Creating Beautiful Bezels with ICE Resin by Susan Lenart Kazmer

A couple years ago, I discovered ICE Resin, a product developed by Susan Lenart Kazmer...she is one of the most inspiring artists I've ever met.  If you're not familiar with her work, click on the link above to view her amazing work.    

Susan worked with Spellbinders to develop a line of bezels and pendants...and I became very familiar with the products. I got to teach and demonstrate the products, literally around the world at trade shows and art events...here's a flashback from the blog archives where you can see some of the places and people I met...Creating Beautiful Bezels with Spellbinders Media Mixage...for me, it was an incredible experience to work with the products and to share them with other artists and crafters.  I'd not created any jewelry peices for years...so it was a nice reintroduction to jewelry making. 

And, over time as I worked with the products, I discovered a few techniques and tricks of my own when working with ICE Resin.  For example, the resin in the photo above is tinted with artists pastels...the resin looks like Lapis...it's a cool technique that I love to share in the workshops I teach today.

And, over time, as I have moved on and done other things, artistically and professionally, I still get asked to teach ICE Resin workshops...I absolutely love getting to share the techniques with students who attend.  The student work is always very inspiring.  Very often we create memory pieces...I ask students to bring family photos and personal letters and we set out to preserve family memories by creating pendants and bezels with those treasure images.  

During the course of the workshops, I often end up with some beautiful pieces that I've created with the students as examples and instructional pieces...I've started adding them to my etsy shop,          Ken Oliver Crafts. They're often too beautiful not to share.   

I'm still teaching ICE Resin workshops and in fact, I have a workshop on October 24th in my hometown.  The event is called ICE at the Edge, You can click on the link...or click on the ICE at the Edge banner at the side of this page for more details.  The event will be smaller and more intimate than many of the workshops I teach, and we're going to be in the most beautiful venue...our classroom over looks the Ohio River in Southern Indiana.   

I am getting really excited about ICE at the Edge. Students are traveling from as far away as Florida, Connecticut, and Minnesota to attend.  

If you'd like to enroll, it's really easy, and affordable and the workshop includes dinner...

And, at the end of the workshop, you'll have created 4 beautiful pendants that you can wear yourself, or give as gifts.  

As you can probably tell, I love working with ICE Resin...it's let me create and express my art in lots of new ways...I'd invite you to visit my etsy shop to see more...and hopefully, you'll think about coming to ICE at the Edge to learn how to create these beautiful pieces yourself.  I hope to see you there!  

Mixed Media Assemblage Eternal Prosperity and Happiness

This mixed media assemblage piece started as an example for an ICE Resin workshop I was teaching over the weekend at Ephemera Paducah in Paducah, Kentucky.

And as it came together, I realized the symbols I'd used in the piece were powerful Feng Shui symbols of eternal prosperity and happiness. 

 

 

It was really random at first...I used a vintage game piece with the number 88 on it. 

 

 

And I used a Chinese coin, because it was in my stash of demo pieces...I realized later that these two images were powerful symbols for Feng Shui practitioners.  In the Chinese language the sound of 8 is “fatt”, which means prosperity and abundance. The figure 8 represents infinity. Therefore, two eights seen together mean “eternal prosperity.” The 88 symbol is universally to unblock stagnate energy and to bring new energy.  88 also represents double happiness. And the game piece is red...another good symbol for Feng Shui practitioners.   It was quite random that I'd placed these pieces together.  I later realized it was kind of cool.  Chinese money, placed in the wealth center of your home is said to bring money your way...there's coin encased in the resin too.  

 

There are a couple gears, and a wire wrapped silk ribbon to hold the pendant. 

 

This piece, quite by accident, turned out so cool. 

 

To finish the piece, I added a #3 skeleton key.  The key is a symbol of discovering that which is hidden or secret, In this piece the key reminds us that we always have the key or the ability to unlock the secret to happiness, or prosperity... it's within us.  

 

All this is pretty "out there" for me...but when I stepped back and thought about the literary and Feng Shui meanings of the symbols I'd randomly put together...it seemed a very happy coincidence. 

 

Thank you for stopping by today...I hope you'll be inspired to make something beautiful!

 

Ken