Resin Casting with Color

I finally got the nerve to cut off the plywood sections of this piece. I replaced them with solid maple and to connect them I cast black resin between them. I did one test with coloring resin before doing my final pour. I was originally planning on buying special pigment for the resin, but one of the sculpture grads told me I could use oil paint. So, I decided to give it a try. The oil paint never quite fully mixed in with the resin, but I still like the effect I ended up with.

This weekend I took a workshop at the Indianapolis Art Center. One of the other students in the workshop, Stacy, is a jewelry instructor. We started talking about the work that we do and I told her about the resin castings. She actually teaches a resin jewelry class and had a lot of great advise for me. First off, she seemed a little concerned about me using oil paint in the resin. She gave me the impression that it might degrade after a while since the oil paint never fully mixes in, it just kind of stays swirled. She gave me a few suggestions for other things that I could use to add color. The one that intrigued me the most was spices, like paprika, turmeric, or cinnamon.

I've also been having some problems when it comes to getting all the air bubbles out before the resin sets. Since I am dealing with natural wood edges and wood that still has the bark on it, I end up with a lot of trapped air. She had some great suggestions to help eliminate these problems. First, she said to allow the resin to settle out in the cup you mixed it in for a few minutes before you pour it. This allows some of the initial bubbles to rise and pop. Then paint some of the resin onto the edges of the wood where I'm going to pour. Stacy said that resin sticks better to resin and that forcing the resin into the grooves of the wood before pouring will help prevent some of the unexpected bubbles I have been getting. Next, start pouring the resin in, slowly, and continue to "paint" the resin up on the sides of the wood as I go. She said if I still have bubbles trying to escape that I could use an orbital sander to vibrate my mold and help the rest of the bubbles rise to the surface. This is so genius and obvious that I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it!

I am very excited to try these new techniques!