04/10/2026
I made some snails! I started this overly ambitious project in July. I had begun noticing snail motifs everywhere, I also found one in my car (it can be explained!). I wondered what the significance of this was. Turns out, snails represent patience, perseverance and pace. Very appropriate.
First, I made a snail shell out of air dry clay, this took ages to dry. I then created a silicone mold from this shell. Once this was ready I was able to make the shells with multiple layers of resin, the first clear with gemstones, then a darker and lighter coloured layer. Resin takes a long time to cure at this time of year, it’s just not warm enough, I only had one mold, this took weeks. I made ugly ones too that didn’t make the cut. Meanwhile, I was individually sculpting wax bodies. Each snail body was formed with the melted wax scraps I keep from jewellery making. They were sent for casting into bronze, some broke, one entirely blew up. Once back with me they were filed and sanded. I kept the main back sprue. Then I added the hooks, these have been resined into the back. I did try to solder them in but had no luck! So back to resin my old friend. Once these had dried it was time to resin the shells on to the sprues. Again many layers of resin to get the motley green affect. Some of this green dribbled on to the shells, some of it looked cool, some didn’t. I decided to remove some of it. This meant sanding the shells! And then I decided to reveal some of the gemstones by cutting the resin away from some the stones, this only took two hours! And voila!
So here they are finished in all their glory on the wall at Artē Collective . The exhibition they feature in is called ‘Green’ and its on view until October 29. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!
