The Allure of the Box & Important News

December 1, 2019

Do you, like many people, find boxes really intriguing? Why do we like boxes? I mean, sure, they are convenient for storing things, hiding things, shipping stuff, and wrapping up gifts. But some of us (myself very much included) can become rather infatuated with them. I know I have a hard time passing a box and not opening it up. Boxes have this mysterious unknown interior that could be holding just about anything that will fit. The possibilities poke at our curiosity.

The things with in a box become automatically precious or necessary. Why put something in a box if it is not valuable or you do not think it will become useful in the future? So, boxes hold valuables of a sort, normally. So why wouldn’t you want to peek in and see what kind of fabulous things are inside?

I bring up boxes because I have a bit of news that has to do with boxes. Say uncle scrolling down to the end of the post to see what my news is, here it is. Then we’ll look at a few polymer boxes to further contemplate

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Exciting

Note: If you are an existing subscriber to The Polymer Studio, you should already have received an email with this information. (If you believe you are an existing subscriber and did not get a subscription status email, check your junk mail folder. You can also check your subscription status on your account page here.)

So, after 4 months of working on my health and arm injury, I have gotten to the point where I have been able to determine, more or less, what I can and can’t do going forward, and since it is apparent that I will continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future, I have made plans accordingly:

The Good:
As of January, I will be resuming work on publications for 2020 and am working on new projects now.

The Bad:
I am shutting down The Polymer Studio magazine for good. I have, however, set-up exciting options for fulfilling subscriptions for existing subscribers, primarily the new Box project you’ll read about below. (More details for subscribers are in the email sent out earlier today.)

The Exciting:
I have 3 exciting projects that Tenth Muse Arts will be offering this coming year–

  • I will be scheduling 2 book publications for 2020, including the second Polymer Arts Projects book (the theme will be Shimmer and Shine) and a book on expanding your creativity yet to be titled.
  • I will be expanding our shop to include hard to get and self-published polymer and mixed media related books to connect the community with more great artists and authors.
  • And… instead of a regularly published magazine we will be offering a monthly Virtual Art Box for polymer and mixed media creatives.

I know, I know … there are a lot of questions those announcements bring up like what is a Virtual Art Box and why am I not publishing the magazine any longer? And I have answers so, read on!

 

What is the Virtual Tenth Muse Art Box?

The Virtual Art Box is a digital package of invaluable articles, lessons, specials, and printable tools all geared to advance your creative self and give you more “a-ha” moments. Like a magazine, we will be providing serendipitous educational and inspirational content but with additional tools and perks that just couldn’t be produced in the pages of a publication.

Each Virtual Art Box will include:

  • Design immersion lessons (weekly)
  • Creativity Cultivation seminars & worksheets (every month)
  • Customizable challenges (every month)
  • Art Nudges (weekly)

… as well a variety of these possible items:

  • Project and technique tutorials
  • Demonstrations
  • Interviews
  • Printable gadgets and aids
  • Retail partner discounts and specials
  • Sneak peaks and Box subscriber only discounts for Tenth Muse Arts publications
  • And whatever other great goodies we think up or you suggest along the way.

The Virtual Art Box will be multimedia to include video and downloadable PDFs and will be sent out monthly. They will be available as a automatically billed monthly and quarterly subscriptions that can be canceled at any time. The first box will be sent off February of 2020. Subscriptions aren’t available quite yet, but we’ll let you know when we have all that technical stuff done so you can! (Existing subscribers will be automatically signed up for the Virtual Art Box or they will have the option to request store credit – details for subscribers will be sent out this coming week.)

 

Why No Magazine?

As many of you know, I halted magazine production in August because of health issues. Although I am not through the full six months recommended for recovery time, it has already become apparent that there is some permanent damage in my arm and there is still a long road ahead for the other health issues I am dealing with. So, something had to be changed.

Being the primary editor and layout designer for the magazine, and facing the reality that I can no longer carry my usual workload, my only option for keeping the magazine going would be to hire more third-party contractors which would result in one or, most likely, all of three things – significantly raising the price of the magazine, jeopardizing the quality of the production and content, and/or not paying the contributing writers and artists. I am not happy with the idea of any of these outcomes and instead I have chosen to discontinue the magazine and work in formats that put less repetitive strain on my arm and should be better able to financially support additional contracted staff as needed.

