All It’s Cracked Up To Be
March 17, 2019 Inspirational Art
What is it about weathered and worn surfaces that so many people find attractive these days? Mind you, I am very much one of them. I have a whole line of work called “Beautiful Decay” that explores the beauty I find in the deterioration of durable materials. But the one related effect that seems to be everywhere these days is crackling. Who doesn’t love a good crackle! From shabby chic furniture to crazed ceramics to crackle glass decor, the look of a deteriorating surface seems to have wide-ranging appeal.
Knowing that, it’s not really a surprise that crackle is so popular as a polymer technique. A great many of us are already texture fiends and, if you love texture then you are going to try crackle- so there’s one of the reasons for its popularity in polymer. But we also know that there is a market for work with crackled surfaces since it pops up in so many areas related to decoration and adornment, making it a safe bet if you sell your work.
There is no one right or best way to create a crackled surface in polymer. You may not have realized it, but there are literally dozens of ways to create crackle. It can be created with a crackle paint medium, partially cured layers of polymer (like I show you in my Controlled Crackle technique which you can find in your Fall 2011 edition of The Polymer Arts), dried paint (or glaze or gilders’ paste or floor wax) on raw clay, metal leaf on raw clay, leaching, alcohol treatments, or by creating a faux texture with impressed materials. And I know I am still missing a few in that list!
So, let’s enjoy some crackle work today and wrap up with a few tutorials on different crackle techniques that you can try out.
Let’s Get Cracking
One of my personal favorite “cracklers” is Staci Louise Smith. She uses a number of different techniques to achieve a wide range of cracked texture. In the necklace below, her crackle is not subtle. It is not evenly spread across her beads either but rather, it is rough and tumble and scattered in energetic horizontal lines. Her soft coloring calms the chaos of the crackle which is also balanced out by the many other purposeful accents and lines from the wire.
Staci can also do subtle as evidenced by the opening piece, a Balance Bowl from her tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book. (You can get the book on our website if you want to make one of these stunning bowls.)
Check out this blog post where she shares how she makes the necklace here along with sketches and her thoughts on the process.
A subtle crackle can often take a bit more patience but what a lovely effect it can have. It may not even be obvious at first that the beads on this necklace below by Ursa Polak have a crackle surface, but the weathered feel comes across immediately. Take a close look to see all the fine-lined cracks that add to the depth and variation of the surface.
Kroma Crackle is a lovely gel medium that itself dries and cracks without having to stretch the clay and yet remains flexible so that you can manipulate the clay without the cracked material popping off. Once you worked with it for a bit you can control the size of the crackle pretty well. You can add small amounts of acrylic paint or mica powders to give yourself a wide variety of color options. You can also apply paints, inks, dyes and other colorants on it after its dry.
These earrings are by Els van Haasen uses Kroma Crackle on polymer. You can see how regular a crackle you can get with this medium. But it can definitely be quite varied once you come to understand how to use it.
You almost forget that the technique that was most commonly used by the highly esteemed Elise Winters, who we lost just this year, was also a crackle technique. Her work was very controlled, as was crackle but that was probably the most recognizable part about her signature style. I can only imagine the work she put into gaining such control over her crackle, but it just shows what can be done when we invest a bit of patience into our work. (I erroneously put in that this was metal leaf when I first posted but, no, it’s paint, which also takes such skilled control, having to ensure that the paint is evenly applied to get such fine crackle.)
This is actually a piece of mine from some years back. It includes alcohol treated raw clay, controlled cracking of partially cured clay, and metal leaf colored with alcohol ink. The alcohol treatment is a way of drying out the surface of raw clay to get a very fine crazing. It’s a bit of a tricky technique but it sure worked here. That helped create the uneven surface of the partially cured polymer under the metal leaf, giving it a burning ember look.
Let’s Crack You Up
Ready to try some various cracking techniques? Here are a few freebies to get you going:
If you want to try the straightforward Paint Crackle Techniques:
- Grab a craft acrylic (the cheap acrylics work better than artist tube acrylics which tend to stretch rather than crack) or tempera paint and a well-conditioned sheet of polymer rolled on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
- Brush a moderate (not heavy) layer of the paint onto the polymer. Wait for it to completely dry.
