This was a big project for me. I had dreams for these coasters and spent a lot of time and energy on them.

And it never went anywhere, so now I have a bunch of sets of these coasters under my bed.

I wanted to make a set of coasters that were locally themed, but all unique. The “M” mountain was a watercolor picture, where I had blocked out the M digitally I believe. The Hotel Baxter one was a rubber stamp carved out. I created a background for it, colored it in, and did each letter stamp individually. The T-Rex was another stamp I made, and added a background with digitally created constellations. The topographical map was a bit of a cheat for me – I just found a map of the reservoir and printed out copies. Otherwise I spend a lot of time on each individual design.

I bought bathroom tiles from Home Depot, used Modge Podge to stick the prints to the tile, and then used two part epoxy to cover each tile. The epoxy was time consuming and messy. I had to constantly watch each tile and blow hot air to get the bubbles out so the coasters would be smooth. I then cut four little squares of cork board to hot glue to the bottom so that the coasters would have feet. Finally, I created coaster holders using MDF wood.

I made a little over a dozen sets. I gave two away as gifts, that I kind of regret doing.

I had planned to sell these at a farmer’s market, or some other craft fair, but chickened out. I have poor self esteem and am a terrible salesman. They lived under my bed for a long time.

Years later, a boyfriend convinced me to sell some of the sets. He sold one through Facebook. I also had some sets stored at his house, and his roommate’s untrained dog destroyed a set. After that, it hurt my heart, so back under the bed they went.

I’m still very proud of the craftsmanship I put into them.

Made in 2016-2017.