When you think about inclusions, I bet the first things that comes to mind are not orange peels or Coca-Cola®.
I am Linda McNulty and I am going to share the experience of my students earlier this month.
At the end of January, while a blizzard blew through the grey streets of Ohio, ICE Resin packed up and went to sunny Tucson, Arizona’s To Bead True Blue Conference to teach, teach, and teach about the joys of working with ICE Resin®.
One of the classes I taught was Resin Basics, and it was a first time experience with ICE Resin for store-owners and designer-teachers who were already selling ICE Resin, but had never made the leap to trying it! I know how that feels. It can be hard to jump in without support. So, together, we jumped in! Everyone had lots of questions, and they all got to play. Look at them on their knees; getting at eye-level with the ICE Resin to check that their measurements are in proper proportion- 50/50!
Finished pieces, curing on plates covered with little snips of plastic bags, of course, so nothing stuck together.
The students got to play with our new Bell Dames Franciase Flip Book Collage Paper in their Bezels, and then got to paint their leftover paper with the remaining ICE Resin from their Stir Cup, so they got to try three techniques in one: embedding collage, filling a bezel, and painting on paper. Everyone had a lot of fun in this class, because women love to laugh, chatter and learn, simultaneously. We had that in great supply and everyone thought that our Flip Book imagery looked fantastic under ICE Resin!
My Resin Alchemy class was also a great hit with students. I found that many professional artists and teachers wanted to take their ICE Resin explorations further, but without some group support, just couldn’t gather up the motivation to make it happen on their own. So, as a team, we jumped into an Exploration of ICE Resin, to push it as far as we thought it could go…then even farther. We challenged ICE Resin to accept any alchemical mixture we could invent….and ICE Resin raised triumphantly to the challenge!
You see, unlike other resins on the market, the chemical bond of ICE Resin holds tight and cures even when introducing materials like: acrylic paint, oil paint, metallic paint, mica, plaster, copper-powder, graphite, ink, hair, pastel shavings, and fresh herbs and flowers.
One student, Shawn, an ex-police officer added Coca-Cola and Mustard to his ICE Resin. We watched to see what would happen. Sure enough, the ICE Resin cured around the shape of the liquid soda. The Coke did infuse its carbonation into the resin, which had an interesting look, but still, it cured. With the mustard, Shawn mixed some into one batch of ICE Resin, and with another batch, he embedded the mustard, surrounding it completely. Both batches cured without a hitch!
Shawn’s sister, Melyssa, cut her hair into her ICE Resin.
Carol liked the look of shaved pastel, which had a kind of neon look;
Debra brought her own acorns from her grandmother’s land in Southern California, and poured her samples into them, which made them instantly into art!
Each student made 12 samples, and then poured their favorite alchemical combination into an SLK Bezel to memorialize it. With smiles of delight and shouts of joy, many combinations were made and each student left with a signature piece!
May your creative spark ignite!
We dream of flight and flights of fancy. ICE Resin® Creative Team member Catt Ker brings us two precious necklaces:
Faeries, fairys, the fey, sidhe, angels with a sense of humor, whatever you call the winged creatures that live in our mythic tales and imaginations, the flittering fluttering creatures that some say are guides, they add whimsy to our lives.
The triangle bezel fetchingly offsets the rhinestones and die-cut wings.
