The Blue Brick

Project 3 – Layering with Resin – The I ♥ Autumn Ring

September 14, 2013

Welcome to the third of 5 blog posts that feature the projects and skills in my new book – Resin Jewelry, available for purchase Wednesday Sept 18th! To celebrate, I’m giving away 2 copies of the book on Wednesday. Entering your name is simple–just leave a comment on this post, or any of the next 2, telling me what you’d love to do with resin!

The third project in Resin Jewelry covers how to layer elements in the resin. Layering is an easy, versatile skill that allows you to create 3D visuals, complex compositions, and shadowbox effects. It takes a little patience, and more time than a single layer piece, but the effects are so worth it! Check out the inspiration gallery below to see some of the pieces I’ve made using this layering technique.
Project 2 – Using a sealant to preserve elements – Washi Earrings

September 13, 2013

Welcome to the second of 5 blog posts that feature the projects and skills in my new book – Resin Jewelry, available for purchase Wednesday Sept 18th! To celebrate, I’m giving away 2 copies of the book on Wednesday. Entering your name is simple–just leave a comment on this post, or any of the next 3, telling me what you’d love to do with resin!

The second project covers how to preserve papers and fabrics in resin, to keep the colours from bleeding out into the resin. This opens up an entire world of decorative paper, photographs, rice paper, and fabrics! Check out the image below to see some examples of what’s possible using this skill.
Project 1 – Getting your feet wet – basic resin pendant

September 12, 2013

Welcome to the first of 5 blog posts that feature the projects and skills in my new book – Resin Jewelry, available for purchase Wednesday Sept 18th! To celebrate, I’m giving away 2 copies of the book on Wednesday. Entering your name is simple–just leave a comment on this post, or any of the next 4, telling me what you’d love to do with resin!

This project is a great primer for your first resin piece. It covers all the basics – mixing, pouring, clean up, and how to get that perfect glassy finish. Even if you stop here (not that you would!), it’s such an amazing, versatile skill that you can make all these projects using just this one technique:

What would you love to try? Leave me a comment!
Resin Jewelry – Release date and Giveaway!

September 11, 2013
Over the next couple of days I’m going to be sharing some details of the book as I build up to my release date of…Wednesday September 18th! That’s right, as of next Wednesday the book will be available for purchase online, I’m equal parts nervous and thrilled. To celebrate the book launch I will be giving away 2 copies of the book! See details at the bottom of this post on how to enter.

Resin Jewelry covers the gamut on using resin to make totally one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces and keepsakes:
- Methods for preserving material, from flowers and leaves, to photographs and rice paper.
- How to work with resin, including multiple stage pours, dealing with air bubbles and cleaning up mistakes.
- Where to get supplies, including online resources and recommended brands.
- Troubleshooting tips.
- An inspiration gallery of mini-projects with techniques all described in detail.
- Tons of step-by-step photography, tips and tricks to help you get the best results.
The book then goes into 5 projects, designed to take you through growing your skills with increasingly complex pieces. Each day, for the next 5 blog posts, I’m going to feature one of these projects, and show off the possibilities of each technique.

What would you do? Autumn leaf necklaces as Christmas gifts? Photos of your family as pendants? Preserving pieces of your wedding bouquet? To enter the contest, leave comment on this, or one of the next 5 posts about what you would love to do with resin!
Kickin’ Back Alpaca Ranch

September 9, 2013

You know you’ve got amazing friends when they’re willing to tramp off in search of an alpaca farm with you :) The morning after our hike in Collingwood we all drove to the Kickin’ Back Alpaca Ranch in Markdale Ontario for some fleecy love.

Carolyn and Doug, the owners, are friendly, accommodating folk who toured us through their barn and offered tons of information on the colours, breeding, and even the personalities of individual animals. They had an alpaca, the likes of which I have never seen – a cuddly one.

I have always wanted to cuddle with an alpaca – their sweet faces and soft fleece make them a naturally huggable animal – but they are also shy and skittish. Yazhi (don’t ask me how to pronounce it, I got it wrong every time) is so sweet and gentle that Carol and Doug have visited care homes with her as a therapy animal. Everyone was in love with her – like a cat she’d even come nudge you if you weren’t cuddling her quite enough.

After meeting the animals came the hard part – trying to choose some yarn to take home. It was a tough decision….

… but I settled in on 2 skeins of a gorgeous sport weight grey. Grey is a specialty of Kickin’ Back Alpaca Ranch, and it certainly shows in the yarn I bought. I’ve already got plans too (new pattern coming soon!).

We definitely plan to go back for another visit (and more yarn!). Thanks again to Carol and Doug, and also once more to our lovely BNB hostess Rosemarie – as soon as she saw me knitting she knew the ranch had to be on our list!
If we’re lost, then we are lost together.

