Flower Coasters

Working with dried flowers can be a bit fiddly, but the results are very satisfying. If you don’t want to dry flowers yourself, you can buy dried ones online. Here we use silica gel crystals to dry out some tiny flowers.

What you’ll need

About £16 if you already have some 2-part resin and hardener, plus some flowers and coaster moulds.

2-part epoxy resin (resin and hardener)
Mixing cups and stirring sticks
Round coaster silicone mould (I bought mine from SKsuppliesBG on Etsy)
Flowers (I picked weeds from the park to save money)
Granular silica gel crystals (I bought a 1kg tub from Trustleaf on Amazon)
Safety gear

Steps

Step 1

Choose your flowers

This can be quite easy if you’ve bought dried ones. For this demo, I simply picked weeds I found in the park. If they have stems, keep them on for now to make them easier to handle.

Tupperware container full of mixed small flowers

Step 2

Dry your flowers in silica crystals

Pour a layer of the crystals into a tub and place your flowers inside. Try to place them face-down so that more moisture is absorbed. Pour more crystals on top to ensure the flowers are covered, then close the tub tightly. Leave small flowers for around 4-5 days. Larger ones can take about a week to dry.

Silica gel being poured into a container full of flowers

Step 3

Gather your dried flowers

Once they’re dry, you can take the flowers out of the crystals. Do be careful, as the flowers will be very fragile. I recommend using tweezers to handle them. If there are any grains of silica on them, you can use a soft makeup brush to clear them.

Tweezers picking up small flowers from silica crystals

Step 4

Mix some clear 2-part resin and pour a thin layer into your coaster mould

This is what we’ll be sticking our flowers into.

Clear resin being poured into a circular silicone mould

Step 5

Place your flowers in the mould

The bottom of the mould is the front, so we’ll be placing our flowers face-down. Arrange the flowers any way you’d like.

Tweezers placing flowers into a silicone mould containing clear resin

Step 6

Brush a little clear resin on top of the flowers

This will hopefully prevent any bubbles from forming. Wait a few minutes to see if any bubbles rise to the surface and prick them with a toothpick. Leave to cure for 3-5 hours.

Plastic spatula drizzling clear resin over flowers in resin

Step 7

Mix some more clear 2-part resin and fill the mould to the brim

Now we’re just adding the backs to our coasters. Leave to cure for 24 hours.

Clear resin being poured over resin with embedded flowers

Lovely, you’re done!

Resin coaster with flowers embedded in it — Make your flowers last forever.