- Then roll it through the pasta machine set at two settings down from the thickness you created the sheet on. You can stop here or, for wider, more varied crackle, turn the sheet 90°, adjust the pasta machine down another one or two settings and run it through again.
- You should have a nice crackle now but if your paint is stretching rather than cracking, rolling another sheet of polymer and lay the crackle sheet on top and then start rolling it through the pasta machine again. Eventually, the paint will crack but sometimes you need a really thick layer of polymer to start in order to stretch it far enough. Tempera paint won’t stretch and cracks very nicely if you have that on hand or fancy a run to your local craft store. You could also get some crackle medium while you’re out and follow the instructions to crackle paint directly on your raw polymer clay.
You can find some examples of the use of different paints on this post by Jan Geisen.
For more tutorials online:
- One of the things I didn’t show you in the samples above was how to use impression material to create a faux crackle effect. I use crumpled aluminum foil for this and then use the antiquing approach of rubbing acrylic paint into the cracks after its cured and wiping it off. But Katie Oskin has an interesting material to share in this online tutorial, as well as showing the effect of painting it before she impresses it.
- In this video tutorial, Sandy Huntress shows you how to crackle very thin sheets of partially cured polymer clay.
- Crackling can be done on round surfaces too! Here’s an online tutorial using metal leaf on bicone beads to create crackle. Keep in mind you could do the same thing by painting the beads and then rolling them around to get it crack.
Do you know of other great crackle tutorials or want to point out another crackling technique I didn’t mention? Drop a comment below (if you’re on this post’s page online) or click on the title of this post to go to the post’s page and share the info with us all. It would be much appreciated!
Bits of News
- The IPCA announced the winners of the IPCA awards on Wednesday. Here is a video presentation of it. Or you can find the list here.
- Registration is now open for Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes new online course, Matrix Canes.
- What are you doing with your tax refund this year? How about getting that NeverKnead machine you’ve been wanting for forever? Get 10% off your new machine now on the website. Use promo code 10PERCENT.
Okay… Off with me. Working on the next issue of The Polymer Studio. Get your subscription or catch up if you didn’t get the first issue by just jumping over to the website now.
Know that your purchases and subscriptions help me pay the bills so I can justify the time I put into sharing all the good stuff on this blog. Help me help you as we collectively feed our addiction to polymer!
Have a wonderful and creative week! –Sage
Beauty in the Dark
October 31, 2018 Uncategorized
Happy Halloween, my fellow revelers! This holiday, which has its roots in both the fear of death but also the remembrance of loved ones who have gone on before us, gives us an opportunity to face that inherently scary part of this cycle of life with celebration and even laughter. This day has long been one of remembrance and reflection for me, along with the celebrations, having read, as a teen, about the many cultural traditions that celebrate our passing as a natural part of life giving our time here purpose and preciousness. The way these traditions embrace the full cycle of life just made so much sense to me.
So today (and the next couple of days that encompass the Christian All Souls Day, Gaelic Samhain, Mexican Day of the Dead, and many other related celebratory traditions) we get to recognize the role that death and the dead have in our lives and do so with merriment and even beauty. To aid in the view of the beautiful side of these traditions, I’d like to introduce you to this incredible series of sculptures by the artist Krisztianna, inspired by the four seasons and the cycle of nature.
This piece is Autumn, of course, which is a time of final harvesting and of blooming and changing colors as nature prepares for winter. Krisztianna captures the richness of the season with a nod to the Day of the Dead and its celebratory themes in a riot of color and texture. Polymer is but one of the materials used in her sculptures. This is a serious mix of media. With resin cast elements, resin clay detailing, wood, acrylic paint, stainless steel wire, and foam, as well as synthetic and dried flowers, it’s a celebration of artistic materials as well as the season and this day.
You can see more of her fabulous wall pieces on her website, in her shop and on Instagram.
Have a happy and safe holiday!
Open Silk Screen
December 11, 2014 Inspirational Art
Before we just run away on the subject of creative framing, let’s take a quick look at some of the other items that are getting so much attention in the present issue of The Polymer Arts. The article on silk screening is just amazingly in-depth, and yet, makes it all seems so easy. Tonja Lederman took the reins on this one when I sent out a request for this kind of article earlier in the year, and boy, did she deliver. Not only do you get all the basics, she also gives out a ton of great tips, options for paint (many of which you probably never would have thought of) and resources for all the materials you’d need.