I am more than a little sad about closing down the magazine. I’ve been publishing periodicals for the polymer community for over eight years and have worked in magazines since high school. However, I’m hoping, with these new ventures, I can continue to inspire, educate, and increase your joy and fulfillment in your creative endeavors through these other exciting avenues.

How Does This Affect This Blog?

So, as you might have noticed, one of the items in the Virtual Art Box is a weekly design lesson. Well, that’s basically what I’ve been doing on the blog this year but, without a magazine to promote on a regular basis, it’s been hard to justify the time that goes into these article length posts beyond the fact that I love doing them. But the mantra for this next year is to work smart.

So, what will happen is that the full-length posts plus other notes and nudges based on the content of the virtual box will be sent to the Virtual Art Box subscribers each weekend. Here, on this publicly accessible blog, I will do an abbreviated version of the subscriber’s weekly design immersion content so I can keep nudging folks to look closer at the design of their creations.

Starting this month, I will be creating those abbreviated posts so I can focus on wrapping up the details of this new project, hire a new assistant, and get a production schedule up for next year for the books. All that with the holidays in the midst of it. Sounds like I’m getting crazy again but I promise to do as the doctor orders. I am really looking forward to being productive again!

 

Now What about Those Boxes?

With polymer, you can make boxes in two ways – you can cover an existing box form or you can create your own box. Let’s put it at a few examples of both.

Covering a RD existing box is, obviously, the easiest way to create a polymer box. It may seem like a shortcut but if you spend a lot of time creating beautiful veneers or sculptural elements for the outside the box, there’s no need to spend a lot of time creating the box from polymer. Remember, it’s better to use the material that makes the most sense for what you are creating rather than limit yourself to one material.

Aniko Kolesnikova, famous for her journal covers, also covers boxes. Using her bas-relief style sculptural approach, she created this commissioned box based on the card game, Magic: The Gathering. The box top worked as a canvas but the dimensional aspect allowed her to flow each of the elements over its edge, taking up the dynamic energy and knowledge. Click on the image to get her blog post about how she made this including sketches and close-ups.

 

Fiona Abel-Smith looks to have created her actual box forms out of polymer and then covers it with a technique she learned, and eventually perfected, from Sue Heaser. The process is based on the classic mosaic-like technique of pietra dura. Laying a clay colored base for the shapes in the images, Fiona then adds bits, cut from extruded snakes of clay, to the image for texture. The intense technique creates beautiful, lively illustrations. Fiona’s also created a post about her boxes, showing her variations and their many sides along with photos of her process. Click the image to see the post.

If you are making your own polymer boxes, you have the option of leaving the square behind in making her boxes in any shape whatsoever. The opening image and the image below are boxes by Helen Wyland-Malchow. The opening image, Box 22, was her winning entry into Polymer Journeys 2019. This one, Landscape Box, below has always been one of my personal favorites though. That is really pushing the idea of a box in such a wonderful and dynamic way. Squares are bit static, which allows the imagery on the box to stand out but curves are fabulously high-energy and fun.

So, how about you? Have you created covered boxes or constructed your own from polymer? That could be a fun challenge this month if you haven’t worked with boxes yet. They make fantastic gifts for pretty much anyone. Who couldn’t use a box? If you’d like to create your own polymer boxes, there is a great tutorial (if I do say so myself) by me on constructing a 100% polymer box in the Winter 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts (also available in digital for immediate download here.)

 

Putting the Lid on It

Well, that’s enough blathering at you for this weekend. I haven’t had time to take pictures of the kitchen backsplash I was working on, which is basically done except for the grout, but I’ll share that with you next weekend, hopefully in its final form.

And last but not least, I want to thank each and every one of you who have been cheering me on the last 8 years, for sending your appreciative and supportive messages, particularly in these the last 4 months. I look forward to you coming along with me on these new and continued artistic ventures as we explore this fantastic medium, growing our creative selves and our community.

 

Your Morning Book

June 30, 2019

Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover

Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.

This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.

So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.

Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”

At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then),  I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.

When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.

I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.

Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.

So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.

A Book and It’s Cover

The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.

If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.

Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.

 

If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.

 

Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.

 

I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)

Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.

You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!

 

New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July

If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.

Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.

 

Painter for a Day

I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!

