Do you ever have one of those projects where the items you’re using in it are SO important to you that, if it goes wrong, and those items are ruined, it would be devastating?

I’m doing that very thing right now.

My wonderful mum collected brooches and pins, and man, her collection was Extensive!  She and her sister had a friendly rivalry going on, with the gist of it being “Whoever has the most brooches when she dies, wins!”  I’m confident mum won, ha!  I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that she had a couple hundred; more importantly, she wore them all, and literally never went out without a brooch.  Even at her passing, we made sure she was wearing a pin.

At mum’s Celebration of Life, all the women chose brooches and other jewellery, and wore it on that day.

We all gave her pins as presents, and searched them out whenever we traveled.   Her favorite, I think, were Christmas pins……….

Anwaaaaaaaay, my sister and I went through all her pretty shiny objects and cherry-picked a few to keep for ourselves.  I wanted to do ….something…. with them, but wasn’t sure what.  Mounted on velvet in a Shadow Box Frame?  Under glass, as the top of a side table?  I finally settled on embedding them in Resin in a Mirrored Serving Tray.

Actually doing it was daunting, because I really did NOT want to wreck them…..

I’ve been using ArtResin for about a year and a half now, and have been really pleased with the consistent way it performs.  I also follow many Resin Artists who use ArtResin, and have not seen a single negative review, honestly…..

Soooooooooooooooo

I took the plunge.   I did a Test Layout of the pins.  I poured the first thin layer of ArtResin, placed the pieces, and poured a second thin layer, all within 15 minutes.  I torched it to get rid of the bubbles.  I covered it to ensure that no dust or bugs floated on the surface.

I waited 3.5 hours, and poured another layer, as ALL the pieces need to be completely immersed if I’m going to use this as a Serving Tray.

And then I had to wait 24 hours………  gahhhh, that was hard……

But the finished product?  Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous!  I am SOOOOOOOO pleased with this memory of my wonderful mum……………

Note:  I only know how to put Still Photos in my blog – go to @CherMcKittrick  if you want to see a video