The reason I wanted to see a silk screen article was because it seemed like a lot of people I have talked to and that have written me had no idea where to start in order to try this technique. I figured if we could create an article that can get just about anyone started on it, we’d see a lot more wonderful work using this technique. I was originally inspired by one of the magazine’s very first gallery artists, Els Van Haasen, a Dutch polymer artist. I just thought the light touch of silk screen added a beautiful, delicate visual texture to her carefully finished pieces. This pendant has that same quality from the seaweed silk screen plus a glow from the blended clay colors. The open edge and domed shape gives the simple composition a kind of full and broad feel.
I know there are of polymer purists who might feel a cane or Sutton slice should have been used instead of paint, but it would have been a very different effect. The silk screen adds that visual texture and touch of complexity without disturbing the treatment of the clay. There really would be no other way to do this.
Els’ style and light touch with this technique can be seen on her Flickr photostream where there are many more examples of silk screen accented pieces along with a lot of textural and form exploration to glean inspiration from.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
A Bit of Everything
July 27, 2013 Inspirational Art
Scrapbooking pulls from many other artistic sources, just as polymer does. Whereas we have heat restrictions, they have the solubility and fragility of paper to contend with. But that hasn’t stopped the scrapbookers from trying tons of materials from other art forms, even polymer clay. And then, here we come along and borrow from them as well.
I suspect Russia’s Victoria Mkhitarian borrows from just about anything in reach. Her polymer work includes yarn knitted backings, wire work of all kinds, spice inclusions and, most recently, a lot of scrapbook materials. This reversible necklace–pretty cool design for a reversible, I have to say–uses embossing powders, rub-ons (similar to temporary tattoos), and acrylic paint to decorate her polymer beads.
There really is no reason not to use just about anything available if it works for the design and effect you are after. Polymer’s versatility is one of its greatest characteristics, so borrowing from other artistic mediums is going to a pretty natural extension of working with polymer clay. I know some people feel such dedication to the clay that they want to work only with polymer and what it can inherently do. But I say, don’t let any one material restrict your artistic expression. Your vision comes first. Yes, a medium can be the inspiration for what you do artistically; but let what you do grow from that inspiration, not keep it confined there.
If you would like to explore more of Victoria’s work, check out the variety of work she has on her Flickr photostream.
Outside Inspiration: Painting in Three Dimensions
July 26, 2013 Inspirational Art
The artist I’m introducing today is not a polymer artist, which is why I decided he belong in the Outside Inspiration category. However, he does use polymer. No, he doesn’t always use it, but when it suits the vision he is trying to create, polymer can play a prominent role in his images.
Andy Kehoe is an painter with quite the imagination. In researching him for this post I got completely lost in his stories and ramblings found throughout his website and on his blog. Trying to find out one serious bit about him was nigh impossible but I can’t say I didn’t have fun going down the rabbit hole of his imagination! So, back to what I do know. Andy works in painterly mediums, has a keen fascination with layers and depth and recently started playing with painting on multiple layers of resin, building up the strata of imagery that gives these works an almost surreal depth. This in conjunction with his stylized scenes that often look like paper cut-outs and/or uncertain dreamworld creatures creates an unusually strong atmosphere in the limited space the work exists in.
This piece, Approaching the Watcher of the Veil, combines oil, acrylic, polymer clay, and resin on wood. In what serious material I could find Andy is presented (usually on other people’s and galleries’ sites) as a painter, but obviously he doesn’t limit himself to any one medium. The polymer clay, which I assume is in the tree, also has a painterly look to it, making it blend into the work so that the piece transcends its motley medium existence to exist simply as an artist’s sincere and authentic vision.
Polymer is no stranger to being combined with paint or even becoming the paint so, no, this outside inspiration is not really about the painterly way polymer can be presented, but rather that polymer can be a medium used in conjunction with something as old and revered as painting and be an equal when chosen, as needed, for its particular characteristics. The medium is not the key. Its the choices of medium and how they are applied that defines a well-done piece.
