Starting and Becoming Confident in Flood Coating with Rory Nicholson – S3 : E4
Are you constantly talking about your art dreams? Maybe you have dabbled in resin art but haven’t had enough faith to step out and create the big projects you dream about. In this episode, Rory Nicholson, founder of Eye Candy Resin Art, shares how he stopped talking about his river tables and finally started creating them! If you are ready to push past your fears and trust the process of creating big projects, get ready to quit talking and start making!
Let’s jump right into our conversation with Rory!
- Introducing Rory Nicholson (1:33)
- Taking action and getting started (4:22)
- What Rory wishes he would have known when first starting (10:32)
- The timing expectations for each project (16:46)
- Sourcing large slabs of wood (21:34)
- Cultivating a supportive online community (24:23)
- What’s next for Rory (26:48)
- You can do anything you set your mind to (33:12)
Sarah Brown
Have you ever come across an art form that captivated your attention so completely, that you knew you were going to have to try it for yourself? But maybe over time, you found yourself talking about it a lot, but never actually doing it? My guest today found himself in that situation when he discovered epoxy river tables. He was so captivated by this art form. He knew he had to make one for himself. But building river tables is no joke. It is a huge task. And after he spent a lot of time saying he was going to build one, he found that he still hadn’t actually done it until one day he believed in himself enough to say all right, no more talking. It’s time to make it happen. I’m excited to introduce you all to Rory Nicholson of Eye Candy Resin Art. He does epoxy river tables and all kinds of beautiful, colorful resin art. If you’ve been intimidated by jumping into something new, I think you’ll enjoy hearing from Rory. He went from merely talking about river tables to building his first one to keeping steadily busy selling them. We’ll hear from Rory about things he wished he’d known when he started out. We’ll find out what’s next for him and his art career. And also we’ll hear the one thing he thinks everyone needs to hear, if they’re thinking of trying their hand at river tables or any epoxy art. I can’t wait for you to hear what Rory has to share. Let’s dive in.
Sarah Brown
Well, hi, Rory. Welcome to the podcast.
Rory Nicholson
Hi.
Sarah Brown
We are so glad you’re here. But for anybody who doesn’t already know you, why don’t you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Rory Nicholson
Okay, my name is Rory Nicholson. I have a little business called Eye Candy Resin Art and I create river tables and resin art pieces. I also have a day job. So I kind of juggle the two of making tables on the weekends and being a production coordinator at a factory during the week. So that’s pretty much what I do. I do a lot of work.
Sarah Brown
You stay busy.
Rory Nicholson
Oh, yes, that yeah, you know, definitely. I’ve got three different projects going right now.
Sarah Brown
Well tell us how it all started with the resin art, like what got into your head that made you say, I want to tackle this kind of project.
Rory Nicholson
I knew I needed a hobby. Because I was coming home and playing video games. I’d just bought a house. So obviously there was a huge influx of money that needed to be made. And I was thinking about it, you know how many years it’s gonna take to pay this house off? And I was like, How can I make money and so I realized that there was value in these tables. And on Instagram, I would scroll through Instagram. And I mean, this is, it’s been several years ago, they really started becoming more noticeable. Like you started seeing more river tables and stuff, you know, of actual people pouring resin and, and I just thought they were beautiful. And it looked fairly easy to do. So I was like, one day I got my mind made up. And we had a little bit of money. And so I bought everything that I needed to do it. And I tried it out and it went well. I pretty much did everything the wrong way. Ask me any questions. Um, you know, I’ve, what I pay, what I what I paid in materials, for my first table, I never got back. I gave it away basically, there was no, there was no selling it because I messed up so many different times, I had to redo it.
Sarah Brown
I think everybody’s first resin project is probably like that, though. Like you go in and you got to buy all this stuff. And there’s a learning curve.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, I had no idea what I was doing. I would do like step by step on YouTube. I would go through some of them. But yeah, basically. And another, another thing about me because I’ve made a lot of river tables and stuff. You’ve seen all the stuff that I’ve done, but a lot of it. It’s like something snapped in me where I started believing in myself. And I knew there was something greater. I mean, it’s just, I knew, I knew I had to do something. And so when I was at work and I was working with people I would talk about things, and I started talking about river tables and what I was going to do, you know, and then one day, I stopped talking and I started doing everything that I said I was going to do. Kind of like the movie Yes, Man, where he has to say, has to do everything that somebody you know, if they ask him for $100,000, he has to give it to him. Well, my deal was, if I talk about doing it, I have to actually do it and show, show results.
