coasters – Page 3 – Sherry Glaab

Sand first coasters reveal

It’s time for the reveal of the coasters I made this week with the sand layer before the water. Spoiler alert, I like the water layer first final product a lot better.

Here are my reasons. First, the water layer doesn’t distribute as well this way. I think pouring the pigmented resin on top of wet clear resin really makes it move more and look more like water. Even though I used a craft stick to make swirls in the water, they don’t look that different from the control coaster at the top left of the first photo, which I just poured and didn’t stir. (Does it sound like I’m talking about Martinis now?) Second, the sand comes up around the shells and other decorative items on the beach and makes it look like they are all suffocating.

No white pigment between the sand and water in this one.

White pigment “bubble” between the water and sand.

They’re still OK overall, but I think I will go back to my usual layering order. I do like the white pigment at the edge of the water / sand, but it will take some time for me to perfect my technique for placing it. However, I did an informal FB Friends poll and folks are really pretty much evenly split on whether they prefer bubbles or no bubbles. I guess I will have to keep making some of each!

Third layer of the sea

Today I added the third and final layer on my most recent batch of coasters – the water layer. Usually I do the water layer second, but I wanted to see how it would look if I applied it last. Hopefully we will see good results (in the next day or two, after it cures). For now, these are the basic steps I took in pigmenting the water and layering it in the coasters.

Mixing the “Natural Blue” pigment into the resin.

I mixed up about 8 ounces of resin, then poured about 2-3 tsp in three cups for the three different colors of resin. This turned out not to be anywhere near enough resin and I ended up mixing another batch of 200 ml later.

Dumping some of the “Caribbean Blue” pigment into the resin.

Three shades of blue. The third one is “Majestic Blue”. Sometimes I use a green, as well, but not today. The bold resulting colors using these pigments amazes me!

I poured the three colors into the mold over the first two resin layers that have already cured.

Close up view. It should be fine that the water/blue layer is over some of the sand since the sand is opaque. I will mix the colors in a later step and make sure any empty / clear spaces are filled.

Pouring more clear resin over the water / blue layer. Once the clear resin is on top, I can mix and move the colors around a bit to make it look more like water.

After pouring the clear layer, I gently blow the resin with a heat gun in order to remove any air bubbles that form. A few are OK, but I think too many bubbles detract from the final look of the piece.

I use a small craft stick to mix the blue colors in a circular motion.

Continue to mix the colors in a swirling motion.

Covered for the next 24 hours or so to keep dust out while they cure.

I need to stay close to the coasters I poured for the first hour or so after I pour them in case some bubbles emerge that need to be removed. For this, I use a heat gun, though many people prefer a craft blow torch. Hopefully everything will cure / harden nicely overnight and we can see how they turned out tomorrow evening.

Thinking upside-down

Today was more cleanup on the window frame (I have to paint one side at a time), a bit of planning for the mermaid, and another layer in the next set of coasters. Below is actually the back side of the window. I sketched a rough outline of a mermaid I’m hoping to make before I put a coat of paint on the frame. When I’m done using the sketch as a guideline for the mosaic, the Sharpie ink will wipe right off with a wet paper towel. I also chose the glass (a blue Spectrum iridized) I want to use for the mermaid’s tail. I had to think upside down to do all of this today – the mermaid will end up facing the other direction and the coasters are built in backwards layers.

Rough outline of a mermaid drawn with Sharpie marker.

While the paint was drying on the frame, I mixed up 200 ml of resin for the next layer of decorations in the coasters. I poured a thin base layer for the coasters yesterday, so this is for layer #2. I had a little extra left over after pouring layers in 9 coasters.

For my last set of coasters, I poured the water before I added the sand background. I decided I wanted to try reversing the order and add the shells and sandy beach background first this time around.

I also wanted to try adding the white pigment at the edge of the sand where the water meets the beach, so to speak, to make it look more like the bubbles you would see when the water washes up in waves. I mixed some white pigment and drizzled it along the edge of the sand in 5 of the coasters, so I will have four without the bubbles to compare.

These will need to cure at least overnight before I can add the blue green pigmented water layer.

My least favorite thing

Today is a prep day. I have to do a little cleanup / painting on this window frame, clean up my resin measuring cups and pour a base layer of resin in my next batch of coasters before I can do the fun, creative part.

I’m thinking about doing a mermaid in this window.

When I started using resin, I used disposable cups for measuring. That seemed wasteful, so I switched over to these silicone cups that I can clean and reuse indefinitely.

I use old gift wrap to cover my work surfaces when I work with the resin.

When I’m done pouring the resin, I just leave the stir stick in place to dry for a day or two. Once the resin cures, it is easy to just pull the stick out of the cup, bringing with it any leftover resin in the bottom.

I then cut off enough duct tape to fit two fingers in and use it to pick up the rest of the cured resin from the inside of the measuring cup. It comes right off and leaves a nice, clean, ready to use surface.

In the above photo, you can see the little drops of cured resin stuck to the sides of the silicone measuring cup. Below is how it looks when I use the duct tape to remove the drops from the cup.

I decided to pour another base layer of coasters while I was at it. Now I just have to wait for the paint to dry and the resin to cure before I can continue.

Beach coasters w/pigment sea

Interestingly, the front side of the pigment didn’t distribute the same as it did on the underside. I’m still very pleased with the final outcome, and my original concern that the “water” layer should be behind the sand is now not a concern at all. I still might try it in reverse order, but I like the way the water looks like it is washing over the sand in these. I need to work on my technique to see if I can add a white layer of bubbles at the edge of the water. I can likely do this at the last step after pouring the water by adding white pigmented resin at the edge of the water. It will take a bit of practice.

Resin coasters with shells, shark teeth, sand and resin pigments – 4″ round.

Adding background

Today I added sand in another layer of resin to create the beachy background behind the shells in these coasters. I think I may need another thin layer of resin after this, maybe tomorrow if everything cures well. It also occurred to me that I should probably do the water / pigment layer last (instead of first), after the shells and sand. I’ll have to try that on the next batch.

More coasters with pigment

Today I was planning on doing some more prep work to an old window (cleaning up the wood frame / painting it) so I can use it for a mosaic. I hate doing that, so it wasn’t hard to get side tracked into making another batch of beachy coasters. My neighbor has been asking me to make some for her with the pigment as water (instead of beads / glass that I often use), so I cleared off my work surface and got creative.

For these, I poured a very thin layer of clear resin in the mold and let it sit for a while. While it was sitting, I mixed the pigments up (four different colors, three blues and one green) in separate cups. I then placed some shells and shark teeth in the resin. My sister recently sent me a bag of shark teeth (mostly found during my childhood in and around the Potomac River) to use in my projects.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the pigment distributed itself. I didn’t get any snapshots, but I really just drizzled the pigments one at a time into the clear resin base (still tacky and not cured, but it had been sitting for probably 20 minutes). They went from squiggly / ropey designs to this! I poured some of it a bit too close to the shells, but overall I’m really happy with how the pigment looks (at least from the underside). Adding a bit more clear resin at the edge of the pigmented resin helped keep it off the shells. I will let it cure overnight before I pour the next layer and add the sand.

I covered the molds with plastic lids to keep any dust out of the resin while it cures. Hopefully in a few days I will be able to pop them out of the molds and see how they look from the top, as the view in the molds is of the bottom of the coasters.

Tag: coasters