So it began with a little brown wood table from the goodwill. it was the perfect height for a using next to the bath tub to hold your water or soothing tea or a book and a hand towel for those who like to read in the bath as I and my daughter do. It was a nice shape but the surface was a bit rough so a spray paint it would receive to even the surface color and make way for a table top collage.

I spend a lot of time hanging out as well as imagining the edge of the forest. My name Thendara means edge of the forest in Iroquois and having that name must have set something in motion of love and appreciation to the divide between ruled by man and ruled by tree. In between big projects I work on these collage fascinations of the edge of the forest. I just completed the first iteration of a project entitled Through the Threes which is an installation of collages in this theme (see my previous blog post for more images from this project.) This table fits into my Through the Trees theme.

Through the Trees

my collage contemplations of this edge fascinate over the interplay of light that exists on this edge, as well as confusion of depth, just how deep is the forest? one can never tell on it's edge one must enter.

my process is not only a visual creation and object at the end all of this but the process itself is a moving meditation, I cut each strip of photograph by hand, I could expedite this in many a mechanical machine but it would take away from the connectedness and the process is really what helps me, cope, breathe deep all those wonderful things that happen of a moving meditation. Making art and calming the mind. All this goodness while also using my own previous creations (photographs, as a photographer I have many) and self recycling - it's the circle of life here in the art studio, sometimes the old art gets eaten and when it does it's thrown back up into something new, something more abstract and generally a hit with kids who get my vision!

I will be using PVA glue and trying to keep everything firmly down, a lot of my collage work I allow for it to have varying heights and pieces that reach through the resin but for this table top I am gonna keep things smooth and flat!

I am creating this project with Art Resin, who have not paid me to use their product but have given me a 32oz sample pack to share what I made with that pack.

I switched to Art resin from another non toxic resin a couple years ago and have found it an easy to use product, I am quite sensitive to chemicals so it is a welcome relief from the insanely toxic resins out there and its price is better then the previous brand I used which was also non toxic but way more expensive.

the top of my table which I will cover in collage and then a layer of Resin.

not sure what I would do with a table this size aside from use it as a tea seat whilst in the bath.

Pre Collage cutting up of photographs. piece by piece.

beginning the collage with a little help from my dog Tiggy!

day one of collage complete ! lots of PVA and strips of photographs applied!

collage nearly complete, to trim the edges and add a bit more detail...

Final Trim! I will pick through the pieces and add them back to my scraps box to make an appearance elsewhere.

Now we need to wait until tomorrow take it to the garage, hopefully with some sun to assist. managed to keep all the pieces somewhat flat and looking forward to a nice thick clear coat - no bubbles and a new table.

Garage prepared resin at hand, stir sticks!

The table is prepared for resining! used some spray art to blow off any debris, wearing at hat to keep hair out and still of course a hair finds it's way in, plenty of sticks on hand to fish it out.

I'm trying to not over cover as I don't want to have to sand resin off where its not meant to be afterwards. after mixing letting the resin sit for a few minutes for beginning the pour. I find resining in cold weather much harder to do as the resin moves differently- preferential to the warmer weather resin but what do you do when you live in the Pacific Northwest? wait till summer? Never!

After pouring I use my torch and skewers (those disposable ones for shish kababs, cause I am out of toothpicks!) to pop the last of the air bubbles that haven't settled out ( I can get very anal retentive during this phase.)

Coming tomorrow final images ...

I'll be back...

When it's raining all resin stays tacky longer, brought the table inside the house to avoid some of that moisture and help things firm up, all good!