I’ve always loved the look of natural wooden coasters or table mats. The idea of making my own had been rolling around my head for some time, when I came across recently cut wood during a forest walk. I sneakily took home a small log and started working on my dream coasters! But let me tell you, it was a roller-Coaster (pun intended) of a journey from start to finish. In the end they came out imperfectly perfect and I love them to bits!
It was a great learning process for me, not having done any woodwork before, so here are some mistakes that became lessons for me during the process.
- Get a log from the forest, cut it into pieces.
BUT make sure you wait long enough (couple of weeks) before you start cutting it. My log looked dry enough, but once I started cutting it, I found it was still wet inside and that made it super hard to cut.
2. Because I cut the wood wet and it was still drying after it was already cut, all four coasters cracked over night! First problem, nothing I can’t think my way around!
3. Let’s fill the cracks with resin and cast some flowers in the resin.
Couple of things about flowers and resin (this I actually researched before getting it wrong): dry the flowers first, otherwise they will lose their colours and possibly rot over time. Also, tiny flowers float in resin (this I learned the hard way), so either secure them with something or pour the resin in several layers.
4. Use proper tape/barrier to stop resin leaking everywhere. I didn’t.
A lot of sanding and varnishing later, and it’s all saved! Even with all these ups and downs I got there in the end, and the imperfections actually make me like them even more!