Journals: Precious Plummage

January 17, 2017

anikoPeacock journalI’m sorry we are a little late posting this week. We had a few technical and timing difficulties but we are back on track now. Speaking of which … how many of you are still on track with your new year’s resolutions or plans for 2017? It can be so exciting to come up with the plans and goals but actually getting them done can be another matter. There are a number of things you can do to help keep on track but I think, the most important thing is to write it all down. There is something about having our ideas written out in black and white that makes us feel more committed to them, that makes them concrete and real in a way that an idea just floating around in our head does not.

 

So I was thinking that having a pretty journal to write those ideas in would be highly encouraging. Not only will you want to use a beautifully decorated journal, you are also far less likely to shove it in a drawer and forget about it. Write your goals, and the steps you need to take to reach them, in a beautiful journal and leave it where it can be admired as well as remind you of its contents. Of course, I’d encourage you to create your own beautiful journal cover and so, this week, we’ll focus on journal cover inspiration.

When talking journals and polymer, it is almost obligatory to show off a journal by Aniko Kolesnikova. Here is a gorgeous peacock cover she created last year. I love that it’s not just a polymer composition attached to the front but that it flows across the entire cover, including the back and spine, so that all the sides are connected. It’s still quite functional with less decor on the back so it will lay flat and be comfortable to write in but remains beautiful from any side.

Although a profusion of scattered crystals can so easily come across as garish, the be-jeweled feathers work in this cover as the bright and abundant plumage blends with them. The beautiful labradorite is also well integrated although I have a feeling that it really pops in person as reflected light and colors would change within its layers as it is moved about.

Aniko has over a dozen views of this particular piece on her Flickr photostream so you can more closely examine all the details. Of course, you can also see her other journals there, on her website and on her Mandarin Duck Facebook page.

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Gorgeously Dark

October 27, 2014

il_fullxfull.475132936_d734This week counts down to that one very dark and ominous day (or fun and frolicsome, depending on your approach) sometimes known as the All Saint’s Eve, Day of the Dead, Samhain, Allantide among other things, but most commonly known as Halloween. It’s that day when, in many Christian-based religions as well as pagan and European folklore, we either have a chance to speak to loved ones passed on and/or we must hide from the demons and other creatures that have the opportunity to walk the earth the one night when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest. That makes the holiday seem rather dreary, but truly, it’s more of a celebration of the lives that have lived. Death and the things of the dark exist in contrast to the vibrancy of life and the light. Without the dark, how would we appreciate the light? And even the dark things can be quite beautiful.

So this week, let’s look at the beauty of dark things. I promise it will not be all spooky and ghoulish. But, okay, we’re going to start off kind of on that end. If you are familiar with the movie Aliens then you would likely then recognize the imagery of Swiss sculptor, painter and set designer, H.R. Giger who designed the alien and extraterrestrial environments for that movie, in the work of Aniko Kolesnikova that you see here. This journal cover is a display piece that Aniko uses to show off her hand tooled polymer sculpture techniques. The melding of Aniko’s skills and the Giger imagery makes for gorgeous lines and intriguing textures as well as being an combined example from two different artists of how beautiful the dark renditions of the imagination can be.

Most of Aniko’s work is not that dark, she just embraces this as part of all that is beautiful in this world. Or that’s how I see her work. I mean, her moniker is “Mandarin Duck” (I don’t know why … ) and commonly refers to her blog readers as “honey bunnies”, so she’s definitely not all about the dark side. See more of her varied work on her website and more journals on this Pinterest board.

 

 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.

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Making an Impression … all over.

December 4, 2013

We have another example of scatter composition in this necklace from Aniko Kolesnikova. Since we’ve already done this for a couple days, why do you think this composition works? Or do you?

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I think it does. The elements, although different colors and irregularly placed, are all the same basic form–impressed and filled with colored clay, or in some cases a little extra bit of cane. The overall surface texture of the pieces are also impressed with hand tools so the overall surface is similar.

Hand tool texturing can be widely varied and works great for the scattered look or when kept in an orderly pattern. (By the way, we have a great article in the most recent issue of The Polymer Arts by Anke Humpert. It explores a variety of marks and various pointed hand tools, and explains how to explore them and other tools on your own–don’t miss out on that!) Aniko does quite a lot with hand tools as you’ll see if you spend some time on her website.

 

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.

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Outside Inspiration: Obsessive Ceramics

February 1, 2013

Ricky Maldonado has to be at least a little bit obsessive. I saw his ceramic work as an image on Pinterest first and thought for certain I was looking at a polymer cane covered form. But no, the designs he applies are completely hand done, every dot, every dash drawn out on the piece before he carefully fills in the pattern with glazes.

