10 Questions with Zane Vanuška

Born in 2001 in Riga, Zane lived her childhood inspired by nature and its creativity. Her school years were spent in the small city of Baldone, where she started her first steps in art school while in elementary school. She finished her orientational education in 2016 with a certificate in visual plastic arts; it was her calling.
She decided to leave home after high school graduation to continue pursuing art and stand up for herself. She couldn't continue her professional education in art, yet she still aspired to discover herself. While working a simple retail job, she got inspired by her partner and decided to try resin art at the end of 2022. In a small apartment, on the kitchen floor, next to an open window, with a cheap mold and resin, her first dice sets were made.
Months later, she was able to sell her first four dice sets at a local Con. This allowed her to invest in better materials that allowed her to continue and grow to this day.

@purpledevildice

ARTIST STATEMENT

Zane always dreamt of putting her creativity and dreams into something physical and useful. Because of that, she had never been able to find the perfect place or medium to do so. Clay and sculpting came close, but it had limits.

She couldn't shape air or bend gravity the way she wanted to. She finally discovered it in something she had always loved, water. Its ability to sustain and create beauty and details, and almost stop time was what attracted her to it. For a time, she believed ice sculptures just might be her medium, but the problem with ice is that it melts.

She finally found exactly what she was looking for when she discovered resin. A tricky yet beautiful material that allowed her to put her frozen dreams in someone else's hands.

Wasps In Amber, epoxy resin, variable dimensions, 2023 © Zane Vanuška

INTERVIEW

What first sparked your interest in art, and how has your journey evolved since then?

It started with me in kindergarten, annoying the life out of my teachers with all the arts and crafts lessons, and in school, where I spent my time doodling rather than passing math with a decent grade. I am not proud of that, I did, however, design my own tattoo in one of those lessons! I used my drawing skills to express how I felt most of the time, to put my emotions on paper, and to get rid of them at times. My parents noticed this and enrolled me in an art school. I spent all 8 years there. Learnt everything from using acrylics for still life and sculpting clay faces and creatures to the agonising pain and suffering of pencil shading geometric shapes. It taught me a lot, even if I realised it years later. My favourite part of it all was sculpting. We were rarely allowed to fool around with clay, but I am very glad our teachers didn't scrap even the worst of our attempts at "making a cat"! Just like with keeping your old art, you look back and realise how much you have improved. After I graduated, I was informed that I wouldn't be continuing to an art college. In my parents' opinion, I would need to gather sponsors for that, and they can't sponsor me. This was only one of the reasons I started to work and finally moved out. My and my partners' passion for tabletop games then narrowed me down a path of creating tiny pieces of useable forever art. People's interest and love for my craft proved to me that you can make a career without college sponsors, too. My sponsors are the people who buy and love my dice as much as I do, and it makes me so happy every time I see someone with my dice, either in pictures or using them to play.

How did growing up surrounded by nature influence your creativity?

If you have more nature around you than actual people to socialise with, it can make you a bit lonely, but it also allows you to see things around you that other people don't. I was lucky to grow up before TikTok and social media were such a big influence, so as a kid, most of my time was spent outside, making spring mud cakes and potions from just-thawed farm earth or going on walks over fields and fields of farmland. Running outside in the middle of the night, in my pyjamas, in warm rain, while thunderstorms lit the sky brighter than the moonlight every few seconds. Staying up late outside, just to see the fog from fields slowly roll into your backyard as if a secret alien spacecraft could be hiding behind it. Standing in the middle of the wheat field, as a strong summer wind makes you feel as if you were lost, in the middle of the golden sea, while your puppy is scaling it all like a dolphin, jumping up above, just to find you. Memories like these no one could ever take away from me, and I don't regret a day living in these fields. Up to this day, I try my best to steal the most beautiful, smallest, colourful flowers I can from my family and friends' gardens and fields, just to leave them in salt for months, just so I could recreate this peace and serenity nature captured for me in my mind. The closest I've ever gotten to doing it is one of my very first dice sets, where I dried and managed to seal in dice the beautiful blue Siberian squills that cover everything in spring. A sea of blue, even in the city where I live right now. I was able to put a part of my home into dice forever. I hope one day I will be able to fully capture the fields and the fog, too.