Sarah Brown
I think that is such a hurdle to get over for anybody that’s got a creative mind. And sometimes you see so many possibilities, you end up spinning your wheels, not even knowing where to start. And so yeah, I think, I think you’ve, by taking that very first step, you’ve gotten so much farther than so many people do. Because how many people think Man, I would love to make a river table or resin art of any kind, or any kind of art. And they think about it, and they scroll through Instagram or Pinterest, and make all these lists in their heads of things that they want to do. But they never take that first step. Like you said, just to believe in yourself and think yes, I can make this a reality.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah. Yeah, cuz I mean, I used to draw really well, when I was younger. And I’ve painted quite a bit. Actually before, before I got into resin art or resin in general. I had debated on doing chainsaw art.
Sarah Brown
Ohhhh.
Rory Nicholson
Debated on it, you know, because here in Arkansas, I guess they make bears and added chainsaws, huge bears, and like Indian figures or whatever. But that didn’t come through. So decided on a different, a different route.
Sarah Brown
Well, there’s still time, maybe someday you’ll be doing chainsaw art too.
Rory Nicholson
I have a chainsaw. I mean, I just, I don’t have any time to mess with it.
Sarah Brown
No, you’re busy. Well, tell me about once you really started believing in yourself, decided you’re making this a reality, when did it really start to take off? When did you start to see that you were getting orders for these tables and you realized that there was no more time to play video games? That, that you were doing tables all the time.
Rory Nicholson
Well, instantly. As soon as, as soon as I started the project, and I poured it. Okay, I’ll tell you this little story. I’d never done one yet andI talked about doing them on Facebook, you know. And so my family, my family from other states knew that I was going to start making them. Well, I posted a picture of somebody else’s work. And I said, you know, in the title, I said, this is not my work. This is what I want to do. And then I got all these comments of, Oh, you did amazing, Rory. Good job. Wa, wa. And so then I couldn’t not make something. So I had to make something.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, you’d set, you set a standard with somebody else’s picture.
Rory Nicholson
I can’t just have somebody else’s picture there and not have my own. So my deal is the whole eye candy resin art, cuz like my colors are like, loud. And I like them to be like, pretty vivid. And so that’s the eye candy part. A lot of times they look like a Jolly Rancher.
Sarah Brown
Yes, I can see that. Your stuff does have really vibrant colors to it. And for anyone who doesn’t know, I have one of Rory’s tables in my house. And it is so beautiful. And it’s like a dark teal down the middle. And everybody who comes into my house, the very first thing they do is walk over to that table and just go gaga over it. I had someone over here tonight and first thing he did was walk over and say wow, this table!
Rory Nicholson
That’s what, that’s the cool thing about it too is because like I made it for y’all. But it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s having an effect on all these people’s lives in a positive way.
Sarah Brown
Yeah.
Rory Nicholson
That’s why, that’s why I love this art so much. I’m so addicted to it. It’s cos I can reach people.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, and I’ve talked about it a lot when I’ve talked on the podcast here with Tumblr makers, how I think that the, the reason that the Tumblr art took off so much is because it’s a functional piece of artwork.
Sarah Brown
And it’s not something that you know, you might make a little knick knack and give to someone and they put it in a drawer, or you paint a painting and it doesn’t match their decor, so it goes in the closet. This is something that you make and you give to someone and they literally are going to have it in their hand and see it and use it and it’s going to be part of their lives every day. And that’s just like the tables. I mean, that table in my house gets used every day. We eat on it. We play games on it. Everybody who comes into my house notices it. It’s the centerpiece of our home.
Rory Nicholson
Exactly.
Rory Nicholson
That color, the color choice y’all went with, you know, the mixture of colors, the Mermaid and stuff. And it turned out, I mean, that’s probably one of the best colors that I’ve ever ever seen, honestly.
Sarah Brown
I think it’s pretty special. I love it.
Rory Nicholson
It’s like moving if you look at it, it’s crazy.
Sarah Brown
Yes, it is. It’s a very very dark teal. It’s a mixture of some of our colors, Mermaid and Bora Bora and Teal Twinkle, I think. And Rory swirled them all together, and it is absolutely beautiful.
Rory Nicholson
And it’s not small either. It’s like nine feet long.