He creates teapots, plates, gift boxes and other vessels as well as balance focused sculptures like this one he titled Alien Mardi Gras.

2005alienMardiGras

 

Ricky’s work is just another reminder that with polymer, we really do have it easy. We can develop patterns of intense intricacy with a handful of skillful steps and end up with yards of it from that one process. We can cover any kind of form with an infinite array of color, marks and texture and rather rapidly.

But sometimes, an extensive, hand applied process just can’t be beat. We have a couple artists in the next issue that apply detail carefully and fastidiously to achieve a complexity that draws you in not just in wonder at the visual impact but also in wonder at the patience and vision that created them. When the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts comes out (due to be mailed in digital and print out by the 18th) look for the work of artists such as Aniko Kolesnikova, Gera Scott Chandler, Marisol Ross, Sandra McCaw and Susan Dyer … all artist who obviously spend a great deal of time working out and developing the details in their pieces.

Quick and simple can be great for producing a large number of items that can be sold at a reasonable cost but as an artist, there is nothing to compare to a piece you spend hours and days, maybe even weeks or months with, a piece that gets every last consideration and fully expresses your intent and vision. These kinds of pieces take time, are harder to sell for a price worthy of your efforts (we also have an article on pricing your art work in this next issue) and can be much harder to part, especially if you don’t do this kind of thing often. But then, if you find you love it and do have a hard time parting with such pieces, doesn’t that just tell you that you probably need to take this approach more often?

Something to ponder this weekend. Me, I will be pondering the last of the seemingly never-ending details that accompany a periodical being readied for the printer. At least this is the kind of project is something I not only have no problem parting with, I am thrilled to send it out to all of you so you can get as excited about the inspiring ideas, words and art of the artists who so generously share their stories and work with us this issue.  I very much look forward to hearing what you think.

 

The Allure of the Box & Important News

December 1, 2019
Posted in

Do you, like many people, find boxes really intriguing? Why do we like boxes? I mean, sure, they are convenient for storing things, hiding things, shipping stuff, and wrapping up gifts. But some of us (myself very much included) can become rather infatuated with them. I know I have a hard time passing a box and not opening it up. Boxes have this mysterious unknown interior that could be holding just about anything that will fit. The possibilities poke at our curiosity.

The things with in a box become automatically precious or necessary. Why put something in a box if it is not valuable or you do not think it will become useful in the future? So, boxes hold valuables of a sort, normally. So why wouldn’t you want to peek in and see what kind of fabulous things are inside?

I bring up boxes because I have a bit of news that has to do with boxes. Say uncle scrolling down to the end of the post to see what my news is, here it is. Then we’ll look at a few polymer boxes to further contemplate

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Exciting

Note: If you are an existing subscriber to The Polymer Studio, you should already have received an email with this information. (If you believe you are an existing subscriber and did not get a subscription status email, check your junk mail folder. You can also check your subscription status on your account page here.)

So, after 4 months of working on my health and arm injury, I have gotten to the point where I have been able to determine, more or less, what I can and can’t do going forward, and since it is apparent that I will continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future, I have made plans accordingly:

The Good:
As of January, I will be resuming work on publications for 2020 and am working on new projects now.

The Bad:
I am shutting down The Polymer Studio magazine for good. I have, however, set-up exciting options for fulfilling subscriptions for existing subscribers, primarily the new Box project you’ll read about below. (More details for subscribers are in the email sent out earlier today.)

The Exciting:
I have 3 exciting projects that Tenth Muse Arts will be offering this coming year–

  • I will be scheduling 2 book publications for 2020, including the second Polymer Arts Projects book (the theme will be Shimmer and Shine) and a book on expanding your creativity yet to be titled.
  • I will be expanding our shop to include hard to get and self-published polymer and mixed media related books to connect the community with more great artists and authors.
  • And… instead of a regularly published magazine we will be offering a monthly Virtual Art Box for polymer and mixed media creatives.

I know, I know … there are a lot of questions those announcements bring up like what is a Virtual Art Box and why am I not publishing the magazine any longer? And I have answers so, read on!

 

What is the Virtual Tenth Muse Art Box?

The Virtual Art Box is a digital package of invaluable articles, lessons, specials, and printable tools all geared to advance your creative self and give you more “a-ha” moments. Like a magazine, we will be providing serendipitous educational and inspirational content but with additional tools and perks that just couldn’t be produced in the pages of a publication.

