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Thanks, folks!
Nathan, I did a few things. I was using the Shabebe epoxy, which takes a long time to cure, and pouring a different color each day. The red had a sharp edge because it was a thin layer in the bottom of the cup, mostly to make sure that the epoxy wasn’t going to eat the cheap styrofoam cup, and then I went more than a week before the next layer.
Subsequent layers, I tipped the cup inside a bucket, so the surface would be level, but in an angle to the cup. And before I poured the next day, I poked at the surface with a bbq skewer and in some cases made little dents with the skewer, so the transitions wouldn’t be sharp-edged. Ideally I would do two or three pours per day, since the Shabebe is still slightly ductile at 8 or 12 hours after pouring, but pretty well set at 24.
The other thing is that by tipping the cup, I got epoxy “catching” and getting dammed up behind chunks of cholla in the cup. That made for a more irregular surface even in the still-liquid epoxy resin. The blue-green transition shows some of this, when you realize that the green went in last over a very tipped blue layer, and there were some bigger chunks of cholla oriented randomly in the blue before I poured the green.
And then finally, I had some bubbles in the surface and in the turned surface. Part of this was due to not having cleaned the cholla well, and part of it was due to not tapping the cup enough to dislodge air bubbles. Anyway, after mostly turning the shape, I took an awl and poked at the surface, knocking loose anything loose, and opening bubbles. Then I mixed another bit of purple, and “painted” it over the surface (see picture 3) to fill in those little bubbles and gaps and such.
The pigments used this time are the System Three Cast FX dry metallic pigments and I intentionally didn’t mix them in as thoroughly as I could have, leaving the color kinda “streaky.”
Nathan, I did a few things. I was using the Shabebe epoxy, which takes a long time to cure, and pouring a different color each day. The red had a sharp edge because it was a thin layer in the bottom of the cup, mostly to make sure that the epoxy wasn’t going to eat the cheap styrofoam cup, and then I went more than a week before the next layer.
Subsequent layers, I tipped the cup inside a bucket, so the surface would be level, but in an angle to the cup. And before I poured the next day, I poked at the surface with a bbq skewer and in some cases made little dents with the skewer, so the transitions wouldn’t be sharp-edged. Ideally I would do two or three pours per day, since the Shabebe is still slightly ductile at 8 or 12 hours after pouring, but pretty well set at 24.
The other thing is that by tipping the cup, I got epoxy “catching” and getting dammed up behind chunks of cholla in the cup. That made for a more irregular surface even in the still-liquid epoxy resin. The blue-green transition shows some of this, when you realize that the green went in last over a very tipped blue layer, and there were some bigger chunks of cholla oriented randomly in the blue before I poured the green.
And then finally, I had some bubbles in the surface and in the turned surface. Part of this was due to not having cleaned the cholla well, and part of it was due to not tapping the cup enough to dislodge air bubbles. Anyway, after mostly turning the shape, I took an awl and poked at the surface, knocking loose anything loose, and opening bubbles. Then I mixed another bit of purple, and “painted” it over the surface (see picture 3) to fill in those little bubbles and gaps and such.
The pigments used this time are the System Three Cast FX dry metallic pigments and I intentionally didn’t mix them in as thoroughly as I could have, leaving the color kinda “streaky.”
May you have the day you deserve!
