electronic devices and needs, for example, miniature plugs. What to do? Do it yourself, from resin. A pawn or other chess piece was lost, the handle of a gas stove was cracked, someone liked a business card with raised letters on the front doors - they can also be made by casting from resin (Fig. 1). With this method, you can make as many buttons of various shapes as you like, small hangers of your own design, frames for family photos, floats for fishing rods, figurines of soldiers, models of old cannons, cars, and many other items.

From the same resin, it is possible to restore the missing metal elements of antique furniture according to the existing model, and make them active, and not props. Resin castings can help repair antique, ornate frames. If there are any defects in antique furniture, and the carved decoration is partially damaged, it is also worth turning to wood-like resins and casting the missing details from them.

In order to start casting, you must have a model of the object being cast. It can be made from wood, plaster, wax or even plasticine. The model can also be the item we want to copy. We needed a decorative metal element for furniture or another figure of a soldier - we take a sample and use it to make a mold for casting. It is necessary to act as follows.

A cardboard box, a metal or plastic jar must be lined inside with aluminum foil, in which chickens are usually baked, pressed against the walls of the dish and smoothed out at the bottom. And now a rather ridiculous, but necessary procedure: the model, that is, the knob of the regulator or any other item that needs to be made a copy, should be thoroughly lubricated with shoe cream (you need to use good cream with a high wax content). After the cream has dried, the model should be brushed with a soft brush so as not to remove the wax and get a smooth, even surface. Wax should isolate the model from the resin.

When using plasticine, the model must be glued to the foil at the bottom of the dish and poured with resin mixed with a hardener. In order not to spend a lot of resin, it is necessary to add a filler to it - the easiest way is dry flour. The filler should not be too much so that the resin does not turn into a paste. The resin should be fluid, easily filling the mold - for this it can be slightly diluted with acetone or a nitro thinner.

When the resin hardens, everything together with the foil is removed from the dish. Then the plasticine is removed and the model is cleaned of it. The cream is again applied to the model and to the bolt, as well as to the surface of the mold. Cover everything with foil and re-fill with resin. Thus, two halves of the form are obtained with a model inside.

After the form is removed from the dish, it must be unscrewed (it is screwed together), the model is removed, a filling hole and a hole (or even more than one) are made to remove air. If the screw is to be fixed in the handle, it must be washed thoroughly and smeared with cream again. Also carefully grease the inside of the mold with cream and clean it. Fold the molds and fill with resin. After the resin hardens, the finished casting is removed from the mold, but not quite beautiful, since its color is the same as the resin.

But epoxy resins can be tinted. To get a white color, you need to add zinc white. In order for the objects made from it to be durable, it is necessary to add a filler to the resin. Such a filler can be, for example, aluminum powder or copper filings - a very original color is obtained. You can add brass or brocade dust, etc. When carbon black is added, the resin becomes stronger and blacker. Mica will increase electrical resistance. You can even add sand - only dry and fat-free, it should be “washed” in water with the addition of detergents and then dry well. Flour, as a filler, should not be skeptical - resin mixed with flour becomes hard as a stone.

Easy way to make epoxy resin key chains

I bring you the simplest technology for making key chains and various souvenir crafts. They can be made from scraps of sheet brass on tin solder with rosin.

First, a strip about 5 mm wide is cut from a sheet of metal, then pieces of the required length are bent on mandrels and placed on a pre-tinned brass sheet. To collect such key chains and crafts, a soldering iron is not required. Place the base plate on the iron (see Fig. 2), sprinkle it with rosin, carefully lay out the craft elements with tweezers and let the solder flow into all joints, adding it as needed. It remains to turn off the iron, wait until it cools down, and fill the holes of the “petals” with epoxy resin, tinted with a small amount of oil paint. After the resin has cured, the base is cut around the perimeter of the craft and polished. From the casting side, the keychain is sanded until shiny brass ends appear, and then polished.

Such simple souvenir products are always in great demand. Especially if you make such souvenirs for any memorable events, events, anniversaries. For example, memorable souvenir crafts for the anniversary of the city, Christian holidays, etc.

Creative success!

