Resin Trinket Dishes & Phone Stands: A Beginner’s Guide

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Trinket dishes and phone stands are the two projects that come up most once you’ve made a coaster or two and started wondering what else a shallow mold can do. Both use the same core skill — pouring resin into an open-face mold, adding color, and letting it level itself flat — but the shapes give you something genuinely useful rather than purely decorative. A trinket dish catches rings by the sink or keys by the door. A phone stand earns its spot on a nightstand or desk. Neither needs embedded hardware, glued-on parts, or a second pour, which makes this a relaxed, low-pressure project even if coasters or keychains felt fiddly.

This guide covers both projects together, since they share almost everything except the mold itself — pick whichever one you need first, or make one of each from the same batch of resin.

To make a resin trinket dish or phone stand: mix epoxy resin, add mica powder or foil for color, pour into a level, degreased trinket dish or phone stand silicone mold, pop any bubbles with a heat gun (not a torch, which can damage a silicone mold), and let it cure for at least 24–72 hours before demolding (check your resin’s label), then give it about 7 days to reach full hardness. Demold, then sand and polish any rough edges before use. Total hands-on time: about 20 minutes plus curing.

⚠️ Safety first: work in a well-ventilated space with cross-ventilation, wear nitrile gloves and eye protection, and keep uncured resin off your skin. Wear an organic-vapor respirator if you can’t get cross-ventilation, you’re mixing a larger batch, you’re using a heat gun, or you can smell the resin; smell is not a safety sign, and surgical or charcoal masks don’t protect you. Work in a room at 70–80°F (21–27°C) with humidity at 60% or lower. New to resin safety? Start with Is Epoxy Resin Safe? and Resin PPE for Beginners.

Why Trinket Dishes and Phone Stands Are a Great Next Project

If coasters were your first resin project, this is the natural next step. The pour is still flat and forgiving — no deep cavities to overheat, no delicate hardware to seat — but the mold shapes do more of the design work for you, so even a simple solid-color pour looks intentional and finished.

Both projects are also genuinely functional, which matters more than it sounds. A coaster is nice; a dish that catches the rings someone takes off every night by the sink, or a stand that keeps a phone upright and charging without sliding off a nightstand, gets used every single day. That’s a big part of why they read as such a thoughtful gift for the effort involved.

They’re also a good way to use up resin. A trinket dish and a phone stand both take a small, predictable amount — usually well under what a single tabletop pour needs — so this is a natural project to reach for when you’ve got leftover resin from a bigger pour and don’t want to waste it.

Supplies You’ll Need

The shopping list here is short, and most of it doubles as gear you already own if you’ve made a coaster or a keychain.

• Resin. Standard 1:1 epoxy resin gives the glossiest, most level finish and is the easier choice for a phone stand, since it self-levels well even in an angled cavity. If you’re only making a trinket dish and want a same-day result, UV resin works too — check the depth of your mold first, since UV resin cures best in thin layers.
• A trinket dish mold and a phone stand mold. These are two separate molds — a trinket dish mold is usually a shallow round, oval, or novelty shape, while a phone stand mold is a deeper, angled cavity built to hold a phone’s weight upright. Don’t try to substitute a flat coaster mold for a phone stand; the angle is what makes it work.
• Color. Mica powder, alcohol ink, or gold foil flakes for a marbled or geode-style look — see the Color and Design Ideas section below for how each behaves.
• Mixing cups, stir sticks, and a heat gun for the pour and bubble removal (a torch is for open surfaces, not silicone molds). See our essential resin tools guide if you’re starting from scratch.

Step-by-Step: Pouring a Resin Trinket Dish

• Set the mold on a level, dust-free surface. A kitchen counter or a self-leveling craft mat both work — avoid a towel, rug, or anything that can dip under the mold’s weight.
• Mix your resin. Measure your mold with water first to see how much resin it holds, then mix a small batch and follow your resin’s ratio exactly — see our full mixing guide if this is your first pour. Not sure what your mold holds? The resin calculator works it out.
• Add color. Stir in a small amount of mica powder, dye, or foil flakes (colorant should stay at 6% or less of the mixed resin) until it’s evenly distributed — under-mixed color shows up as streaks once it cures.
• Pour slowly into the center of the mold and let the resin self-level out toward the rim. Fill to about 90% of the rim line rather than right to the edge — resin domes slightly as it settles, and overfilling causes drips down the outside of the mold.
• Pop bubbles. Hold a heat gun on low 6–8 inches above the surface and pass over it quickly, keeping it moving (not a torch or a lighter: the flame can damage a silicone mold) — see our troubleshooting guide if bubbles keep surfacing after curing starts.
• Cover and cure. A box or plastic tent keeps dust off while it sets — usually 24–72 hours for epoxy before demolding, with full hardness at about 7 days. Check your resin’s label for the exact window.
• Demold and finish. Flex the silicone gently away from the resin rather than pulling straight up. Sand any seam line with fine wet sandpaper (400–600 grit) and buff for a smooth rim.