Don’t miss some of Andy’s great posts on his blog as well as the entertaining material (especially in the “About” section) of his website.
What is it about weathered and worn surfaces that so many people find attractive these days? Mind you, I am very much one of them. I have a whole line of work called “Beautiful Decay” that explores the beauty I find in the deterioration of durable materials. But the one related effect that seems to be everywhere these days is crackling. Who doesn’t love a good crackle! From shabby chic furniture to crazed ceramics to crackle glass decor, the look of a deteriorating surface seems to have wide-ranging appeal.
Knowing that, it’s not really a surprise that crackle is so popular as a polymer technique. A great many of us are already texture fiends and, if you love texture then you are going to try crackle- so there’s one of the reasons for its popularity in polymer. But we also know that there is a market for work with crackled surfaces since it pops up in so many areas related to decoration and adornment, making it a safe bet if you sell your work.
There is no one right or best way to create a crackled surface in polymer. You may not have realized it, but there are literally dozens of ways to create crackle. It can be created with a crackle paint medium, partially cured layers of polymer (like I show you in my Controlled Crackle technique which you can find in your Fall 2011 edition of The Polymer Arts), dried paint (or glaze or gilders’ paste or floor wax) on raw clay, metal leaf on raw clay, leaching, alcohol treatments, or by creating a faux texture with impressed materials. And I know I am still missing a few in that list!
So, let’s enjoy some crackle work today and wrap up with a few tutorials on different crackle techniques that you can try out.
Let’s Get Cracking
One of my personal favorite “cracklers” is Staci Louise Smith. She uses a number of different techniques to achieve a wide range of cracked texture. In the necklace below, her crackle is not subtle. It is not evenly spread across her beads either but rather, it is rough and tumble and scattered in energetic horizontal lines. Her soft coloring calms the chaos of the crackle which is also balanced out by the many other purposeful accents and lines from the wire.
Staci can also do subtle as evidenced by the opening piece, a Balance Bowl from her tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book. (You can get the book on our website if you want to make one of these stunning bowls.)
Check out this blog post where she shares how she makes the necklace here along with sketches and her thoughts on the process.
A subtle crackle can often take a bit more patience but what a lovely effect it can have. It may not even be obvious at first that the beads on this necklace below by Ursa Polak have a crackle surface, but the weathered feel comes across immediately. Take a close look to see all the fine-lined cracks that add to the depth and variation of the surface.
Kroma Crackle is a lovely gel medium that itself dries and cracks without having to stretch the clay and yet remains flexible so that you can manipulate the clay without the cracked material popping off. Once you worked with it for a bit you can control the size of the crackle pretty well. You can add small amounts of acrylic paint or mica powders to give yourself a wide variety of color options. You can also apply paints, inks, dyes and other colorants on it after its dry.
These earrings are by Els van Haasen uses Kroma Crackle on polymer. You can see how regular a crackle you can get with this medium. But it can definitely be quite varied once you come to understand how to use it.
You almost forget that the technique that was most commonly used by the highly esteemed Elise Winters, who we lost just this year, was also a crackle technique. Her work was very controlled, as was crackle but that was probably the most recognizable part about her signature style. I can only imagine the work she put into gaining such control over her crackle, but it just shows what can be done when we invest a bit of patience into our work. (I erroneously put in that this was metal leaf when I first posted but, no, it’s paint, which also takes such skilled control, having to ensure that the paint is evenly applied to get such fine crackle.)
This is actually a piece of mine from some years back. It includes alcohol treated raw clay, controlled cracking of partially cured clay, and metal leaf colored with alcohol ink. The alcohol treatment is a way of drying out the surface of raw clay to get a very fine crazing. It’s a bit of a tricky technique but it sure worked here. That helped create the uneven surface of the partially cured polymer under the metal leaf, giving it a burning ember look.
Let’s Crack You Up
Ready to try some various cracking techniques? Here are a few freebies to get you going:
If you want to try the straightforward Paint Crackle Techniques:
- Grab a craft acrylic (the cheap acrylics work better than artist tube acrylics which tend to stretch rather than crack) or tempera paint and a well-conditioned sheet of polymer rolled on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
- Brush a moderate (not heavy) layer of the paint onto the polymer. Wait for it to completely dry.
