Quick Resin Recipes: Ocean Wave

The Studio Journal

I’ve made ocean waves in resin for years.

The basic version only needs three small cups of resin: blue, clear and white. The wave comes from what you do with them.

What I’m using

For this wave I’m working on an 11 × 14 inch wood board with Let’s Resin 1:1 epoxy resin.

I mix approximately 40–60 ml of resin total, depending on how much coverage I want:

• 20–30 ml blue
• 10 ml clear
• 10 ml white

For the blue, I use Eye Candy Nokon Blue mica with 1–2 drops of Alumilite Translucent Ocean Blue.

For the white, I use Alumilite White Dye, usually only 1–2 drops.

You really do not need much colorant.

Both Let’s Resin and Alumilite recommend keeping liquid colorant at no more than about 5% of the resin. I use considerably less than that for this wave. Adding more color doesn’t necessarily make the result better, and too much colorant can interfere with the resin curing properly.

I use regular wooden popsicle sticks to mix and spread everything. Nothing special.

Mix the resin first

Let’s Resin is a 1:1 epoxy by volume, so measure equal amounts of Part A and Part B.

Mix the complete batch thoroughly before separating it into the three smaller cups.

Once it is completely mixed, divide it into:

20–30 ml for blue
10 ml left clear
10 ml for white

Now add the colors.

The blue gets Nokon Blue mica plus 1–2 drops of Translucent Ocean Blue. I want depth from the blue without turning it completely opaque.

The white gets 1–2 drops of Alumilite White.

The third cup stays completely clear.

Start with the blue

Pour the blue along one side of the board.

I don’t try to make a perfectly straight shoreline. I use a popsicle stick to spread the resin and shape the edge.

This is the largest part of the pour, which is why I give the blue 20–30 ml rather than dividing all three colors equally.

Don’t worry about making the edge beautiful yet. The white is going to change it.

Add the clear

Next comes the approximately 10 ml of clear resin.

This goes along the edge of the blue where I’m going to build the wave.

The clear gives the white somewhere to travel and helps create that transition between the solid blue water and the exposed wood.

Spread it with a popsicle stick so the resins meet.

Now the white

Pour the 10 ml white batch in a controlled line along the edge of the blue.

You won’t necessarily use every drop.

This is one of those places where more isn’t better. A huge amount of white can swallow the blue instead of creating the thin webbing we’re after.

Make the wave

Now comes the part that makes the whole thing work.

Using a heat gun, push the white back across the blue.

I’m not trying to stir the colors together. I’m using the airflow to stretch the white into a very thin layer over the blue resin.

As that layer becomes thinner, the blue begins breaking through it.

That’s the lacing.

Move along the shoreline rather than concentrating the heat in one place. You’ll see the pattern start forming behind the airflow.

And don’t immediately decide that it isn’t working.

The resin continues moving after the heat gun moves away.

Give it a few seconds.

Know when to stop

This is probably the part that took me longer to learn than actually making the wave.

Once I have good lacing, I leave it alone.

It is incredibly easy to see one little section you don’t like, go back with the heat gun, fix that section and destroy three sections that were already good.

Resin keeps moving.

Let it.

That’s the wave

There really isn’t much more to it.

Blue resin.

Clear resin.

A controlled amount of white.

Then heat and airflow in the right direction.

Quick Resin Recipes: Ocean Wave

—Vika