Epoxy resin is a new favourite material of mine, and I've been using it to both give a glassy topcoat to paintings and to incorporate mixed media such as pressed flowers (ie the three-eyed raven I did for a Game of Thrones show). It was easy to find info on coating canvases and panels in resin, but hard to find info on doing it just to the edges - I didn't want it to drip off the side or otherwise coat anything but the front face. I experimented a little and ended up with this method - seems pretty obvious now, but when you're using fussy new materials there's always the impulse to find a step-by-step.
I'll attempt to actually blog about the artwork itself later, but for now here's a tutorial!
Disclaimer: epoxy resin is a very toxic material. While there are reliable ways to prevent exposure or over-exposure, you should check out the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on its dangers and effects, and how you can negate them. It is most hazardous through contact with skin and vapour inhalation, so please wear gloves and a respirator while working with resin. The respirator should have an organic vapour filter (the black ones). Dust masks or particle filters won't do a thing, but you can usually find particulate filters (pink) for your respirator in a combo pack if you want to sand the resin down later.
Alright! You'll need:
So, here's the super basic trick to not drip resin everywhere. Wrap your canvas or board in masking tape, with enough sticking up above the front face to create a wall several times higher than the depth of resin you want. Run your nail or a plastic card around the edge of the surface so that the masking tape is pressed securely to the side and no resin will seep into any loose spots. Pinch the corners a little for a sharper point.
Now you can mix your resin. While you can do it by volume, I find this really difficult to do because a) everything needs to be disposable, you won't be using that measuring cup ever again after you measure out the resin, and b) both parts are very viscous and it's thus hard to get it all out of the measuring container and actually have it be 1:1 when it's finally mixed. Instead I pour both parts straight into a disposable cup on a kitchen scale - it works 1:1 by weight just as well as volume. For 2 6x6" panels I measured out 25 grams of each part.
Using your disposable mixer (I used the butt end of an old toothbruth...) whip the 2 parts together. Really mix that shit good. If there are any pockets of resin and hardener that aren't combined fully, you're going to have a bad time. 2 solid minutes of arm-burning mixing should do it. It will be white with tiny bubbles and very thick. When it's ready, pour onto your artwork and using your disposable card, smooth it out and push it to all sides and corners of the work. Don't push too much too quickly up to the edges - it's so viscous that it will 'hang' on the masking tape walls and cure with a slope. While a tiny bit of this is unavoidable, as little as possible will save you more work later (I sand these slopes down into a bezel, personally). Once all 4 sides and corners have been touched with resin, it will self-level provided it's on a level surface.
There will lots of little bubbles still, and that's ok. Cover your works with paper or cardboard to keep dust out (my first attempt had a human hair in it and tons of dust, and it all shows when it's cured). After about 20 minutes the bubbles will have all risen to the surface and you can get rid of them. The trick is carbon dioxide - while you can exhale on them and remove the bubbles easily I don't recommend this because.. you know... toxic. A kitchen or blow torch works best. Just light it up and run it over the surface, being careful not to get the flame too close to the surface. Kitchen torches are cheap, small, and fairly useful for actually cooking if you need more reasons to buy a torch than pouring resin. Long-handled candle lighters or matches work as well, but less reliably.
You can use a hair dryer to remove the bubbles, but it's hit and miss. It's not the heat that pops the bubbles but carbon dioxide, so it only really works on the idea that you're cycling/moving the air around it so quickly that it's exposed to more of the carbon dioxide naturally in the air (or something). I don't really know. It worked for me once but it took fucking forever and I don't really want to be standing near uncured resin that long.
I'll attempt to actually blog about the artwork itself later, but for now here's a tutorial!
Disclaimer: epoxy resin is a very toxic material. While there are reliable ways to prevent exposure or over-exposure, you should check out the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on its dangers and effects, and how you can negate them. It is most hazardous through contact with skin and vapour inhalation, so please wear gloves and a respirator while working with resin. The respirator should have an organic vapour filter (the black ones). Dust masks or particle filters won't do a thing, but you can usually find particulate filters (pink) for your respirator in a combo pack if you want to sand the resin down later.
