Where dried flowers, ocean finds, and a little chemistry become something you'll keep forever

Backyard Studio Designs started exactly where the name suggests — in my backyard, with no grand plan beyond wanting to make something for a craft fair.

A few years ago, I fell down an Instagram rabbit hole of resin art and couldn't stop thinking about it. My son makes ironwork, and every year our workplace hosts a holiday craft fair — I wanted a reason to share a table with him. So I started small: dried flowers pulled from my own garden, shells and sea glass collected on beach walks, all suspended in resin and poured into simple pieces. That first table was pure trial and error, and I was hooked.

As my work grew — literally, into larger wall art and end tables — I ran into a good problem: I could no longer forage everything myself. What hasn't changed is what I love most about this craft. It's part design and part science. I still get a small thrill watching two chemicals react and cure into something clear, solid, and permanent. Mixing color, layering inclusions, and watching a piece take shape is still my favorite part of any project.

Nature is still my biggest source of inspiration, and it shows in the finished pieces — organic shapes, natural color palettes, materials that carry a little bit of the outdoors with them. Fittingly, I still work in my actual backyard. It's an open-air studio, which means real weather, real dust, and real deadlines dictated by the forecast — but it's also where this all began, and it felt right to keep it there. It's also where the name comes from.

Every piece that leaves my backyard has been through that same process: sourced, gathered, mixed, poured, and cured — usually with a critical eye from my son's Ironworks forge set up right next to mine.

Have a piece in mind, or curious about a custom commission? I'd love to talk through it with you.