It has only been in the last few years that I have started experimenting with resin in my art. I must admit I have become hooked. Being able to create beautiful things that will outlast this short life is nothing short of addictive. One day when my bones are dust I hope for someone to come across my art and marvel over the love and care I have created it with. On this page are some pieces I have made for people I love to help them preserve some of their dearest memories.
Below is a multicolored rose that I preserved for my best friend. They had received it as a gift and wanted to remember it forever. A diamond fits in perfectly with her glamorous personality. I also really wanted to preserve a larger flower this way. Almost all of my molds are smaller because my usual focus is turning real flowers into jewelry. Preserving larger flowers was much more difficult without a larger shape and the diamond shape was the perfect fit for this project.
Posted below here are some pieces that I am especially proud of. My brother was married not too long ago. When talking to my sister in law about what she would do with her wedding bouquet she said she was going to hang them in an attempt to dry them to keep. I implored her to give them to me as soon as we were done with the reception. I had an idea, her flowers would last longer than her marriage, longer than even her life or her childrens’ lives.
I took them home and immediately disassembled the bouquet. It is a good thing I did, in the middle of the tightly packed and clustered flowers there was already mold. After cleaning out undesirable yucky flowers I dried the remainder in silica beads, you use these to suck the moisture out of the flowers more quickly, it also helps to keep the colors bright. Once dry I then spray sealed the flowers, when dealing with flowers in resin this is a very necessary step. Because dried flowers were once living they are porous and hold air bubbles. If you are familiar with casting in resin you already know that bubbles can be one of the most distracting, unwanted and impossible to get rid of problems. Once that resin hardens you will never get those bubbles out, or at least it is very difficult. Spraying sealing the flowers helps keep air from escaping the resin in the curing process making them less of an issue. It also like drying in silica helps to preserve the color. The next step was to actually mix the resin. I will admit being relatively new to this I was nervous to start. I hadn’t made anything as large as these would be yet, I had only done around three batches in much smaller molds so far It took me a few months to work up the courage to do the first pour. They turned out well for my first big pour.
I gave the finished coasters to my brother and sister in law for Christmas but it took another six months to work up the courage to start the next, much larger project involving these flowers. In my mind it was something spectacular, a large beautiful piece she would be able to enjoy for the rest of her life. It was a lot to live up to my own expectations, we are all our own harshest critics after all. I only had so many flowers to work with from the wedding so I had to get it right. A slip up with resin can result in a big unsaveable mess.
I chose a hot summer day to work on it. Heat helps bubbles rise out of resin so the warmer weather would help ensure less bubbles and the resin would cure well in the heat. Even with the heat I wasn’t taking any chances, I had learned from a past project that cool resin can cause microbubbles that you will never be able to get out, they won’t rise in the cool resin and end up making things look foggy. I put my A and B bottles in to containers filled with hot water to ensure it would be warm before mixing. I now spent the next few hours mixing and pouring more resin than I had ever worked with at one time. I poured a good clear layer base and added a shimmery gold-pink very similar to the color chosen for the wedding around the edges. I then carefully placed flowers how I wanted them, added some glistening little plastic diamonds and allowed the resin to cure a bit. I didn’t want the pigment to migrate into the clear layers above. Once slightly cured I mixed more clear resin to coat the flowers and fill the mold the rest of the way. Now was the anticipation of waiting. I gave it a couple of days to cure before I messed with it too much. When I finally eased it out of the mold I knew I had done it. It wasn’t the picture in my head, it was better. I bought a nice stand for it and it was ready to gift. It now is prominently displayed on a shelf in their living room so I think I did pretty well.
