In this blog I will present commented discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of various art resins; discuss how to prepare flowers for use with resin and which flowers have worked best/not worked for me. I will be presenting interviews and discussions with other pressed flower and resin artists. I will have a "tip of the day" section.

I'm hoping that lots of you contribute; comments, arguments and disagreements are always welcome. Resin is such a complex medium that we all have something to learn. Besides, tweaks and even new resin products are coming out all the time.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

From Russia, A Wonderful Pressed Flower Jewelry Artist



Hi, today I'd like to introduce Mary Bu, a botanist/landscape architect/pressed flower jewelry artist from the Urals region of Russia; she has a shop on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/UralNature


How did you get started in working with pressed flowers and with resin:
Since childhood I attracted to nature, plants, and liked to look at their tiny flowers, so I was educated landscape architect. But in our area is long and very cold winter, and I may work on specialty only 4-5 months a year. And the long winter evenings I can spend on art and search for new hobbies. When I heard about the resin, I thought of those tiny bouquet, which I loved to collect when I was a child and I wanted to try preserve it beauty in a clear resin.
So I tried and very inspired by this and now I have this "strange hobby" where I can use my biological knowledge and skills of collecting herbarium.



What are some of your major challenges in this work:
For me the major challenges is the short summer, for which are not able to gather enough herbarium, and also the problem of storage and the fragility of plants during the work.
Pressing flowers is very fickle, you can't say exactly how long it will remain it colors and also you can't replicate to a tee what is already done. Although the last is probably not a problem, but rather a virtue - the uniqueness of each work.



What advice do you have for newcomers to this art form:
Experiment and look for new material looking the world around you.
Nature's microworld actually very beautiful and enigmatic, but usually, people don't notice it. Just try to show them how it is wonderful!

What are your plans for the future:
I really want this summer to go round our Perm region, to visit again Visherskii and Basegi reserves, which I visited during my studies at the university and collect herbarium of the endemics of the Urals, and sure save them in resin. And in my dreams of course to go round the whole of Russia and then the whole world and explore all the plants, but I think it's only dreams :)


Thank you, Mary. I love your jewelry, and the identifications of all the plants. I am often unsuccessful in tagging the flowers in my jewelry thoroughly.
Mary's shop on Etsy: Ural Nature: http://www.etsy.com/shop/UralNature

Resin hint of the day:
Allow at least 48 hours after your resin piece is hardened before you allow it to touch another resin piece; It takes 4 to 5 days for most resins to thoroughly cure, before which time they are easily scratched, indented, and bonded to other resin pieces (and shavings--I've learned the hard way, don't sand/shave resin pieces around newly hardened
resin jewelry.)


Thank you for visiting this erstwhile blog!  Chris