Being an artist and communicating to the world through art is FUN, but I find it’s also important to create outside of my regular daily practice.
I’ve been using resin as a finish and have incorporated it into my work for a number of years. I love experimenting with it as it is unlike any other medium I work with and really gets me thinking outside of the box.
At first I was using it solely as a finish on my paintings and would have extra left over when working with large works (you never want to make too little). After coating my work, I would quickly run around my studio trying to think of interesting ways to experiment with the “leftovers”. I ended up creating a number of really beautiful pieces from those super fast creative induced ideas (ArtResin has a working time of approximately 45minutes, so you have to think fast).
They were so fun, that I now often use ArtResin to do some extra little side projects to give my brain a rest from my own regular art practice. I’ve created a lot of strange things that I usually just give to my kids or friends but I have to say this side project has been the most useful yet!
It’s a mouse pad!
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I have a 7.5″x7.5″ silicone cake “pan” that I used for the mold (resin doesn’t stick to silicone so I was able to just pop it out of the mold 24hrs later. This is a great size and the cured resin works fantastic with my mouse, I didn’t have to add a finish to it or anything!
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I dropped alcohol ink (blue magenta and white) into the resin while it is was still in the “workable stage”.
This really creates the most amazing textures that look like droplets frozen in motion. This technique is not new, I have played around with it quite a bit and the results are really fantastic. If you like the looks of this I encourage you to look up “alcohol ink petri dishes” or “petrified rainbows” for some tips.
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As you can see in these close-ups this technique is really interesting and doesn’t take much to turn out a beautiful piece, but the real winner here was that I have created functional, useful art!
I spend quite a bit of time at my computer and to have this piece of art “on the side” that I created is a reminder that I also need to continue to explore and create outside of my “job”.
An artist needs to continually challenge themselves and get outside of their comfort zone so they have more tools to express themselves. I believe this is key for growth.
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Now that I have created this very functional piece of art and I know there are other people out there that also have a computer with a mouse (lol) I think I will just have to make more of this very useful work of art for my family and friends. Also the creativity and ideas are limitless… anything can go into these mousepads. You could make these very personal, you could place dried flowers or images or small paintings or drawings or collages or… well you get the point.
read on…
For more great ideas I highly recommend you visit the ArtResin website and also check out all the great work that other artists are creating with resin. Resin can be scary the first time using it, but honestly there are just a few simple steps and if you make sure you prep everything before you start mixing and follow the very easy steps, you will also be able to create some functional art to surround yourself with as a reminder that you too are a very creative human!
Never stop creating!