Marina Backman holds up a shirt she created in her Made in Wrangell studio. Backman creates custom shirts, mugs and signs, and works with a multitude of media such as wood, metal, resin, plastic and fabrics.
Backman created this tumbler using a drip-paint method and resin.
Backman demonstrates a heat press in her studio, which allows her to transfer artwork to fabric.
This backlit box depicting a bear was created using a laser engraver and plexiglass.
Backman created the door sign for Sweet Tides Bakery using wood, resin and vinyl.
One of the projects that Marina Backman is most proud of is a tumbler that looks like it's wrapped in the universe. It's indicative of her creative process and her business.
Since opening Made in Wrangell, a design studio specializing in signs and other artistic projects, Backman has created mixed-media and vinyl signs for other businesses in town. Her ultimate goal is to be a full-service printshop.
Backman currently works out of a small studio attached to a hangar at the airport, and she has the ability to make items like mugs and T-shirts with photographic-quality prints applied to them. She recently added a laser engraver that gives her the ability to etch on wood, metal and plexiglass.
When it comes to the creative process, Backman gathers as much information as she can and tries to keep her approach simple.
"I try to find out as much about what they're (the client) is doing as I can," she said. "I try to remind myself all the time to keep it simple. Sometimes, I'm just told, 'Do whatever.'"
Like most artists, the ideas can come quickly or sometimes it takes a while. In the case of creating the door sign for Sweet Tides bakery, Backman had some trial and error to the process. The sign, which displays the bakery's logo and shop hours, is polished wood coated in resin with vinyl art and lettering adhered to the face.
"Part of it was being too cold out in the hangar, but I needed the room (to work on the project)," she said. "I redid the board a couple of times. I thought that I would put the vinyl on and then the resin over the vinyl so that everything would be sealed in. The resin lifted the adhesive on the vinyl, so that was another restart."
Backman ended up applying the vinyl on top of the resin. It's weather resistant and lasts for about five or six years.
Sweet Tides' owners Shawna Buness and Devyn Johnson originally had Backman make a vinyl version of their logo that was applied to the door, but they needed something with the shop hours, so they employed her for reimagined sign.
"She's so detailed. She wants her customers to be happy, obviously, she puts so much thought into that," Johnson said. "She's just great."
Buness said the fact that Backman is her mother played a role in why they chose her to do the work, but it's Backman's attention to detail and the services she offers that clinched the decision to hire her. "She has a very high standard when it comes to product quality," Buness said.
Since starting Made in Wrangell, Backman has also created signs for Taylor Transportation and a newly opened business, River's Mouth Trading Company, which is located in the space previously occupied by GCI.
Backman has been working with wood and resin since her 10th-grade shop class in 1976 when she created her first piece.
"My maiden name is Chavaud, it's French," she said. "I took a piece of wood and I routed out 'The Chavaud Chateau' in probably quarter-inch-thick letters. Then I filled it with green resin, then sanded it down and stained it. It hung on our family home for a long time. I think my sister still has it."
The tumbler Backman created started with a form of drip painting. Using water-based acrylic paints, she poured various colors onto Saran Wrap that was applied to a board. She tilted the board in various directions, causing it to swirl and drip. The painting was allowed to dry and then peeled off the plastic wrap. She then adhered it to a beverage tumbler and coated it in resin.
Another project Backman enjoyed creating is a backlit bear box. She etched out a graphic design of a bear in plexiglass. It serves as the face of a box with a light inside. When turned on, the bear design is illuminated in a purple hue.
"I really enjoyed making that lamp and I'm going to modify that design to make more, more easily," Backman said. "You can just make such cool stuff (with the engraver)."
The creative process is not always the easiest thing to live with, Backman admits.
"The problem is, I'm only allotted 24 hours a day and I'm supposed to sleep for some of that," she said with a laugh.
Even though Backman doesn't have her own sign up yet, she can be reached at 360-303-6694.
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