How to resin swirl?

General Discussion
1

Im looking to do my first resin swirl on a 6’ board and I would like some feed back on my approach… My biggest concern since im using Poly would be inappropriate amounts of catalyst in my batches of resin and having them set off too quickly or not fast enough. Ive only glasses two boards but I really want to try this. I have found 2 approaches on swaylocks, and want to know which one is the gives the best outcome

  1. Use one bucket of resin, mix base color (orange) to the tone I like. Then add catalyst, mix it. Then add my two other colors with catalyst in them, give it a quick swirl and pour.  

  2. Mix my base color in a large bucket of resin. Then have seperate smaller cups of resin with differnt color swirl in them. Pour the smaller cups first, then the bigger batch of solid color over top of them.

My concern with approach number 2 is, do i kick all of the batches at the same time. Or should i kick one cup at a time as i pour and design it the way i want to? if so… since the resin will be kicking off at different times will this effect the way it laminates to the foam with some areas of the resin beginning to kick and some other areas not? 

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you. 

2

Here is a link to videos by one of the best:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TSaunders34/videos 

3

Hey Man,

Resin swirls/abstracts are a lot of fun, and the best part is, no matter what happens, it will end up unique and cool. I’m not a pro by any means, ive made 16 or so boards start to finish, and done a few abstracts. I would say overall, don’t stress, and don’t worry too much about the the quality of your lam, because chances are, even if I gave you the best advice of a 20 year pro, your skills just aren’t there yet to execute it. That will come with experience, so just enjoy it!

As for the questions, #1 sounds like it would work just fine, and is what I would do given the description you’ve provided. If you wanna go the #2 route, you could draw out your catalyst in a separate cup for each smaller cup of resin, and just quickly mix as you pour the cups onto the foam/cloth. Always add catalyst to each separate color prior to joining them. I’ve done both and it all works out in the end. Another tip is to have a bucket of clear ready to go in case you need it at the end. This will help with your concerns of not enough catalyst. In my experience with smaller cups, it is ok to do a little less catalyst since you might not know how they will react (especially cobalt), if you plan to hit it with clear at the end. 

Again, take with however much salt you like, but abstracts tend to waste resin, especially with a larger bucket of something in the equation; so my advice would be to come to terms with that, and have fun with it! also, for a 6’ board you should be good to go!

Another option that I am looking to try soon is to get a squeeze bottle(s) like you would find for a restaurant for mustard or something. You can go fine tip, or salt shaker style to get a splatter effect. I’ve also done one where I had one of my racks adjusted higher than the other so as to let the colors naturally flow in one direction. 

Another tip, especially for option one, once all the resin is poured out, go slow with a big squeegee and brush it all from either one end to the other, or from center outwards. Try to clean the squeegee as much as possible between each swipe. If you have multiple squeegees that will make it easier. This helps in an effort not to muddy the colors, and prevents streaks from the squeegee.

Sorry for rambling, but these are just a few things I’ve learned. Post some pics when you’re done!

4

Bigredchev thanks so much! I love the feed back and you’re right, experience is the best teacher. I went with my second approach and it turned out great. I made a few mistakes and “muddied” the resin down by the fins so it turned out blotchy. But everything else went as planned. Thank you. 

 

here’s some pics 

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5

Looks cleaner if you “post glass” install the fin boxes.  Good on ya for pulling it off.  Keeping it clean (not muddy) depends on technique in your pours and how much you use the squeegee.  One method is to pour and then squeegee each color.  Pouring all the colors then working the squeegee will result in muddy colors.  Also overworking the squeegee does the same.  Get the colors laid out the way you want them and get rid of excess resin quickly.  And of course the rule is still that “the first color to hit the blank is king”, should be kept in mind.  Think the pour process thru before you start.  A Swirl used to be made up of two colors.  Usually one darker and more opaque than the other.  Often we would just pour a lesser amount of the lighter color into the darker color in a gallon pot and then swirl it once with a paint stick.  Each color was catalyzed before mixed.  One stir of the two colors in the same pot and then pour.   Personally I am burnt out on resin swirls and opaques.   Costco sets the artistic trend up here in the NW.  Give me a clean clear board made from a Sugary Arctic, Millennium or Marko with a nice tailblock, stringer combo and color accent.  Otherwise solid semi-opaque tint or straight tint.  Paint is underrated too.

6

I never liked paint, except as board art over the lamination.   

