I have wanted to play with resin for a while, but the prices have always been a little high for experimentation without (almost) guaranteed success. However after watching a Highland Boxes live stream on YouTube and getting a promo code, I splashed on on a sample size of Alumilite AMAZING Clear Cast Epoxy Resin from Metal Clay. Fast delivery and a seamless ordering process made everything easy.
I also sent Mrs Turns out to Didcott to see the lovely folks at The Tool Post to pick up some metal powders and after a little research into dyes found a great post on Skinner Studio. Amazon provided the rest.
I then made up some blanks, mixed the resin and poured…and hoped…
The little one is an oak blank, drilled out to around 3/4 depth and I basically dribbled all the leftovers into this one. I think that I either had an airlock or just lots of bubbles as some of the holes only dried half full.
It still turned nicely, but I think I need to use more copper powder in the mix next time as it effectively dyed the resin, without giving an sort of lustre.
The middle of the three is a pear blank with a deep trench cut around the rim, which I filled with a mix of blue and green dyed resin (periwinkle and emerald according to the pots). The idea was then to turn the blank such that the wood is removed from the bottom of the trench, giving the illusion of the rim ‘floating’ around the bowl. This turned out to be much easier than I anticipated and the results were better than I could have hoped.
Unfortunately the final bowl, copper inlaid cherry hasn’t fully cured yet, but photos will be available once I have finished.