This souvenir bar measuring 83x115 mm was a real challenge for me in working with materials. The basis was a massive piece of natural pine, which attracted me with its weight, volume and pronounced texture of annual rings. However, the path to the final look turned out to be more complicated than the usual artistic retouch, turning into a full-fledged carpentry restoration.
It all started with transferring my author's linear graphics of the shade.flowers project onto prepared wood using the acrylic transfer technique. When the paper layer was washed off, I encountered the first serious obstacle in the form of a hidden resin pocket right on the front side. Natural resin began to seep out, threatening to ruin the drawing. I had to delicately open the cavity with a knife, thoroughly wash it with acetone and seal it using the classic carpentry method, gluing wooden chips with toothpicks inside with Vikol glue. After drying and grinding with wood dust, this place was brought to a perfect plane.
The second serious stage was the restoration of the chipped back corner of the bar. I decided not to hide this defect under the color of the wood, but to beat it as a conceptual design solution based on epoxy resin. After creating a hermetic formwork from dense glossy tape, I filled the void with two-component automotive repair resin, adding a drop of black alcohol ink. The tape was slightly deformed. This forced me to carry out an intermediate dry sanding with P320 sandpaper and make a second final filling of the fresh mixture using a rigid tire made of hard plastic. The result was a unique emerald-green crystal that seemed to have grown through the texture of the wood.
When the resin finally gained stone strength, I carefully dry-sanded the edges with sandpaper so that the transition between plastic and wood became completely imperceptible. To fix the result and create a single visual style, I covered the entire product on all sides with two layers of Colorit fast acrylic varnish with a deep matte effect. This allowed me to remove the chemical smell, balance the microscopic bend of the wood, and turn the glossy shine of the resin into a noble satin surface. Now this collectible Miniature Wood Block Art is a fully completed art object, where every microdefect has become part of artistic history.