 Hey everyone! So as you may know, Art Resin was designed as a surface coating and meant to be poured in thin layers over artwork. Sometimes though, you might want a thicker coat. For example, if you're embedding objects into the resin, you're pouring over areas of high relief, or you're pouring into a mold. Now you can get a thicker coat, but for best results, you're going to want to follow a few steps. Today I'm going to walk you through our favorite ways of getting a thicker coat, the 24 hour method, the 3 to 5 hour method, and the water bath method. Let's get started. Now because Art Resin was formulated as a surface coating, it naturally self levels to about an eighth of an inch. It's important to note that if you pour thicker than this, the bubbles may not be able to escape and you could end up with bubbles in your cured resin. To get thick coverage and avoid excess bubbles, there are a few approaches you can take. One of them is layering Art Resin using the 24 hour method. This method is for resin that's been allowed to cure for at least 24 hours. It works great if you want to paint in between resin layers or if you simply want a thicker coat. It takes a little more time, but it provides a very tight bond between the layers. First, pour your initial coat of Art Resin and wait 24 hours until the resin has cured solid. The surface should no longer feel sticky or soft at this point. It should feel perfectly smooth and dry to the touch. Now you'll need to rough up that smooth surface with coarse sandpaper. Now this step is crucial. Sanding will create some tooth for the new resin layer to adhere to and it'll ensure that the two layers bond together. If you skip sanding, you run the risk of the two layers eventually delaminating or separating because they've got nothing holding them together. Now when you're sanding, you want to use coarse sandpaper to really rough up the cured resin surface. We like to use 80 grit sandpaper here at Art Resin. And don't worry, once you pour on your fresh resin layer, the scratch marks from all that sanding will get filled in with resin and will disappear like magic in front of your eyes. Remember, wear a mask whenever you're sanding down resin. You don't want to breathe in any of that sanding dust. Now you don't need to sand too deep, just enough to rough up the entire surface. If you've painted in between layers, just sand around the paint. The paint itself will provide some tooth but you want to make sure you're also roughing up any other areas that need it. After you've sanded, brush off any debris and then wipe the surface down with a damp paper towel to remove any sanding residue or dust from the surface. Repeat this as many times as you need until the surface feels smooth. Make sure though you allow enough time for the surface to completely dry before you apply your resin. Then carefully measure and mix a fresh batch of Art Resin and pour a 1 eighth of an inch layer as normal over the sanded surface. You'll see all of those scratch marks getting filled in with resin and disappearing and you'll never know your piece was ever sanded. Allow the piece to cure for 24 hours and you can repeat these steps as many times as you wish until you get the thickness you want as long as you pour in 1 eighth of an inch increments. Next we have the 3 to 5 hour method. This is a quicker method but it still gives you great results and it's a perfect option if time is an issue or if you want to embed objects into the resin like a photo or dried flowers or gold leaf or glitter or anything else that might sink to the bottom of liquid resin. So again we've got our first coat of Art Resin applied but instead of waiting 24 hours until it's dried of the touch, we're going to wait anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. Now if your resin room is warm it could be as soon as 2 to 3 hours. What you're really looking for is for the resin to have thickened up. Not till it's a solid but more like a gel like state and tacky. In a place of sanding that tackiness is going to provide the tooth for the new layer to grab on to. In fact the two layers are going to cure simultaneously which is going to create a nice strong bond. Here's a little tip for you from Art Resin guest artist Sue Bord. After you pour your first coat leave a little cup with some leftover resin in it beside your piece and you can monitor the cure without disturbing your artwork. So once you're happy with where the resin's at this is the point where you're going to add your inclusions if you've got any. In fact the stickiness of the resin is going to hold the inclusions in place and prevent them from floating away when you pour your next coat. Then measure and mix a fresh batch of art resin according to the instructions and pour your fresh 1 eighth of an inch layer. Allow it to cure completely or if you want to add more layers let it cure to the 3 to 5 hour mark and repeat the steps. So really you can use either method it's up to you. The 3 to 5 hour method or the 24 hour method and you can pour as many layers of art resin as you wish as long as you pour in 1 eighth of an inch increments to allow the bubbles to escape. The final method is using a warm water bath. In fact with the water bath method you don't have to pour in increments you can pour a thicker layer all at once. Now this method allows you to pour a thicker coat because the warmth actually lowers the viscosity of the resin. In other words the warmth thins the resin out resulting in far less bubbles which allows you to pour a thicker coat with a crystal clear cure. Now thin resin is harder to control so this method works best when you're pouring into a contained space say like a mold or a lit panel as opposed to pouring and spreading over a piece of artwork. Now a water bath is pretty straight forward but just keep the following tips in mind. You don't need to use boiling water. Warm to hot water like you'd use for a baby's bath works just fine. Warm the bottles before you measure and mix. Heat accelerates curing so if you warm up the resin after you've mixed it it's likely to cure instantly. You don't want any water getting mixed in with the resin so keep the lids on the bottles. Don't submerge them and dry them off thoroughly before you open them. The time the bottles spend in the water bath really depends on how cold your resin is, the size of the resin bottles and how warm your water is. Here at Art Resin we usually let a 32 ounce kit sit for about 15 minutes in warm water. Once you've wiped the bottles off measure as usual and make sure you mix slowly so you don't introduce any more bubbles than you need to. Pour your resin and torch out the bubbles. When working with silicone molds best practice is not to pour much more than a quarter of an inch or you run the risk of bubbles. Now having said that I have very carefully poured up to half an inch on many occasions without any issues but just keep in mind that if you do pour as thick as this you do run the risk of bubbles. So by far the most important thing to remember with a warm water bath is that heat accelerates curing. Not only will you lose about 10 minutes off of Art Resin's 45-minute working time but you'll want to have everything prepped and pour the resin as soon as you finish mixing. If your resin sits it may cure prematurely right in the cup. And remember Art Resin's cure time of 24 hours until it's dried at the touch or 72 hours for a full cure is based on a 1 eighth of an inch layer. So if you pour thicker it's going to take longer to cure. A coaster for example could take up to a couple of weeks to fully cure so just make sure you give it enough time. So there you have it three easy and different ways to get a thick coat of Art Resin. So remember if you're pouring into a mold use the warm water bath method and if you want to get multiple 1 eighth of an inch layers on a piece of artwork you can use either the three to five hour method or the 24 hour method but always remember if your resin is cured you need to sand first before you apply a fresh layer. So I hope you found this helpful please leave any questions in the comments below. Don't forget to hit subscribe and we'll see you next time. Bye!