- Then roll it through the pasta machine set at two settings down from the thickness you created the sheet on. You can stop here or, for wider, more varied crackle, turn the sheet 90°, adjust the pasta machine down another one or two settings and run it through again.
- You should have a nice crackle now but if your paint is stretching rather than cracking, rolling another sheet of polymer and lay the crackle sheet on top and then start rolling it through the pasta machine again. Eventually, the paint will crack but sometimes you need a really thick layer of polymer to start in order to stretch it far enough. Tempera paint won’t stretch and cracks very nicely if you have that on hand or fancy a run to your local craft store. You could also get some crackle medium while you’re out and follow the instructions to crackle paint directly on your raw polymer clay.
You can find some examples of the use of different paints on this post by Jan Geisen.
For more tutorials online:
- One of the things I didn’t show you in the samples above was how to use impression material to create a faux crackle effect. I use crumpled aluminum foil for this and then use the antiquing approach of rubbing acrylic paint into the cracks after its cured and wiping it off. But Katie Oskin has an interesting material to share in this online tutorial, as well as showing the effect of painting it before she impresses it.
- In this video tutorial, Sandy Huntress shows you how to crackle very thin sheets of partially cured polymer clay.
- Crackling can be done on round surfaces too! Here’s an online tutorial using metal leaf on bicone beads to create crackle. Keep in mind you could do the same thing by painting the beads and then rolling them around to get it crack.
Do you know of other great crackle tutorials or want to point out another crackling technique I didn’t mention? Drop a comment below (if you’re on this post’s page online) or click on the title of this post to go to the post’s page and share the info with us all. It would be much appreciated!
Bits of News
- The IPCA announced the winners of the IPCA awards on Wednesday. Here is a video presentation of it. Or you can find the list here.
- Registration is now open for Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes new online course, Matrix Canes.
- What are you doing with your tax refund this year? How about getting that NeverKnead machine you’ve been wanting for forever? Get 10% off your new machine now on the website. Use promo code 10PERCENT.
Okay… Off with me. Working on the next issue of The Polymer Studio. Get your subscription or catch up if you didn’t get the first issue by just jumping over to the website now.
Know that your purchases and subscriptions help me pay the bills so I can justify the time I put into sharing all the good stuff on this blog. Help me help you as we collectively feed our addiction to polymer!
Have a wonderful and creative week! –Sage
Read More
Happy Halloween, my fellow revelers! This holiday, which has its roots in both the fear of death but also the remembrance of loved ones who have gone on before us, gives us an opportunity to face that inherently scary part of this cycle of life with celebration and even laughter. This day has long been one of remembrance and reflection for me, along with the celebrations, having read, as a teen, about the many cultural traditions that celebrate our passing as a natural part of life giving our time here purpose and preciousness. The way these traditions embrace the full cycle of life just made so much sense to me.
So today (and the next couple of days that encompass the Christian All Souls Day, Gaelic Samhain, Mexican Day of the Dead, and many other related celebratory traditions) we get to recognize the role that death and the dead have in our lives and do so with merriment and even beauty. To aid in the view of the beautiful side of these traditions, I’d like to introduce you to this incredible series of sculptures by the artist Krisztianna, inspired by the four seasons and the cycle of nature.
This piece is Autumn, of course, which is a time of final harvesting and of blooming and changing colors as nature prepares for winter. Krisztianna captures the richness of the season with a nod to the Day of the Dead and its celebratory themes in a riot of color and texture. Polymer is but one of the materials used in her sculptures. This is a serious mix of media. With resin cast elements, resin clay detailing, wood, acrylic paint, stainless steel wire, and foam, as well as synthetic and dried flowers, it’s a celebration of artistic materials as well as the season and this day.
You can see more of her fabulous wall pieces on her website, in her shop and on Instagram.
Have a happy and safe holiday!
Read MoreBefore we just run away on the subject of creative framing, let’s take a quick look at some of the other items that are getting so much attention in the present issue of The Polymer Arts. The article on silk screening is just amazingly in-depth, and yet, makes it all seems so easy. Tonja Lederman took the reins on this one when I sent out a request for this kind of article earlier in the year, and boy, did she deliver. Not only do you get all the basics, she also gives out a ton of great tips, options for paint (many of which you probably never would have thought of) and resources for all the materials you’d need.
