[Lan]

 Dear Katherine,

First, Id just like to thank you for the fantastic work you do.  You have really inspired me to try my very first resin project!  My husband and I have been collecting bottle caps over the years (I know, everyone does it – not too original), and weve kept them in such good shape that I wanted to encase them.  We are in the process of furnishing our little back patio, and I have decided to make serving trays to go with the new picnic table.  Would you mind proofreading my project?  Again, Ive never done anything like this before and was hoping not waste all my materials by making some huge mistake.  I also promise that if you say I need anything I dont already have, Ill get it from this website 🙂

Materials:

2 16-inch diameter serving trays

tons of bottle caps

wax paper

disposable syringes

mixing cups and stirring sticks

32 ounces of CastinCraft clear polyester casting resin

1)  Tape wax paper together, trace trays, and cut out wax paper circles.

2)  Arrange bottle caps on wax paper tray templates.  (Were doing our first name initials in black bottle caps and putting the logo caps all around the letters for our design).

3)  Once everything looks exactly as we want it to, there will be several triangular holes or gaps between the circular bottle caps.  Mix enough resin to syringe a thin layer into each recessed triangle.

4)  Cover and cure (completely?).  Im hoping this will glue our patterns together.

5)  Peel wax paper off from entire circle of bottle caps and turn caps upside down.

6)  Bottle cap backs are now facing upwards.  Mix and syringe more resin into each cap.  (This is to minimize bubbles).

7)  Cover and cure (completely?).

8)  Make sure trays are clean, mix and pour resin into tray, and carefully lower bottle cap circle into tray.  Center and cover with more resin.

9)  Cover and cure.

10)  ??  Maybe sand?  Maybe pour another layer of resin?  What would you do?

Will those plans even work?

Thank you so much for your time and expertise.

Sincerely,
Lan

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Lan,

Heres a few of my thoughts:

I don’t think you need to go to the trouble of putting the caps on wax paper and gluing them all together.  I think you will do just fine gluing them to the bottom of your tray after you fill them.  You will for sure want to glue them to the tray to keep them from floating up when you pour the resin.

As for filling them, you can certainly do resin, although that much resin can get expensive.  I have seen others use glue or caulk, but I dont have any experience with that.

I would not use polyester resin for this project.  The surface that is exposed to air will be sticky, even after curing.  That means your entire tray will be tacky once you’re done.  I would go with Envirotex Lite (you can find it in our rein section) and pour it in two layers.  One to get mostly up the sides of the bottle caps, but not completely cover them.  The second layer would be enough to cover the caps completely.  When this resin cures, it will be very glossy and shouldn’t need any sanding.  I recommend two layers here because this resin is very syrup-y.  It can be difficult to get bubbles out if the layers are too thick.  If you’re wondering how much resin you will need, I would suggest using the guide on the blog on how much resin to cover a painting:  https://resinobsession.com/resin-art/how-to-apply-a-glossy-resin-layer-to-a-painting/

Good luck!

[Lan]

 Dear Katherine,

Thanks so much!  I will take all of your advice to heart.  Ill fill the caps with the polyester resin just because I bought it already.  I just ordered 2 cases of the envirotex lite 16 oz from your website, as each layer for each tray will probably require 7 oz.

Do you think we need to buy a creme brulee torch?

Looking forward to doing this project soon!

Lan

[Katherine Swift]

I like to use a hot air gun instead of a torch.  Im always worried Im going to set something on fire and find the hot air works great for me.  I got mine from the gift basket section at Michaels.  Its a hot air gun thats designed to melt shrink wrap around baskets.  You can see it in this video on our you tube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pdObUZVA0I

[Lan]

 Thanks so much for all your advice!  Ill look into the heat gun and send you pictures whenever we complete the project.

Lan

[Lan]

 Dear Katherine,

We havent started the project yet because were in the process of collecting some more bottle caps, and thats not something that should be rushed too much 🙂

I have borrowed my friends "Embossing Heat Tool."  Its sort of like a hair dryer.  Do you know if that will work as well as your hot air gun?  Is it the same thing?

Many thanks,

Lan

[Katherine Swift]

That should work fine.

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