Love Symbol #2

Synonymous with Prince, Love Symbol #2 is one of the most iconic things that we associate with the late musician. We thought it would be cool to encapsulate this memorable symbol inside some resin so it could be on full display. The symbol is actually resin poured inside a piece of wood and then coated a second time with a covering of resin to give it that encapsulated look. It is fun to make and is a really neat process; especially swirling the resin inside the symbol. We hope you enjoy it.

What you'll need

• Wood (some for the frame and some for the panel inside) (we used plywood for the panel and walnut for the frame)
• Resin (whatever kind you like, we used Famowood Glaze Coat)
• Scroll Saw (or some other tool to cut out the symbol and trim the frame)
• Vinyl sheeting (contact paper)
• Various other tools (level, stir sticks, cups or bowls for mixing, lighter or torch, clamps)

Make sure you check out the video, it shows a bit more of each step than the images do. Please enjoy and if you make it or something like it, we'd love to see it.

Once you have acquired the symbol, which isn't hard to find, you need to either adhere it to the wood or trace it on. We opted for tracing to keep the glue residue off of the wood this time. This is super easy to do. Just shade over the lines on the backside of the sheet of paper with a pencil. Once you've done that, flip it over, position it where you'd like it and use a pen (with some pressure) to trace the lines onto the wood. This make for a very easy pattern transfer.

One of the easiest ways to cut this out is on a scroll saw. Of course, if you have a CNC setup it would be even easier, but a scroll saw is what we're working with. You'll have to drill a hole in the symbol to get started, but after that, it's as simple as following the lines with the blade. If you've never used a scroll saw before, try practicing on some scrap material first.

Recently we found a great way to prep a piece of wood for open cavity pouring. Adding a sheet of contact paper or vinyl sheeting to the back of the piece of wood and then flipping it over and clamping it to another piece of wood works extremely well. Leaking is minimal and usually non-existent. Making sure it is sealed well and clamped tight is the key to this working well.

For this piece we decided to try something new. We wanted to add a swirled effect in the resin within the symbol. To do this, we mixed up a batch of resin that had a very dark purple color. After we had leveled the piece of wood we poured this in as a base. After it settled a bit we popped the bubbles that rose to the surface and then moved right on to pour #2.

NOTE - If you're not sure how to mix resin or what kind we are using, you can check out some of our other ibles that go into more detail or check out some of our other videos that show this process as well.

For the second pour, we didn't wait for the resin to cure. We immediately mixed up another batch of resin (slightly less than before) and added in a lighter purple. We poured this right into the base, but slowly. Once we had the level of resin just shy of the top of the wood, we used a stir stick to make swirls. This was a lot of fun and you could get pretty creative with this. Once we were satisfied with how it looked, we again popped any bubbles that had risen to the surface and then covered it with a book to prevent dust or any other particles from getting into the resin. This is hard to prevent, but every little precaution helps. This was left to cure overnight, about 12 hours or so. Then the backing was removed.

The frame was necessary; especially for the next step. To make the frame we cut some thin strips of walnut and glued and clamped them in place. We didn't do anything fancy for this. The strips just meet each other on the ends. No miters. Once they were dried and secure, we cut the overhanging pieces off with the band saw. Simple frame. Not the prettiest, but effective for the next step.

Before we started this step, we made sure everything was really clean. There was some dust on the piece from cutting on the band saw and from the bit of light sanding that was done. Again, we made sure the entire piece was level before pouring. Then we mixed up a batch of clear resin and poured it over the panel. For this step we made sure to take our time and get any debris out of the resin that was present. We also spent some time popping bubbles and pushing the resin around to get it where we wanted it. One of the main goals during this step it to keep the resin clean and clear which is sometimes difficult. We did everything we could and still ended up with some specks and fuzzies in it. Covering it up while it is curing helps, but not 100%. This too, will need to cure for about 12 hours or so.

If you chose to finish the frame, you may want to do it at an earlier stage. If not, and you choose to wait until the end like us, you'll probably want to use some kind of a wipe-on finish, so it doesn't get on the resin. We used paste wax, but wipe-on poly or some kind of oil would work as well.

Now you have an encapsulated Love Symbol #2 or whatever you decided to put in yours. Really, you could encapsulate any image or symbol this way and it would work really well. Either way, this was a lot of fun for us to make and we hope if you make it that you'll enjoy it as well.

We hope you enjoyed this DIY project and the video that goes along with it. If you have any questions or comments please let us know, we'd be more than happy to help you out. Thanks for checking out this Instructable.