September 2, 2013

For Labour Day weekend, Tito and I, along with 2 of our best friends, headed to Collingwood. We stayed in an absolutely charming house called Pedulla’s Mountainside B&B. The owners were helpful, informative, and fabulous cooks. On their advice we skipped the Collingwood Scenic Caves in favour of the Singhampton Caves.

You’ll have to excuse the image-heavy post–this place was so unbelievably beautiful that I can hardly do it justice. Even the forest you hike through to get to the caves is magical, a fact thrown into further relief by the foggy morning.

The Singhampton caves and hiking trail form a part of the Bruce Trail. The Bruce Trail is a network of hiking paths that runs from Tobermory to Niagara.

As such, the trails are clearly marked, both in and out of the caves, but we chose to completely ignore that.

Happily, you can only get so lost, and though we were the only folks down there that morning, we did bump into some friendly hikers who set us back on the path by afternoon.

Good thing–though we only hiked for a few hours the amount of climbing involved had left us very tired.

It didn’t help that, ignoring the path as we did, we ended up climbing more than was necessary ;)

I wouldn’t change a thing though, I think following our own random path was more exciting, and led us to some places that form dead ends, so we wouldn’t have seen them if we’d stuck to the path itself.

Here’s a treat; a little bright orange salamander that we found on the path.

Muddy and happy, we made our way back to Collingwood for more adventures, including a tour of a ship from 1907 (the Keewatin, so large it had to be taken apart to fit through the Welland Locks!) and a tour of an alpaca farm, stay tuned for pics!
One step closer

August 30, 2013
- Last night I shot the last of the jewellery for the book.
- Final edits are happening this weekend, and this thing is going to print (crossing fingers) Monday.
- It should be available for purchase by mid-September latest.
- I can’t believe any of the above.
So close!!

August 29, 2013

The book is almost there – I spent 14 hours yesterday, pouring 8 straight batches of resin, adding sections to the book, taking a ton more photos and making a huge mess in the apartment :)

The final draft, content-wise, is sitting with my editor and publicist. I’m taking the last photos tonight. There is no more resin left to pour unless I’m doing it for personal pleasure. I’m so close!

Here’s a sneak preview of one of the skills covered in the book – the ice cube effect!
The Best Laid Plans….

August 25, 2013

It’s been a rough couple of weeks – like working all day and then having a shoot at night and working all evening, that kind of rough. On top of that I like to add nutty things like yoga and karate, and oh, trying to be a first time author.

On Friday, the first samples of the book arrived, and, I’ll be honest with you guys, it just wasn’t right. I tweaked just about everything; content, paper stock, layout… even added a new section. I want this thing to be perfect, and perfect means something else entirely when you’re writing a book instead of a blog, that you hope people will buy and use and love, and that seems (compared to the blog at least) frighteningly permanent.

I knew the stress was gettin’ was bad when, on the one day I’d booked off for fun, I decided to throw a hissy fit first thing in the morning. I apologized to my forgiving friends (4 or 5 times), ~~stewed at myself for the rest of the day~~ got over it, and went on to have a pretty awesome day at the farm. Apples straight from the trees, a round up of the Highland cattle (they’re so cute when they run) a wine tasting and tour at Frogpond Farms, a BBQ with some of my favourite people/cows/dogs, a trip to a farmers market to load up on Ontario produce (the best in the world, but I’m biased) and a stroll through Buskerfest with 2 of our closest friends. Look how stressed I am… that’s a run-on sentence if ever there was and I was sure my editor had beaten that one out of me.

I fretted instead of slept, got up at 6, worked on the book some more, breaked for brunch (with even more of my favourite people, really, this has been a blessed weekend people-wise and I should stop complaining) and came home to work on the book some more.

It’s 4:30, and I’ve finally sent another version off to the printers, with fingers crossed and muscles cramped. I’ve poured my heart into it, and I just can’t wait to share it with everyone.

I have a thing I call ‘airplane calm’. I try to stuff lots of things into the day, and I’m bad at relaxing. I relax on airplanes though, because if it’s all going to hell in a hand basket… I can’t do anything to change it. I can’t work, check email (that’s changing, damn them) or accomplish much. So I relax. Knowing that the book is off to the printers at last gives me a certain amount of airplane calm, and dammit, I’m going to enjoy this.

I still have to work on my day job until 10 or so… but hey, I get to do it while eating blueberry pie, so that’s alright :)
Every time I think I’m done….

August 21, 2013

…I get some idea that I simply must try. New items on the Etsy shop – check it out!

Real Autumn Leaves and Queen Anne’s Lace

A friend’s Hibiscus – I love how the colour shifted green!

A friend’s Hibiscus with Queen Anne’s Lace

Real Autumn Leaves and Queen Anne’s Lace