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 beautiful pink stone effect using the Rose Quartz Countertop Kit.
All of the other information you will need such as preparing your work area
is in our main countertop tutorial so make sure you watch that alongside this video,
but for now, as I say I'm going to be focusing on creating this particular look.
Now this really is a fun effect to play around with.
You can turn the volume up on the colours and create a more vibrant,
punchy look that would look great in a beauty salon,
or you could go the complete opposite direction and tone it down to create a more subtle,
delicate effect that would look great in any home.
The rose quartz effect is achieved by using two different shades of
slightly sparkled pink, which are blended together on the countertop.
We then trace in thin details of darker pink and a delicate gold,
which are layered in and disturbed with a
hairdryer to create these beautiful, realistic veins.
The rose quartz contains everything you need to complete this look.
It includes a super white pigment,
arctic pearl shimmer and it also will have a tomato red and a polished gold pigment.
The kit also comes with a handy colour card and that is going to tell you exactly how much resin,
pigment and shimmer you need for each stage of the process.
Making life real easy when you're working on your project.
So let's go back to the beginning and I'll show you how to complete this look.
So the first thing we're going to do is lay down our primer coat.
Each kit contains enough GlassCast 3 Resin for both the primer coat and the main effects pour.
Having mixed and pigmented the primer simply pour it over your surfaces and
spread it round with your brush so that you have a consistent coverage.
As you can see while I'm painting this on the rose quartz uses a heavily pigmented white primer.
This will ensure that any existing colours or patterns in your worktop
are completely blocked out and it will provide us with a solid white
background from which we can build the rest of the effect.
So that's all of the primer coat down we're just going to
leave this to cure of as covered in the main countertop tutorial.
First off we're going to be creating our base mix.
Now this will be our lightest shade of pink.
From this we'll be adding additional pigments to build up the rest of the colour palette.
Following the ratios on the kit's colour card, weigh in and mix the pigments.
As with all our effects you do have a bit of creative freedom.
Using the colour card as more of a guide,
you can of course tailor these shades to whatever you like.
You can create a more subtle pale pink or even a more intense pink.
It really is that easy to customise these effects.
When we're happy with the base colour we'll add the hardener.
The reason we add the hardener after mixing in the pigment
is because it helps to reduce the overall time mixed resin will have spent in the pot.
From the main countertop tutorial we know that we'll have abut 30 minutes after we
add the hardener to get the resin out of the pots and onto the counters.
Once mixed thoroughly, double pot your resin and repeat.
This extra measure just ensures that your resin is correctly mixed.
Now that the resin is completely mixed,
we'll decant half of the base mix to make our medium pink.
Then we'll separate smaller amounts to create the dark pink and our gold shade.
So that's our base mix divided up ready to start creating our different shades.
We're just going to leave this pot here, that's our light pink sorted
and then we're going to start over here with the medium pink and we're
going to create this by adding a few more drops of tomato red.
Pigmenting your shades from your base colour helps to keep all the
colours in the same spectrum so that they perfectly compliment each other.
You'll find that it only takes a few drops of the tomato red to darken the medium pin and dark pink.
Also the polished gold does a really good job of
transforming the base colour into a rich metallic gold.
So that's our colour palette made up let's get these fabulous colours onto the countertop.
Begin by pouring about two thirds of your light pink in patches onto your counter.
Then take your medium pink and pour about two thirds of that
in between these islands of the light pink.
Use the notched spreader to spread the resin around your
worktop until you have a fairly even coverage.
We'll now use the brush to give these two shade a quick rough blend.
Following your design layout, drizzle thin lines of your dark pink and gold tints.
Then with a brush, gently disturb these lines before marbling with the hairdryer.
These details will form the first layer in the
effect and will appear to be set below the surface.
We don't want to spend too much time developing the effect at this stage
as there's still a lot of resin we want to get out of the pots and onto our workup.
Also, be sure that your hairdryer is on its
coldest setting as we don't want to accelerate the cure.
Checking on my time it's been about 20 minutes since I added the hardener so let's get the rest
of the light and the dark pink out of the pots and begin to develop this final layer in the effect.
Again use your brush to spread and roughly blend these two shades.
There's no need to get a perfect consistent spread, the resin will flow and level itself,
we're just helping it along a little a this point.
When I'm brushing over the details in the first layer
I'm being gentle and trying not to disturb them too much.
Now to replace cracks and fractures drizzle thin lines of your dark pink and gold.
Then we'll use the hairdryer to soften the
details and give them a more realistic, natural appearance.
The hairdryer really is a versatile tool when it comes to developing these effects.
It gives natural results without having to cover the resin with flammable alcohol or oils.
It can be used carefully to steer and direct thinner more precise details
or used quite forcefully to really mix and blend the colours, creating softer blends.
You can also use the hairdryer to marble the light and pink areas
to create extra features and a more convincing effect.
So that's all of the resin onto the counter and as
you can see we've created a fabulous pink quartz effect.
So we're just going to leave this to gel off over the next
couple of hours before removing the barrier tape and then after that the
effect will just continue to roll over the front edge continuing that look.
Full details on how to achieve a perfect continuous effect
over those rolled edge is of course in the main countertop tutorial.
So that's it folks. In a little under two hours of actual work
we've transformed our old countertops with this beautiful rose quartz effect.
So let's take a closer look at some of the detail we've achieved.
You can really see now why the effect uses a slightly translucent base mix and how layering the
lighter shades over the top of stronger colours really crates visible depth to the countertop.
I love the way that in some places the gold accent is only just visible
as a subtle tint and then in other places it seems to come to the surface
as part of more distinct veins and fissures as part of the quartz.
I really hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful but if the rose quartz effect isn't what
you're after, remember we have a number of other countertops kits available at glasscastresin.com.
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 the necessary resin, pigment 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.
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