This year I got a bit overzealous and decided to make a crystal Darth Vader helmet I could wear with my tux on Halloween. Started off as what I thought would be a small project, turned in to a very large, relatively expensive, project. There’s over 15,000 Swarovski Crystals glue individually by hand - saying that out loud makes me realize how crazy I may be.
The hardwood is cut, sanded and masked with tape, then I draw a silhouette on the tape, cut it out and remove the tape, then drip acrylic paints down the face of the wood in typically 4-5 separate passes over two days. The painting is left to dry and I then remove the tape and scratch out any paint bleeding from under the tape. I then prep the wood for sealing by apply two coats of polyurethane, allowing that to dry, and then mix and pour a resin to coat and seal the piece. The entire process from start to finish takes roughly a week. Because the process is done by hand, there will always be some variations and imperfections to the edges of the piece and the varnish.