Matte White Cottage Core dice set, epoxy resin, variable dimensions, 2024 © Zane Vanuška

Red Passion Dice Set, epoxy resin, variable dimensions, 2024 © Zane Vanuška

What drew you to resin as your primary medium, and what makes it special for you?

Resin is the only medium I found that I can at least partially control. It's a liquid that I could instil meaning into. It still has its own nature, the unwillingness to bend to force and the constant adjustment from within itself. If you polish it, it becomes as clear as water. My whole life, when I found a beautiful flower or experienced a mesmerising view of nature, I yearned to stop time and keep it forever. Memories are not enough. I wished I could rip it out of my head and spend hours watching it and noticing every detail. This is the reason I think resin suits me best. It is not ice that can have impurities. It won't melt; it will keep the thing you are trying to encapsulate exactly the same as it was once you put it there. I cannot deny that part of me is a crow that adores shiny rocks. Resin is capable of trapping a moment in time forever, almost just like a crystal. From dice that look like petri experiments on a plate to dump pour dice, which can create the most beautiful and naturally swirling lines. I wish to create dice that matter. It is not only something to be used when playing Dungeons & Dragons but also something you can put on a shelf or your table. Then, in the moments when you need the serenity and tranquillity that nature gave me, you can pick up my dice and roll them in your hands. The see-through resin almost recreates the feel of quartz at first. Dice, where every time you look into it, you can find something new. A nature's crystal puzzle at the tip of your fingers.

Can you describe the moment you created your first dice set? What did that feel like?

I would say it was a bit funny cause the first set was pulled out after sitting the previous night on the cold tile floors. Half an hour was spent carefully mixing the 2-part resin to introduce as few bubbles as possible, for which I didn't have my pressure chamber. Fighting with the very bad quality molds from cheap dropshippers, just to not spill the liquid gold and pieces of glass. But it worked out. The first set I filled with broken blue Ikea glass chunks and was barely polishable. Too much polishing would cause the chunks to show through. Even still, it came out beautiful, reminding me of cloudy ice cubes. Peeling them from their molds felt like Christmas. It still does, with every set I make. You never know how different it will look from what you planned. Even if you learn how much resin can move after you have capped your molds. As soon as you put them in the pressure chamber for the night, you never know how they will come out in the morning. Some dice are just that- experiments. You try something new, put it in, and when you pull it out, half the time, it comes out like nothing you could have imagined. Another one of my first (no pressure chamber) dice sets was an attempt to make rainbow swirl dice with a clear face on top. To say the least, they came out very muddy and blueish-purple, but I could have never predicted they would create such beautiful and unique, almost prismatic rainbow swirls near the clearface. An experiment, a gift of unexpected, stunning surprise. This craft involves everything from shiny click-clacks to ASMR peeling them out of the molds to extensive hours of polishing, resulting in the most shiny dice you've seen. And you're proud. The whole process is enjoyable, even if you have to deal with a sticky craft table for 24 hours!

Blue Ocean Petridice, epoxy resin, 2x2 cm, 2023 © Zane Vanuška

Your work transforms fluidity into something solid. How do you see the connection between water and resin?

Like most people, I've always wanted to trap a moment in time. A sunset and sea waves. A river with beautiful shiny rocks underneath. I still have pictures of puddles with leaves in them in my gallery from when I was a kid. But you can't seize nature forever in water. So, as a kid, instead of accepting it, I started to look for how to do it. Before resin, I tried creating mimicry of water from gluesticks! It came out pretty well, but it was not exactly what I wanted. It still wasn't clear. Then, once on the internet, I saw people creating art that's encased in clear blocks, so I started googling. Soon enough, I discovered resin and art made from it. Resin, just like water, starts off as a fluid. Some are thicker, some not. You mix two different parts of it together, and then you have approximately 1-4 hours of work time, depending on the resin. Just like in water, you can place your favourite flowers, trinkets, and colours within. After you put them in the pressure chamber for the night, the next morning, you have a Christmas present to unpeel. The most fun skill to learn with resin is probably the colour. For example, with my current resin, I'm able to practically "force" Petri dice, like the blue one. Yet, I have not succeeded in making strong swirly lines. I follow a lot of artists to learn from them, and as far as I've discovered, thicker resin and colour pastes should do the trick, so that's my next experiment. The resin acts practically like viscous water. That's why it's easier to interact with it and try to predict where it will take the colours you introduce to it.

