A Message to Aqua-Resin Customers Regarding COVID-19

Dear AQUA-RESIN Customers:

Aqua-Resin is up and running.

Aqua-Resin, in compliance with local, state, and federal guidance, is continuing to operate on a normal schedule. Shipping and trucking are deemed “essential” and will continue to operate; we expect no delays in this area.

All of our office staff, however, have been instructed to work from home in accordance with CDC guidelines. We ask that you bear with us, as some of the communication lines may be slower than usual.

We will continue to accept orders by phone (212-226-1208) or email (arcustomerservice@aquaresin.com).

We wish you all the best during these troubling times, and hope that everyone stays safe and healthy.

LOUIS LIEBERMAN
President
AQUA-RESIN® 

Art Students League Aqua-Resin Workshop with Rand Hardy

Rand Hardy’s next intensive Aqua-Resin workshop is scheduled for Saturday, February 15th and Sunday, February 16th, 2020. The hours are 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM each day. The cost is $305. As usual, Mr Hardy will be demonstrating Aqua-Resin casting and building techniques. More information describing the course and Mr. Hardy’s work is on the poster below.

The Art Students League is located at 215 West 57th Street in New York City. Please contact The Art Students League to enroll.

by phone - 212 247 4510 ext.0

online - https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/workshop/aqua-resin-casting-building-4/

Aqua-Resin demonstration with Erik Geschke at the International Sculpture Conference in Portland OR

Erik Geschke, fine artist and long time Aqua-Resin user, will be giving a technical talk and demonstration at The International Sculpture Center's 29th International Sculpture Conference: The Multifaceted Maker. He will be addressing methods of hollow casting and construction using Aqua-Resin. Examples of its usage, mixing, and lamination will be demonstrated.

The date is Tuesday, October 15, 2019 from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. The cost is $10 per person. The venue is Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, Room 112, 1914 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97201

Here is the link to the conference website - https://www.sculpture.org/portland19/

And a link to the information page about Mr. Geschke’s event - https://www.sculpture.org/portland19/activities.shtml#hollow

Erik Geschke is a mixed-media artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Venues include the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA; ZieherSmith Gallery in New York, NY; Navy Pier in Chicago, and the FIAC Contemporary Art Fair in Paris, France. Mr. Geschke received his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art's Rinehart School of Sculpture, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts. He lives and works in Portland, OR where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Portland State University. For more information about Erik Geschke, visit erikgeschke.com.

Photo Credit: Erik Geschke, Surrogate, 2016. Courtesy of Erik Geschke

Rand Hardy Exhibition

Bluebird, a sculpture by Rand Hardy will be installed in the lobby of One Liberty Plaza in Lower Manhattan from September 25th through October 29. Access is daily from 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM. 165 Broadway New York, NY. The work was commissioned by Arts Brookfield.

Please use this link for more information.

Mr. Hardy has been using Aqua-Resin for many of his pieces for the last 18 years. He teaches the Aqua-Resin Intensive Workshops at The Art Students League In NYC.

The Art Students League Aqua-Resin January 2019 Workshop

Rand Hardy will be holding his next Aqua-Resin intensive workshop on the weekend of January 5th and 6th, 2019. As usual the workshop will be held at the Art Students League from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM each day at 215 West 57th Street in New York City. The cost is $305. More information describing the course and Mr. Hardy’s work is on the poster below.

Please contact The Art Students League to sign up. The contact information is:

Phone - 212 247 4510 ext.0
Online - https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/workshop/aqua-resin-casting-building-4/

September 2018 Aqua-Resin Workshop at The Art Students League

Rand Hardy’s next intensive two day workshop demonstrating various Aqua-Resin sculpting techniques will be held on Saturday, September 15th and Sunday the 16th, 2018 at The Art Students League, located at 215 West 57th Street New York, New York.

Mr. Hardy is an exhibiting artist living and working in downtown Manhattan. He most recently showed a selection of Aqua-Resin pieces in a one person show at The National Exemplar, 59 Franklin Street, NYC in May (http://thenationalexemplar.squarespace.com/2018-rand-hardy/).

To reserve a place please contact The Art Students League

Phone: 212 247 4510 ext.0
Online: https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/workshop/aqua-resin-casting-building-4/

The workshop is also listed on CourseHorse.

https://coursehorse.com/nyc/classes/art/jewelry/more-jewelry/casting/aqua-resin-casting-and-building

Eirik Arnesen Aqua-Resin Videos

We just came across a series of Aqua-Resin video tutorials that we would like to share here with you.

The artist in these videos, Eirik Arnesen, is a highly accomplished and highly regarded figurative sculptor, currently working out of Florence Italy. We are quite pleased that Mr. Arensen has chosen Aqua-Resin as his medium for these tutorials.

