Resin-inlaid Wood
Shinium - Brilliance by Design: Resin-inlaid Wood
A non-jewellery post, for a change. We were running a bit short on
shelving in the kitchen and wanted somewhere we could store all the
preserves we're going to make from the garden this year, so we went to
the timber yard to see what they had. They had this, 155cm long piece of
chestnut.
It was pretty heavily cracked and pitted, with knotholes and so on. But,
I had a plan. Resin inlay. A technique traditionally used with a
colour-matched epoxy to the wood, to give an "invisible" repair. I'm
taking a slightly different approach.
First job, seal off the holes from the bottom, using aluminium plumber's
tape. It's super sticky so it seals well, and it won't be damaged by
the resin either. You might need these seals to hold for a few days,
depending on the weather.
Make sure the wood is level, otherwise you'll end up with wonky resin bits.
Now it's time to mix the resin. Give it a good mixing and then add your
pigment. If you warm it up a bit, on a heater or with a hairdryer or
something, the bubbles will pop out of it much more easily. Bubbles can
ruin resin casts, so carefully mix and warm the resin, then let it sit
for a while, before pouring. It's going to take hours, even days, to
cure, so half an hour to de-bubble isn't a problem.
You know when I said this isn't going to be a traditional inlay? Here's
the pigmented resin in darkness. Awww yeah. This is going to be great.
So, pour it in, and wait. Come back in an hour or so to make sure none
of your seals are leaking. If they are, slap some more tape on and
refill with resin.
However long you think it's going to take, leave it longer. This was
poured in spring so took three days before it felt hard to the touch,
then I left it another three days just to be sure. Now, peel off your
tape and it's time to sand/plane/etc.
The overpour around the edges where the resin has soaked into the wood
is going to be a pain to remove. But I can already tell this is going to
look amazing.
More sanding. I'm really skipping over a LOT of work here. I spent
hours, and hours, carding, planing and sanding this. Chestnut is hard!
But eventually, it was done. I cut the big piece into the three shelves
it was going to be, and on to my favourite part. Boiled linseed oil cut
with white spirit. I love that first wipe of oil when the grain of the
wood just leaps out at you. Makes all those hours of preparation worth
it. Gave it about eight or nine thin coats, looks incredible.
View from the end. Visible inlay and spalting. Still a bit of woodworm damage visible.
Now it's time to get these up. The brackets are grey to match the colour
the wall is going to be once it's been repainted. I had some bits of
walnut around to make the other brackets.
And, they're up. In daylight they look like this:
Now, in darker conditions, you can really start to see the glow resin in action.
I think this one is my favourite. It's on the bottom of the top shelf, so it's visible in normal use.
Wall robot approves.
So there you go. Blue glow inlay into chestnut.