Step-by-Step: Pouring a Resin Phone Stand

The steps are the same as above, with two differences that matter more here than on a flat dish.

• Leveling is non-negotiable. A trinket dish can tolerate a slightly uneven pour — a phone stand can’t. Even a small tilt while the resin sets shifts the top edge out of true, and the finished stand will lean or refuse to hold a phone upright. Check the mold with a level, or a phone’s own spirit-level app, before you walk away from it.
• Fill slowly to avoid trapped air in the angle. A phone stand mold’s cavity is deeper and angled rather than flat, which gives air more places to hide in the corners. Pour in a thin stream and tilt the mold slightly as you fill so resin flows into the lowest corner first, rather than pouring straight down the middle.
• Wait for full cure before testing weight. A phone stand can feel solid to the touch well before it’s actually cured through — give it about 72 hours before it holds a phone and about 7 days before it’s fully hard, not when it first feels dry. Resting a phone on it early risks a slow bend or a permanent dent.
• Test on a flat surface once demolded. Before it goes into daily use, set it down and check it sits flush with no rock — catch a leftover unevenness now rather than after it’s holding a phone.

Color and Design Ideas

• Marbled ocean-wave dish. Pour a base of white and two shades of blue, then drag a toothpick through the surface in loose swirls and finish with a scatter of gold foil flakes right before the resin starts to thicken.
• Geode-style with gold veining. Pour a dark base color first, paint thin gold-foil “cracks” across the surface once it’s tacky, then seal with a final thin clear layer.
• Solid pastel with a gold-leafed rim. Pour a single solid color, then brush a thin line of gold foil around just the outer edge after demolding for a finished, boutique look with almost no extra effort.
• Birthstone-color phone stands. Match the resin color to someone’s birth month for an easy, genuinely personal gift that needs zero extra mold work.
• His-and-hers matching sets. Pour a dish and a stand in the same color story and gift them as a pair.

Common Mistakes

• Overfilling a shallow mold. Trinket dish and phone stand molds both have a defined rim — pour past it and you get flashing that’s a pain to sand off, or resin dripping down the outside while it cures. Fill to about 90% of the rim and let it self-level.
• Not leveling the mold. The single most common reason a phone stand doesn’t stand straight, or a dish’s floor is thicker on one side than the other. A coin placed on the surface shouldn’t roll.
• Skipping the rim sand. Both pieces get handled daily — dish edges brushed by fingers, phone stand edges gripped while adjusting a phone — so a sharp demold seam is more than cosmetic. A quick pass of wet 400–600 grit sandpaper fixes it in under a minute.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources

• ArtResin, How To Make Resin Coasters: a torch flame can damage silicone molds, so use a heat gun.
• ArtResin, Tips To Prevent Resin Bubbles: the heat gun is the safer choice for silicone molds.
• TotalBoat, TableTop Epoxy data sheet: heat gun 6–8 in above the surface, 70–80°F working temperature, cure schedule.
• ArtResin, Resin Care Instructions: 72 hours before use and the 120°F heat limit.
• Let’s Resin, Know More About UV Resin: 365–405 nm lamp wavelength.
• Let’s Resin, Why Is UV Resin Not Drying?: large, deep or opaque molds aren’t suited to UV resin.
• WEST SYSTEM, Health Effects from Overexposure to Epoxy: skin sensitization.
• WEST SYSTEM, Epoxy Safety: organic-vapor respirators and keeping solvents off skin.
• CDC NIOSH, Epoxies and Resins: ventilation, gloves and washing; smell is not a safety sign.

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Keep Learning on ResinAffairs.com

These two projects sit right alongside a few other beginner favorites on the site.

• 🎁 Resin Gift Ideas for Beginners → — useful gifts like these are exactly what this list is built around
• 🧼 How to Make Epoxy Resin Coasters → — the project these two build directly on
• 🧊 Best Resin Molds for Beginners → — how to choose molds that actually work for shapes like these
• 🛠️ Common Resin Problems and How to Fix Them → — bubbles, tackiness and other troubleshooting
• 🔑 How to Make Resin Keychains → — another low-commitment, functional project
• How to color resin →
• Is resin food safe? → — what “FDA compliant” really means, and what my own resin labels say.