Mixing sculpting epoxy is a very tough job. I know this to be true for I’ve personally mixed thousands of pounds through the years. I often get asked what our secret is to mix so much epoxy each year. My answer is simple… Hire a student. This summer’s hire is Sidney, my nephew’s oldest son. It turns out he is the most prolific mixer of sculpting epoxy we have ever employed. Sidney mixed more than fifty pounds of sculpt today which is pretty impressive! He did other projects as well as he mixes faster than I can apply it. He’s a clever dude and invented a new method that works well for him. The two part epoxy is the consistency of plasticine and needs to be mixed in equal parts. It is rolled together by hand until it is thoroughly mixed. While we could use a machine for the task the reality is that the machine would have to be cleaned after each batch and that would be more work and take longer than mixing by hand. Once mixed the epoxy is applied by hand as well. The longer it sits unused the harder it gets so there is no point in mixing a whole lot at once. The Vala’s sign was routed from Precision Board and then I am sculpting a thin layer of epoxy over it to work out the details. One more day should finish this project and ready it for paint. To get a sense of scale the sign measures a whopping eight and a half feet tall and is about ten inches thick at its thickest point.