Each Virtual Art Box will include:

  • Design immersion lessons (weekly)
  • Creativity Cultivation seminars & worksheets (every month)
  • Customizable challenges (every month)
  • Art Nudges (weekly)

… as well a variety of these possible items:

  • Project and technique tutorials
  • Demonstrations
  • Interviews
  • Printable gadgets and aids
  • Retail partner discounts and specials
  • Sneak peaks and Box subscriber only discounts for Tenth Muse Arts publications
  • And whatever other great goodies we think up or you suggest along the way.

The Virtual Art Box will be multimedia to include video and downloadable PDFs and will be sent out monthly. They will be available as a automatically billed monthly and quarterly subscriptions that can be canceled at any time. The first box will be sent off February of 2020. Subscriptions aren’t available quite yet, but we’ll let you know when we have all that technical stuff done so you can! (Existing subscribers will be automatically signed up for the Virtual Art Box or they will have the option to request store credit – details for subscribers will be sent out this coming week.)

 

Why No Magazine?

As many of you know, I halted magazine production in August because of health issues. Although I am not through the full six months recommended for recovery time, it has already become apparent that there is some permanent damage in my arm and there is still a long road ahead for the other health issues I am dealing with. So, something had to be changed.

Being the primary editor and layout designer for the magazine, and facing the reality that I can no longer carry my usual workload, my only option for keeping the magazine going would be to hire more third-party contractors which would result in one or, most likely, all of three things – significantly raising the price of the magazine, jeopardizing the quality of the production and content, and/or not paying the contributing writers and artists. I am not happy with the idea of any of these outcomes and instead I have chosen to discontinue the magazine and work in formats that put less repetitive strain on my arm and should be better able to financially support additional contracted staff as needed.

I am more than a little sad about closing down the magazine. I’ve been publishing periodicals for the polymer community for over eight years and have worked in magazines since high school. However, I’m hoping, with these new ventures, I can continue to inspire, educate, and increase your joy and fulfillment in your creative endeavors through these other exciting avenues.

How Does This Affect This Blog?

So, as you might have noticed, one of the items in the Virtual Art Box is a weekly design lesson. Well, that’s basically what I’ve been doing on the blog this year but, without a magazine to promote on a regular basis, it’s been hard to justify the time that goes into these article length posts beyond the fact that I love doing them. But the mantra for this next year is to work smart.

So, what will happen is that the full-length posts plus other notes and nudges based on the content of the virtual box will be sent to the Virtual Art Box subscribers each weekend. Here, on this publicly accessible blog, I will do an abbreviated version of the subscriber’s weekly design immersion content so I can keep nudging folks to look closer at the design of their creations.

Starting this month, I will be creating those abbreviated posts so I can focus on wrapping up the details of this new project, hire a new assistant, and get a production schedule up for next year for the books. All that with the holidays in the midst of it. Sounds like I’m getting crazy again but I promise to do as the doctor orders. I am really looking forward to being productive again!

 

Now What about Those Boxes?

With polymer, you can make boxes in two ways – you can cover an existing box form or you can create your own box. Let’s put it at a few examples of both.

Covering a RD existing box is, obviously, the easiest way to create a polymer box. It may seem like a shortcut but if you spend a lot of time creating beautiful veneers or sculptural elements for the outside the box, there’s no need to spend a lot of time creating the box from polymer. Remember, it’s better to use the material that makes the most sense for what you are creating rather than limit yourself to one material.

Aniko Kolesnikova, famous for her journal covers, also covers boxes. Using her bas-relief style sculptural approach, she created this commissioned box based on the card game, Magic: The Gathering. The box top worked as a canvas but the dimensional aspect allowed her to flow each of the elements over its edge, taking up the dynamic energy and knowledge. Click on the image to get her blog post about how she made this including sketches and close-ups.

 

Fiona Abel-Smith looks to have created her actual box forms out of polymer and then covers it with a technique she learned, and eventually perfected, from Sue Heaser. The process is based on the classic mosaic-like technique of pietra dura. Laying a clay colored base for the shapes in the images, Fiona then adds bits, cut from extruded snakes of clay, to the image for texture. The intense technique creates beautiful, lively illustrations. Fiona’s also created a post about her boxes, showing her variations and their many sides along with photos of her process. Click the image to see the post.

