Epic Bee Fail

Oh dear oh dear. I have spent the day trying to do my bees. And I have a headache from all the fumes, it looked like it was going so well and then it went all wrong. I'm wondering whether I can salvage it and make it look ok using lighting and stuff but I have a feeling it wont work. You can see the layers where I have poured the resin and also there is a massive crack in the top. Obviously where it got too hot, ah well. Have enough bees to have a second go if I wanted but I think I'll leave it for now. Sad day in the art world today.

Writer's block

For Kat. writing paper and ink-less biro


And a shout out for Hayley!

Nyyyyaaaaahhh! X

Call and Response

For Kat.

The four eng-
ineers
Wore orange
brassieres.

Willard Espy.

bees

Here are some bees. Bee-fore I potentially destroy them in resin.

Poly printing

A little bit of poly printing of iconic British stuffs. I really like the effect it gives, and the process is quite nice and repetitive. What next? Hmm...

And here's one I made earlier...

Mississippi mud pie. Was yum but a little sickly. I totally could be a food writer.

Resin tests!

So I finally got my resin and got round to experimenting! After overcoming my fear of opening the dead bee box I managed to pick some out to cast. (Dead bees smell really bad, resin smells worse but bees also float. 2-1 bees grr) I ordered water clear resin and some amber dye, it was a toss up between that and yellow but I wanted the bees to look like they were floating in honey. I could have used actual honey but I think it goes cloudy over time which would spoil it, also I wanted them to look suspended in the liquid rather than all gathered at the top (grr) As you can see I used far too much of the dye in the little jam jar test and it looks far too orange. I did a couple more tests which were slightly better but the thing is the colour intensifies as the thickness of the resin increases so even with the smallest amount of dye in it starts to look orange at a certain thickness and has a horrible tendency to increase in orangeness after the hardener is mixed in so there is a certain amount of chance involved! I think the final piece, which will be in a big kilner jar will look good with a warm light reflected through it, the resin has an amazing clarity and I'm pleased with the tests I've done. Also it will look like a kind of lantern at a shrine which will link in nicely. Very excited about this piece! Excuse the photos of the backgarden!

British stuffs

I've been having a think about typical British "architecture" and making prints and how I like the iconic shape of things like post boxes and phone boxes etc, so here is one of many experiments going on at the minute. I have been having a go at monotype prints and although I'm quite liking the effect I am still finding it not "clean" enough for my liking. I will press on with it though! Am enjoying having a go at different processes.