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Well, y’all, my chandelier isn’t finished, but not for lack of trying. To say that the weather isn’t cooperating would be an understatement. This has been a very strange July with loads of rain and ridiculous humidity, so nothing is drying like it should. My clay flowers are taking forever to dry. The spray paint that I used to paint the chandelier and the flower “stem” frame is taking forever to dry. The whole thing has been so frustrating, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. It’ll get done when it gets done. So while I’m waiting for things to dry, I decided to make a very easy DIY decorative tray to go on my closet island using wood scraps and other items I already had on hand. The only items I had to purchase for this tray were the handles.
Decorative trays are such an easy and fun project, so if you’re a beginning and looking for something to build, or you’re wanting to try your hand at crafty things like gold leaf or resin, a tray is a perfect way to start.
Once the wood filler was dry, I used my rotary sander with a 150-grit sanding disc to sand the sides and the corners. As you can see, the sanding process really cleaned up those corners and made them look really nice. I also sanded the top edges of the side pieces so that they were smooth and flush with each other around the top.
It goes on white and dries clear. Once it’s dry and shiny, you can add the gold leaf.
If forgot to take a picture of the gold leaf process, but y’all have seen me gold leaf things many times in the past. It’s a pretty self-explanatory process. You press the gold leaf onto the adhesive, and then brush away any excess. It’s a pretty messy process once all of those gold leaf bits start flying, but I thoroughly enjoy it. There are metal leaf products that aren’t messy at all. The leaf comes attached to a backing, so you don’t have all of those excess leaf bits flying around. I’ve never tried one of those, but I’d love to!
After the gold leaf was on and cleaned up, with all of the excess brushed away, I gave all of the painted and gold leafed areas two coats of General Finishes High Performance Topcoat and let that dry. Then I was ready to finish the wallpapered bottom of the tray with resin. To keep the resin from seeping through the joints where the sides were nailed to the bottom of the tray, I turned the tray over and covered over those joints with metal tape. You can use caulk for this as well, but this seemed faster and easier since I wouldn’t have to wait for caulk to dry.
I poured that over the bottom, used a small spatula to smooth it out over the bottom, making sure that it completely covered and met all of the sides and corners, and then used my Bernzomatic propane torch to get rid of all of the bubbles. The key with using a propane torch on something like this is that you want to make very fast movements over the resin. If you move too slowly or hold it in one place too long, you will burn the resin, or worse, catch the wood on fire. So making very short, fast movements over the resin with the flame is key, and you can target any bubbles that you see in the resin. My propane torch is kind of big, but if you’re wanting to try your hand at a resin project, I’d actually recommend one of the little propane torches that are for kitchen use for caramelizing sugar. Those are much easier to control. Also, I generally do the initial torching right after I get the resin spread out, and then I let it sit about 15 minutes and come back and torch it again since a few new air bubbles always seem to appear during those first few minutes.
I checked on the chandelier and flower stem frame this morning, and I think those are finally dry enough to install them today. But the flowers still aren’t dry enough to prime and paint. If y’all have any tips on how to get air dry clay to dry faster without it cracking, I’d love to hear it!
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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