Do you know how to turn a simple piece of furniture into an acrylic pouring work of art?
In this week’s episode, Rakhi Jha uses the dutch pour technique to turn ordinary wooden trays into beautiful pieces of art and walks us through her creative process.
If you are wanting new techniques to expand your acrylic pouring passion, then you can’t miss this episode!
Meeting Rakhi Jha
Rakhi Jha is a professional artist who lives in Gurgaon, India, a city which is close to New Delhi. She has been living there for nine years now and before that she lived in New York City for 16 years.
She started her career in art about a year ago while she was working full-time as an architect. She started doing art furniture and she became passionate about it from the very first time.
And this passion started unexpectedly. She used to have difficulty in buying furniture for her own, as she wasn’t able to find exactly what she was looking for. She always thought “Why does art have to be limited to Canvas?”. As a result, she started venturing out, doing a few pieces for herself and so it was about eight-nine months ago when she really discovered fluid arts.
Nowadays, her pieces of furniture are a success, and she has been receiving a lot of attention from people who appreciate this kind of art.
Building Tables by Yourself or Getting Someone to Craft Them?
As Rakhi says “I myself am not heavily into carpentry or anything but I did find a fascinating way”. If you are this kind of person, it is better to get a carpenter to do stuff for you. Another good option is to find a kit off of Amazon with screw-on legs.
The fact is that each table you choose will be a different challenge. For instance, if the table has a rim, then it is much easier to pour and cure with resin due to this surrounding edge. But if the table does not have this surrounding edge then the acrylic pouring part becomes easy and the resin portion becomes more difficult.
How Not to Get Paint on the Inside Rim?
The best way for that is by using tape on the bottom and on the inside the table. This simple tip will prevent the paint from coming off. Also, Rakhi recommends waiting maybe one to three hours before you gently take off the tape. At that time, it will be the perfect time to remove it, but if you wait too long to remove it then the paint itself gets stuck to the tape and you may ruin all your work.
Tips for Choosing the Colors:
Choosing your colors is definitely very important for a successful work of art.
Primary Colors, when mixed together, make beautiful secondary colors. But if you choose a secondary color and you mix it together with other colors, they turn brown. Because of that, you must be careful about which color(s) you layer over it.
If you feel that you have two secondary colors picked out, then layer something else in between, maybe a white or a gold metallic.
The Perfect Paint Consistency for Dutch Pour
Rakhi doesn’t use too many products to mix her paint. She mostly just uses paint and water. Sometimes she uses a pouring medium, but not very frequently, as it is extremely expensive where she lives.
She says: “I would suggest, wherever you are, keep it as simple as you can and for consistency. I have a couple of videos on that, but you can go pretty high in terms of water and paint ratio”. The secret for success is to keep your work as thin as possible, but so that it is totally covered and none of the bottom surface is showing.
Also, it is important to adapt your work conditions to the place where you live. In Rakhi’s country a pouring medium can be very expensive, but if you live in a country where it is not, you may use it as you want.
What Are the Common Dimensions of the Tables?
Accent tables are quite standard (usually 18” round). Rakhi usually keeps a generic sort of size for her tables (from 16 inches to 18 inches or 19 inches round or square). The height is usually 20 inches, 21 inches.
She also keeps a couple of shapes and a couple of styles in hand. For example, she has some tables with metal legs and a few with tripod legs. As a result, she can vary her work and create amazing pieces of furniture.
How Long Does it Take for the Dutch Pour to Dry and How to Apply the Resin?
Firstly, acrylic pouring in general is usually the same way in terms of how long the piece takes to dry. It usually should be left for about three to four weeks until it is completely dry.
In countries like Rakhi’s it can take around two weeks to dry with pretty hot temperatures during the summer. On the other hand, if you are in a cooler climate or during the winter then we recommend leaving it for at least three weeks to four weeks before you add the resin to it.
How to Prevent Dust From Accumulating While the Resin is Drying
It is extremely challenging to do this especially for bigger items. Rakhi has found an incredible way to protect her pieces from dust while they are drying. Using some boxes out of cardboard she protects her work until it is done.
Here is a picture of her invention to protect her tables. As you can see, the high is perfect, so, if she wants to work on the piece she can and it is still protected against dust.
There are some nice tips that you can use to prevent dust on your drying pieces. For instance, sweep the floor before doing the resin. Also, clean the table where you are going to apply the resin very well before everything. Finally, you can cover your table with a canvas if it is a ready-made rim.
Where Can You Find Out More About Rakhi and Her Dutch Pour Work?
You can find more about Rakhi’s dutch pour work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and you can also send her a message through her company website.
In the video below you can watch her creating some of her tables using the dutch pour technique
This post is a fraction of the latest installment of the fluid arts podcast. Our podcast is available on YouTube as well as iTunes. Don’t forget to view it and share it with your artist friends. Also, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to join our Facebook community. Thanks, and don’t miss our next episode!