Advice on making fake gems - ROP DURIN

[Douglascraig]

Looking for some advice on making fake coloured gems.

I'm working on a replica of Durins Ring from amazon's ROP series. Usually I work with real gemstones but I'm going to have to come up with a creative solution to replicate the stone in this ring. I thought maybe I could 3d model it to make a mould, then use some kind of dyed clear resin but that's very much outside of my wheelhouse so wondered if anyone could recommend some products/techniques?

 

[JPH]

Design and print stone in resin

File away print lines.

Stick base of stone to 2-sided tape on a flat, level surface

Surround stone with LEAKPROOF barrier like clay
Make barrier 1 1/2 /imes taller than stone. The walls need to be atleast 1 cm from stone..

Fill with Rebound 25. Use a toothpick to gently scrape up and down immersed stone to remove bubbles

Let it cure.

Remove barrier and tape. Flip Rebound 25 and stone and remove stone from the mold.

Drop original stone in a measuring cup partially filled with water to figiure out volume.

Get a good, clear resin like Epoxacast 690 and mix with a transparent blue pigment to the color you like.

If you can degas the resin, that will help.

Pour resin into mold and let it cure.

DONE

 

[Douglascraig]

Hey, thanks! I'll give this a go soon!

 

[Starganderfish]

Design and print stone in resin

File away print lines.

Stick base of stone to 2-sided tape on a flat, level surface

Surround stone with LEAKPROOF barrier like clay
Make barrier 1 1/2 /imes taller than stone. The walls need to be atleast 1 cm from stone..

Fill with Rebound 25. Use a toothpick to gently scrape up and down immersed stone to remove bubbles

Let it cure.

Remove barrier and tape. Flip Rebound 25 and stone and remove stone from the mold.

Drop original stone in a measuring cup partially filled with water to figiure out volume.

Get a good, clear resin like Epoxacast 690 and mix with a transparent blue pigment to the color you like.

If you can degas the resin, that will help.

Pour resin into mold and let it cure.

DONE

Theoretcially, OP could stop after the first couple of steps:
"Design and print stone in resin"

Just use a nice clear blue resin, or get a high transparency resin like Nova 3D High Transparency or Monocure Crystal Clear and add some blue ink or food colouring to get the right shade. Pretty much all the rest of the steps listed above give the final result of a gemstone made out of clear blue resin, so may as well just print it in blue resin to start.

Can even add some pearlescent pigment powder or similar to get the slightly opalescent effect of the image in the first post. Or add some glow-in-the-dark pigment or play around with glow resin to get the Glowng magic effect?

Phosphorescent DLP/SLA 3D Printing Resin - BlueGreen

lumentics Premium DLP/SLA 3D Printing Resin - Innovation Made in Germany Our lumentics 3D resin is a glow-in-the-dark printing resin with excellent…

lumentics.com

 

[Douglascraig]

Hey, it took me a long while to get this done but thanks for the advice. I went with a clear 3d printer resin. Had to do a bit of experimenting with finishes on it. Eventually I settled with using a clear UV curing nail varnish top coat. It leveled out the print lines and gave a really nice clear finish.

I'll hopefully get some better pics soon, but I'm happy with the results, thanks