Welcome to our first tutorial – we hope you find it useful and inspire you to coat everything that stays still long enough in lovely two part epoxy resin.

Step One -

getting your item ready.  There may be areas you DONT want the resin to go – so tape this up carefully.  I prefer parcel tape as any sticky residue from the tape comes off easy enough from a varnished surface with a bit of white spirit.

Here’s what I am starting with – a Monet chest of drawers – I am going to resin the top.

Next, tape up carefully..

I want the resin to roll off and under to create a nice rounded edge, so I have taped underneath the edge to allow for this.

Mix up your resin in carefully measured equal parts resin and hardener.  Use a calibrated plastic cup – not waxed and perfectly clean.  Make sure you mix accurately half resin and half hardener on a flat surface.  4fl oz = 1 sq foot. remember to put the lids back on the right bottles. (yes, that might sound obvious, but we’ve swapped them around more than once!)

Mix carefully and thoroughly.  Its a good idea to wear plastic gloves and some people have a sensitivity to it on their skin- even so, its fiercely sticky and you don’t want to get this where you shouldn’t.  If you do, wash hands in washing up liquid.  DO NOT smear in your eyes or eat it – you will be in a very very bad state if you do.  In all seriousness folks, its hazardous stuff ingested or in the eyes and not to be messed with, in the same way you wouldnt fool around with oven cleaner – kapesh? Once hardened it is stable. Also, watch your temperature – moderately warm, like most homes is perfect – cold takes longer to cure.

See or Decoupage materials section in the shop to order this resin

Next – just pour it on – be generous.  Move the resin about with a paintbrush.  (one you dont want to use again).  Look out for hairs that might drop out of the brush.  This can be most annoying. If you do get this, wait til its cured, hack it out and give it another coat – you won’t see the bad bit.

Use a good light source to make sure you can see every bit has been covered and the resin is dripping off the edges.  If you are too stingy at the edges, it can pull away from the edge and leave  missing bits. Again, if you do get this, wait til it cures and give it another coat.

Next, waft the blow torch over the surface and watch the tiny bubbles magically disappear.  You only have to do this a couple of times and when the resin is wet, (about a ten minutes window) dont go over the same spot too much as the resin can pull away, leaving a dimple.  If this happens still  in its wet stage, it will probably settle down and even out.

this pic shows me working on some tiles, but dont let that confuse you – its all the same technique.

Now the last stage is optional – I tend to use a dust tent as I have two cats and a healthy disregard for domestic chores.  Its also a heartbreaker to discover some airborne nasty has settled in your glassy resin over night, so I think its worth considering. Trouble shooting this is same as before – hack it out with a scalpel, give it another coat.

Its so easy -  velcro some tarpaulin to the ceiling and tape the bottom to the floor.

one side of the velcro stuck to the tarpaulin

 Velcro on the ceiling

getting tucked up for the night…

That’s all folks!  Hope you enjoyed that, and if you give it a go (see our shop-decoupage materials for the resin for sale)- we would love to see what you came up with.  Feel free to get in touch any time if you need any assistance! If you like – please comment! xx