Development : Using Resin on materials

Since gathering more materials in the woods from the photo shoot I was wanting to experiment with them in ways of preserving them. I got a resin set and resin is something I hadn't used before so trying it out was exciting and is easing me into trying different media's for this projects theme. I decided as a test to put some flowers,conkers and bark in the resin to see how it would turn out.

Heres a little video I made of me doing that.

I also got a flower press from home that I've had for a while but not got the chance to use it till now so I'll be pressing some flowers but well see how things go for time.

I also by chance had found some tree branches that had fallen on a busy street next to the university and I had to snatch them up. I find their textures very beautiful and it's given me inspiration for the type of look I want for my photographs and media experiments. Since they also are branches their a lot more related to the type of theme for the project. I'll have to experiment with them by cutting into them and preserving them and becoming more familiar with the inner workings and design of trees.

Since it was an experiment with the resin it let me explore the process of how the media works with these kind of materials especially since their natural and still living. I coated the conker nuts in it as a type of glaze which changed their colour since no oxygen was getting to the surface. This is something that's common when trying to preserve any type of rural material such as flowers, leaves, fauna etc.

But on closer inspection their was some parts I missed during the coating and it started to grow mold. But doing this little exercise is shown me to watch out for that in the future. But overall I think the resin has worked quite well especially with the flowers and bark I was very pleased.

I felt overall using the resin was very promising and it was really positive to finally use it for a project. I feel it will be quite a reliable tool in the type of materials I'm using and I look forward to seeing where I can go with it. That also the whole relation with resin since it is a product that trees can produce makes this process relate back to the original state of the tree and it's chemical compounds which I'll be looking into further.

That the cycle of the relationship humans have with trees and their uses such as artists and how we use paper and a number of other tools to create our work. I feel this project will be a type of visual celebration of the tree and it's aura and how we realistically need trees in many ways.