Art Safety Program at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst

UPDATE - THE DATES FOR THIS COURSE HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO AUGUST 20 - 24, 2018. IN ADDITION, YOU CAN NOW RESERVE ROOMS AT THE CAMPUS HOTEL  AT A REDUCED RATE BY CONTACTING FACILITIES MANAGER ROBERT WOO AT rfwwoo@art.umass.edu

From the ACTS (Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety) January 2018 newsletter:

“The second class in the Art Safety Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst is scheduled for August 6th to August 10th, 2018. People interested in working as safety professionals in the art and theater arenas or who want to add a safety component to their art and theatrical art skill-set should consider reserving this time for taking this forty-hour course. Save the dates and as soon as enrollment opens we will provide the details.

This young new program designed to teach the health, safety, and regulatory information needed to work safely in all disciplines in fine arts, crafts, conservation, and theatrical arts and with processes from historic and traditional art to new technologies such as 3D printing, lasers, and theatrical special effects. The safety features and ventilation systems appropriate for studios, shops, theaters and classrooms will be considered. And risk factors for various ages of students, professional artists, theatrical casts, and crews will be considered, from children to seniors and people with disabilities.”

ACTS is a not-for-profit corporation that provides health, safety, industrial hygiene, technical services, and safety publications to the arts, crafts, museums, and theater communities. Monona Rossol, its founder, has been publishing important safety information for the arts through the ACTS FACTS monthly newsletter for over 30 years.

ACTS FACTS is available by subscription. Here is a LINK to the subscription page.

January 20, 21, 2018 Workshop at The Art Students League in NYC

Rand Hardy’s next intensive Aqua-Resin workshop at The Art Students League is coming up soon, Saturday, January 20th and Sunday, January 21st. The hours for each day is 10:00am to 4:30pm. The workshop fee is $300 and the enrollment is limited to 12 students. For more information about Rand Hardy and the workshop here is a LINK to the poster.

Register online at https://online.theartstudentsleague.org or call The ASL office at 212 247 4510 ext. 0. You can also visit the office at The Art Students League located at 215 West 57th street in New York City. The workshop is also listed on coursehorse. 

September 2017 Weekend Aqua-Resin Sculpture Workshop with Rand Hardy at The Art Students League

Rand Hardy’s next Aqua-Resin workshop at The Art Students League in will be held on Saturday, September 16th and Sunday the 17th, 2017. During the two day intensive workshop Mr. Hardy’s focus will be on the various methods of casting and building with Aqua-Resin.

The workshop starts at 10:00 am and ends at 4:30 pm on both days. The Art Students League is located at 215 West 57th Street in New York City.

For enrollment information and more workshop details, please click HERE.

Aqua-Glass Chopped Glass Fiber is now Aqua-Glass Cut Glass Fiber

We are always happy to listen to advice from our customers: A recent communication regarding our Aqua-Glass fibers suggested that our calling it “chopped” was misleading and discouraged customers from trying it. 

Their point, one well taken, is that chopped fiberglass has an established use, quite different from the uses for which our cut Aqua-Glass is intended. Conventional chopped fiberglass, usually offered in ¼” and ½” lengths is often just used as a filler material or more correctly as a means to provide a small amount of strength to a brushable coat of polyester or epoxy.

Our Aqua-Glass Cut Glass Fiber products are engineered for very different purposes. The two longer cuts, 3 ½-1” and 4 ½” are to be used as the principal reinforcing fiber in an Aqua-Resin laminate. Because of correct binder compatibility with Aqua-Resin mixes and the unusually long fiber lengths, they produce substantially stronger laminates than would conventional chopped strand mat. The 3 ½-1” is used for laminates with tight curves and irregular geometry, while the 4 ½” is useful for rapid building of flatter areas or gentle curves. Both may be tamped onto a layer of fresh Aqua-Resin mix with a stiff brush and/or a hard ridged fiberglass roller.

The ½” and 1” cuts are most often used to reinforce a gel coat or for reinforcing undercuts where longer fibers would be more difficult to position. In the case of gel coats, the soluble binder allows the individual glass filaments to separate out and thereby rendering them invisible in the gel coat.

Aqua-Resin Demo at the Compleat Sculptor Saturday, March 11, 2017 2-5 pM

There will be an in-store demonstration of how to use Aqua-Resin products at The Compleat Sculptor store this coming Saturday, March 11th. It is part of The Compleat Sculptor Saturday Subject series. Our representative, Ethan Green, will be demonstrating how to use the Aqua-Resin system. He will be showing laminating and solid casting techniques including using Aqua-Color and our newest fiberglass reinforcement material Aqua-Axial-2.

Ethan Green is a working artist and an instructor at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Although there is no cost for the demo, please call or email the Compleat Sculptor store to let them know you would like to attend. Here is the LINK to the demo page on The Compleat Sculptor website. Feel free to stop by anytime between 2:00 and 5:00 as the techniques will be repeated during the 3 hour period.

