ENTROPY RESINS: Celtic-Inspired Epoxy Woodwork
Chris, a man with a deep-rooted passion for artistry, was fortunate to grow up in a family that supported his creative interests. His father, an architect, and skilled at woodwork, instilled in him the value of creating bespoke pieces. “That spirit has stuck with me – why buy something off-the-rack when I can build exactly what I need, to exactly fit my home?”
His interest led him to pursue a degree in Architectural Engineering, which not only paved the way for a successful drafting career but also equipped him with the skills to design sophisticated woodwork projects.
For a significant part of his life, Chris channelled his artistic drive into music, playing in several rock and metal bands. However, he eventually found a new outlet for his creativity – woodworking.
Discovery of Woodwork
In 2005, he began research into the world of wood, with a particular interest in cabinetry and furniture building. He was fascinated by the art of inlaid decorations and marquetry, where pieces of contrasting wood colours are cut to form patterns and images. “I dabbled with it at first but the more time I spent doing it, the bigger my ideas got.”
During the economic downturn in the late 2000s, Chis and his wife found themselves unemployed. To make ends meet, he started making small wooden boxes and selling them at craft fairs. However, he soon realised that the effort he put into these boxes did not align with what people were willing to pay for them.
This experience led him to a realisation – for his woodworking to be profitable, he would need to create larger, more functional pieces like furniture. Since then, he has been creating tables and bookshelves, combining functionality with his distinctive touch. “I’ve always been looking for other woodworkers who do inlaid decoration the way I do and so far, I haven’t found anything that comes close, so I believe I have a niche product.”
Future Plans
Chris is the kind of person who is driven by his ideas. When an idea presents itself, it haunts him until he can bring it to life. However, like many artists, he faces the challenge of getting his work in front of the right audience. To overcome this, he has a plan. He intends to build a gallery of new showpieces.
“Step one is to just knuckle down and get things built.” Over the course of the coming year, he anticipates that a lot of unique pieces will be coming out of their shop.
For a long-time, his work was primarily focused around small, decorative pieces such as end tables for a living room or small wall hangings. However, he recently overcame a limitation in his process, allowing him to complete a few large pieces.
Chris has a particular fondness for Scandinavian and Celtic inspired designs. His past work includes several Celtic cross and tree designs. More recently, he has been drawing inspiration from old Norwegian acanthus cravings. “This design style didn’t lend itself too well to my pre-epoxy work but, when paired with coloured epoxy, it is delightful.”
Among all the designs he has incorporated into his woodwork, one stands out as his favourite – the carving of dragons around the door of the Urns stave church, a historical site in Norway. This design is so significant, that he even has a tattoo based on it. Dozens of his woodwork pieces are instantly recognisable as having this old carving as their root.
Looking ahead, Chris has an exciting project in the pipeline. He plans to create a large tabletop, likely a coffee table, with the image of the Urns stave church’s dragon carving inlaid into it. He sources his lumber from a variety of local suppliers, including millwork suppliers and larger woodwork businesses. Despite buying in small quantities compared to these companies, they often allow him to sift through their stock for boards with interesting grain patterns.
Wood Origin and Environmental Impact
One aspect that he pays close attention to is the origin of the trees. Leaning towards a preference for North American domestic woods. “There are some amazing-looking wood species from all over the world, but my technique of inlay patterns would cut the wood into such small pieces that the grain patterns would get lost.” He also considers the environmental impact of shipping logs and boards across the globe.
In his experience, he can accomplish most of what he wants to do. He does this using North American maple, cherry, walnut, and oak. When he does make exceptions, he is careful to avoid species that are endangered or near endangered.
This requires a bit of effort and research, but it’s made easier by his commitment to primarily using domestic woods.
Chris’ approach to woodworking reflects a deep respect for the environment and a commitment to sustainable practices.
Tools and Techniques
The woodworking toolkit he employs is a blend of traditional and modern tools. Using a bandsaw, table-saw (recommending a Saw Stop for safety), planer, and jointer – all power tools that transform rough lumber into finish ready boards. He also frequently uses hand tools, which he believes can accomplish tasks just as quickly as power tools, but in a safer manner. Advising new woodworkers to familiarise themselves with bench planes, a staple in the shops of seasoned woodworkers. “They take some practice and study to use effectively. It’s absolutely worth it.”
