u/CalendarPositive3342

I went to a sunflower market and loved them so much that I bought two bunches to bring home and dry with silica gel, so I can preserve them for years!

The result was perfect—sunflowers are a kind of large flower, and even after drying, they’re still very big.
The first sunflower was dried face-up, and the second was dried face-down, so they look a little different.

It is a sunflower farm that opens to the public every winter.

I love this tree so much. Its leaves turn green and golden yellow in autumn, and it blooms with tiny flowers in winter.

Ever since I preserved my wedding bouquet as dried flowers and displayed it in a shadow box, I've been obsessed with making them! I already have four shadow boxes now. Where do you think they would look best in my home?

I went fresh market today, and bought some yellow flowers, they are perfectly fit the tree behind my home

I couldn't resist buying more fresh flowers to dry! They're absolutely perfect for a shadow box, and I love having it hanging in my home. It brightens my day every time I see it.

DIY process (in case you need to):

🌸 First, I poured a layer of wisedry silica gel crystals into an airtight container.

🌸 Then I carefully placed each flower on top, making sure they had enough space between them.

🌸 Next, I slowly poured more silica gel around and over the petals until every flower was completely covered. Taking your time during this step helps the petals keep their shape.

🌸 After sealing the container, I left the flowers undisturbed for about 2–3 weeks, depending on the flower type and size.

🌸 Once they were fully dry, I gently brushed away the silica gel with a soft brush and displayed them in a shadow box with glue.

I love how they turned out! Seeing them on my wall brings me joy every day.

Not sure the type of rose here, hoping someone could help me identify.

BTW, i bought fresh roses from the market, and drying them by myself, the photos here are dried roses. I think roses are definitely one of the best flowers for making dried flowers. My dried roses are still incredibly vibrant and colorful.

How do you think?

most fridge magnets were made by air clay. The process is super easy, I only buy five color of air clay, white, black, blue, red, yellow, it can be made any of color you want.

the cat and the cake were made by plastic. I went a workshop, they have everything i need , i just put small size plastic in the pad, once i finished, they will help me to heat them, and thats all.

Other metal city magnets and the pandas are made by "Money" (I bought)

I ran a simple side‑by‑side test drying roses in Wisedry silica gel:

• Left Rose : dried for 10 days
• Right B: dried for 30 days

Here’s what I noticed:

Color:

• 10 days flower looks more "fresh and vibrant," better preserving the color of fresh flowers.
• 30 days flower has a darker color;

Appearance:

The petals of flowers dried for 30 days show more noticeable granular impressions from the desiccant, likely due to being buried in the desiccant for too long; this is not obvious in the 10-day flowers.

How do you think?

I’ve always wondered how long epoxy resin can stay crystal clear without yellowing, so I ran a quick UV aging experiment.

I went to a uni laboratory and used a UV aging chamber (which simulates long-term UV exposure) to test yellowing resistance under extreme conditions. Since the chamber provides constant UV exposure, it’s far harsher than real life, where resin isn’t exposed to UV 24 hours a day.

The chamber’s rough conversion is: 3 hours ≈ 2 months of natural time

So I tested:

• 9 hours ≈ ~6 months
• 36 hours ≈ ~2 years
• 72 hours ≈ ~4 years

Result: after the “~4 years” equivalent, the resin showed very slight yellowing — not dramatic, but noticeable if you’re staring at it under good lighting.

My question: how long does it take for you to notice your resin starting to yellow in real life?

I’m getting into resin art and bubbles are the thing I struggle with the most. I’ve watched a lot of tutorials and it seems like many people use a vacuum chamber to degas their resin before pouring.

Would love to hear what works for you—especially for bigger pours or pieces where bubbles really show! As the vacuum chamber is really expensive

The first pic is what I created; the second is what it looked like at the wedding.

I didn’t want my wedding bouquet to just sit there and slowly fall apart, so I turned it into a shadow box I can actually keep and display.

What I did:

1. Let the bouquet fully dry out first (I use silica gel crystals to dry the flowers)
2. Grabbed a deep and airtight shadow box (a normal frame isn’t deep enough).
3. Glued everything down with small dots of glue so nothing shifts around.

Pics:

• Pic 1: the finished shadow box
• Pic 2: what the bouquet looked like on the wedding day

what do you think?

After this testing, I found that you really need to use dried flowers for resin projects.

Left is fresh flowers that i put into resin, right one is dried flowers.

we have an important client, and the client hosted a business event, my boss asked me to buy a bouquet of flowers, so i get this one. But we are the only ones who buy flowers for the client on that day, do you think it is weird?