Wearable Blooms (or Experiments In Epoxy)

I've had a lot of folks ask me if they can wear my paper flowers as jewelry and I usually say that it's not a great idea, but you can certainly try. If you're anything like me, a big glob of mustard is going to make it onto your orchid brooch by the end of the night, and no one wants that.

Well, I went down to my local Texas Art Supply for some answers and found this:




After reading the very dangerous-sounding instructions (blindness??),




I (bravely) set up my stuff.




Step 1:
Pour one bottle of the stuff into another bottle of the stuff and make these cool-looking crystal snakes!





Step 2:
Stir!





Step 3:
Get tired of stirring just as instructions say to stop. Try dipping a crepe paper flower into the mix. Pull it out and fail at snapping in-focus pictures as the epoxy drips down your hand.



Easy as pie!

Now, as I'm sure you noticed, a very interesting thing happened that I wasn't expecting - the papers turned translucent! The parchment, the crepe, and the tissue papers all became nearly see-through upon dipping.



Parchment rose



Crepe flower and parchment hydrangea



Parchment rose


At first I was a tad disappointed, but as they cured, I started to appreciate the near-clear possibilities.

What do you guys think? Would you wear these sweet little gems as jewelry?
Leave a comment!

My Favorite Photographer (or Kasey Marsh: Cool Gal Extraordinaire!)

So I thought I'd take a moment to acquaint you with my favorite photographer, Kasey Marsh. Kasey owns Monkey Tree Photography here in Houston and is definitely one of the most excellent people I've met since moving here.





As you can probably guess after seeing the Style page at RobotInBloom.com and previous blog entries, I met Kasey when we hired her to photograph our wedding.

It was funny, actually - Josh and I had met with a pretty big handful of photographers before we found her, but none of them seemed quite right for our wedding. I liked the name of her business and what we saw on her website, so we made plans to meet her at a local Panera. We talked for a few minutes, flipped through her sample albums, did the whole photographer-bride-groom-discussions thing, and Josh and I tried to play it cool. We're not ones to make snap decisions, especially on something huge like our wedding photography.





Acting like ultra-savvy business people, we told her we'd think about it and let her know. We got just outside the front door, literally stopped, turned to each other, and said, "So, you wanna go with her?"

We waxed poetically and excitedly in the doorway for about 20 more seconds about how much we liked her work and how she was a great mix of confident and laid-back. She seemed like a great fit for the mood we wanted for our wedding. And her work looked like she'd catch all our special details and shmoopy expressions.

We walked right back into the restaurant and dorkily said, "Can we sign a contract with you right now???" blowing all our steely negotiating cred right out the window.





Her work was excellent and she was a total pro. She somehow managed to blend into the day, while also successfully wrangling guests for the formal shots. Honestly, I barely remember her being there - which I guess is actually a compliment in the wedding photography world!





After the wedding, I opted not to have her create an album for me. One part control freak, one part confidence in my design skills, and one part wanting waaaaay too many images and pages than is feasible for a flush-mount album, I decided to have a go at designing my own album through Blurb.





I'm incredibly glad I did it that way because I caught the album design bug!

I had so much fun designing my own album, I decided I wanted to do something, anything like that. No more secretarial drudgery for me!

But, I didn't know where to start, and my mom suggested I contact Kasey to see if she could offer any insight into that world.





Kasey's help and generosity was a total bolt from the blue!

She met with me, looked at my album, and asked if I'd want to use her computer and her software to help her with her workflow.

She taught me all sorts of things from the software to running a business. She's given me insights on running an art-based/creative business that you really don't get in regular "How To Run A Small Business" by I.M. Boring* books at Barnes and Noble. Not to mention she's totally relaxed and funny and fun to hang out with!

(*Not a real book, but could be.)





Now, though, I'm on my own feet. I have my own office, and she's recently leased a fabulous new space in the middle of Houston's hip Rice Village.

Her new place looked great for the open house, and I'm really looking forward to her upcoming Fancy Facebook Ladies' Night.