Sarah Brown
Yes, it’s huge. We needed a really big table and we got it. Well, tell us some of the things, I know you said, like, you know, when you started out, you did everything wrong. And you could probably write a book about all the things you did wrong. So tell us some of those things. Like, what are like the top three or four things that looking back now you think, Man, I wish I would have known this when I started out
Rory Nicholson
Flood coating, actually, any any art piece that’s bigger than like, two foot by two foot or a table in particular, like flood coating is not as easy as it looks. You need to watch, you need to do your research on it or you’ll mess up every time. You’ll have to sand it down and do it over and over again. And resin is expensive, especially like on a large piece. I’ve had to sand down so many different flood coats or like I would know they were messed up with micro bubbles because I you know, I guess I start too quickly. And so I ruined, I ruined like 100 hours worth of resin right there, trash, can’t use it. So and I’ve done that probably eight times.
Sarah Brown
That’s painful.
Rory Nicholson
Stuff like that, the micro bubbles, especially if you’re, if you’re a resin artist, and you mix resin, I know we all struggle with bubbles, but especially it’s really evident like under a, like a black resin. You can, you can see them. So that’s the big thing is make sure your, your Part A and Part B are at room temperature before you even begin to touch it.
Sarah Brown
Now do you mix with like the big electric mixer and a bucket? Or do you mix it by hand?
Rory Nicholson
Like when I did your table and the bigger tables, it’s in a bucket. And it’s done by, it’s done by gallons, I squeeze every bit out of the gallons in there. And I mix it, there’s actually, I had to buy an even longer one to fit to the bottom of the five gallon bucket. But yeah. What I’ll do is I’ll go, I’ll use a paint stick and you know, scrape the sides, then I’ll take that out. And then I’ll use the drill mixer. Make sure it’s all mixed up. And your products, especially the hard cast, it mixes like water. I mean, it’s mixed. You almost, you could barely touch it and mix it. It’s kind of weird, good product dude.
Sarah Brown
A little shout out there.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, I’m not joking either, it cures harder than any resin I’ve ever found.
Sarah Brown
Wow, that’s great. That is a great testimony.
Rory Nicholson
And I use a lot of it.
Sarah Brown
So mixing your resin, flood coating, what else? What else do you wish that you would have known back in the day?
Rory Nicholson
Starting out in river tables, you had to create some river tables, to have them to show to potential clients. So you can’t just have nothing. So you have to start doing stuff. I started small. I started with like family and friends, they would want coffee tables. And so I knew that it would sell. Now the first table that I made where I didn’t make any money, I had it listed online for probably nine months, nobody touched it. Nobody even thought about getting it. And so it’s not always, you can’t, you can’t just make one and put it online and have it instantly sell, it’s not, it’s not that easy. You kind of gotta work for it.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, there’s probably kind of a fine line isn’t there? Because you’ve got to have something to show people of your work. But then yeah, where do you put a dozen tables . . .
Rory Nicholson
Exactly.
Sarah Brown
. . . that aren’t part of your home.
Rory Nicholson
A lot of what I’ve realized is especially like with bigger tables, clients, if they really, really want a table from you, they’re going to want it from your brand, like they’re going to want an Eye Candy river table, they’re not just going to want some regular table. And a lot of times they’re not going to care too much about price either because they are there to buy a table. And so they already know what, how much they cost, etc. So that’s, that’s really good. Usually, the best type of client will contact you. In my, in my opinion, just, just from the work that I’ve done, I really haven’t done too much paid advertisements or anything. A lot of it’s word of mouth. I’m well known in my area. There’s, I mean, there’s a lot of things I have to turn down work because I don’t have time to do it. You know, I feel bad telling the person that I just can’t make your table. I’m sorry, I don’t have room to and I have three other tables down there.
Sarah Brown
Would you say most of your clients come from your immediate area? Or how far out do you go? I know you brought one to Joplin, which is a few hours away.
Rory Nicholson
But let’s see here, Oklahoma. I got contacted on Messenger out of the blue by a guy. I had some artpiece listed on, on a marketplace. He contacted me and he’s like, he just chose me. I don’t know why he chose me but he did. because I didn’t really have a huge itinerary of things that I’d made, but I guess he had his faith in me. And so I made a table for his, his big RV bus he has, and it turned out amazing. I mean, incredible.
Sarah Brown
An RV bus!
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, yeah, awesome.
