Well, this is frustrating. A failed experiment that is ALMOST perfect, but wrong in a way that ruins it. Gah.
I wanted to try making a milkweed fluff table. Big shout-out to Persis Thorndike, who sent me a giant bag of fluff from their garden, when they saw me posting about only having a little in mine to play with. I couldn’t have tried this otherwise!
I adore the way milkweed looks embedded in resin, and it seemed like it’d make a lovely little elegant end table, perfect for a fan of native gardening or just someone into modern design.
My big mistake? I poured the clear layers with milkweed fluff first (over a few days, in layers, because if you pour a lot of resin at once, the heat of the chemical reaction can lead to flash-curing and unevenness, cracking, etc.). That all went well.
Then I added the legs, measuring carefully so they would make a stable table. BUT — apparently I stopped thinking, because I put the legs directly on the clear resin. And OF COURSE, the brackets show through.
I tried adding a gold layer of resin to the bottom, which mitigates the effect a bit, but it’s still quite obvious. I like the gold layer — I’d been thinking of doing that anyway, as a transition to the gold legs. You could also do a black layer and black or bronze legs, which would be very modern and striking.
But I should’ve poured a thin opaque layer, let it partially set, placed the legs, poured more resin over the brackets for a thicker layer to lock them into place as the resin cures (obviating the need for screwing the brackets to the tabletop, which is nice).
Sigh. I’m not sure what to do with this table now. It’s perfectly nice aside from the visible brackets, but I don’t know if anyone would still want it. It’d be nice to get my supplies cost back at least — this is about $60 worth of supplies, I think, just counting the resin itself and the legs. I’d planned to charge something like $125 – $150 for the final table. Would anyone want this table for $60?
I may just need to chalk this up to a failed experiment and an opportunity for learning, and find a corner of my house to stick it in… Sigh.
I think I have time to start another pour this morning, though. Take two! This time, I will do EVERYTHING right.
I’m going out of town for a few days to help my dad with some finances and attend a conference in NY, come back Sunday evening, so iteration 2 of this table won’t be ready for another week or so. Oh, and I need to order some more legs, right.
