Sunflower Reveal & Blog Hop

The June Monthly Design Challenge chosen by Susan Kennedy for Art Elements seems to have inspired beaucoup d'Artistes! I had zillions of (ok, a dozen) ideas and of course, I wanted to use my newly-discovered technique of Etching. But first, I still had to perfect said technique! Which meant lots of failures  err.. experiments that didn't really pan out. I will do a separate post on all that.

So on to Plans B, C, D, more research and some purchases. I found the right resist for my needs and  choice of Etchant ... DecoColor Paint Markers/Pens that I ordered from Dick Blick online. I got one each in Very Fine, Fine and Broad points. They're easy to use albeit somewhat messy (that's why I work in my pajamas or old clothes). And also why I bought a Marker Clean Up pen.

I wanted to get this Summer Solstice Circlet ready for the the 21st, but it was clearly not going to happen. I kept working on it a little each day and just finished yesterday. I used Terra Verde Agate in the center, some Czech Glass matte rondelles around that and finished with a row of scintillating CZ seed beads.

Ready for Etchant. The Red Vine is my sustenance!

Just out of the bath. Hard to see depth of etch though

The other new medium I tried my hand at is Resin, so after more 'research' (ie the Big G & You Tube) I decided on Ice Resin since it says its self-doming. I've been doing some photo editing on pictures I have of my sweet Cannelle.If you don't know by now, I'm definitely a Cat Lady (notice I left out 'Crazy'?) and have wanted to do some cat-inspired jewelry for several years. Seemed like a perfect opportunity.

I used one of my Mom's watercolors and put together a few different images of Cannelle. A few years ago I had made a silhouette to use one day so I finally did in this challenge. I affixed them to some Brass / Copper blanks and applied the resin on top. Wanna know how I got rid of the air bubbles? I used my butane mini torch! Another way is to blow gently through a straw and they just 'melt' away.

The resin didn't dome a lot IMHO, maybe because of not using a bezel tray with sides, but I'm happy with my first attempt and will proceed to wire-wrap (or ?) these cabochons. If you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments below.
I've also got an idea floating around up there in the ole' noggin of doing some custom work with photos of other cherished fur babies.

Lopsided Low Dome. I advise checking to make sure the work surface is absolutely level!

I have some bezel trays and glass cabochons from another project and made a necklace and a brooch pin. The pin finding is longer than the tray so I'll have to think of a way to remedy that. These are only 22 x 30 mm (about 7/8" x 1-3/16) and really too small for my 'go big or go home' artistic leanings.

Oh, and one last pic ... I asked my daughter to please find this framed photo back home and scan it .. Way back in 1996 or '97, my kids in our front garden with some Sunflowers we planted from seed. I still had grass out there at that time. It was the first Summer in our newly constructed house and I had the pleasure (for several years) of inventing our garden from almost nothing. Now I have the pleasure of pruning, cleaning, etc. Let's say ... I will have the pleasure, after my Caregiver hiccup 😉😏.

I had to promise that I wouldn't tag them!!

I love doing these Design Challenges, they make me think out of the box and try different things that I probably would never get around to otherwise.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my work and my muses. Please do scroll down to see other Artists participating in this month's #AEChallenge. Click & Blog Hop Along to discover their awesome interpretations of the #Sunflower theme.
A.

Guests -  Alysen (you're here!) x Anita x Cat x Divya x Jill x Kathy x Linda x Linda x Mischelle x Norma x Raven 

                Sarajo x Tammy

AE Team - Caroline x Cathy x Claire x Jenny x Laney x Lesley x Sue