The reason I wanted to see a silk screen article was because it seemed like a lot of people I have talked to and that have written me had no idea where to start in order to try this technique. I figured if we could create an article that can get just about anyone started on it, we’d see a lot more wonderful work using this technique. I was originally inspired by one of the magazine’s very first gallery artists, Els Van Haasen, a Dutch polymer artist. I just thought the light touch of silk screen added a beautiful, delicate visual texture to her carefully finished pieces. This pendant has that same quality from the seaweed silk screen plus a glow from the blended clay colors. The open edge and domed shape gives the simple composition a kind of full and broad feel.
I know there are of polymer purists who might feel a cane or Sutton slice should have been used instead of paint, but it would have been a very different effect. The silk screen adds that visual texture and touch of complexity without disturbing the treatment of the clay. There really would be no other way to do this.
Els’ style and light touch with this technique can be seen on her Flickr photostream where there are many more examples of silk screen accented pieces along with a lot of textural and form exploration to glean inspiration from.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreScrapbooking pulls from many other artistic sources, just as polymer does. Whereas we have heat restrictions, they have the solubility and fragility of paper to contend with. But that hasn’t stopped the scrapbookers from trying tons of materials from other art forms, even polymer clay. And then, here we come along and borrow from them as well.
I suspect Russia’s Victoria Mkhitarian borrows from just about anything in reach. Her polymer work includes yarn knitted backings, wire work of all kinds, spice inclusions and, most recently, a lot of scrapbook materials. This reversible necklace–pretty cool design for a reversible, I have to say–uses embossing powders, rub-ons (similar to temporary tattoos), and acrylic paint to decorate her polymer beads.
There really is no reason not to use just about anything available if it works for the design and effect you are after. Polymer’s versatility is one of its greatest characteristics, so borrowing from other artistic mediums is going to a pretty natural extension of working with polymer clay. I know some people feel such dedication to the clay that they want to work only with polymer and what it can inherently do. But I say, don’t let any one material restrict your artistic expression. Your vision comes first. Yes, a medium can be the inspiration for what you do artistically; but let what you do grow from that inspiration, not keep it confined there.
If you would like to explore more of Victoria’s work, check out the variety of work she has on her Flickr photostream.
Read More
The artist I’m introducing today is not a polymer artist, which is why I decided he belong in the Outside Inspiration category. However, he does use polymer. No, he doesn’t always use it, but when it suits the vision he is trying to create, polymer can play a prominent role in his images.
Andy Kehoe is an painter with quite the imagination. In researching him for this post I got completely lost in his stories and ramblings found throughout his website and on his blog. Trying to find out one serious bit about him was nigh impossible but I can’t say I didn’t have fun going down the rabbit hole of his imagination! So, back to what I do know. Andy works in painterly mediums, has a keen fascination with layers and depth and recently started playing with painting on multiple layers of resin, building up the strata of imagery that gives these works an almost surreal depth. This in conjunction with his stylized scenes that often look like paper cut-outs and/or uncertain dreamworld creatures creates an unusually strong atmosphere in the limited space the work exists in.
This piece, Approaching the Watcher of the Veil, combines oil, acrylic, polymer clay, and resin on wood. In what serious material I could find Andy is presented (usually on other people’s and galleries’ sites) as a painter, but obviously he doesn’t limit himself to any one medium. The polymer clay, which I assume is in the tree, also has a painterly look to it, making it blend into the work so that the piece transcends its motley medium existence to exist simply as an artist’s sincere and authentic vision.
Polymer is no stranger to being combined with paint or even becoming the paint so, no, this outside inspiration is not really about the painterly way polymer can be presented, but rather that polymer can be a medium used in conjunction with something as old and revered as painting and be an equal when chosen, as needed, for its particular characteristics. The medium is not the key. Its the choices of medium and how they are applied that defines a well-done piece.
Don’t miss some of Andy’s great posts on his blog as well as the entertaining material (especially in the “About” section) of his website.
Read More