Floral Preservation in Resin

I have recently been playing around with special occasion floral preservation using Art Resin. I first dry the flowers using silica gel- which has been the best method I've found to retain shape and color. I've been experimenting with all kinds of flowers recently and haven't yet found any that haven't come out beautifully. My favorites so far are roses and hydrangeas.

Once the florals are dried, I start the resin process, building up layers of resin around the flowers- sometimes 2-3 inches of thickness! It's mesmerizing each time I get to pop one of these artworks out of their molds- seeing side and bottom angles of flowers preserved like this -suspended in resin- is almost magical.

Art Resin recently sent me some resin to play with and I was so pleased to start playing around with also adding printed words on transparency paper to this process- Above is a photo of a smaller (muffin tine sized) rose encapsulated in resin with a printed name. I'm hoping to develop this process further to be able to make keepsakes as wedding favors, bridesmaids gifts, place card settings, etc. It's such an exciting process with endless possibilities.