Our customer and fellow artist from the BohriAli community, Smriti Krishnan, wrote about her experience with making a river table with the Bohri Ali Coffee Table kit. We absolutely love what she created and love how she embodied the spirit of #DOMORE we can’t get enough of!
I’m Smriti Krishnan, a lawyer and an artist. I started my resin journey in November 2019 and started my page “Art by Smriti” in June 2020. I make home décor and functional art using resin. One of my most liked works is the Ocean series which I created using the Haksons High Gloss resin. Today, I will be writing about my experience with the BohriAli Coffee Table Kit.
Like a lot of resin artists, making a river table was on my bucket list. When I discovered BohriAli’s Instagram page and website, I saw that they had a lot of DIY coffee table kits. Every coffee table kit can be customized to what each person wants to create.
I had great fun brainstorming with Yusuf about the design of the table, the type of wood and pigments I wanted to use to create my table. I was inspired to make a dual-tone river table, that transitioned from green to blue.
The coffee table kit comes with almost every tool one needs for resin art- right from the resin, wood, frame, pigments to gloves, measuring mug and weighing scale. It additionally comes with a comprehensive handbook which contains the checklist of products needed and most of the instructions to make the table.
The handbook is well written with extensive instructions for each step of the process and a few illustrations for easier understanding.
Once I received the kit, I had a video call with the team where they explained the process as given in the handbook. While they have made the table making the process easy even for someone who hasn’t worked with resin before, I will definitely recommend that one tries to make a smaller art piece before diving into the river table for the following reasons:
- It is essential that epoxy resin is mixed properly so it cures perfectly and does not harm the environment.
- Mixing a small quantity gives you a better understanding of the dos and don’ts so even if you have not mixed it right, there is not too much resin that is wasted.
- You will have a better idea of how much time you need to allocate for each step of each pour.
- You can make samples of the colours you’d like to make in the actual piece and finalize the plan accordingly.
- It is easier to correct the mistakes before the big pour.
Some beginner-friendly resin projects can be found here.
Since the table kit comes with 5-6 different types of pigments, making a few coasters with different colour combinations- metallic green and blue, dark green and blue definitely helped decide how I wanted to go forward with it.
Each type of pigment gives a different effect which made it very important to know the final result of using those pigments before making my table.
A few tips and tricks I would like to share to anyone new to resin or making a river table for the first time is to:
- Make a sample piece before working on the actual table,
- Work in a clean and dust-free environment,
- Always wear protective gear- Mask, apron and gloves. In fact, read up about safety here.
- Seal the wood before starting the pour so as to not use excess resin and reduce the number of bubbles during the pour.
- Cover the work after the pour to keep the minute dust particles away; and
- To tape the acrylic sheet as well to make the demolding easier.
While videos of pouring river tables make it seem very easy, there is a certain level of knowledge required to understand the complexity of this art. However, with the detailed instructions provided in the handbook and the support of the BohriAli team, it is easy for beginners to make their own river tables.
