The Daily Polymer Arts Blog

Lentils, snakes of clay and extrusions are more than a little common in polymer but how often are they brought together? I do enjoy discovering new ways to use scrap clay. Below is another option for making something beautiful from leftovers. These wonderful colors–and a new take on the possible definition of a ‘swirl’ lentil–are [...]

One of the big discussions at Synergy (Are you tired of hearing about that show yet!? Sorry … it was just such a treasure box full of ideas and I want you all to benefit from it too) was about finding our voice as artists. I was not the only one that came away with [...]

I don’t know how many pieces I’ve made resulted from looking over at my scattered scraps and suddenly seeing a new texture, form or design in the randomness. Its kind of like finding animals in the shapes of clouds … you look over and you see shape for a pendant, the texture for necklace or [...]

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning “circle.” These visually engaging patterns have spiritual and ritual significance for some eastern religions and western communities and have been growing in popularity as an art form. Susan Buhrman is one of the most prolific mandala artists that I know of in our community. She uses cane slices, cut sheets of clay, beads and [...]

Earlier this week we talked about pushing your art, knowing when it’s time to stop perfecting it. But there is another side to that coin … knowing when to push it a little farther. Being able to discern whether you’ve added to or worked out a design enough can be difficult, and it’s not something [...]

I have had a lot of comments about the products we reviewed in the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine. Inka Gold by Viva Decor has been of particular interest. Since we didn’t have room in the issue to actually demonstrate some of the techniques, I thought I’d pause here and send you in [...]

I’ve made a few donut beads in my day. I have molds and use up scrap clay to fill the form. But I really like this air-filled technique as posted by Page McNall of Palo Alto, California. A little patience and a light touch seem to be the main ingredients needed to create the nice [...]

Today … just a simple but clever idea for all you extruding fiends out there. Marie Segal has an extensive set of pages on her website on creating African trade beads and within those pages, on Part 5 she talks about making new shapes for the extruder by doubling up the discs. Genuis! Of course [...]

The leaves in the brooches below look deceptively real.  For good reason. They are the result of direct impressions from real leaves. That and a little paint to bring out the veins. It doesn’t get much more real than that. Except for the real thing of course. The clay used by artist Camille Young here [...]

I’m going to be brief today. Not that there is much to say about this intriguing idea. Many of us are already quite fond of extruding out polymer but why limit it to our extruding guns? I think Elena Aleshina must have had way too much fun creating this flower like polymer puffs with Pluffy [...]