Rory Nicholson
Oh, it looks so cool in there. It’s a fold down and everything, but it’s cedar and like a see through Blue resin. But after that one, and I didn’t even charge him right. I texted him later. And I was like, I kind of messed the numbers up, I didn’t realize how much resin it was gonna take. He was really, really cool. He’s like, no problem at all buddy, just, just make it and tell me, tell me what the, what the charge is. And then when he came down with his wife, they came down in their big RV. Got to meet them, super cool people. Like we hit it off. Then they wanted a dining table. And so then it led to the dining table. And so and that original, the original table that went in his RV, instead of giving me 500, he gave me a thousand, just because.
Sarah Brown
Wow!
Sarah Brown
That is awesome.
Rory Nicholson
I was like Thank you. He’s like, Yeah, I know. I know. It probably took a little bit more than you thought it did to make it but then, then he, he wanted a like a black, black dining table with a, another river table as a bench seat on it. But he basically gave me like a blank check on that one. He was like, we want to completely custom. He doesn’t care.
Sarah Brown
That’s a dream client.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, he collects classic cars. He’s a really cool guy. So and I made a desk for him too.
Sarah Brown
Repeat customers. That’s . . .
Rory Nicholson
Yep. Because once I mean, once they buy one, they’re gonna, they’re gonna be like, man, we gotta get another one.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, well tell us how long, like you did three different projects for this guy. Tell us how long it normally takes start to finish from the time someone calls you up and says, Okay, I’m ready for you to start. How long before they’re gonna get that finished product?
Rory Nicholson
It depends. But as you know, it took me quite a while for y’alls, but we had, we had some different issues that came up with yours, but I can get, if I had to, I can get one done within a week. But I have a job I have to go to every day. But yeah, like the really, really giant tables, they take so much time to sand, like on your table alone, probably 60, 70 hours of sanding. And that’s not a joke.
Sarah Brown
I know it’s not Wow!
Rory Nicholson
Yeah. And I would, I would, you know, just see something I didn’t like, and I’d have to go redo it. Stuff like that. But yeah, generally, I would say if somebody came to me and they wanted a table, within three to four weeks, they could have one delivered to their door.
Sarah Brown
Well, and I will say all that sanding, that table that we have is absolutely flawless. Like you can’t find a spot on it that’s not just like satin. Ohhh, it’s just perfect.
Rory Nicholson
I had it in my basement for a while, because it took quite a bit longer because, well with yours, I was, your husband had me try a new finish out on it, that I’d never done Osmo and I messed up. Gosh, I wasted so much money on Osmo. Because I would put it, I would put it all on there like the, the guy on YouTube did. And mine did not turn out right every single time. And so finally, I was like, I can’t keep wasting money on Osmo. And so I just did it. Did it the good old fashioned way. And it turned out beautiful.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, it is really beautiful. And yeah, that’s kind of the difference from oursm it has more of a satin finish versus the shiny epoxy flood coat finish. I know. But maybe if people aren’t as familiar with terminology like earlier when you said you know those flood coats are difficult. That’s when you’re pouring epoxy over it, doing a top layer of hard shiny resin. The table that we have has more of a satin finish. It doesn’t have that flood coat on top. But ah, I love it.
A Culture of Inspiration
Yeah, it can make the piece a lot more dramatic too. If it’s a matte.
Sarah Brown
Yeah.
Rory Nicholson
Generally, that’s what I found. Like, especially like black tables, if you do, if I was to do, like, redo that one I did, and do that in the same finish as y’alls, it would, it would be a lot better looking. I think it would.
Sarah Brown
Oh, I’m sure you have a lot of them that you look back and think Man, if I did that one again, I would do this little thing different.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, that one was. Yeah, I’ve got a big one downstairs, the huge cedar table. I’m pretty sure some of your audience has probably seen it, it’s purple.
Sarah Brown
Yes. Oh, I know that purple one.
Rory Nicholson
Yep, it’s almost done. It’s going to be up here. I’ve got my, I’ve got a dining table up here but I’m tired of it. So we got, we got another one downstairs.
Sarah Brown
That’s the benefit of doing them yourself.
Rory Nicholson
That’s the cool thing too is, is that you can just make another one. So but yeah, I mean there’s, there’s been so many things that have led me up to this, to this point where I’m talking to you right now. It’s a lot of first steps, like you got to go into the unknown. Like with that guy, he tried, he trusted me, entrusted me to make something really beautiful for him. And I did it. And I didn’t, I’d never done a giant table. I had no idea if I could do it. But I went ahead and I attempted it. And I did it. And so now, here I am, because that was what was one of the tables that like, helped, help boost me up and say, Hey, Rory, I’m into resin art and I was making some cool stuff.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, you share a lot of your stuff online, I love that you share when things are in progress, too, you know, and kind of take people through that journey. And that was fun for us when we were seeing our table come together bit by bit. And it just adds to that anticipation that you know, you know that this is going to be in your home at some point.