Processing of amber usually includes: peeling, cutting, shaping, grinding and polishing. Before taking on the processing of a stone, carefully study it. First of all, you should choose transparent stones. To see how the material will look in the finished work, cut thin slices from both sides of the stone. After sanding them with a sandpaper, carefully look at the clearance. Transparent stones are smoother, while cloudy ones have a more wavy texture. Having decided on what amber will go for, you can start processing.

raw amber

Amber is not a capricious material; it can be easily processed at home without the use of professional tools. The density of amber is so low that it does not sink into sea water. Due to its low density, amber is very easy to process.
Primary processing

The first stage of processing is peeling.

This process is carried out by means of a large skin, an electric grinder or a conventional file. As a result of weathering, a crust-patina forms on the surface of amber, and this is what needs to be removed before continuing to work with the stone at home. Start this process from the transparent side. The amber dust formed in the process should not be thoughtlessly thrown away, when it has accumulated a sufficient amount, varnish can be made.

Amber color ranges from green to black

The workpiece must be given the shape that you have in mind. This stage is called amber molding. With the help of all the same tools, give the stone the necessary shape or silhouette, if it is a future figurine.

Amber is a Russian word, but in its sound it is close to the Lithuanian name of this solar stone - giitaras. Real amber is a fossilized amorphous resin of coniferous trees. Amber is not a mineral, but a fossil resin, or rather different resins with an approximate composition: 79% carbon, 11% hydrogen and 10% oxygen. Their age is 45-50 million years, but there are also more "older" ones aged 65-135 million years. Each piece is heterogeneous in color from pale yellow, lemon yellow (the most fashionable) to red-brown, rarely blue, green and even black.

The stone is transparent, translucent or opaque, up to porous, if it contains many bubbles or inclusions. In Baltic amber, in addition to mineral inclusions, the remains of 197 species of vegetation and several hundred species of the animal world were found.

This amazing gift of nature has been used since ancient times to make jewelry. But it was not only used to make jewelry. Everyone knows the Amber Room, the walls of which were made of 22 wall mosaic panels, many boards with mosaics and sun stone decorations.

Many beautiful products (bracelets, rings, pendants, caskets! various figurines, paintings, souvenirs) can be seen from amber in the shops and museums of the Kaliningrad region of the amber region.

It is not at all necessary to make such products from real amber, this is an expensive material, and besides, it is not available everywhere. As a small business at home, you can make the same products, but only from artificial amber, which everyone can easily get.

There are several ways to make artificial amber.

1 Way. It is necessary to take 1 part of turpentine resin, 2 parts of shellac and 1 part of white rosin. In a tin vessel, the double walls of which are filled with oil to achieve a uniform temperature, turpentine resin is melted, and then silk is added.

Varnish. Gradually, the shellac will soften and combine with turpentine, turning into an opaque, white, thick mass. The mass will become thinner and more transparent. Melt the rosin in a separate bowl. When the mass becomes almost transparent, melted rosin must be poured into it.

After a while, the mass will become completely transparent and liquid, ready for the manufacture of the intended products from it by casting or pressing. In appearance, products made from this mass resemble real amber, but are less durable. The mass is insensitive to water, but dissolves in alcohol.

Depending on the color of shellac, the color of the mass can be obtained from brown to lemon yellow. The longer you heat it, the darker the color will be. With an increase in turpentine resin, the mass will turn out to be thinner and after cooling it will be softer and less brittle. An increase in shellac or rosin leads to brittleness of the mass.

The resulting material can be polished and varnished. When heated, this material becomes plastic, and when heated further, it melts. These properties can be used in the manufacture of jewelry.

2 Way. To make artificial amber according to this method, gelatin is first poured into the bath (according to the shape of the part). When the gelatin dries, it is sprinkled with finely crushed golden-yellow mica spangles on top and again poured with a thin layer of liquid gelatin. After allowing this layer to dry, again sprinkle with mica powder and again cover the weight with gelatin. Layering is carried out as many times as necessary to achieve the required thickness of the harness. After this, the mass is allowed to dry a little and by! torn off with an adhesive solution, it can be stained with cherry cysts. This method is often used for small restoration work.

By making molds or by using the objects around you that are suitable for the molds, you can make beads, bracelets, pendants and other jewelry. You can try to make a pendant with the inclusion of some vegetation (leaves, flower petals, etc.). Pendants with images of zodiac signs, with names are very popular. For the manufacture of jewelry, you may additionally have to purchase chains for pendants, a fishing line for beads and other materials.