The store is located in lower Manhattan at 90 Vandam Street (between Greenwich Street and Varick Street) and easily reached by subway via the 1 to Houston Street or the C or E to Spring Street. If you have not been there before, look for the red awning on the south side of the street.

Aqua-Resin Workshop at The Art Students League of New York is Scheduled for April 29th and 30th, 2017

Rand Hardy has scheduled the next two day intensive Aqua-Resin workshop at The Art Students League for Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th, 2017. The workshop concentration is methods of casting and building with Aqua-Resin. Mr. Hardy has been making sculpture with Aqua-Resin for more than 13 years and has exhibited his work extensively.

The workshop days start at 10:00 am and end at 4:30 pm. The Art Students League is located at 215 West 57th Street in New York City.

Please click HERE to see the poster with the enrollment information for the upcoming workshop.

Buy Aqua-Resin Introductory Trial Kits on our New Online Store

We are now selling Aqua-Resin Trial Kits on our website store. There are three kits available as pictured above and described below.

Aqua-Resin Trial kit - A selection of basic Aqua-Resin products to give the new customer an easy to use introduction to the Aqua-Resin Composite system

Aqua-Resin Cosplay Trial Kit - A selection of Aqua-Resin products picked specifically for introductory or small scale costuming and related activities.

Aqua-Color Tester Kit -  Artist's grade pigment dispersions providing subtle tints to full color saturation. Five ¼ ounce jars, one each of red, yellow, blue, black and white

Please visit the STORE page for a full description and more photographs of the kits or to make a purchase. All prices include shipping and handling within the contiguous 48 states. Contact us at info@aquaresin.com for shipments elsewhere.

University of Detroit-Mercy School of Architecture Materials Library

We were recently asked by the School of Architecture of The University of Detroit-Mercy to contribute samples of Aqua-Resin to their materials library. The Aqua-Resin hard samples contributed are a section of a thin walled solid color ornamental architectural casting, a coated foam sample and a multi-color solid cast sample. All of the color in the samples was achieved with Aqua-Color pigment dispersions.

Achille Bianchi, who runs the materials library for the benefit of the approximately 300 architecture students, describes the library as having over 1,800 material samples available to the students for their study.

Upcoming January 2017 Art Students League Workshop

The next Aqua-Resin Casting and Building Workshop presented by The Art Students League of New York and taught by artist Rand Hardy will be Saturday and Sunday, January 7 and 8, 2017. We will provide a link for workshop details and registration information closer to the date.

The Art Students League is located at 215 West 57th Street in NYC.

Urethane Dangers Revealed in $90 Billion Lawsuit

We have been noticing an increased interest in Aqua-Resin as a hard coating for rigid foam. We suspect the reason is this: A $90 billion lawsuit recently filed by the US government against the four major producers of isocyanates used in urethane production. This suit accuses these chemical companies of selling billions of dollars worth of harmful isocyanate chemicals, intentionally concealing their dangers to consumers.

Aqua-Resin hardcoats have been offered for years as a safe alternative to the isocyanate cured urethane coatings. Please contact us at info@aquaresin.com for more information. 

And, please view this video on foam coating with Aqua-Resin:

https://youtu.be/U3jW_2TaS1E

Here is a link on the lawsuit: 
http://www.ecowatch.com/whistleblower-lawsuit-chemical-companies-2005784783.html

Also, we want to thank Monona Rossol, President/founder of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety Inc., for alerting us, and the rest of our community about the isocyanate issue.

Here is a link to her organization's website and newsletter:
http://www.artscraftstheatersafety.org/  

Introducing AQUA-AXIAL 2™ our new fiberglass reinforcement cloth

A recent addition to our fiberglass product line, Aqua-Axial 2™, is a binderless, stitched, bias constructed fabric which is extraordinarily conformable, very easy to wet out and remarkably strong in any Aqua-Resin application. Aqua-Axial 2™ is ideal for our customers who prefer using a fabric product to cover large surface areas.  

The fabric is 50" wide. 

May 2016 Art Students League Workshop

The Aqua-Resin Casting and Building Workshop will be presented on May 21-22, 2016 at the Art Students League of New York and taught by artist Rand Hardy. 

Click HERE for workshop details.

Introducing AQUA-COLOR™ Aqua-Resin® Pigment Dispersions

As color pastes/fluids, compounded with light-fast, permanent pigments, Aqua-Color pigment dispersions are suitable for fine art as well as for various scenic and commercial applications. They are by far, being highly concentrated, the most economical means of coloring Aqua-Resin. And these colorants, since they are our own products, are the only ones available that have been fully tested to be compatible with various Aqua-Resin mixes.

As are all our products, Aqua-Color dispersions are safe to use and non-toxic. And per LHAMA, conform to the labeling requirements of ASTM D-4236 and are certified by an independent toxicologist to have no chronic health effects.

Available colors: red, yellow, blue, black, and white

Packaging : 3 1/2 oz., wide mouth, easy stir jars