Experimenting with resin and beginnings of El Arte
Fascinated by art from a young age, 25-year-old Shihana Riffai used to try her hand at all sorts of media starting with pencil sketching, painting with watercolours and acrylics and experimenting with resin. Her success with the latter has now led to her starting her own business ‘El Arte’.
Resin art is a unique painting style where you do not use typical brushes or acrylic or oil paints. Instead it uses resin and hardener. Resin art usually has a luminous, glossy finish due to the mixing of resin and hardener which leads to a chemical reaction taking place where the liquid resin gradually hardens to a solid plastic within hours. This mixture is usually clear but colour can be added to achieve the desired effect.
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- Shihana Riffai and some of her creations
Having grown up around a mother and sister who were both talented artists themselves, Shihana laughs as she says that it was no surprise that she too was drawn towards art.
A Chartered Accountant by profession, it was during a small break in 2019 between her studies and starting a new job at an audit firm that Shihana became interested in resin art. Although she had difficulty in sourcing the supplies as resin work wasn’t popular back then, she began buying the supplies such as the moulds and other necessary items from overseas and then taught herself with online videos. It was a lot of trial and error but slowly she learned that with resin, the possibilities were endless.
“I used to just post my art on my Instagram page just as a passion project. I never expected one day for someone to see my coasters and inquire if they were available for purchase. I was completely shocked! It started with just one girl’s order where I didn’t even have packaging or anything,” Shihana shares.
The name El Arte funnily came to Shihana in the middle of the night after a late study session a few years prior to 2019. After jamming to the popular song Despacito, she looked up what art meant in Spanish and that’s how she came up with the name for her Instagram page.
It was a little difficult at the beginning especially when she started a new job. She would work 9 to 5 and then come home to do her orders, constantly on the move. From wprking at her at her home, El Arte has expanded so much that Shihana now has a studio near her house to do her resin work. She is focusing on El Arte at the moment while waiting to pursue her Master’s in Business.
Starting with coasters, Shihana has expanded the collection to trinket dishes, chopping boards, keytags, bookmarks, fridge magnets, cheese boards, cake stands and even wall art (both resin and acrylic) which can all be customized to a customer’s preference. All her products are ocean-themed which Shihana attributes to her love for oceans and sunsets but assures that the colours can be changed to someone’s preference as well.
El Arte products are retailed at Pendi, Cafe Kumbuk, Tribe and Creative Isle. Interested customers can also visit her website www.elartesl.com or Instagram page @elarte.sl
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