Dust...

Lots and lots of toxic particles of dust have been filling my creative space of late.
Sounds delightful hey! Nah really, it's not so bad. It's the sanded residue created from my latest hobby.

Resin

So colorful, mysterious and sweet.

I say mysterious as for years, resin is a medium I have longed to work in. But the chemistry and technical aspects of it all has...well..it has scared the hell out of me.

Many times I circled the resin course in my C.A.E guide only to chicken out last minute or to struggle to find the cash to pay for the course.

But finally... a decade later, I have done the resin course and it was amazing.
I have come out with my head spinning. My mind racing a million miles an hour contemplating all the possibilities of what I could make.
Somewhere in there, in the middle of the class, the penny dropped and it all made sense.
I had read so much, touched and examined so much, but to have the experience of learning the craft in a practical sense is just so empowering. Like a springboard for creativity to flourish.

Hence I seem to have misplaced the last few weeks of my life in a flurry of resin making.

Now, it would seem I was not a duck to water with my longed after medium.
I have made molds with bubbles, (not ideal) I have had my pretty papers float away from where I wanted them to be, I have overfilled my bezel and sanded my bloody finger....

But persistence is my new best friend and I was determined to get a range out of it. No matter how small.
I just had to finish what I started.

So after too many hours of sanding to admit , I have put together a little range of resin delights.

Now once I calculate the hours spent sanding, they work out to be ...... $3000 dollars a piece.

O.k maybe a slight exaggeration. But I now have an amazing amount of respect for resin artists and I formally apologize for ever thinking that a resin bangle at a hand made stall was not worth the money.

I get it now. I soooo get it.

They do not come out looking like that guys, one side is pretty the other is ruff as guts and it takes hours to make it look as pretty as the other side!

If you've ever wanted to learn resin yourself, I highly recommend the course run by Dominic at the C.A.E
You don't just pour into pre made molds, you make the molds, you play with different types of resin, different pigments and you learn quite a few techniques to create really individual pieces.

Never to old to learn some new tricks.
Jay xx