Hi Kyle here from GlassCast and welcome to another countertop tutorial.
In this video I'm going to be focusing specifically on the colours and blending
techniques to create this convincing marble effect using our Carrara White Marble Countertop Kit.
All of the other information like preparing your work area and your work surfaces and so on is in our main countertop tutorial.
So that's worth watching alongside this one but for now as I say we're just gong to be focusing on creating this particular look.
The Carrara white marble effect is all about realism, subtlety and depth.
Now we achieve this level of authentic detail by layering and blending a base mix with some tints.
Your kit is going to include everything that you need to do this.
So you'll have a super white and an arctic pearl to create the base mix,
then you'll take some of this mix and add some graphite and bronze shimmers to create your accents.
The kit also comes with a handy colour card which tells you exactly how much resin, pigment and shimmer
you're going to need for each stage of the process, making everything really easy when working on your project.
So let's go back in time and I'll show you how to complete this look.
The first thing we're going to do is lay down our primer coat.
We're just going to pour it over the surface and then we're going to use our brush to spread this around.
As you can clearly see while I'm painting this on the carrara white uses a heavily pigmented primer coat,
made up with the GlassCast 3 Resin and a high ratio of our super white colour.
Now this is really going to block out any colours or patterns in your existing countertop
and provide us with a solid white background from which we can build the rest of the effect.
So that's the primer coat all down we're just going to leave this to cure off as described in the main countertop tutorial.
As I mentioned earlier in the video the key to creating a convicting marble effect really is in this layering technique of using a base blended with tints.
So what we're going to do is being by making up our base mix and then we're going to take some of this base mix to create our tints.
Following the carrara white colour card I can see exactly how much resin, hardener, pigment and shimmer I need for my 2sqm worktop
I'll weigh all of these out on digital scales and mix thoroughly.
To buy myself a bit more working time, I'll weigh in and mix the pigments before I add the hardener.
As explained in the main countertop tutorial we know that as soon as we add the hardener the resin will start to cure,
and that we'll have around 30 minutes to get the resin out of the pots and on to the surfaces.
You can see here how this base mix for the Carrara white effect is a sort of translucent,
slightly sparkly white with pearl like properties and it's this combination that gives the effect such depth.
Also we want to double pot the resin to ensure that it's well mixed.
So that's our base mix all made up and you can see that I've separated some of this base mix to create the tints.
I'll start with creating the lighter of the two shades and by adding small
amounts of the graphite shimmer at a time I can make sure I achieve the desired shade.
Whenever I'm mixing I can always remember my former home economics teacher Miss Warner saying
"you can add a bit more flour but you can't take it away"
Well the same applies here, just add little bits at a time and build your shade up.
As you can see here I haven't really changed this lighter shade too much
from the original base mix, but if you did want to go bolder you can.
Now for the darker shade I'm going to start by adding about twice as much of the graphite shimmer that I added to the lighter pot and build the shade up from there.
The same method applies to the bronze tint, just add small amounts of the shimmer and build it up to your desired colour.
Taking a closer look at the mix you can see the effect that the shimmer powders have.
They really make the shades and tints look natural with organic glittering and sparkle that you would expect to see in real minerals and stone.
So with all of our resin mixed, I've checked my time and I've got about 20 minutes left.
Let's get this resin out and onto the worktops.
Begin by pouring about a third of the base mix onto your counter and spread it around with your spreader.
This is the first layer in our effect and what will form subtle marbling that will appear as though it's deep within the stone.
There's no need to completely cover your worktops at this point, we just want partial covering into which we can blend some of the shades.
We'll drizzle small amounts of the accents over the areas with the base mix,
then taking your brush you want to disturb and mix these up randomly.
Then here's where the magic happens, we're going to marble these accents with the hairdryer.
Make sure your hairdryer is on its coldest setting though, we don't want to accelerate the cure.
Also at the point we don't want to spend too much time developing this first layer,
we still have a lot of resin in the pots and it's important to get it all
out onto the counters as soon as we can to ensure we have maximum working time.
With the first layer roughly blended we'll now pour out nearly all of the remaining base mix.
But try and save a little just in case we need some later on for any final touch ups.
Again, with your spreader, move the resin around. This time we're looking to get more of a consistent coverage.
When I'm spreading over the blended parts of the first layer, I'm using gentle light pressure so as not to disturb it too much.
I'll use the brush now to gently blend the layers a little more now before I add the veins.
This will further help soften the effects below making for a more convincing look.
Starting off the counter, drizzle thin lines of the shade following your design layout.
By starting the drizzle off the counter it's easier to avoid big globs and help achieve more realistic veining.
Try to replicate jagged cracks instead of big sweeping curves for a more natural look.
It's been about 30 minutes now since I first added the hardener to the mix
and I pretty much have all of the resin I want to use out of the pots and onto my countertops.
I know I've now got around another 30 minutes or so to blend and perfect this look, so back to the hairdryer.
I'll gently direct and disturb the veins to give them more organic shape and soften them slightly.
I'll also use a lot of blowing power to further blend and disturb the areas
where we added the first layer.
Here I have a section where I feel that the shades are a bit too strong,
so remember that base mix that we held back earlier?
Well I'm going to use that now to dilute the area and tone it back a little.
We're coming up to one hour now since I first mixed the resin, so I'll just make any final
adjustments by giving the last little blend to a couple of these veins and then we're done.
So that's all of the resin onto our countertops and I'm really pleased with the result,
it's looking great so we're just going to leave this to gel off for a few hours before removing the barrier tape
at which point the resin will just roll over the edge continuing that effect on the front.
And don't forget full details on achieving a perfect rolled edge are of course in the main countertop tutorial.
So that's it guys, in little over two hours of actual work we transformed our old countertops.
So let's take a closer look and I'll show you some of the detail.
You can see that the first layer really adds depth within the effect
and the various shimmers give the surface an authentic, sparkling appearance,
combined with fine veining it surely does create a truly realistic and convincing marble countertop.
I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial but if the white marble look isn't what you're after
then we have a whole range of other countertop kits available at glasscastresin.com
Myself and the rest of the team are available to answer your questions or solve any problems
or even if you just want to show us how your project turned out it's always exciting to see people's work.
Comments and likes are very much appreciated and don't forget to subscribe and click that bell if you want to see more resin tutorials as we make them.
All GlassCast Countertop Kits include all necessary resin, pigments and effects, a video
tutorial covering the full installation process, a separate video tutorial specific to that effect,
a colour card with measurements and mixes and any technical support you may need along the way.
GlassCast Countertop Kits are available to buy online at glasscastresin.com.
Ordering is simple and secure with fast delivery available throughout the UK and Europe.