From Party Favors to a Resin Workshop: Sylver Star Studio’s Story

Quick Answer: Can Resin Art Become a Handmade Business?

Yes—but growth usually comes from more than making beautiful pieces. Sylver Star Studio’s experience shows the importance of sharing work consistently, responding to customer ideas, pricing time as well as materials, and building a workflow that can handle demand. Workshops add another layer: accessible tools, realistic timing and shared equipment all matter.

From Party Favors to a Coastal Resin Style

Sylver Star Studio is a resin art business based in East Lothian, Scotland. Its maker balances a full-time career training frontline health and social care workers with coastal resin art, custom orders and an ever-changing creative process.

“I discovered resin about two years ago, completely by accident. My son wanted resin shakers as party favours for his birthday, so I bought a few bits to make them myself. I was obsessed within about ten minutes.”

“I would describe my style as intentional, and a little bit coastal. I gravitate towards teals, blues and greens more than anything else, partly because they are my favourite colours and partly because I live right on the coast in East Lothian, so the sea finds its way into a lot of my palettes without me really trying.”

“The piece that captures that best is a full chess set called Celestial Waters. It was the first complete set I ever finished and it is still one of my favourites. I have always loved playing chess but found traditional boards a bit dull, so I wanted something that felt like it belonged by the sea: deep teals, watery movement, a bit of shimmer.”

When Custom Orders Went Viral

“A lot of my work now comes from custom orders, which are driven entirely by the client's own ideas rather than mine. I love that pressure, if I am honest, because it pushes me to test techniques I would not have tried on my own and pulls me out of my comfort zone regularly. Some of my favourite finished pieces exist purely because someone else asked for something I would never have thought to make.”

For Sylver Star Studio, the shift did not happen when the shop opened. It happened when attention and demand created a workflow problem that a hobby setup could no longer absorb.

“The turning point was when a few of my videos went viral on Instagram (@sylverstarstudio). Traffic exploded almost overnight, I nearly sold out completely, and at one point I had more custom orders than I could realistically manage alongside a full time job. I actually had to deactivate some listings just to catch up. That was the moment it stopped being a hobby and started being a business I needed to manage properly.”

“Selling gives you a real buzz, but if you sit down and do the maths and realise you are making £1.50 an hour, that is not a business, it is an expensive habit. Price for your time, not just your materials.”

From Solo Making to a Resin Workshop for Nine

Sylver Star Studio’s first workshop brings together two parts of its maker’s life: resin making and supporting people in demanding care roles.

“Anyone who crafts knows the calm and joy that comes from making something beautiful with your own hands, and next month I get to combine both of those passions properly for the first time: I am running my first resin workshop for a group of carers.”

“I want them to leave having had a proper break, having connected with colleagues outside of their usual routine, and having discovered a bit of mindfulness through making. Care workers give so much of themselves looking after others. I want this to be an hour or two where someone looks after them.”

A group workshop is not simply an individual workflow multiplied by nine. It requires transport planning, different learning speeds and fair access to shared curing equipment.

“Creating alone, you only ever need to think about your own workflow. Teaching a group means thinking about nine different paces, nine sets of hands new to resin, and making sure everyone has proper access to shared equipment without long queues or long waits.”

The Resin Tools Behind Sylver Star Studio’s Mobile and Group Work

For solo work, the maker prioritizes ease of use. For travel and teaching, portability, speed and consistent access to shared equipment matter more.

“My G3 is genuinely my favourite piece of kit. It speeds up curing, has a built in UV function, and it is portable, which matters enormously to me because I travel across the county for my training work and can still keep custom orders moving even when I am nowhere near home. My AirPro 3 is the other one I could not be without. Bubbles are the enemy of every resin piece, and the AirPro 3 is my army against them!”

“When you are making sets of matching pieces, or teaching several people the same technique at once, you need equipment you can rely on to behave the same way every time. You learn the hard way that cheap nail lamps won’t give you the results you want with UV resin, so having a full set of Resiners UV lamps has been a 2026 must. I need machines that will deliver great results, because the finished pieces are a reflection on me as teacher.”

Start Before You Feel Ready—and Keep Going Bigger

“If you are a maker wondering whether you could actually sell your work or run a workshop of your own one day, my honest answer is: start before you feel ready, because you never fully will. Just do not forget the lesson I mentioned earlier: price your time properly from the start, it is much harder to raise prices later than to set them right from day one.”

“I want to move into deep pour resin, which is completely new territory for me, to create tables and larger statement pieces. I am also teaching myself wood turning, starting with bowls and cake stands, with the aim of bringing wood and resin together. New chapter, new mess on my studio floor.”

Follow Sylver Star Studio’s next chapter at sylverstarstudio.etsy.com and @sylverstarstudio on Instagram.

Shop the tools Sylver Star Studio have picked during Back to Create Sale!

G3 2-in-1 Curing Machine >>Shop Now

AirLess Pro3 Resin Bubble Remover  >>Shop Now

UV Light >>Shop Now