Ceenoa

I have been on leave for the last week, enjoying time to be creative, and yesterday morning I decided it was time to try something I have been wanting to do for a while – resin a table top!

I rescued an old garden table from the  local Tip Shop last week (a bargain at $6).  It was sturdy and solid, with only a smidge of surface rust which I sprayed with an all-in-one primer and paint that had a hammered finish.  I gave it 2 coats and let it dry for 2 days, then I brought it inside and put it on some plastic sheeting ready to resin it.

I prepared my resin, a 2 part epoxy from my local hardware shop, and added small amounts to 7 separate shot cups which had some mica powders (a metallic powder that comes is gorgeous colours) added to them. (Forgot to take a photo of that).   I poured a layer of clear on the table top, spread it all over with my double-gloved hands, and then poured the different colours on.

Once I had added them I hoped they would spread and blend out with a bit of help from my heat gun – but that didn’t work so well, it just blasted a big dimple in the resin – oops.  On to Plan B – the hair dryer:  which also didn’t work very well because it really needed a directional cone to be more precise.  (The youtube videos made it all look much easier).  On to Plan C:  swirl it around with a stick!   

The swirling gave me some lovely colour mixing, finer lines, and some cells on the edges.

Then I checked around the edges to make sure the tape was secured (to stop the resin dripping over the side.

All through this process there was a fair bit of squinting of eyes whilst muttering  “it’s not doing what I want it to do”, and many moments of pondering.  (In my case, “pondering” means wondering what the heck I’m going to do to make it look better).

I knew that the resin would keep moving for a while yet, and that what I was seeing now would not be what it eventually looked like, but I was still a bit sad at this stage to see that most of the cells and distinct lines were blending together.

In the end, I am happy with the final result.  There isn’t any obvious dimples or spots in the resin, it has set level, and sometimes what you get is what you get.   I have plenty of room for improvement in my resin technique for any future pieces I create, and that’s a good thing to look forward to.

Thanks to Eli for taking these photos whilst I was playing with the sticky stuff.