Ice Resin Adventures

Finally, the bezel is complete, the collage cut and placed, and, the most exciting part - the resin is poured! It's a little hard for you to see in these photos, but the Ice Resin  used here domes up beautifully, dries crystal clear and is generally just fun, neat stuff! This little tower piece was done as class work from the Of Towers and Turrets workshop, I talked about a month or so ago.

There were a few other bezels hanging around the studio...pendant forms and ring forms, so I figured I'd set up a few pieces to pour while I was mixing the resin and had a batch on the go. I discovered - much to my delight - that Ice Resin is really quite easy to work with, and gives a fabulous finish. I also discovered that it is very effective as the permanent final resting place for wayward bugs! I'll be a little more careful about removing the lamp from over the pieces (a very effective way to eliminate the tiny air bubbles that rise up as it sets) before the evening influx of winged creatures that seems inevitable in this neck of the woods! Not to mention, be a little quicker to carefully place the upturned plastic container to protect the resin filled pieces from said insects, dust and the inquisitive fingers of grown men who seem unable to resist touching!

An accidental discovery was that the resin renders the paper from old books quite translucent, so where I added the word 'searching' it seems more part of the piece than it would have if I'd coated it with some gel medium before pouring the resin, which is what was done with the collage papers, so as not to let the ink run and get all muddied up and sad. What a happy discovery!

I think my favourite is "Searching" with that eye peering out at you, which is in fact a detail of work in one of the Altered Book Collaboration books, titled "While You Were Sleeping". Which is your favourite?