Ellie Purvis
Ellie Purvis first became interested in 2018 when her husband, artist Ron Purvis, brought home resin to fill cracks in his woodturning projects. Inspired by the natural wood grain paired with the colorful resin, she used his small cut off pieces to make jewelry. Since then, she’s evolved into working with bigger pieces and honed her resin blending, layering, and swirling techniques, taking her art in a direction that is unique to resin and wood design. Mt. Hood Craft was started in 2019.
Ellie begins each piece by cutting the wood to size, flattening it, and removing all the bark and inclusions. She then lays the wood out in a mold, mixes a clear liquid resin with a hardener, and adds various pigments and mica powders for color and shimmer. She pours the resin into the mold, and it fills in all the voids and cracks in the wood. As the resin thickens and sets (over about 30 hours), she uses a small stick to drag and manipulate the resin into a design. After the piece is fully cured and removed from the mold, she moves on to the power tools and cuts, planes, sands, drills, and then sands some more – often up to 10,000 grit. Finally, a food safe oil and wax mixture is applied to add protection, bring out the grain of the wood, and add a satin finish to the resin.
Ellie is inspired by the beauty of where we live in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the Central Coast of California where she grew up. The live edges of wood often remind her of natural landmasses like rocky coasts, mountain skylines, or outer space.
Ellie is on the executive committee for Damascus Open Studios, a member of the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers and a member of Rain Spark Gallery in Lake Oswego. Mt. Hood Craft donates 10% of all rainbow-colored purchases to Q Center, the largest LGBTQ+ community center in the Pacific Northwest. Ellie is also a certified American Sign Language Interpreter and when not interpreting, traveling for art shows, or in her woodshop, she can often be found playing cribbage or other board games with her two kids.
