How to Create Resin Petri Dish Art

The iconic "petri dish art" style is made by encapsulating alcohol ink in ArtResin within a reusable silicone mold. The ink meanders through the resin creating vibrant ribbons and colorful "petrified" squiggles. It looks SO impressive, yet it's easy to do and super fun to make!

Petri Dish Art - petrified


Petri Dish Art - encapsulating alcohol ink in ArtResin
Petri Dish Art - impressive petrified

Petri Dish Art - reusable silicone mold


Petri Dish Art - creating vibrant ribbons and colorful

Supplies you will need

 

 

 Petri Dish Art Kit ArtResin

💡TIP: Did you know that Ink Sinker is the secret behind making perfect petri dish coasters? It's true! Ink Sinker is a white alcohol ink that has a different density than the other colors, and it has the unique ability to push alcohol ink colors down through the resin, creating tendrils and other cool effects!


 

1. Place your resin & hardeners in warm water

Start by placing your closed resin and hardener bottles in a warm water bath for about 10 minutes. When they are nice and warm, take them out of the bath and measure equal parts resin and hardener into your mixing cup. 

Note: The bottles in the pic below are our 16 oz kit (8 oz resin + 8 oz hardener).

Petri Dish Art - warm water bath

 

You will need about 3 oz for each 4” coaster (That’s 1.5 oz of hardener, and 1.5 oz of resin). Gently stir your mixture for at least 3 minutes. Try to stir carefully so that you don’t end up with a lot of bubbles.

Petri Dish Art - about 3 oz for each 4” coaster

 

 2. Pour the mixture into your silicone mold

Once your resin and hardener are thoroughly combined, pour the mixture into your silicone mold. Fill up each mold about half way.

Petri Dish Art - Fill up each mold about half way

 

 

3. Add your favourite colours

 

Now for the fun part! Using the alcohol ink, drop your favourite colors directly from the bottle into your resin.    

Petri Dish Art - drop your favourite colors directly from the bottle into your resin

 

After using the color, drop the white Alcohol Ink Sinker over each of your color drops. Keep alternating between color and Ink Sinker until you're happy with your creation!

Petri Dish Art - drop the white Alcohol Ink Sinker

 

💡 TIP: It’s helpful to use about 2 drops of color to 1 drop of ink sinker. This helps the color to sink through the resin properly. Also, you’ll want to use up to 45 drops in total for each 4” mold so as to allow the resin to properly catalyze.

Petri Dish Art - 2 drops of color to 1 drop of ink sinker

 

 

 

4. Cover your mold & let it cure

 

That’s it! Once you’ve dropped your ink in, cover your mold and leave it to cure overnight (between 12 – 24 hours).

Petri Dish Art - cover your mold and leave it to cure overnight

 

The next day, you can remove your cured petri dish art from the silicone mold and see how they turned out!

standard_glory_grande

 

 

Resin Petri Dish Ideas  

Now that you know the basic steps, here are some ways you can change it up to get different effects:

 

Ink Sinker First

Instead of dropping in the alcohol ink colors and then the Ink Sinker, try dropping in the Ink Sinker first with the colors on top, for a slightly different look.

Petri Dish Art - How to get funky

 

 

No Ink Sinker

If you like the way the colors float on top of the resin, try not adding any Ink Sinker at all!

Petri Dish Art - No Ink Sinker

 

 

Premix your ink

To create pastel colors, or to get rid of any white spots, you can pre-mix your alcohol ink and Ink Sinker.

Petri Dish Art - Premix your ink

 

To do this, combine a few drops of Ink Sinker with a few drops of color (you can play around with the ratio of color to Ink Sinker; usually equal parts works well). Shake up your mixture and drop it directly into your mold.

Petri Dish Art - few drops of Ink Sinker with a few drops of color

 

Let your epoxy begin to set 

If you don’t want your ink to spread too much, pour your mixed ArtResin epoxy resin into your silicone mold and wait 20-30 minutes before dropping in your ink. Oppositely, if you want your ink to spread a lot, drop it into your resin as soon as it’s mixed.

Petri Dish Art - Let your epoxy begin to set

 

 

The best and final tip: 

 

EXPERIMENT!!!!!

There are SO many different ways to create interesting effects with alcohol ink and resin! Why not play around with different techniques and see what you can come up with?

Let us know your favourite way to create petri dish art in the comments!

Petri Dish Art - play around with different techniques

 

Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper

 

You can also use ArtResin Alcohol ink on Yupo paper. Yupo paper is a plastic-based paper that allows the alcohol ink to ‘float’ over the surface. You can drip, paint, or sponge the ink onto the paper. The ink is incredibly vivid, and it moves and mixes over the paper beautifully.

Petri Dish Art - drip, paint, or sponge the ink onto the paper

 

To elevate your ink on paper artwork, try mounting your work onto a wooden panel and protecting it with a layer of ArtResin. The resin really gives the colors an extra punch!

Petri Dish Art - wooden panel and protecting it with a layer of ArtResin

 

You can also play around with collage, layering Yupo paper with ArtResin.

Petri Dish Art - layering Yupo paper with ArtResin

 

  

There you have it—so many fun options to try with ArtResin and Alcohol Ink. Experiment and above all, enjoy!!

• Show us your alcohol ink art! Tag your work @art_resin on instagram! 

• See what Josie Lewis did with Alcohol Ink in her Resin Petri-Dish Tutorial.

• For more information on creating resin art, please see our friend Jane Monteith's book The Ultimate Fluid Pouring & Painting Project Book, available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.




Petri Dish Art - alcohol ink art

Do you want to learn more resin art projects? See below our how-to tutorials.

About the author: Joanne Wright

I'm Joanne, the Marketing Content Writer at ArtResin. Originally from Canada, my home is now Indianapolis, Indiana. My love of all things creative and my entrepreneurial heart means I’ve worn many hats over the years including fashion producer & stylist, retail store owner, t-shirt designer, and even vegan baker! I...