Real Flowers!

When I took the class that formally introduced me to resins last year, the instructor, Susan Lenart Kazmer (genius!), told me that pretty much anything could be embedded or covered in resin. During the class, we learned how to cover a dried rosebud. Later, I started to think about the possibilities of covering live flowers - would that work? First, I tried covering a fake flower to see if the shape would allow it. It came out pretty well, but I didn't pay enough attention, so it was really gloppy in places.

Finally, last night, I tried on a couple of real, live flowers with mixed results. I did a pink carnation and an African violet. The violet immediately changed color as soon as the petal was covered. And not in a good way. By the end, it turned into a shriveled, brownish mass. But the carnation looks really good! I still need to experiment more with the technique, and I will do the next one during the day so I can babysit it and keep removing excess resin as it pools.

Now, I think there's a possibility that the carnation worked because I did not completely cover the stem, so it's still getting oxygen. Just after taking this picture, I cut off almost everything below the bloom, mixed up some more resin, and placed it in a sterling silver bezel cup. I REALLY hope it still looks good after this. I'll let you know later this week!

If this works, I want to make rings out of small- to medium-sized blooms. Maybe even pendants or bracelets or magnets (ooh! just thought of that - I like it!), but for now, I'm envisioning rings.