Epoxy Landscape

This was my second big project with epoxy resin and I wanted to share some of the lessons I learnt while doing it. With something as simple as a bit of wood and some resin, you can make beautiful landscapes, stopped in time.

• Epoxy Resin
• Wood
• Electrical Tape
• Parcel Tape
• Matches (Optional)
• Tinting Colours (Optional)
• Sandpaper, of varying grades
• Polish
• Mixing Cup and Rod

Depending on your type of wood, this may be the easiest or the hardest step in the whole process. If your piece of wood is thiner, or weaker, you may be able to break it by hand. Else, try securing one half in a vice and taking a hammer to it, or propping one side of a brick and stepping on it. However you chose to break your wood, do so carefully!

Ideally, the break will be jagged, with many splinters sticking out of it. Take care not to poke yourself with them!

At this point, you can alter the wood to create a specific type of landscape. Charring the wood with a flame is one option (taking great care not to burn yourself), or you can colour the wood with a dye or pigment.

This is perhaps one of the most important parts to get right. If you don't create a proper seal around the wood, resin will leak out and the project will fail. I have experimented with different techniques to get a tight seal, and the best one I have found is to start with a couple of layers of electrical tape around the wood. Push the tape hard against the wood to ensure it is well stuck down all the way around. After, use a wide packaging tape to create a container to pour the resin into. Again, make sure the side is well stuck down.

Once you are confident you have a good seal around your tape, you are ready to start mixing and pouring the resin. Mix your resin as directed on the bottle (I used a 2:1 mix of the 2 part resin from Easy Composites). It is important to get the ratio right, other wise you risk the resin not setting. Mix well. You can now add tinting pigments to give the resin some colour. Add a small drop and mix well, being careful not to add too much.

You can now pour the resin into the tape 'cup' on top of the wood. Once poured, leave to one side to set for the time specified on the resin bottle (often 24-48 hours)

24-48 hours later, your resin should be completely set. You can remove the tape and get sanding into your desired shape. I stuck with simple but effective cuboids, but you can go for any shape you chose. I had access to a sanding belt that made the inital shaping a lot eaiser and quicker, but this will work perfectly well with a course piece of sandpaper and some time. Once sanded into your prefered shape, re-sand with a finer grade paper. Continue to increase the fineness of the sandpaper up to 2000-3000 grit, upon which time, the resin should be very smooth.

To buff it up, I used a small piece of car polish on a cloth, but any sort of polish should work fine.

And thus is your finished resin landscape! There are hundreds of different ways to edit and enhance this project, from different coloured resins, to marking the woods or sanding into different shapes, the variation is endless.