About

Me and The Rabbits

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Me first. This is not my full time job. By day, I own and run a private Project Management Office consultancy business. 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.

 

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.

A highlight of this time was getting a piece of my work on the front of a colouring book by a staggeringly talented artist called Dea Lenihan. The book is still there on Amazon for all to buy - The Buns - go check out the front cover - that's my colouring!

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I have been a resin artist for about 5 years now 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. 

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I had never made jewellery until the start of 2024. It was in January of this 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 the incredible designs you see here. It took MONTHS of testing different kit and process, until I finally honed my "recipe" and was able to produce the standard of pieces you see here on the website. For all interested crafters, my go to epoxy for my Petri work is TeExpert 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.​

https://teexpert-resin.com

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The Rabbits

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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.....

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I now have several such rabbits (as you will see from their Portfolio Project) 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 which you can find a link for on the home page of the site. Enter at your peril. I have warned you. 

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