A case of sticky oily seepage...

I thought I would post this issue I had with a resin for the learning purpose for other artists. In this post the resin is an older cast.

I had long read about resins, mostly the older cast resins, becoming sticky and seeping an oily residue onto the surface of the resin...sometimes many years later after they had been cast.

This poor resin, who the customer and I gave every chance to stop his issue, is the first I've encountered with the sticky leaking problem.

There were no signs of issues with the resin whatsoever when he arrived here in the studio....only being very yellowed which I considered what would happen if the resin perhaps was housed in a home where people smoked.

I began my usual prepping routine and completed the prepping over a period of about 6 weeks. I then painted the resin using my usual painting procedure, let him dry, and then applied the sealer...my same routine sealant.

Then the problems began...he became sticky in several areas and I notified the customer and that there were several things I thought might be the problem. The resin itself, my canned primer being a bad batch, my canned sealant being a bad batch, perhaps prior paintwork had been removed using a paint thinner which may be reacting to my primer and oil paints.

We agreed to leave the resin sit for a few months to see if the issue would cure. Sadly it did not....the paint was puckering and lifting from the sticky areas...

After much thought I suggested to the customer that I remove the paint, sealer, primer, and any filling material that was there...watch the resin for a while to see if the issue re-appeared, and if there were no issues, I would then re-paint the item.

It was a very sad moment when I had to remove my paintwork from this poor fellow...almost like a funeral..silly I know...perhaps other artists who are reading this post will understand :)

After removing the paint and waiting the few months I saw no issues...so I went ahead and applied the primer..a different primer.....the Bulls Eye primer that I hand mix and apply with an air brush or apply by hand.

 I applied two thin coats and then put the resin on my studio shelf to watch for about 30 days.

Yesterday I checked the resin only to find the same issue had re-appeared...the resin was sticky in the exact same areas as he had been before....the oily areas show up well on the surface of the matte primer....

When touched the areas feel like old cooking oil that has sat for a very long time after being used...the oil will lift off at the touch of a finger but the area that your finger touches is sticky or tacky...the resin material is still hard..not soft.

Hopefully this post will help those artists should you encounter an issue similar to this....I would love to hear any similar stories you all may have...
Have a wonderful day everyone!
C.S.Richmond Studios