Hi everyone!

Slowly driving myself mad so after some advice if you don't mind?

Attached is an image of a thick block memorial paperweight I'm trying to make. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get it to an acceptable level of finish (this is one of MANY I have tried). The attached is where I was trying to be clever (subjective word I know!) and 'glue' the butterfly and acetate in place with a few drips of resin (to stop them moving from position), then unfortunately I let it fully cure (it should have just gelled but I forgot about it) before topping up to just under the brim and putting in a pressure pot to fully cure. I left it in the mould then topped it up with a thin final layer of resin, spritzing and torching away micro bubbles before covering and letting fully cure. Yeah, not a great result?!

Apart from trapped air behind the butterfly, you can see where the original resin has been used and/or inadvertently dripped?! Also, despite it only being a thin layer over a largeish surface area and being torched and spritzed with isopropyl alcohol, there are still gazillions of tiny bubbles?! In short, it is so amateurish it is not funny!

I'm using an epoxy Total Cast casting resin but am wondering if I should be looking at a different resin and/or technique completely? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.x

Not sure if its a good idea and have no direct experience with doing it to epoxy - but you might look into pressure casting to minimize the bubbles.  I know it works for clear urethane and other casting resins and makes incredible bubble-free parts.  You could probably do it in a painting pressure-pot.  60-80psi (4-5bar) works great in some situations I have seen but not sure what would help with epoxy... 

Also, maybe degassing the resin? 

Good luck!