I received a request for these custom crib boards via my Instagram account. The folks at Dent Island Lodge were looking for a custom crib board and provided me with the logo they wanted on it.
I provided them with some mock-ups I had designed in Photoshop and they gave me the go ahead for two oval boards and two rectangular boards. Now that I had “set the bar” with my Photoshop renderings, the pressure was on to create physically what I had presented digitally!!
I knew I wanted to “knock it out of the park” with these boards as I figured if they liked them, there could be more work for me in the future. The golden bullet I decided to go with was Epoxy Resin.
I’m not a big fan of working with epoxy as my limited experience working with it in the past installed a certain amount of fear using the product. Bubbles, dust and the virtual stopwatch that starts as soon as resin meets hardener were enough to prevent me from using the product again…until now!!
One innovation I utilized on this crib board was the use of vinyl. I’ve recently purchased a vinyl cutter and used it to cut exact sized pieces for masking off certain pieces of the crib board while I was painting or staining other areas. It worked pretty well. I exported an svg from design I created in my cnc software and imported it into my vinyl cutter program. I cut out pieces that would cover the island section, the water section and the peg section that would all be masked in different points in the build. The island and water were masked when I painted the edge of the island black. The peg track and water were masked when I painted the inner edge of the peg track black. The peg track and island were masked when I stained the water area blue and poured the epoxy. You get the idea:)
I learned a lot from this build. Proper, careful, preparation before epoxy resin is mixed is crucial to success. A good rendering of a product can help secure a sale. You never know where a potential sale might come from.
If you would like a custom resin crib board for yourself or your business, feel free to contact me