Resin Dip: Unveiling the Hidden Names and Tales of a Timeless Craft

Every craft event we go to we always meet people who are fascinated by resin dip and the resin dip process, they always say to us some variation of “I have never seen anything like this before!” They are shocked when we tell them how long the craft has been going.
My personal involvement with the world of resin dip began in the 1970’s when as a very small child I would make flowers with my aunt. Aunty Jane was a primary school teacher and she would bring home large tubs of the resin for me to have a go with. I still have flowers that I made back when I was preschool. I do hope my techniques and flowers have improved since then! From those early moments of exploration, my love affair with the resin dip craft began to take shape.
As the years passed, the craft seem to fall out of favour, and even for my school teacher aunt, the materials were hard to get hold or did not seem available at all. I next came across this craft through my mother, Melody. Melody was a manager for residential and day care centres for adults with physical, learning and mental disabilities. Melody was creating a program of activities for people with all levels of abilities and turned to resin dip as a fun, quick and beautiful craft and who better to ask to run this program than me, someone who was very enthusiastic about resin dip. For a number of years I ran groups at the centres, each time we made and sold flowers as a fundraising event. Our Christmas wreaths were always very popular - and our decorated Christmas Crackers a perfect cracker!
We decided to try and bring the world of resin dip to more people and so began making kits, attending craft fairs and eventually a website. I like to think that as the years have passed, so too has my expertise and passion for this captivating art form. What started as a childhood pastime evolved into a lifelong journey of creativity, discovery, and self-expression.
There are other people we meet at the craft events, people who say “I remember this from my childhood – what was it called?” Resin Dip has been known my many different names over the years. Some of the names send my children into peals of laughter, they are interesting names. In one of my earliest books relating to resin dip it is simply called “liquid acrylic plastic”, this book was published in 1968. Another of my books from 1971 simply calls the product “film craft”. Most of my books from this era come from America.
From my collection of old books I have found the following list of names for resin dip
- Fun Film
- Dippity Glas
- Formafilm
- Dip Glaze
- Dip-A-Flower
- Dip Film
- Joli Glaze
- Whimsey Dip
- Tauchlach
- Vitriflore
- Resiflor
- Dip-It
- Fantasy Film
- American Flower Dip
The exciting thing in these books (apart from the amazing names) is reading some of the history of the product. In the introduction in one of my books it states “My first introduction to a dip film plastic was in the spring of 1951. The materials had good workability, but the solvents were toxic & unless you used in a highly ventilated area you could feel the effects of the solvents. Now there is very little odour and the material is pleasant to work with.”
I find it amazing to think that this product was being used over 70 years ago. However, as a product it has been worked on for many years, another of my books states “Since liquid plastics were first available to the craft field, creating flowers to simulate glass has been a quest of the hobbyist. Articles published in 1911 tell of early attempts at film dip, which were unsatisfactory and soon forgotten. Recently formulas have been marketed which make glass like film flowers practical for home craft.”
Whatever the name, our resin dip is an amazing product to work with and allows you to unleash your creativity and create some amazing projects and flowers.
Have fun!
Abby
Quotes taken from the following
George, J. (1969) Glass-like flowers; the shape and Dip way. Temple City, Calif,: Craft Course Publishers.
Gick, J.E. (1968) Dip film flowers. Rosemead, CA: Hazel Pearson Handicrafts.