- Artwork to coat in resin
- Pourable, 2 part epoxy resin (sold in most art and hardware stores)
- Disposable cup and something to mix with (plastic cutlery or a popsicle stick will do fine)
- Disposable card of some form (I used an old business card but playing cards work beautifully)
- Masking tape
- Blow torch (optional but fairly important)
So, here's the super basic trick to not drip resin everywhere. Wrap your canvas or board in masking tape, with enough sticking up above the front face to create a wall several times higher than the depth of resin you want. Run your nail or a plastic card around the edge of the surface so that the masking tape is pressed securely to the side and no resin will seep into any loose spots. Pinch the corners a little for a sharper point.
Now you can mix your resin. While you can do it by volume, I find this really difficult to do because a) everything needs to be disposable, you won't be using that measuring cup ever again after you measure out the resin, and b) both parts are very viscous and it's thus hard to get it all out of the measuring container and actually have it be 1:1 when it's finally mixed. Instead I pour both parts straight into a disposable cup on a kitchen scale - it works 1:1 by weight just as well as volume. For 2 6x6" panels I measured out 25 grams of each part.
 |
| All the resin has been pushed to the edges but there are still lots of air bubbles. |
Using your disposable mixer (I used the butt end of an old toothbruth...) whip the 2 parts together. Really mix that shit good. If there are any pockets of resin and hardener that aren't combined fully, you're going to have a bad time. 2 solid minutes of arm-burning mixing should do it. It will be white with tiny bubbles and very thick. When it's ready, pour onto your artwork and using your disposable card, smooth it out and push it to all sides and corners of the work. Don't push too much too quickly up to the edges - it's so viscous that it will 'hang' on the masking tape walls and cure with a slope. While a tiny bit of this is unavoidable, as little as possible will save you more work later (I sand these slopes down into a bezel, personally). Once all 4 sides and corners have been touched with resin, it will self-level provided it's on a level surface.
There will lots of little bubbles still, and that's ok. Cover your works with paper or cardboard to keep dust out (my first attempt had a human hair in it and tons of dust, and it all shows when it's cured). After about 20 minutes the bubbles will have all risen to the surface and you can get rid of them. The trick is carbon dioxide - while you can exhale on them and remove the bubbles easily I don't recommend this because.. you know... toxic. A kitchen or blow torch works best. Just light it up and run it over the surface, being careful not to get the flame too close to the surface. Kitchen torches are cheap, small, and fairly useful for actually cooking if you need more reasons to buy a torch than pouring resin. Long-handled candle lighters or matches work as well, but less reliably.
You can use a hair dryer to remove the bubbles, but it's hit and miss. It's not the heat that pops the bubbles but carbon dioxide, so it only really works on the idea that you're cycling/moving the air around it so quickly that it's exposed to more of the carbon dioxide naturally in the air (or something). I don't really know. It worked for me once but it took fucking forever and I don't really want to be standing near uncured resin that long.
 |
| Here the masking tape pokes about 1/2" above the panel face and is able to prop up printer paper to protect from dust. |
Cover your work again and let it cure! For smaller pieces the masking tape will hold up a piece of paper just fine, but for larger pieces you might want to use something rigid like cardboard or create a frame (for something 11x14" I just stacked books around the piece and laid a big piece of cardboard over it, making sure nothing touched the resin). While resin tends to take 2-3 days to reach a functional hardness, after 12-24 hours you can remove the masking tape so that it does not bond to the resin. If you tug the masking tape and the resin gives or seems somewhat gelatinous, push it back into places and try again in a couple hours.
Ta da! The doe druid piece actually left my apartment before I photographed it (oops), but here's the little Hellboy I resin-coated at the same time. It gives the piece a glassy appearance as well as some depth, which is especially fun if you've incorporated 3d media or multiple layers.
The doe druid is off to a new home but Hellboy is available in my new shop!
Good luck, and feel free to ask questions (though I'm still learning myself). My biggest piece of advice would be to test your chosen method on a smaller piece that you're not too emotionally attached to because, as with most unfamiliar materials, it never works as expected the first time.