Rory Nicholson
Another thing is, I love to talk about river tables or resin art. And so when I get a potential client, or somebody messages me, I generally form like a relationship with them, we end up being friends every time. It’s like the guy from Oklahoma, we’re, we’re buddies, I still show him pictures of of stuff that I’m doing recently. I don’t know, cos I just love talking about it. And that’s, that’s a big part of it is that you’re included in making every single aspect of it from the color to the wood, wood to I mean, anything you could think about it. If you want something carved in it. So that’s the whole aspect is you’re very, it’s like immersive.
Sarah Brown
That reminds me of something too, that I wanted to let you talk about. Of course, you get your epoxy and a lot of your colorants from us at Counterculture. But tell us about sourcing those big slabs of wood. Because it’s not like you can just walk into the hardware store and get these rough cuts, giant pieces of wood. So tell us what goes into that.
Sarah Brown
And most tables you’re going to be using two of those.
Rory Nicholson
And that’s another thing that, that the whole, you know, starting out learning, the learning curve is basically you search marketplace for live edge wood slabs, that need to be kiln dried. And what I did is I found a company in Missouri that they did the best work and I mean, they had everything that I needed. So because they, they saw the wood and they would kiln them dry and surface it because it needs to be completely flat and has to be at a certain moisture content, or the resin will react and it will do a bunch of bad bad stuff. And the, the slabs in my opinion, once you find a good source of hardwood slabs, you’ll make way better tables. It’s evident by your table because of those slabs. I feel like slab choice can definitely make a table. And they’re, they’re not cheap either. If you buy kiln dried wood, it some of its very, very expensive. Say like one of like one of the boards and a table. That board would be $370. Just that board.
Rory Nicholson
Yes, correct. So you can imagine if Yeah, yeah, I think I think the most money that I spent on wood for a table was probably $1,500.
Sarah Brown
Woooh.
Rory Nicholson
Yep, that’s just, that’s just for the wood. So.
Sarah Brown
And what kinds of wood are best? I know ours, you said is hackberry right? Is what ours is. And you said you made cedar for the RV? What types, does it need to be a harder wood or does it really matter?
Rory Nicholson
It depends on on the finish. If you’re gonna flood coat it, it doesn’t have to be a hardwood. Hackberries, it’s a really beautiful wood and cedar, yeah, it needs to be a harder species of wood especially if you planned on standing it and applying like an Osmo finish because you can come into problems of finding areas in your wood that’s foaming and you’ll have to stabilize that before you can sand it again and stuff like that. But black walnut, that’s really really, really beautiful, easy to work with. Stands really good. Another good one is sycamore. I made a really beautiful sycamore table and cedar, I love cedar. I’m well known for cedar tables. So I mean, because it’s not, it’s not super expensive. You can get cedar quite a bit cheaper. And I just feel like I don’t know, I just like working with it.
Sarah Brown
Well, let’s kind of switch gears a little bit and talk about your group. We’ve talked a lot about your tables personally. But you’ve got a really large Facebook group dedicated to river tables and resin art. So tell us about that.
Rory Nicholson
It’s been a little bit over a year ago, I was a member of several different groups. I hadn’t, I hadn’t met Counter Culture DIY yet. So I hadn’t met y’all yet. But I was in all these river table groups. And what got me is like the admins, they would never like support the other like say people post in their group, like, I kind of wish they would make their group profile picture like somebody’s table, how cool would that be to be able to do that for somebody? And then one day, I was like, I’m just going to make my own group, I’m going to make it really big. During that point in time, a little bit over a year ago, I guess, the algorithm was a little bit different. And I have a certain method of spreading the group. And some of it involves contacting other admins. If you straight up, you know, text them, you know, tell them what you’re trying to do. See if they’ll help you out. And he gave, he gave me a post in his group, and just boom, it just kind of chain reacted, I got a whole bunch of members, and it just kept going and going and going,
Sarah Brown
Would you say in your group, is it a lot of people who are actively making river tables and resin art or would you say it’s a lot of people who just love them and like to see other people’s work?
