This is a long and twisty narrative. So I knew I wanted to create a Léa Stein inspired brooch for reasons. One they are neat and two it would let me hit the third 60s inspired craft for the Nerd Games.
And then the brooch swap happened so I waited to see who my partner would be, and when I got my partner’s questionnaire she mentioned vintage as a theme.
And so I decided I was going to make it happen. I figured shrink plastic would be main supply but I wasn’t sure how I’d mimic the look of the sheets of cellulose acetate that she used to make her brooches.
It took me several tries to get it right. I tried something like 3 variations of a floral brooch and one owl before landing on the cat.
I used Sharpie to outline the design and colored pencil to add color to the flowers, ears and eyes pre-baking. After shrinking the plastic, I went over the eyes and ears with acrylic paint for a more solid look. Worth noting, all of this was done to the back of the shrink plastic so the design shows through the transparent front. After the paint dried, I painted over the pieces with white acrylic paint. I used resin to attach the two pieces. Finally I covered the back completely with UV resin to protect the design and popped on the pin backing before hitting it with UV light.
Here are some in progress pics:
I love how it turned out and I’m dreaming up more now.
