Flowers and Butterflies

Hello again, my friend! I promised that I would be back to share my newest creations, and here I am! Yesterday I shared the Framed Crab – you can see it in THIS POST if you missed it. Today, it’s flowers and butterflies! These 3D printed frames are so cool to use, and you can bet that I’ve got more of them in the works.

FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES

I found this supplier in the U.S., who now ships to Canada (yes, I think I had something to do with that!).  They use a 3D printer to create ‘frames’ in different shapes. There is one type to use with resin – meant to be included in the final design, and another type for ‘fluid pours’ of paint. For this first one, I bought the bundle of 3 butterflies and the flowers. As you can see, I only used 2 of the butterflies – don’t worry, I won’t waste the 3rd one!

Each butterfly is a separate piece, and the flowers and leaves are one piece. The frames are a really pretty copper colour, but very lightweight.

DETAILS

In order to keep the frames in place on the cradle board (this one is 12″ x 12″ and 1″ deep), a thin, clear layer of resin over the front of the board. The frames are then carefully placed, and the resin allowed to cure.  Once the resin has cured, then mica powder or pigment paste is mixed in small amounts, and each small area is filled in.  In some areas, I was adding 1 drop of resin at a time from a toothpick!

A total of 10 different colours were used, to fill in the butterflies, leaves, flowers and then 2 kinds of blue for the background. Between each colour the resin was allowed to cure, so this piece took several days to finish. (different areas were worked on at the same time, so that I didn’t have to spend 1 day per colour).

Here’s another look, from a side view, of the finished piece.

The sides of the cradle board are painted with white acrylic paint; I didn’t want to distract from the colours on the front.

AVAILABLE NOW FOR PURCHASE!

I’ve just listed this beautiful Flowers & Butterflies art piece in my online Shop – you can find it HERE.  I have more new pieces to share and list, so be sure to check back again this week!  See you then, and have a fun, creative week.