Rory Nicholson
Generally, just a lot of people that like to look at them. They’re really interested by ’em. There are some really, really good art, artists in the group, though. Really, really good. Better than me. There’s a, there’s a, yeah, there’s a guy in my group that’s selling tables for $40,000.
Sarah Brown
Wow! Wow!
Rory Nicholson
So he’s on a different level.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, that’s incredible.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah. And the cool thing about groups is you get to learn, I get to learn from ’em. So.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, and you let somebody have their table be your profile picture every month too.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, that’s the fun part. I do that too. And it, I mean, it could be a little trinket or whatever. Anybody, anybody can, can be on the cover profile. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little tiny giraffe that you’ve made, it’ll get picked. It’ll get picked.
Sarah Brown
That’s neat. I think you’ve got a very inclusive group that really does encourage people to share. So I like that. Tell us what’s next Rory, you’ve taken that first step that got you rolling with making these river tables. You’ve made, how many of you made?
Rory Nicholson
16
Sarah Brown
16, you’ve made 16 river tables and you also I guess, I should mention too, you do other things besides river tables?
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, I do a lot more art. I’ve done a lot more art than river river tables, actually, because river tables are a lot more expensive to make, all the resin that goes into them. People don’t realize that like, you know, like the size of a dining table like your table. That’s 1000s in resin. People don’t realize it. I didn’t realize it when I first started. Because it looks like just the fluid they’re pouring in there. But it’s actually expensive.
Sarah Brown
Yes.
Rory Nicholson
What’s next for me, I would say I’m gonna do a lot more resin art. I’ve taken a new position at work, I think, I think I told you that. But basically, my jobs a little bit harder. I work, I work 11 hours a day. So I’ve kind of taken a big step back from stuff. But my next table is going to be another cedar table. And I’m thinking about doing some type of a translucent green. I think that’ll be really cool. And it’ll be in a different, a different style. It won’t be like a typical two slab setup. It’ll be a little bit different than that.
Sarah Brown
Oh, I can’t wait to see it.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, it’ll be, it’ll be crazy. It’ll be vivid. I get tons of ideas online too. So just that and also, I mean, doing these, doing these river tables, or anybody out there that’s doing crafts, and you know, it’s boosting your self esteem. People are seeing your, your work and they’re like, wow, you know, you’re doing really, really good. That’s amazing how you’re able to do that. And then that boosts your confidence even more and you can go way farther in life just by having your confidence boosted. And if somebody gives me a compliment, I will run with it.
Sarah Brown
Yes.
Rory Nicholson
You gave me a compliment one night on your one of your lives. You said you said he’s a force of nature. And I just took that in my head and ran with it for like a month.
Sarah Brown
Oh, that’s awesome. I’m the same way. I can exist for a month on one good compliment. So.
Rory Nicholson
I’m getting more into reel, reels.
Sarah Brown
Oh, uh huh.
Rory Nicholson
I’ve made some pretty cool ones. I feel like I have. I’m doing some research on YouTube on how to make them better. Other than that would be getting some like better video equipment. Like a lapel mic like they do at some other companies that, that are on YouTube. They told me they use the lapel mics. I need one of those, and actually start you know seeing more of myself in videos.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, cuz you’ve got the whole room. I, I’m always impressed with your setup. You got like the Dexter lab with the trash cans, trash bags on the walls, and . . .
Rory Nicholson
It’s, it’s black plastic. And it’s probably those like, Yeah, we went pretty crazy with it. It’s for a reason. It’s not for no reason. It’s not just to look cool either. It has to do with flood coats, because . . .
Sarah Brown
Keep all those contaminants out.
Rory Nicholson
My theory is that that resin heats up especially on a large surface and becomes slightly magnetically charged. And so then all these little dust bunnies come into it, and you can’t fix them once it’s cured. At least looks like a hair.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, little specks and dimples, they’ll cause little dimples. I know making a tumbler, you know, like a 20 ounce tumbler, if you come back later and realize that a little speck of dust got on it and comes to fisheye, how devastating that can be. I can only imagine on an eight foot table.
Rory Nicholson
I have some stories. Now I’ve flooded. I flood coated several different times, because I messed it up a couple times, had to sand it down and redo it. But that, that big desk I did for that guy, the large cedar section of it the largest one, I had it stored, we had that bad snow. He wa,s I was you know, in communication with him on Messenger. And he was going to come get it in a couple weeks. And I didn’t have any resin left at all, not a single drop. And I went down there and looked at it. And one of my kids had put of scratch all the way down the table.
