The girls and I recently attended a wonderful Christmas Snowflake workshop where we explored the technique of resin casting!
Play Retreat is the newest outlet by the folks behind Resin Play, and it is conveniently and aptly located at Bras Basah Complex, which is both super central and oozing with arty vibes.
Resin is a beautiful, strong and versatile element, that can be made into jewellery, coasters and food-safe trays.
It also lends itself well to being shaped into ornaments of all shapes and sizes, as its clear liquid form can take on pigments, and suspend glitter and crinkled foil flakes.
We were thrilled to be invited to make some Christmas snowflake ornaments, since we had experienced Resin Play workshops before, and the girls had such a fun time. Eleven year old K says that this is her all-time favourite craft workshop provider!
When we visited on one of Play Retreat’s official opening days, we were immediately buoyed by the warm and festive atmosphere.
Our class was conducted by Teacher Jayne, who had taught us before! Here she is, refreshing our memories on how to combine resin and hardener in the right proportions, and on the correct follow-up steps to prepare the perfect base for our creations.
Play Retreat is as always, abundantly stocked with an eye-popping spectrum of pigments and glitter. We could choose 6 this time, and we dusted the tiniest bit into our little cups, since we’ve learnt through the previous classes that less is always more, especially when we are aiming for that translucent, swirly effect in our resin so that light can shine through.
There were so many beautiful samples to inspire us.
Here are the girls, keen with anticipation and posing with some samples.
I really took to these holographic “shaved ice” flakes that would reflect the pigmented resin that they were suspended in. Trippy.
Soon we were started, and it was so fun! Under Teacher Jayne’s watchful eye, we were able to make sure that we made no serious missteps, that would spell doom for our resin.
She also kindly reminded us to keep tabs on the time, since we only have 30 minutes between mixing the resin and from when it’d start to harden. You need to have a decisive mind and quick hands for this!
The instructions were simple enough for the girls to follow, and they were intently absorbed in creating their own unique snowflakes.
This was eight year old B’s final tray! Her favourite colour now is teal, which is certainly reflected in the palette of colours she chose.
Before long, our masterpieces were completed! With some finishing steps that included eradicating tiny bubbles by running a satay stick through the edges and wielding a little lighter torch (kids will get help from the teacher, no worries there), it was time to set our pieces aside to cure for a day or two.
A few days later, I was delighted with how our creations turned out! There’s an element of surprise, since we don’t see the “front” until the pieces are out of the moulds.
I thought it was interesting that the moulds added so much more dimension to the ornaments, and indeed it was a very different experience from the ‘doming’ Christmas ornaments workshop we had previously attended here.
Can you guess who designed each set of snowflakes? 😉
All in all, it was such a great workshop and I love to bond with my kids over craft. Whatever you create here makes for great gifts for friends too, especially since they are handmade. I had been looking forward to this class so much, and it certainly did not disappoint.
Giveaway Time!
Play Retreat is generously giving away one Christmas Snowflake ornaments workshop via the LittleBlueBottle Instagram page!
Hop on over to www.instagram.com/littlebluebottle to see how you can join the giveaway contest!
Play Retreat
Address: 231 Bain St, #02-25, Bras Basah Complex, Singapore 180231
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