From artificial amber you can make a mosaic panpo, a picture is already more expensive things.

The costs are small, and the income will depend on the products that you can make.

Recommendations. Some of the products can be peeped in shops in the souvenir department or in an art shop, if one exists in your city. Suggest making interesting souvenirs. key rings, flowers, bracelets in organizations for certain holidays. By the New Year, you can cast figurines of animals corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac.

In addition, the prepared mass as a material can be offered to gems who are engaged in crafts.

Initial costs: from 1000 rubles.

Monthly income: 3-10 thousand rubles,

In this article:

Amber has long been used not only to create small jewelry, but entire rooms are made from this stone. The stone contains a long history of the planet, so amber is quite a valuable material. And many who want to have jewelry with such a stone are interested in whether it is possible to create artificial amber or purchase such a product somewhere. Of course, the procedure is time-consuming, but the final cost is cheap and makes the stone affordable for most jewelry lovers.

artificial amber

In nature, amber is formed from the resin or resin of coniferous trees. Now scientists argue that the type of tree is unimportant, since stones from leguminous plants have become common. Therefore, today amber is considered to be a material that was formed from resin or other tree sap, and also was in the ground for at least a million years.

According to the varieties of amber, they study the natural and climatic conditions, as well as the flora and fauna of those times. Therefore, the stone is popular not only among jewelers, historians and geologists are also interested in it. You can understand the state of the planet by inclusions, inclusions in the composition of the stone, which can be plant particles, insects, impurities from the soil.

How to make amber?

You can make artificial amber with your own hands at home. In time, this process will be much faster than it occurs in nature. To do this, you can use one of the following methods:

Method one. Take turpentine resin, shellac and rosin in a ratio of 1:2:1. In a tin vessel, the walls of which must first be lubricated with oil, it is necessary to melt the turpentine. As the material melts, shellac is gradually added to it, the consistency of the mixture will become thick and turn white. Continue heating the mixture until it becomes clear. After this happens, gradually pour in the pre-melted rosin. With gradual heating, the mass will become more and more transparent, the desired color will be obtained by choosing the appropriate shellac. The longer this mixture is heated, the darker it will become. And the stone created in such conditions will be quite hard. To slightly soften its consistency, you should add a little more turpentine. The resulting amber imitation can be cast or shaped by pressing, after which the stone can be polished and ground. Remember that the composition is not sensitive to water, but it dissolves in alcohol.
The second technique includes gelatin in the composition of artificial amber. But the version is more laborious, because after pouring the gelatin into the bath, you will need to sprinkle it on top with crushed golden mica sparkles. After the mass hardens, it is worth pouring a layer of gelatin again, covering it with sparkles. The procedure must be carried out several times, and on top of the newly made stone, cover with cherry varnish. By the way, this method is often used by restorers.

Since the mass is initially liquid, some leaf or insect can be added to it for naturalness and thus imitate inclusions. And any jewelry is made from such amber, starting with beads and ending with pendants. The cost of techniques is much cheaper than natural stone. But you should not use it for industrial purposes, passing it off as amber, since the manufacture and sale of fakes is a criminal offense.

Artificial amber beads

Checking the stone

You can check amber at home. For this, such methods have been invented that will not damage the real stone:

If you lower the material into a glass of salt water, then the fake will sink, but the real amber will float on the surface.
You can try dropping acetone or alcohol on the stone. If it is not a natural material, it will leave traces in the form of discoloration or melting.
Cheap options made from artificial resins are easily scratched, which cannot be said about natural amber. Although the material obtained in nature is quite fragile and crumbles easily.
If you are not afraid to damage the product, try bringing a heated metal tool to it. If this is a decoration, then carry out the procedure on wrong side. A smell will come from the melting point: if it is coniferous and pleasant, then the stone is natural. And if the smell gives off chemistry or plastic, then you have a fake amber in your hands.

But insects will not give an exact answer about authenticity, since even with artificial manufacture, adding inclusions to a stone is quite simple. True professionals, of course, can distinguish whether an insect was placed in a live amber, or dead material was added. But this cannot be done without a magnifying glass and prior knowledge.