I haven’t done any abstract resins for a long time, but when I was doing them one technique I used a lot was the 3-tone.    I’d drizzle or draw with a little clear resin, do the same with a slightly larger amount of an opaque and then finish with a light-to-moderate intensity of the same color for the majority of the lamination.   The wash would tint the clear portions so I’d end up with 3 shades of the same color.   You basically can’t get an ugly shade in the transitions from one color to the next if you’re dealing with the same color.   

Another technique I used was drawing with chalk on the blank prior to laminating it.   The chalk is inert so it doesn’t interfere with the bond.    But chalk comes in so many shades that it can be tough to match with the tints so you want to take a laminated swatch with you when you go buy chalk.    2 or 3 shades of chalk with a tint over that can be pretty interesting if you’re into that sort of thing.  

 

7

I’ve never done it, but Gene Cooper (Mr Cooperfish) cuts out shapes in colored tissue paper and overlays them for some interesting graphics.   

 

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8

Hey mcding thanks for your input. I was thinking that about the fin boxes as I was trying to work the tail area. I’m going to do another board one solid burnt orange color. Would you say I should install the boxes post lamination for solid colors as well?

9

I had some good luck making a small batch off clear resin like a pint ,then a few small shot glasses of colored resin .both kicked.then drizzle a little color in clear and throw that slowly down on fiberglass cloth (on board) .let it move around flow…then go over everything with clear. …A little color goes a long way. Maybe splatter or drizzle some color straight up lightly on cloth right before clear main laminate

10

Did the clear resin hold the color well? I was afraid of trying that and then it not mixing well with the colors. 

11

Yes I would "post lam " install the boxes.  Looks cleaner.  Sometimes you can get Futures boxes in a color that is close to or accents your tint.  Futures makes boxes in an Orange color.  Kind of a fluorescent Orange.  Some guys will paint the flange area that shows thru the slots to either match the fin box or the tint.

12

Yeah I like that.  Huck did some tissue paper work.

13

Whatever you do, when using black or any of the really dark opaques as an accent, a tiny amount is enough.  Like maybe a thimble sized amount. Any more than that and the black takes over.      

14

Oh yeah. It is so thick it doesn’t blend.just pour slowly into bucket .then on board. I even seen dudes do 3 slow stirs even to mix it up lightly making "a swirl "in the bucket

15

I only do epoxy, and poly is much less viscous so maybe it will mix quicker than two different colors of epoxy? But I’ve done the pouring multiple colors into a cup, giving it a quick swirl, then pouring out said swirl on the board. It does produce a unique result that’s different from just pouring multiple colors on the board. I mix everything at the same time usually since the epoxy doesn’t go from a liquid to a solid real quick, like I believe poly does. On this board I’d pour in some red, some white, swirl it gently, then dump it. The colors do stay separate if you don’t mix them a ton. I think the diameter and height of the bucket matter, since the swirl can at most be as large as the bucket. I also tried to drag resin slowly and not mix what I collect in the bucket falling off the rails, since that kinda gets its own swirl, but eventually it turned the darkish red pink color. The bottom is muddy and not pictured lol. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=815659221824522&set=a.797536476970130

No idea how to embed images, but in the middle of that you can there’s a squiggly dark stripe on the light part and that’s from mixing the red and white, swirling it and dumping out a swirl. The nose got the same treatment and I spun the squeege in a circular motion, and it almost looks like one of those breath mints. If you put two colors near each other and leave space between them, then swirl it on the board with the squeege slowly you can make breath mint patterns. If you have a huge squeege you can make a big swirl. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1003915196332256&set=a.998762840180825

If you pour colors next to each other and let them kinda bleed on each other, and the mixture is favorable, like any color and white, that works too. I’ve learned that when you do stuff like this one it’s a good idea to choose colors that blend well, like anything with white will just make the first color lighter. Fire engine red and fake grass green would be harder. 

Sherbert edition:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3210727825650971&set=a.3166725010051253

This was done one color at a time without mixing colors. The white is not offensive to the other colors so I did that last and basically relied on the to saturate most of the glass that wasn’t an orange or pink blob. With other combos I might save a bit of clear resin to fix and fuck ups or if I really need to top dragging colors around to avoid muddying them. And if I recall, I made a bunch of clear, added a tiny bit of white, then split that into three, made the two colors and added a tiny more white to the white, then did it. 

I love doing resin swirls and colors. Shaping is fun but I could totally enjoy just doing these. I don’t know how people get those crazy super crisp poly resin swirls that look like oil stains on concrete or have opposite colors without muddying with vivid whites/lights and saturated darks, but I believe it’s related to poly resin’s viscosity and just being a resin god. 



16

Not so viscous if you warm it up a bit in the micro-wave.