Sarah Brown
Oh nooo.
Rory Nicholson
A 5000, $5,000 table. I had no resin. And so my heart just jumped out of my chest. I was like, what am I going to do? I can’t you know, there’s no way to fix it without re flooding. And so luckily I was able to get some more resin and reflooded quickly, and he loves it. So, turned out good.
Sarah Brown
That’s good, happy ending to that story. Thank goodness.
Rory Nicholson
Yes, it was a tragedy at first, I was so, so heartbroken. Because I mean, that one little scratch. I had to sand all that resin down. That’s, you know how much it’s like $100 a layer?
Sarah Brown
Yeah.
Rory Nicholson
Resin is not cheap. It was all worth it in the end. Because I mean, they’ve got, they’re so happy with it. He actually got it. Resin, the drawback with having the glossy flood coat, it’s really, really beautiful and appealing, but it’s very delicate. You can scuff it with your hand and your hands, not even sandpaper. So what they did is he took it to a company in Oklahoma where they, they wrap like luxury vehicles like paint protection film. It’s like a bream wrap. And he got the desk wrapped in that.
Sarah Brown
Really?
Rory Nicholson
And he said it doesn’t have a single scratch on it. You can try to scratch it with anything.
Sarah Brown
That’s really interesting. I have not heard of that. That’s cool.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, I tried to get Barry to do that. He didn’t want to do it. Which I don’t blame him, I love the Osmo finish. That’s a good finish too.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, we love, love, love that table.
Rory Nicholson
That’s, that’s just that’s probably one of the prettiest tables I’ve made. Definitely gotta be.
Sarah Brown
Well, we’re sure proud of it. We’re happy to show it off to anybody that will listen to us, which is not hard. As soon as they walk in our house. They’re like, Oh, this table.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah. Has anybody said where do I get one?
Sarah Brown
Yeah, boy, I recommend you all the time.
Rory Nicholson
I believe it.
Sarah Brown
Well, what else Rory, before we wrap up? What else would you like for people to know?
Rory Nicholson
That you’re capable of anything, you can do anything if you set your mind to it, because from where I went 10 years ago to where I am now. I mean, it would blow your mind. All you have to do is get out of your comfort zone. And just like jumping on here and doing this with you. I’ve never done this. And so it’s uncomfortable at first. Obviously, you know, I mean, you get through it.
Sarah Brown
Yep. Well, and I had a boss one time, say to me about some things that we had to do at work that people were scared of. Like the people who worked for me, they were scared. And I worked in retail. So it was a lot about like approaching people selling things. And my boss told me, she said, you and the people that you work for have got to decide which you’re more afraid of, talking to that person or failing because you have to pick one.
Rory Nicholson
Wow.
Sarah Brown
And that advice really resonated with me and I kind of apply that to everything in my life now. I’m thinking, well, which am I more scared of? Am I more scared of going live on a podcast and sounding silly or never doing this thing that I wanted to do? Because I have to choose one, you know?
Rory Nicholson
You’re good at it.
Sarah Brown
So just like you, you know, you thought about it and talked about river tables for a long time but it came down to am I, am I scared of failing? Am I scared of doing it? I’ve got to pick one. So that’s some advice that has really resonated with me. And that helps push me to try and do new things that sometimes I don’t think I’m capable of. So I think that’s really good advice. You’re, you’re capable of it. You’ve got to take that first step.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah. Definitely. Doing tumblers, I did, I did, I’ve done some timblers. But really, I mean, there’s a lot of artwork in those too. Some of the, some of them that I see. Especially like they use the thick, thick stuff where it will look like . . .
Sarah Brown
Yeah, it is nice and thick. Yeah.
Rory Nicholson
You’re making stuff like that? You’re an artist. So start acting like it.
Sarah Brown
Yes, Tumblr artists. There are some world class artists that choose tumblers. Yeah. Yeah, the tumblers are what they do. It’s incredible. Who would have thought 10 years ago, that there would be such a community of artists. And what they make is cups that you drink out of? I mean, who would have predicted that? But it’s amazing.
Rory Nicholson
And it’s growing.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, it’s amazing.
Rory Nicholson
And here’s the thing about river tables, they’re going to get more and more popular, in my opinion, because I can already see it happening, like a lot of stuff with some of the people that I associate with, you know, like on Facebook and groups, they’re doing, like, really, really big scale projects, like there’s a guy, like celebrities are buying these things now. So it’s getting serious. Eventually, I mean, if you, if you try hard enough, and you make good enough product, and get your name out there, I mean, the sky is the limit.
