Hi Friends,

I recently attended a beginner’s resin art class at my local community center. This is my second time working with this material, and there is still so much more to learn! My first experience was creating a piece of wall art in the “Intro to Resin Pouring” class. This second class was still rather basic, as we created a set of fun and easy coasters! 

Taught by Christopher Gayle, this class was well organized and provided lots of helpful tips and tricks to make your project successful! I would hate to call it fool proof, but it would certainly be difficult to not come away successfully with a unique piece of artwork. 

All our supplies were provided. Each participant makes four coasters in their choice of blue, green or purple. In under two hours, we went in as novices and left with all the need-to-know information for reproducing this craft at home. 

Christopher did a fantastic job breaking the process down into four simple steps.

Getting Organized

Our workspaces were well spaced, covered in plastic and leveled before we began. The most time consuming element of this project was preparing the different elements before pouring the resin. However, it was time well spent! The various layers of textures and tones bring a dynamic beauty to this project. Keep reading to see what colors I choose to work with!

Mix It Up

Christopher had several different additives for us to mix into our clear resin base. This included some alcohol ink, a metallic colored powder, a colored dye, an accent powder and some metal foil flakes. These were each mixed in separate, labeled cups.

Pour Some More

After pouring in a thin layer of the clear base, we began layering in the other mixes. Christopher suggested thin layers. We first poured around the outer edge, but all other layers were poured from the middle until we used up all our resins. The coaster molds should be filled to almost overflowing. This is because resin will shrink when dry and may leave a small rim around the cured piece if not filled completely.

As class ended and our pieces began to cure, Christopher came around with a heat gun. By applying a bit of heat to the surface of each piece, it helped pop any bubbles that were rising to the top of our molds.

You can see in the above pictures how the base color, in my case blue, is accented with the metallic tones. I chose copper for mine. My friend, who was kind enough to enjoy the class with me, choose a combination of purple and silver.

Wait it out

The hardest part of this project was waiting to see how it turned out! One must wait 24 hours before removing the coasters from the molds, and another 3 days while they finish curing on a flat surface.

Here is how my friend’s turned out:

Always the nonconformist, I didn’t like my coasters as coasters. I think they work better as home decoration items and set about finding a way to display them. My favorite solution was cutting an insert into a small block of stained wood. I used a bit of industrial glue to ensure my resin creation wouldn’t topple out of its new home. 

Epoxy Resin Classes by Christopher Gayle

Hosted by Mustang Parks & Recreation Special Events at the Mustang Community Center (1201 N Mustang Rd, Mustang, OK 73064)

More information about class scheduling and pricing can be found at the Mustang Parks and Recreation Facebook page CLICK HERE. 

Art & Function

Christopher Gayle is a small business owner, artist and instructor with a gift for epoxy resin art design. He creates custom furniture, counter tops and home decoration items. He also teaches a variety of epoxy resin classes at the Mustang Community Center in Mustang, Oklahoma.