Varieties of fakes

The following materials are sold as amber on an industrial scale:

Copal, cowrie resin is natural materials, which scientists now attribute to a variety of amber, since they also include hardened resin. True, this resin is produced not by coniferous trees, but by leguminous plants in hot countries. At the same time, the cost of materials is cheaper than that of traditional amber.
Bernite is a synthetic compound of polyester. Defects can be artificially simulated in a stone. For its manufacture, amber powder with polyester resins is used. The stone can even be given a green tint.
Polyburn is a material with the addition of epoxy resin, the composition was discovered in Germany.
Bakelite is a material that was originally used to make plastic cases.
Faturan is a material that appeared in the East from a mixture of waste from amber mining, as well as impurities from local resins.
Celluloid - also used to imitate amber. But now the popularity of the material has declined.
Casein is a protein that, when treated with formaldehyde, resulted in plastic.
Acrylic - plexiglass, which imitates amber when painted. Today it is most often used as fake stone.
Polyester is also a type of plastic that is disguised as cured resin.
Ambdroid is a type of compressed amber. The stone is not a fake, it just has the lowest grade and, accordingly, the cost.

Natural amber is an expensive material. Therefore, you should also be alerted by the price of the product, in case of a fake, it will be cheap. Having bought a natural stone, it will delight you with its appearance, sometimes with a pleasant smell. And if this is not possible, but you really want to wear a stone, think about the artificial production of the material: made amber is difficult to distinguish only by appearance.

Amber jewelry is especially popular among the fair sex. Along with this natural and unusually beautiful natural stone, more and more often you can find jewelry made of artificial amber that looks very beautiful - sunny honey, transparent and even with some kind of spider or bug (small size) inside. The creation of such a stone became possible thanks to the level modern technologies, which allow you to simulate absolutely any natural stone. Jewelry and other products made from them are so natural that sometimes they cannot be distinguished from the real ones. From this material we will learn how to distinguish natural from artificial amber, about the characteristics of the stone and how to prepare it yourself.

fossilized resin

To one of ancient stones, known to mankind, can be attributed to amber. For many years (even centuries) it has been widely used and is used today for the manufacture of various jewelry and other luxury items. Formed millions of years ago and petrified, the resin captivates with its warm honey hue and mysterious inclusions. Inside the most expensive specimens are frozen insects or other inclusions.

Organic stone is mined in large volume in the territory Russian Federation. However, this is not a guarantee that compatriots will not purchase artificial amber instead of natural, because there are quite a lot of unscrupulous sellers.

What is being replaced?

Today, natural amber is quite often replaced with the most different materials. It is worth getting acquainted with some of their properties in order to further see the difference in what kind of stone it is: natural or artificial amber; and how to tell them apart.

Amber fakes

Name	Properties	How are they produced?
	In terms of quality, it is practically not inferior to natural stones. It has an uneven color, a large number of small bubbles. Possesses low transparency.	Produced from small amber or its waste.
cowrie resin	Slightly softer than natural stone. It has a pronounced coniferous smell. The inner part is more homogeneous, it does not have wavy inclusions that would indicate many years of stratification. Qualitatively processed cowrie resin achieves greater resemblance to the original.	For production, the resin of modern coniferous trees grown in New Zealand is used. It is found in jewelry production, but is used for the production of furniture.
	Such artificial amber can hardly be distinguished even by an experienced jeweler. The stone is easier to melt, when heated, an unpleasant medicinal smell comes from it. Copal is more viscous and softer.	It is mined in small quantities from the resin of tropical trees.
Epoxy resin	A fairly well-known synthetic substance. It has a strong chemical odor that occurs with slight heat or friction.	A thermoplastic product that is produced by chemical combinations and manipulations.
Plastic	Products made from this material are practically weightless. They have the correct structure without inclusions. With tactile contact, its artificial origin becomes obvious.	Obtained by combining chemical elements.
	Artificial amber made of glass has excessive transparency and color uniformity. Finished goods made of glass significantly exceed the weight of an item that is made of genuine stone. Almost scratch resistant.	Obtained by heating quartz sand to a very high temperatures and instant cooling with the addition of impurities.

