Paint Pour Tutorial

March 4, 2021

Hey there Fusionistas!

I loved our paint pour tutorial this February, thanks everyone that joined me! Isn’t it easy, super fun and it gives really impressive results!

You can watch the live tutorial in our

Fusionistas Nottingham fb group, its saved under the 'tutorials' topic.

Let's get started!

So, What is Resin Pouring?

Resin Pouring is a technique where you pour coloured resin onto a surface to create beautifully unique patterns. They normally replicate marble but there are so many cool techniques that you can use to get different effects. The resin dries to a hard glossy finish and makes wonderful wall art...it looks incredible as part of your furniture design too!

How To Mix Fusion Pouring Resin

The Fusion Pouring Resin is clear, so you can colour it with any Fusion Mineral Paint. Just take a bit of the clear resin in a beaker and then dip your stirrer into the paint colour of your choice, stir this into your paint and you'll see it melt into the resin easily. You'll know you've got enough paint to tint it properly when it covers your stirrer well and is no longer transparent...it takes the tiniest pit of paint.

The resin will create a marbled effect when poured with other colours, however if you'd like to create the little circles in your design you'll need to add a few drops of Cell Enhancer to your resin.

Here’s the 3 techniques I demonstrated in my Facebook live

1) Dirty Pour Technique

So this is the amazing effect you create using this technique. Imagine it on a table top, it looks like beautiful marble.

Here I mixed up the resin in 3 colours, 1 beaker with Sterling, 1 with Casement and 1 with Enchanted Echinacea. I then poured all 3 into one beaker so that they marble slightly in there.

You then pour the resin over the canvas. You can pour in one motion into the centre to create a large pool, or you can dribble it around over the canvas. The choice is yours and there's no right or wrong way.

Now you manipulate the canvas so that the resin flows all the way to the edges. Tip it one way, then the other, rotating and moving it until the whole canvas is covered. Whilst doing this you will see that the pattern moves around, so you can decide which area is your favourite and encourage that to the centre.

Now you can set you canvas aside to dry... make sure you leave it somewhere perfectly flat. It needs to be left overnight and will be hard and glossy in the morning.

I used this technique to upcycle this table, its on display at the studio if you'd like to see it in person.

2) Layered Ripple Pouring Technique

This technique is beautiful! It imitates the layers you see in agate and sliced rock.

It works great if you add a metallic to your pour as these rocks often have shimmers running through them.

Let's get our different colours mixed up, for this design I used Midnight Blue, Laurentian and Copper.

In the dirty pour technique we let the different colours marble together in a beaker. In order to get the rippled layers for this technique we need to pour the resin into a beaker in layers. Start by Pouring in about 1cm of your first colour. Then pour your second colour down the inside of the beaker instead of straight into the centre, it'll slide down the side of the beaker and settle ontop...a bit like a fancy cocktail! Repeat this, building up layers so you get a beaker full of stripey resin.

Now we can pour! So start at one side of the canvas and as you pour jiggle your hand a little to create the ripples.

Now we can move the canvas around slowly, allowing the resin to flow over the entire canvas.

How stunning is that! I've used this technique before to refinish these drawer fronts.

3) The Hairdryer Technique

This technique gives that wow factor!

So with this one we're going to introduce the cell enhancer, it makes the resin separate to create those awesome little circular cells.

This design is made of Coral, Azure, Renfrew Blue and Casement resin. I've added a couple of drops of Cell Enhancer to the Renfrew Blue and stirred it to mix it well... just wait until you see the beautiful effect it creates!

Lets get pouring! For this design we lay a base of Casement resin over the canvas. Then we drip a line of Coral down the center of the canvas, then Azure, then Renfrew Blue.

This is the fun bit! Instead of picking up the canvas and moving it around to encourage the resin to flow, we use the hairdryer to blow the coloured resin out across the canvas. The air creates little waves and the heat makes all the little cells appear.

You can make smaller waves and control where the resin flows in more detail if you blow through a straw.

It's on my wishlist to use this technique across the front of a sideboard!

Tips and Finishing Touches

Prop your canvas up on something to allow the resin to flow off the edges rather than stick to the surface you've placed it on
You want a nice neat finish, so run your stirrer along under the canvas edges to smooth out or remove any drips
If you have any little bare canvas around the edges you can pick up some of the drips from your surface and fill in the gaps
Make sure you leave it to dry somewhere perfectly flat as the resin with continue to dry overnight.
If you're pouring onto furniture you'll need to prepare it in the same way you would if you going to paint it. So clean and sand or prime if necessary.
I like to paint my surface before I pour, this means if there are any little bits in the corners that are missed for some reason they don't stand out like a sore thumb

Next Month

March is going to be so exciting!

We're going to be launching the new Milk Paint by Fusion and showing you all the insanely amazing different styles and techniques it can be used for.

You can subscribe to my newsletter if you'd like updates direct to your inbox.

I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment below! Was this blog helpful? Are you excited to try your first resin pour?

See you soon! xxx