As makers turn to different mediums and inspirations to create their art, you may have noticed a new trend in Houston’s craft scene that was previously more in line with home renovation projects: resin. Poured into molds with flowers or onto canvas paintings for a high-gloss effect, the material has sticking power.

At Mala Market, a nonprofit dedicated to local creators, there’s even a waitlist for resin artists, says founder Somya Gupta. The space has a policy of carrying only two makers per category at once—resin brands La Planta Co. and Lavender Fields currently lease space at Mala. “We’ve seen a great amount of customers returning for their products to see new designs they’re releasing,” Gupta says. “We’re really happy to have them in the shop.”

How it started

During the 2021 Texas freeze, Amy LeRoy’s dog died suddenly. She realized how strange it was that people gift flowers in these circumstances—you watch the plant die as you grieve someone who’s passed away, she says. Her desire to find ways to preserve flowers led her to making resin art and creating her own brand, Lavender Fields.

Plants were also the genesis for Cherry Jamora’s resin art business, La Planta Co. She was a plant collector before a maker, importing rare species and even building a greenhouse in her home. She also loves to forage while hiking and camping. While working at a BMW dealership in 2020, she had the sudden urge to quit and do something else with her life. That’s when she got sucked into YouTube videos of people using resin, and began trying her hand at the craft with her pressed flowers.

Those same videos of resin being poured onto molds and canvases soothed Suzie Barden after her house flooded during Hurricane Harvey. She was a watercolor painter who no longer had a space to paint; that look into a different craft became an outlet. When she completed her first painting after Harvey, she decided to pour resin onto it, and hasn’t stopped since with her Live Color Full business.

A look at the process

To make resin art, you need to mix a 1:1 ratio of resin and hardener. It’s a finicky product to work with: the resin must be handled at a room temperature of 70 to 80 degrees, and heat and humidity (both oh-so-common in Houston) can create curing issues, so some artists keep a dehumidifier on hand.

LeRoy says she does between three and eight layers for her trays, and they need 24 hours to set between each pour. Sometimes dog hairs get on them, but she says those are easy to sand down. Jamora cautions not to use flowers that have too much moisture in their petals, as that can cause molding.

Endless design possibilities

“Resin is so versatile, you can do so much with it,” Barden says. She adds pigment powders, resin and acrylic paint, or glitters directly to her mix. She likes to make her resin paintings resemble geodes and agates, which are created from immense pressure underground—she feels it’s a good metaphor for life, where the hard things we go through transform us for the better. Barden mostly takes custom orders online: recent pieces have included seaglass for a client from the Jersey Shore and fossils that another customer brought back from a trip to Utah.

LeRoy, who also takes custom orders, preserves a lot of bridal bouquets. She’s also working on a piece that will immortalize her friend’s Taylor Swift concert ticket and the confetti she collected at the show. At Mala Market, LeRoy’s Lavender Fields sells mostly trays, ornaments, and wine stoppers with flowers in them. You can also find Jamora’s La Planta Co. pieces here. She uses pressed flowers, too, interspersing them with gold flakes that hover inside trays, bookmarks, and small planters, as well as jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.

Soaring popularity

When Barden began working with resin in 2018, she says there wasn’t a lot of education on the craft out there, and finding supplies was difficult. It was seen more as a home supply material than as an art form. But now, “the amount of supplies and stores offering them has exploded,” she says. LeRoy said she couldn’t keep up with the demand at Mala Market last Christmas.

Resin’s newfound popularity is no more evident than on La Planta Co.’s Instagram page, which now has more than 18,000 followers. Check it out and you’ll be treated to videos of Jamora unmolding her various creations, a satisfying ASMR-inducing act that’s responsible for many resin artists getting into the craft in the first place.