Business Spotlight – House of the White Rabbit
This business spotlight features House of the White Rabbit – owned by resin artist Claire Holoway. Hear Claire talk about how she’s turned her hobby into a hugely successful resin business.
ABOUT – House of the White Rabbit
Me and The Rabbits
Me first. This is not my full time job. By day, I own and run a private Project Management Office consultancy business, currently contracted to the defence industry. I am part of a huge team designing and building combat aircraft. Having qualified in law in 1995, I set forth into the world, although I never joined a law firm. I eventually settled into PMO and in 2014 had the opportunity to start to work for myself. PMO Expertise Ltd was born and I never looked back. What did happen though, was that contracting made for very full on job responsibility and with that came the need to balance my life with creativity.
By evening and weekend, I am an experienced resin artist of almost 7 years, now specialising in petri technique resin jewellery and matching framed prints. It’s a hobby growing serious arms and legs, from which House of the White Rabbit has been born.
First and foremost I became a pencil colourist, led the administration of a huge Facebook group dedicated to the artist Johanna Basford (you’ll never meet a nicer lady) and having received amazing feedback on my work I decided to teach art for free online.
Claire Holoway Colouring was born on YouTube in 2017 (now going by the channel name Claire Holoway ResinCraft & Colouring). I am nearing the 16,000 subscriber mark and whilst the last couple of years have been dedicated to resincraft, I still love getting feedback on those tutorials. Scores of people still benefit from them. This has given me an INCREDIBLE grounding in colour theory. There’s nothing I like better than creating and sharing new colour combinations.
A highlight of this time was getting a piece of my work on the front of a colouring book by a staggeringly talented American artist called Dea Lenihan. The book is still there on Amazon UK and US for all to buy – The Buns – go check out the front cover – that’s my colouring!
I have been a resin artist since 2018 and gradually this has led me away from colouring, although I still do dust off my Prismacolor pencils occasionally. I started out as most resincrafters do with bookmarks, coasters, paperweights etc. and gradually moved into more complex pieces as I learned my craft.
I had never made jewellery until the start of 2024. It was in January of that year that I discovered “Petri Technique”, as originally developed by Myriam’s Nature. I watched her online You Tube tutorials, those of Steve McDonald and Daniel Cooper and absolutely loved the effects created. Petri is the use of alcohol inks, mostly with epoxy 1:1 resin and then application of white sinker fluid. The ink-dropped cabochons are swirled with a needle during the curing process to create incredible designs. It took MONTHS of testing different kit and process, until I finally honed my “recipe”. For all interested crafters, my go to epoxy for my Petri work is TeExpert Pure Glossy or Crystal Clear 1:1. I am not affiliated to that company in any way. That’s my genuine recommendation for anyone wanting to try Petri for themselves – it is the perfect viscosity resin for this technique. I also prefer DecorRom (Bottom) and Limino (White) alcohol sinker ink.
The Rabbits
A couple of years ago, a very good friend of mine said “OMG, you HAVE to look at these Jellycat amuseable fruit and vegetables!”. And I did. This particular friend, she knows who she is, will forever make fun of me. Whilst I loved the amuseables, I always maintained to her that “the rabbits don’t do it for me”. Well………..that was before the Smudge Rabbits came along. With arms and legs the shape of rounders bats (yes, I am that old), I found them absolutely irresistible. Especially the white ones….. House of the White Rabbit branding was born.
I now have several such rabbits who help me model my pieces, but the original was (and still is) a particularly temperamental rabbit called Bianca. So called for the Spanish name for “white”. Born at 6pm on Friday the13th of the 6th month at JellyCat Central, she is a complete diva with a wardrobe full of slogan t-shirts and a tendency to steal jewellery in her pink car. She also has a habit of cooking my other Jellycats in her pan. If you want to see her exploits, she has her own Instagram channel. Enter at your peril. I have warned you.
Biography
I have created and refined my own unique process down to a ‘fine art’ (pardon the pun). Petri technique describes the use of alcohol inks dropped into mixed epoxy resin, with the use of white sinker fluid and needlecraft to create unique patterns. Each one is utterly unique; it is physically impossible to create two the same. For me, that’s the real attraction. You could even call it an obsession. Up until the point of demold, even I don’t know what is on the front side of each cabochon (cab), or how the alcohol inks have decided to dance out their artistry. Of course, I influence my colour choices and needlework based on how the inks have settled, but you never know what the final result will be. Sometimes the cabs settle so beautifully that they need no intervention from my needle and the petri pattern is left raw”.
Blog kindly supplied by Claire Holoway.