What challenges did you face starting out, and how did you overcome them?

I believe the first challenge was more financial, like not having a pressure chamber. This hobby is more expensive than one might think. You have to make sure you use proper safety precautions, or you can damage your health from resin fumes. I wanted to see if I could build this hobby from nothing, so I minimised investments at first. I always tried to work with what I had. You could say people who bought my dice made me who I am. From my very first flimsy mold, I made 4 sets, sold them in my first con, and bought a better/professional mold. Made more dice and sold enough to finally buy a pressure chamber. From there on out, the pressure chamber allowed me not to worry as much about mixing the resin slowly and taking all of my time with it. With a pressure chamber, it squishes all the bubbles, making them practically disappear. I, however, still am slightly bothered every time I put my dice into it. I know it's secure and sturdy, but having a big metal jar with a lid that has the pressure of an average bike tyre is still spooky. I was also lucky that my partner wanted to get into 3d printing, and with the help of an old friend, my own custom dice were born. Then came my willing necessity to use silicon and learn miniature painting. Now I can even create printable dice all by myself in Blender! This hobby has influenced my enthusiasm for learning new things. Next goal: silica sand- cause I have heard it's amazing for drying flowers perfectly!

How does storytelling or emotion play a role in your art?

I consider my art to be more emotional. From creating dice sets that embody the personality of your DnD character to trying to invoke a memory you don't have, from simply a look inside of a dice. Just like some other things in life, I see what I am lacking in a specific environment, and that drives me to create it myself! I don't want some 2 coloured simple dice set just so I could add it to my huge pile of similar ones. I wish for dice I could stare at. They are not simple click clacks used only for playing but something you could use to see something new every time. While your teammates are quarrelling over how to open a door in a game, use that time to zone out in my dice. Just like in nature, amidst the ground floor, you are able to notice the tiny details. The aesthetically pleasing with the naturally beautiful. The stories are then told by you and what you see.

Do you see your art evolving into new forms or mediums in the future?

Probably! I've learnt so much just for the sake of dice-making that, perhaps, it might just change again! I know I have inmy plans to create custom hand-sized dioramas people could have on their tables/shelves, as decoration pieces, but I believe it should still be a dice; that way, it would tie up useful with beautiful. I do hope that in the future, I might be able to pick up woodworking to create my own custom dice trays or work with leather so I can provide long-lasting, durable dice bags. I'm not sure where this hobby will take me or what it will make me into. One thing I can say for sure is that in 10 years, I will very likely still be working with resin.

What has been the most rewarding part of sharing your work with others?

Good People. People who enjoy the beauty of resin dice art as much as I do. Audience that I am still growing. Other artists that, instead of a competition, there is a healthy community, and everyone supports each other. Can't avoid mentioning peeling dice. It seriously feels like my birthday every single time I take out an experimental set, peel it from its mold, and they come out gorgeous. Also helps my picking habit!

What advice would you give to someone just beginning their artistic journey?

Safety first! Resin is a toxic material, so your first purchase should be a proper mask with its proper P18 filters and gloves, and always work in a well-ventilated area. Also, measure and mix your resin well! You don't want to clean up the sticky, half-set mold, believe me. Never give up! If there are holes, patch them with UV clear resin, use a nail lamp, and polish after!! And last but not least, pressure chamber is your best friend, that should be your second purchase. You can work without it, but you will always have the smallest of bubbles in the worst places, no matter how carefully you try to mix it. For artists in general: Don't compare yourself with others. I think this has been told too many times for any artist not tocare about it, but it is true. We each have different approaches to learning and different amounts of time for it. Some learn faster, some slower. Some show progress instantly, some with time. Do it in your own rhythm and prioritise self-satisfaction over the opinions of others. If there is you out there who is lacking something in this art world of today- make it. If there is you, it means there will be others like you, or at least similar to you! Grow your voice, and then let the audience grow around you. Critical thinking, of course, is still implied! Listen and learn. There are so many people out there already, so instead of being discouraged, learn from them! Continue growing, and never give up. Even if it starts from a dark or lonely place, it has worth as long as it helps you. If someone says your art is not worth it, spite them, and beat them in your own craft.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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