At 66, I Started Selling The Coasters I Made At My Own Kitchen Table.
I had plenty of time. That was never the problem.
After I stopped working I had more hours in the day than I knew what to do with. What I didn’t have was anything much coming in beyond the pension.
Everything crept up. The shop, the heating, the little things you don’t think about until they all arrive in the same week.
I looked at a part-time job. Standing shifts, evenings, a uniform. I sat in the car park before the interview and decided I couldn’t face it, and then felt silly for being proud about it.
The first thing I ever sold, I had made as a present.
I had been pouring resin at the kitchen table for a few months. Coasters mostly, with flowers pressed from the garden. Half of them went wrong and I threw them out.
One set came out properly and I gave it to my neighbour for her birthday.
A fortnight later her daughter knocked and asked whether I would make her four the same. She offered me thirty dollars before I had said a word about money.
I said yes mostly because I was too surprised to say anything else. That was the first thirty dollars I had earned on my own in eleven years.
What handmade pieces like mine tend to sell for.
It was never about being artistic.
I am not an artist and I never have been. I couldn’t draw you a decent horse.
What held me up at the start wasn’t talent. It was three plain things nobody had put in one place.
What to make
Which pieces people actually buy, and which ones sit on the table all day looking lovely.
How to make it properly
The measuring, the mixing, the curing. The reason a piece sets hard and clear instead of staying tacky.
How to get started
Where to sell, what to charge, and how to wrap it so it looks like something worth paying for.
This is a normal week on my table now.
Coasters, serving trays, little pendants, keepsakes with flowers from somebody’s own garden. That last one people will wait weeks for.
You would not start where I am now.
You start with one small thing, get it right, and add one more. This is the order I would do it in if I were beginning again.
So I wrote down everything I had worked out.
Not the pretty photographs. The measurements, the timings, the small corrections, and the part nobody talks about — what to charge and where to take it.
It is the thing I wish somebody had handed me at the kitchen table three years ago, before I wasted all that resin working it out the slow way.
Everything you need, in the order you need it.
- Safety & prep
- Tools & moulds
- Measuring guide
- Mixing & ratios
- Bubble control
- Cure timing
- Colour blending
- Pigments & dyes
- Layering
- Metallic effects
- Embedding flowers
- Clean finishing
- Keychains
- Coasters
- Pendants
- Bookmarks
- Charms
- Trays
- Serving trays
- Clocks
- Home décor
- Flower preservation
- River tables
- Which pieces sell and which ones don’t
- How to price your work without underselling it
- A simple selling planner
- Product planning & project tracker
- Getting started at markets and online
- Wrapping and presentation
Why am I giving it away?
Because the thing that nearly stopped me was believing it was too late to start something new, and that is a silly reason to miss out on a craft this enjoyable.
The guide is free today. There is a small processing fee at the checkout to cover sending it over, and nothing after that. No subscription, and nobody will telephone you.
Get the complete Resin Art Guide free today
- Step-by-step guides written for complete beginners
- Measuring, mixing, bubbles and curing, with the actual numbers
- Over 1,000 projects, from keychains to serving trays
- The selling section — pricing, planning and where to start
- 90-day happiness guarantee
Try it with nothing to lose.
Questions I get asked most
No. I’m not either. Resin does most of the work — you are measuring, pouring and waiting. The guide starts from the very beginning and assumes you have never done it.
A basic resin kit with moulds is usually somewhere around thirty to fifty dollars, and one kit makes a good many pieces. There is a full list of what to buy first inside, and what you can leave until later.
I started with people I knew, then a church hall table, then a Saturday market. The selling section walks through all of it, including online if you would rather not stand at a stall.
I was 63 when I poured my first coaster. It is a sitting-down craft, it is quiet, and you can do as much or as little of it as you feel like.
The kitchen table is exactly where I work. A plastic sheet and a pair of gloves is genuinely the whole set-up.
It is sent to you as soon as your order goes through.
It started with one set of coasters I gave away.
If you have been looking for something of your own to do, this is a gentle place to start.
Resin Art Notes · This page is an advertisement. Margaret is a storyteller for Resin Art Notes and the photographs on this page are illustrative. Prices shown for handmade work are typical market asking prices, not earnings you should expect. Results vary from person to person.