HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Well, I never thought I’d see the day where I started a blog, but here we are! If you’re here too, I’d like to start by saying hello!
My hope is to turn this blog into a place where other resin artists and resin enthusiasts can come and watch my experiments, my fails, and with any luck some successes! It’ll be a place for me to share my experiences at local markets, selling online, and some tricks I’ve learned along the way about starting a small business with nothing but a dream and a little determination.
AND NOW… HOW IT ALL BEGAN.
This resin adventure of mine truly started with just an idea. When the pandemic hit back in 2020 I had had a trip to Bali booked and unfortunately couldn’t go once they closed down the boarders (as was the case with so many people back then). Once I got over my despair (haha a little dramatic) I decided I wanted to begin creating my own tropical beach inspired art. I became obsessed with the idea of creating small beaches inside of coconut bowls and so I started watching dozens of YouTube tutorials on how to create resin waves. When I felt I was ready I bought my first resin kit, prepped my little coconut bowls with a bit of a sandy beach and got pouring! To say the least… I was terrible at it. I didn’t have a clue on how to actually prep a surface for resin, gravity always seemed to be against me, I didn’t understand the basics of layering, and my goodness did I not understand how to create cells with the white resin! But I didn’t let any of that discourage me! I kept practicing and practicing and practicing…. Until finally I had over 30 little coconut bowl oceans and… ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH THEM!
Around that time it was made public that the Vancouver Aquarium was losing revenue like mad (due to having to shut down) and was at risk of having to close their doors forever. That was when I decided to start a mini campaign: selling beach coconut bowls and donating 100% of the proceeds to help save the Vancouver Aquarium!
The campaign was a huge success and over $500 was raised towards the aquarium (just a drop in the bucket of what they actually needed, but it was fun to help out!) But that sparked an entire new adventure that I would never have seen coming: a demand for more coconut bowls. I started trying new techniques at that time and decided that I wanted to expand beyond just the small resin beach bowls. I began with necklace pendants, then keychains, and eventually coasters and larger wall mounted art pieces. With each piece I learned new ways of handling the resin, new techniques on how to create cells, and which products worked best for me and my work.
The rest is somewhat history!
I hope you enjoy this very casual blog!
MY VANCOUVER AQUARIUM CAMPAIGN VIDEO!
A FEW OF THOSE FIRST PIECES FROM 2020
