To create such a brooch, you must have a wooden billet. In order to get such a billet, you need to draw a silhouette that is dear to your heart in the vector, and then order laser cutting on wood. In my case, the base is cut from 4 mm plywood.

Then cover the entire base on both sides with black acrylic paint. You also need to paint the edges of the base, as they are brown and do not match the color. It is necessary to paint the workpiece 2 or 3 times, if the surface is pre-primed, then one time is enough.

Now you need to tone the edges of the workpiece to give it a more interesting look. I used a sponge for this purpose, on which I applied a little white and black paint. Then I walked this sponge with light movements along the edges of the workpiece.

And now the most interesting thing. You need to find a suitable composition. On the violin itself, there is quite a small space, and large petals or leaves will not fit there. Therefore, it is necessary to take something small, and at the same time elegant. All my plant materials I collect in the summer when traveling to different places. Then I dry them in a special press, you can dry them in the reference book or in the Ozhegov dictionary, you can in the Soviet encyclopedia. There are thin sheets that absorb moisture well, and the thickness of the book serves as a press. And if you need to dry the plant quickly or the dictionary/press was not at hand, you can use a microwave oven for quick drying. If someone will be interested to learn about different ways of drying plants, I can write a post about it.

So, the composition. You take the appropriate flowers in your opinion, build a composition, you understand that this flower does not fit here, and that one is too small, the leaf broke, and then the wind blew out of the window, and all your petals are now lying on the floor, or the cat ate something out of curiosity. In General, the selection of a composition, while seemingly simple and elementary, is actually quite difficult. Especially at the beginning. Especially when winter and flower supplies are quite limited. In brooches-violins, I usually put a twig with flowers of verbena and twigs of thuja. In my opinion, they look the most harmonious.

Next, you need to fill the brooch with epoxy resin. This is a very interesting material for creativity. It consists of two components and, unlike varnish, for example, does not evaporate and does not fall off when drying. The resin solidifies due to a chemical reaction between the components. The proportions of resin dilution are different. It all depends on the manufacturer. In my case, the resin is diluted in a ratio of 2 to 1. The set of components must be made using different syringes. It is important to perform all manipulations with resin in gloves and in a well-ventilated area. First, I dilute the resin, then leave it for half an hour or even an hour, so that the bubbles come out of the resin body, and it also hardens and becomes less fluid, about like liquid honey. With this consistency, the resin falls well on the surface, does not spread and does not run away from the edges of the workpiece.

After the violin is completely covered with resin, cover it with a cap and leave it until the resin hardens. The resin dries for about a day. After that, we check our brooch. Most likely, one fill will not be enough, because the flowers are still voluminous and the first fill will not cover completely. So you need to fill it again. In order for the new layer of resin to grip well with the previous one, you need to sand the edges of the workpiece a little, but without fanaticism. If this is not done, the next layer will have nothing to cling to, and the resin will run to the middle.

It is also possible that the resin will run over the edges of the workpiece and spread out in a puddle. In this case, you can do the following. While the resin is still not fully solidified, it can be cut with scissors along the edge. And after the final solidification, treat the edges with a Dremel or boron machine.

When the resin hardens well and will please us with a perfect glossy surface, you can proceed to the back of the brooch. It can be varnished or filled with resin once. In the second case, the production time of the brooch will increase, since you will have to wait for the resin to solidify. Plus, the resin can get away from the edges or get stuck on the outside and ruin everything. So I don't fill the backside at all, but I Polish it.

After all the manipulations, we glue the clasp, and that's it, the brooch is ready!