In addition to the above materials, fake amber can be made from polyester, bakelite, casein, bernite, ambroide, polyburn, acrylic, faturan, celluloid. It should be noted that, despite the skill of jewelers, it is still possible to distinguish a genuine stone from a fake.

How to distinguish natural amber from artificial?

There are a huge number of reliable ways to distinguish a natural stone from a fake. A significant role in this is played by the unique physical and chemical properties of natural stone. Most often, substitutes do not have these qualities or show them in small quantities. Please note: real stones have low thermal conductivity, with tactile contact with amber, you can feel its warmth, glass products do not have this characteristic.

A fake stone has a greater hardness than a natural one, you can even feel it with your fingers. However, kauri and copal, on the contrary, have a softer texture. Let's find out how to distinguish real amber from artificial.

Visual inspection

The first step is to conduct a visual inspection. The hallmark of natural stone is its extraordinary structure. Heterogeneous structure, microcracks, inclusions - all this indicates a natural origin. Please note that glass products have increased transparency, they are distinguished by the play of light. Objects made of plastic exhibit these properties to a lesser extent.

Aroma

Aroma features should be taken into account. In the original stone, the smell intensifies with heat, for example, due to friction. Another way to check the naturalness of the stone is to put a red-hot needle on a less visible area. The manipulations carried out will reveal the smell of rosin (a mixture of cloves and needles).

electrostatic properties

The next step is to check the electrostatic properties. One of the main qualities of amber is its ability to attract small pieces of paper and villi after intense friction. Today, plastic products can be electrified, but with less force. Resins do not have this ability.

Research using ultraviolet light

You can distinguish natural from artificial amber using an ultraviolet lamp. In this case, the transparent stone will luminesce in blue, having different intensities. Smoky, more cloudy specimens under the influence of the lamp will sparkle with pale blue tints. The bone type of amber (white, opaque) luminesces milky white with a slight blue tint.

Folk way

In addition to modern methods of checking amber for naturalness, you can use the folk method. One of the most simple ways checking it for authenticity: put amber into a glass containing salt water. In the event that the stone is natural, it will remain on the surface, while the fake will sink to the bottom.

Small and inexpensive interior decoration projects for an apartment or house using amber can give any room a unique amazing look. However, natural amber is too expensive to be used for home decoration, so not everyone can afford it. For this purpose, hand-made artificial amber is perfect.

Imitation sun stone

In fact, it is not difficult to make an imitation of amber at home. This will take much less time than this process takes in nature. Here are two methods that can be used to make artificial amber. So how do you do it yourself? Let's consider in more detail.

Method one

Let's prepare turpentine resin, rosin, shellac in a ratio of 1:1:2. Let's take a tin vessel, the walls of which we grease with oil, melt turpentine in it. As the material melts, shellac is added to it, while the consistency of the mixture becomes thicker and becomes white. After that, you should warm it up until it becomes transparent. As soon as this happens, pour in small portions into the mass, pre-melted rosin. Gradually, when heated, the mass will become even more transparent, the desired color can be obtained by choosing the appropriate shellac. Please note: the longer the mixture is heated, the more intense and darker the color will be. By the way, a stone prepared in such conditions will have a harder texture. If you want to get a softer consistency, you need to add a little more turpentine.

The resulting fake amber can be cast or shaped by pressing. The stone can then be polished and ground. It must be remembered that such a composition is not sensitive to water, but can be dissolved in alcohol.

Second way

The second method is that gelatin is included in the composition of artificial amber. The process of such an imitation of a stone is more laborious, because after the gelatin is poured into the bath, it must be sprinkled with finely crushed golden mica sparkles. After the resulting oil hardens, the procedure should be repeated again, and then several more times. After completion of the work, the newly minted stone should be covered with cherry varnish. By the way, this is the method that restorers use in their work.

When making amber in this way (since the mass is initially quite liquid), for greater naturalness, some small insect or leaf can be added to it, simulating inclusions in this way. From the amber prepared by this method, you can make any jewelry, for example, pendants, beads, etc.

These techniques will make it possible to obtain artificial amber at home, as a cheaper raw material for jewelry than natural stone. However, this method should not be used for the preparation of products for industrial purposes, passing off such amber as a natural stone. Do not forget that the manufacture and sale of fakes in our country is criminally punishable.