Congratulations to artist Christy Tyra, our latest Instagram winner! Based in Norfolk, VA, Christy creates hand-crafted, small-batch jewelry. At first glance, her pieces appear to be made of quartz and other precious gemstones but they are, in fact, made of marbled polymer clay topped with a shiny resin coat.
The results are stunning, lightweight, one-of-a-kind pieces of art.
Christy studied piano performance in college but once she discovered the world of polymer clay, she was hooked: "It truly is an outlet for me. I’ve always needed some way to express my many emotions and feelings. It used to be me throwing my everything into the Grieg piano concerto and now I express myself through colors and shapes."
The results are stunning, lightweight, one-of-a-kind pieces of art.
Christy studied piano performance in college but once she discovered the world of polymer clay, she was hooked: "It truly is an outlet for me. I’ve always needed some way to express my many emotions and feelings. It used to be me throwing my everything into the Grieg piano concerto and now I express myself through colors and shapes."
Christy says: "I loved that the options to working with polymer clay were virtually limitless. I also love color and loved the idea of being able to create whatever color I wanted to use for my jewelry." Christy discovered epoxy resin shortly after she got started with polymer clay. She says, "It has completely changed my jewelry game! I’d say most of my jewelry has resin somehow incorporated into it these days."
Christy's process typically starts with sketching out her ideas, although she says that some of her styles happen organically as she is working with the clay. Once she has an idea of the color palette she'd like to use, she gets to color mixing and creating her clay slabs. Christy explains that these are referred to as cane:"[cane is] a process of literally squishing different clay components together to take the shape of a long brick."
Christy then rolls out the clay with a roller or a pasta machine, cutting out her shapes with an X-acto knife or a cutter.
Next, she bakes, sands and buffs the pieces, adding resin to whatever components she would like with a glossy finish.
After the resin has cured, she drills holes and assembles her pieces, attaching gold or silver hooks, posts or chains to transform them into wearable jewelry. She says " Finally, I get to see the pieces come to life! After that, I take pictures of the finished pieces and then upload those images to Etsy and Instagram, and I move on from create mode to sell mode!"
Christy sells her work on her Etsy shop and through her Instagram page. When people look at her pieces, she hopes that "they see something they’ve never seen before, a different perspective on jewelry. I also love to have a story connected to what I make and enjoy sharing that aspect with my “Love Refracted fam.”
Don't forget, tag YOUR ArtResin work with @art_resin on Instagram, and YOU could be our next winner!!
Christy then rolls out the clay with a roller or a pasta machine, cutting out her shapes with an X-acto knife or a cutter.
Next, she bakes, sands and buffs the pieces, adding resin to whatever components she would like with a glossy finish.
After the resin has cured, she drills holes and assembles her pieces, attaching gold or silver hooks, posts or chains to transform them into wearable jewelry. She says " Finally, I get to see the pieces come to life! After that, I take pictures of the finished pieces and then upload those images to Etsy and Instagram, and I move on from create mode to sell mode!"
Christy sells her work on her Etsy shop and through her Instagram page. When people look at her pieces, she hopes that "they see something they’ve never seen before, a different perspective on jewelry. I also love to have a story connected to what I make and enjoy sharing that aspect with my “Love Refracted fam.”
Follow her on Instagram: @loverefracted
Congratulations on your win, Christy!
To celebrate our amazing resin artists, every month we send out a 32 oz kit to a couple of folks who have tagged us on Instagram—and then we share their work with the world!
Don't forget, tag YOUR ArtResin work with @art_resin on Instagram, and YOU could be our next winner!!
ArtResin: Made For Artists, By Artists.
