Category Archives: Arts & Crafts

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

By Tom Pawlak

Cover Story, Epoxyworks 47, Fall 2018

Some years ago I had the curious idea of cutting a dried black walnut in half on a band saw. That first look at the exposed insides of the nut grabbed me as very unusual, even surreal and not at all what I expected. I decided to seal the cut surfaces in epoxy which made them look even more unusual. I’ve made many since and love to see the reaction from people looking at them for the first time. I’ve been told they look like brain scans, polished geodes, and ink blots. Continue reading →

Creativity is Contagious, Pass It On…

By Tom Pawlak

My career at Gougeon Brothers is coming to an end. By the time you read this article, I will have moved on to new things, the things that retired people do such as travel, kayak, volunteer, read books, and tinker creatively in my shop.

There is a place inside each of us where creativity bubbles freely. Creativity is a gift that needs to be tapped into and shared with others to fully blossom into something beautiful. Tinkering has always been a creative outlet for me. I wonder why many of us seldom tap into it. Possibly we were embarrassed as a child after showing someone our creations. The emotional wounds we suffered early in life may cause us to stop sharing ideas and creating things. Continue reading →

Readers’ Projects, Issue 47

Carrom Board

ABOVE: Suresh Kalavala of Galloway, Ohio built this waterproof Carrom game board. The frame is walnut, the corners are quilted maple and the game surface is Baltic birch plywood laser printed with a wide-format UV LED printer. He coated the surface with 8 coats of 105 Resin/207 Special Clear Hardener to protect the design. The resulting finish was actually too smooth and hard for optimum playing (The game involves flicking game pieces into the corner pockets), so he sanded it and added a layer of polyurethane to provide the correct texture. For details, visit diycarromboard.blogspot.com

Swifty 13

Longtime reader Phil Pike built this little Swifty 13. The lapstrake sailboat has a dark green hull and mahogany topsides.

Live Edge Tables

A collection of live edge tables and wall art from Ohio-based craftsman George Zilich. He uses colored pigments and clear coating in his custom pieces.

A live edge table by George Zilich of Ohio.

Bronze, Glass, and Epoxy Sunflowers

By George Gish

My sunflower project began after I’d brought home from the farmer’s market three sunflowers planted in a small barrel. I placed the flowers on the patio outside my kitchen’s sliding glass door. Every time I sat at the kitchen table, I looked out at this bright splash of color and felt pleasantly relaxed. That happy, soothing view ended two days later when deer ate the sunflowers. I wanted my view back, but knew that buying more flowers would just provide another meal for the deer. I decided to re-create the flowers in something they couldn’t eat: glass and bronze. Continue reading →

Bubble-Free Casting in Knotholes and Cracks

By Don Gutzmer

Customers often ask us to recommend a WEST SYSTEM product for filling cracks and knotholes in wood. The best choice is 105 Resin and 207 Special Clear Hardener. Used properly, this product combination produces a strong, transparent casting. I will use large logs with huge voids to demonstrate the best practices for achieving a clear, bubble-free casting with 105/207. Continue reading →

Readers’ Projects, Issue 45

Reader Eric MacKeigan is a scroll cut artist. He cuts his signs on a scroll saw and then uses WEST SYSTEM Epoxy dyed with a little food coloring to fill the voids and create works of art. More of his work can be found at fretwoodmack.com. Continue reading →

Epoxy Bowl

By Joe Llewellyn

I am a woodturner working on a wood lathe making various round objects from bowls to bottle stoppers to pens.

I started turning irregular pieces of wood like burls and became frustrated with all the defects in the rotten or punky wood, and the various holes that needed to be filled or stabilized in order to keep the piece together. I started using the WEST SYSTEM 105 Resin and 207 Special Clear Hardener as recommended by the WEST SYSTEM technical advisors. Continue reading →

You Can Build It With Fiberglass

By Clayton Woods

Using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy Resin and fiberglass products, I have created numerous helmets, props, and pieces of armor for costuming and cosplay. Cosplay means to dress up as a character from a book, movie, or video game. Employing unorthodox and oft times experimental methods, I have kept costs low and my creativity heightened.

Just about anything you dream up can be built with fiberglass. The only real challenge is to get a close initial shape. After that, you can add or remove material with relative ease. As it is impossible to hang fiberglass in the air, you just need something to put those initial layers on. Continue reading →

Fake It Until You Can Make It

By Don Gutzmer

Wood inlay marquetry has been around for a very long time, and I am always looking for different ways to use epoxy. I have learned that it is possible to use a laser jet printer with a clear transparency film to print an image, then transfer that image onto a substrate coated with WEST SYSTEM Epoxy, resulting in the look of marquetry without all the cutting, fitting and craftsmanship. (Ink jet printers do not work with this process because the ink does not transfer to the transparency film.) The image could be a picture of a wood inlay or whatever you can imagine. Here is the process I have found that works the best. Continue reading →

Boats as Art

As a career architect-sculptor, Larry Brown created a vocabulary of freeform shapes that bring a sense of naturally flowing, organic dimensionality to his art. Recently, he applied his methods to a municipal scale art project using recycled fiberglass boats. His goal was to make large fine art pieces and park scale sculptures. Continue reading →