At the heart of Chris’ work is the scroll saw, a tool that uses a tiny blade – his most common blade size is .012” thick, which allows him to control very fine details. For cutting inlay pieces, he builds a panel of wood the size of the tabletop he wants out of each of the wood colours he prefers – usually maple, cherry, and walnut. These panels are usually about 1/4” thick. He tapes these together with painter’s tape, then applies the paper design to the top of this stack. As he cuts all this on the scroll-saw, all the lines are the same in each panel.
Once he’s done, he mixes and matches the wood colours to get the contrast pattern. This process also means he gets several tabletops worth of inlay out of each stack – in this example, they’d be three. He glues these down to a plywood sub panel, builds a raised border around the edges, and then it’s ready for the coloured epoxy linework. So far, he’s been tinting this with mica powder, but he has some other colouring experiments in mind.
Epoxy Work
Chris chose Entropy Resins® for his epoxy work at the recommendation of his wife, who has been doing epoxy casting as a hobby and small crafting business for many years. She tried various products over time but settled on Entropy Resins Epoxy for its reliability and attention to environmental impacts. Chris’ family has always been conscious of reducing their negative impact on the environment, both locally and globally.
While his work primarily revolves around woodwork, the role of epoxy in his current process is far from minor. In fact, it is critical to the way his creations come together.
When initially starting inlay decoration, he faced a significant limitation – the size of the scroll saw. Cutting intricate designs required spinning the wood panels all the way around to achieve sharp corners or continuous curves. If the panel hit the back of the saw, the cut would deviate from the pattern lines, ruining the piece. This limitation led him to create pieces based on a 12” diameter medallion, which was within the comfort zone of his 14” long armed scroll saw.
Experimenting with Inlay Colours
Another issue that he grappled with was the colour of the lines between the inlay pieces. His initial process involved filling the tiny lines between pieces with walnut sawdust and pouring superglue over it, resulting in a beautiful near black line. Desperate for more variety, he experimented with atomised brass to create gold linework. However, the superglue wouldn’t soak into the brass, leading to a failed attempt. He also tried using epoxy mixed with brass, but the mixture was too thick to flow into the spaces.
After much frustration and contemplation, he had a breakthrough. Realising he could redesign his inlay patterns. He made most of the lines between pieces deliberately thicker – 1/8” between major pieces. This would provide a wide enough space to use the handheld saw. Fundamentally breaking a panel into smaller pieces that the scroll saw could handle. Moreover, it would result in wider spaces for the epoxy to flow into. This would allow him to create linework in any colour he wanted.
Chris recalls the moment of realisation vividly. “I sat bolt upright in bed, and scared my wife half to death.” When she asked what was wrong, he replied, “Nothing’s wrong, I just figured out something amazing!” Unable to explain his idea, he told her, “I can’t explain it.” He then added, – “I’ll have to build it and show you!”
Since then, he has been laying awake at night. Envisioning the project that would become the first batch of Acanthus-style coffee tables he would build.
Post-Breakthrough Developments
His breakthrough of using epoxy for colour and to create larger tabletops occurred in the summer of 2023. Since then, he has been brimming with ideas for images to use and furniture pieces to apply them to. He plans to create pieces featuring the Urns dragons. He also plans to create a chest of drawers with inlay that flows across the faces of all the drawers. Chris also has a handful of pop-culture references he’d like to try out, such as an inlaid tabletop with the Hyrule Royal Family crest from the Zelda video games set into the middle, and a piece based on the Time Spiral from the old movie The Dark Crystal. “I’m a nerd at heart, so references to video games and movies are not beyond me.”
Every single piece is customised. “I’m just one person, so mass producing anything isn’t something I can do. The ideas occur to me far faster than I can build them, but they’re coming.”
He also has some advice for those thinking about trying out epoxy. He emphasises the importance of finding a balance between caution and courage. While epoxy is messy and requires a lot of precautions, Chris encourages aspiring resin workers to embrace an adventurous spirit. “Try out the weird, wild ideas, even if you’re 95% sure they won’t work out.” He shares his own experience of making a test piece with epoxy tinted with green mica powder. Which he initially thought wouldn’t work. To his surprise, it turned into a favourite colour and has been chosen for several commissioned pieces already. “Be mentally prepared to experiment, to try out as many ideas as occur to you.”
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