The Beginning of This Journey

Inspiration

I know when I really love an image when I make it my phone background. Sometimes I change my phone background image too soon. However, this was not the case for the image below.

This image was taken when I was making little crafts and had prepared some charming visual elements to embed in one of my earliest epoxy crafts as fridge magnets with little positive messages in the packages.

I realized that I liked looking at this “middle of process” photo more than the final packaged fridge magnets that I was making.

This charming photo is still the background image of my phone. So, I contemplated for a while why I love this image so much. What is it about this particular photograph that gives me such a good feeling and fills me with joy?

Discovery

So I thought maybe it is the refreshing light green color of the background, or the miniature clay pears reminding me of how delicious pears are, or maybe it is the colored pieces of pastels, reminding me of the excitement of making art since I was a child, without any worries of other people’s judgments.

I continued thinking, is it the little clay mugs reminding me of a time I had enjoyed a pottery class so much, or the crafty stickers and positive affirmation notes? What if it is the effortless combination of all these elements that causes me to love this image so much?

Then I remembered a sweet quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn that I read in a book compiled by Jess Zahra titled ” Positive Mental Gratitude.

Source: Positive Mental Gratitude, Compiled by Jess Zahra, Summerdale Publishers,2023

Jon Kabat-Zinn, is a well known spiritual teacher and author of many books about mindfulness.

I said to myself, “That’s it!”

This was exactly what I needed to realize, as Jon Kabat-Zinn quoted. “The little things?, the little moments?, they aren’t little.”

I said to myself, maybe I should stop making little fruity shapes made with epoxy and instead capture the spirit of this artmaking moment and make it an eternal charm for the purpose of accessing the joy I felt again and again!

Early Experiments

Yes, my friends, believe it or not, I did exactly that! I “epoxied” the subject of the above photograph to make it last forever!

I have to admit that at the time I tried to do this, I had just started to learn to work with epoxy resin, and I was considered a total beginner. Here is the evidence of my process of making one of the earliest epoxy tiles I ever made when I was very new to this medium.

And as you can see, the little piece of pastel also made its way to the artwork. In fact, the little blue pastel was the main character of this story that I wanted to keep like a 3D photograph.

As I confessed above, this was my very first epoxy collage, for the selfish purpose of cheering myself up as I was experimenting with epoxy resin, and my skill level had not matured yet.

At that time, as an amateur epoxy artist, over-interference with the surface to juxtapose the collage elements led to a less-than-perfect, wavy epoxy cast, which I keep in my little box of epoxy casts that are to be shown only to myself.

More Epoxy Craft Making

However, as my skill level with epoxy resin improved, I kept trying to make better and better tiles while keeping the main character, “the little pastel bit” in the composition. This tile below is one of my favourites of those process capturing group of tiles and is being used as a decor in our kitchen’s wall.

However, these early crafts such as the monarch butterfly made with paper in resin, as can be seen in the image, made me love the epoxy medium for enabling me to capture the joy of little things that are not so little!

Now, after casting so many epoxy decorative objects, my technique is very different. I also let go of including the little bits of pastels in my work, as it seems it is too weird for others.

Learning and Safety

If you feel curious to try the epoxy medium for yourself, please educate yourself first and learn about it from many great resources that are available.

I recommend the book written by Jess Crow titled ” Epoxy Resin”. Most importantly, when working with the epoxy medium, please take your safety very seriously and wear proper protective gear such as special masks to protect against chemicals, eye goggles, and protective gloves. Moreover, you need proper air ventilation in your workspace. You can read about all the necessary safety precautions in the book introduced here.

This was the story of how my journey with Dobro & Vita Crafts studio began. I look forward to sharing more studio insider stories with you in this blog!