Sarah Brown
Absolutely. And I think river tables are becoming less of a novelty and more of something that people see and realize I could have this. Where, you know, probably 10 years ago, when people would see a picture of something like that, they would think, Wow, that’s so beautiful. But it was so unusual, that people didn’t realize there might be a guy in my hometown that makes these you know, so.
Rory Nicholson
Another thing, I have, I have sold a lot of tables and art pieces, but I’ve given a lot of stuff away. I feel like that’s important too. You gotta, you gotta give stuff away. I mean, if it doesn’t sell, just give it away to a friend. With that being said, I feel like the universe will repay you. I’d say it’s hard to explain. But like, like being able to help somebody else without anything in return. Especially if they don’t even know you help them, like universe and God will repay you for that. It’s kind of, that’s like my philosophy.
Sarah Brown
What you put out there will come back to you.
Rory Nicholson
And it does too.
Sarah Brown
I am a believer in that as well.
Rory Nicholson
Yep. It’s very, very true. And I mean, you can, you can be so positive and so confident that you can become magnetic and then people are, like, drawn to you. It’s kind of, it’s kind of crazy. It happened to me about a year ago.
Sarah Brown
Oh, well elaborate on that. What do you mean?
Rory Nicholson
Well, I just started having people contact me out of the blue. And then it’s just, it’s just crazy.
Sarah Brown
Well, and that’s probably about, about a year ago, I guess that we first got in touch with you about our table. So.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, it’s just out of nowhere. Yeah, with your table. I didn’t know, like, if y’all were on the fence about it or whatever. Yeah, I asked you. I said, Well, do you want me to make something geared towards you? And then Barry’s like, no, we want one.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, as soon as we moved into our house, which we moved in last year on Thanksgiving, the very first thing was we’ve got to get a table for this giant dining area and let’s call Rory. So it was something we didn’t even have to think about it or discuss it. It was just like we were both on the same page. Let’s call Rory.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, and that’s that’s once you get to a certain like there’s a lot of stuff you don’t get to see. Because if you make, if I, if I was to make something and putting, and put it out to all like my followers and stuff and it was didn’t look good at all, didn’t look like I made it, you have to put out the work. You have to, you can’t miss, you have to do good at it. You have to take your time and think about I mean the color choice and everything because that’s, that’s what it is. You got to never miss.
Sarah Brown
Yes. And there is a lot of trial and error to it.
Rory Nicholson
Oh, yes.
Sarah Brown
Yeah, I’ve got a whole pile of stuff that no one’s ever gonna see that I’ve made. I get that.
Rory Nicholson
Yeah, what I’ll do like and what I did for y’all is river table and pretty much anybody else’s is I’ll mix mica and water and different shades and you know, different combinations, and I can get a pretty good idea of what it’s gonna look like in the resin just by using water. So, if anybody’s listening, trying to figure out a color choice, use a water bottle.
Sarah Brown
That is really good advice. Yeah, before you dump three or four colors of mica into your gallon of resin.
Rory Nicholson
There is no going back. Another couple tips of advice. If you’re going to flood coat, please watch every YouTube video, just to talk and please contact Eye Candy Resin Art before you do.
Sarah Brown
And we will have all of your links and ways people can get in touch with you in our show notes. So definitely we want people to be able to find you and follow you and join your group. So we’ll make sure that they can contact you if they’re going to jump out there either to make their own or if they decide they want to purchase one from you.
Rory Nicholson
Definitely. I love to talk about making them. And I’ve got a lot of good advice. So if you’re going to make one, please contact me before you do.
Sarah Brown
Okay.
Rory Nicholson
Good tips. Very good tips.
Sarah Brown
Well, thanks so much, Rory, for joining us today. I have enjoyed talking to you so much. And this is something different. You’re the first person we’ve had on the podcast who does the sort of stuff that you do. So I think people are really going to enjoy what you’ve had to say, and learn from you. So we’ll have all your info in the show notes. So you may be getting hit up from people who want to take that first step and go from just thinking about it to actually doing it like you did. So everybody, please make sure you’re checking Rory out online, and you can find him at Eye Candy Resin Art. And we’ll be back next week with our final episode of the season. And we’ll see you guys then.
Once you gain the confidence to trust yourself to try something new, it’s that simple to succeed! Feel free to DM me on Instagram and let me know how this episode resonated with you. Keep creating!
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