Artist spotlight: Jess Crow

Woodworking just got a LOT cooler with artist Jess Crow’s designs. Her design company Crow Creek Designs offers an array of beautifully styled furniture and wooden pieces and with 148k Instagram followers, I’m not surprised in how popular these pieces are. Taking inspiration from nature, colours of people’s clothes and more, it was a pleasure to chat to Jess about her creative process, learn the science and maths around Epoxy and resin and hear more about her love of teaching.

How did you first start Crow Creek Designs? 

By accident! I made a coffee table for my bedroom and really wasn't digging it in my space. I then put it on Craigslist, and hundreds of folks wanted it. It turns out people wanted to buy furniture that was decorated with art!

Have you always been someone who does woodworking, or did you stumble upon it? Also, please explain to me what Epoxy is!

I would have to say that I've tinkered in all areas of making and building my entire life. Growing up in remote Alaska, most of our toys were things we found or things we made, so it was a natural integration for me to start building with a purpose.

Now we get to talk about the good stuff-- Epoxy! Epoxy used to be a compound that you would have to dawn a complete biohazard suit to work with. Nowadays, Epoxies have become extremely user-friendly and are being geared towards builders and craft folk alike. That being said, you still have to wear proper protective equipment in order to use Epoxy, but the availability and the directions you can take are astounding. 

Epoxy consists of a hardener and a resin - now these can come in multiple parts, but MakerPoxy, for instance, my brand, is a 1:1 ratio, which means you mix one-part hardener with 1 part resin. All Epoxies have what's referred to as a pot time and a cure time; pot time is how long you have until the Epoxy starts getting into a gelatinous or a hard state, and cure time is how long it takes for the item to become completely rock solid (in most cases).

I've been avidly watching your videos on Instagram of your creative process! Why is watching resin being poured into wood so fascinating? Honestly, I could watch for hours! To my question - how have you perfected this creative process? It must take time to learn and perfect the craft to get your desired outcome?

That's awesome! I know the reason I like watching Epoxy being poured onto wood or any surface for that matter, is because it is just relaxing watching the flow of something happen. When it starts out as a liquid, it's a blob and then suddenly turns into a wave, a fish, a whale, or anything that it didn't resemble ten minutes ago is quite fascinating.

It definitely takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to use Epoxy. Not only is it science-based, but it's math-based, and then you wrap up an art element to it, and all of a sudden, you have to master quite a few things that you might not be good at. I have learned that it almost never comes out exactly as you wanted it to, and you have to be willing to accept the ebb and flow of that, and sometimes it leads to you to do something you might not have wanted but then sends you down a rabbit hole of "what am I going to do next?"

What's your favourite piece of art you've made?

I have to say there are probably two pieces, so my favourite is a 9' tall headboard and bed done out of live-edge wood. I did the Russian river, located here in Alaska, running up with hundreds of salmon jumping diagonally up the river.

The next one would have to be a 25' long conference table that I did for a local corporation here. It has a geographically correct river running down it right down to the colours and stones collected from the river. The piece is in a giant conference room of a very important place here in Alaska, and the purpose of it is to remind its leaders of the local villages that they served and where they came from.

Where do you take your inspiration from?

That's actually a very hard question for me. I feel overwhelmed by inspiration and often have to really tighten my field of vision to direct the inspiration. Mine comes from the colours of the flowers, the sky, to the clothing I see people wearing. Words that people say to me often will spark an idea that translates into a massive art piece. I like listening to folks and hearing them tell stories, and in my head, I can envision their smile and the way that they see things through their eyes, and then I want to capture that.

It says on your website that you do online workshops as well as creating woodwork designs. Can you tell me more about what these entail and why you started them?

One of the strangest things on my journey, I've found, is that I love teaching. I am very shy by nature, and oftentimes at a group setting or party, I would prefer to sit in the background, but when I am teaching and seeing folks succeed, it has become one of the greatest joys in my life. I started doing it again by accident to fill a void that I saw. I started with very small classes, and my largest demo has been over 1000 people. Now, I have worked hard enough and have been blessed enough to have such glowing reviews from students that I get to travel the nation teaching people how to incorporate Epoxy into their work and even more so than that teaching people how to be empowered by their work and how to leverage their social media. 

What other women inspire you?

I can't give you specific names, but I can tell you though, every time I see a story of a teen mom who has managed to succeed in a place that she didn't think she could; anytime I see any human who has had to overcome a life event-- anything that forces us to grow gives me inspiration.

What's next for you? I think I saw some chopping boards on your website saying 'Coming Soon' that I am obsessed with already…

Oh boy, what's next? I think what's next is focusing on teaching and continuing to help others build their platform so they can get to the same place I am. I started my journey in 2019, and although 2020 caused a little bit of a delay, I'm already planning well into 2022 with ways to help folks places I'll going to be teaching!