If you are making your own polymer boxes, you have the option of leaving the square behind in making her boxes in any shape whatsoever. The opening image and the image below are boxes by Helen Wyland-Malchow. The opening image, Box 22, was her winning entry into Polymer Journeys 2019. This one, Landscape Box, below has always been one of my personal favorites though. That is really pushing the idea of a box in such a wonderful and dynamic way. Squares are bit static, which allows the imagery on the box to stand out but curves are fabulously high-energy and fun.

So, how about you? Have you created covered boxes or constructed your own from polymer? That could be a fun challenge this month if you haven’t worked with boxes yet. They make fantastic gifts for pretty much anyone. Who couldn’t use a box? If you’d like to create your own polymer boxes, there is a great tutorial (if I do say so myself) by me on constructing a 100% polymer box in the Winter 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts (also available in digital for immediate download here.)

 

Putting the Lid on It

Well, that’s enough blathering at you for this weekend. I haven’t had time to take pictures of the kitchen backsplash I was working on, which is basically done except for the grout, but I’ll share that with you next weekend, hopefully in its final form.

And last but not least, I want to thank each and every one of you who have been cheering me on the last 8 years, for sending your appreciative and supportive messages, particularly in these the last 4 months. I look forward to you coming along with me on these new and continued artistic ventures as we explore this fantastic medium, growing our creative selves and our community.

 

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Your Morning Book

June 30, 2019
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Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover

Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.

This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.

So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.

Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”

At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then),  I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.

When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.

I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.

Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.

So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.

A Book and It’s Cover

The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.

If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.

Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.

 

If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.

 

Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.

 

I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)

Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.

You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!

 

New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July

If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.

Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.

 

Painter for a Day

I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!

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Journals: Precious Plummage

January 17, 2017
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anikoPeacock journalI’m sorry we are a little late posting this week. We had a few technical and timing difficulties but we are back on track now. Speaking of which … how many of you are still on track with your new year’s resolutions or plans for 2017? It can be so exciting to come up with the plans and goals but actually getting them done can be another matter. There are a number of things you can do to help keep on track but I think, the most important thing is to write it all down. There is something about having our ideas written out in black and white that makes us feel more committed to them, that makes them concrete and real in a way that an idea just floating around in our head does not.

 

So I was thinking that having a pretty journal to write those ideas in would be highly encouraging. Not only will you want to use a beautifully decorated journal, you are also far less likely to shove it in a drawer and forget about it. Write your goals, and the steps you need to take to reach them, in a beautiful journal and leave it where it can be admired as well as remind you of its contents. Of course, I’d encourage you to create your own beautiful journal cover and so, this week, we’ll focus on journal cover inspiration.

When talking journals and polymer, it is almost obligatory to show off a journal by Aniko Kolesnikova. Here is a gorgeous peacock cover she created last year. I love that it’s not just a polymer composition attached to the front but that it flows across the entire cover, including the back and spine, so that all the sides are connected. It’s still quite functional with less decor on the back so it will lay flat and be comfortable to write in but remains beautiful from any side.

Although a profusion of scattered crystals can so easily come across as garish, the be-jeweled feathers work in this cover as the bright and abundant plumage blends with them. The beautiful labradorite is also well integrated although I have a feeling that it really pops in person as reflected light and colors would change within its layers as it is moved about.

Aniko has over a dozen views of this particular piece on her Flickr photostream so you can more closely examine all the details. Of course, you can also see her other journals there, on her website and on her Mandarin Duck Facebook page.

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Gorgeously Dark

October 27, 2014
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il_fullxfull.475132936_d734This week counts down to that one very dark and ominous day (or fun and frolicsome, depending on your approach) sometimes known as the All Saint’s Eve, Day of the Dead, Samhain, Allantide among other things, but most commonly known as Halloween. It’s that day when, in many Christian-based religions as well as pagan and European folklore, we either have a chance to speak to loved ones passed on and/or we must hide from the demons and other creatures that have the opportunity to walk the earth the one night when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest. That makes the holiday seem rather dreary, but truly, it’s more of a celebration of the lives that have lived. Death and the things of the dark exist in contrast to the vibrancy of life and the light. Without the dark, how would we appreciate the light? And even the dark things can be quite beautiful.

So this week, let’s look at the beauty of dark things. I promise it will not be all spooky and ghoulish. But, okay, we’re going to start off kind of on that end. If you are familiar with the movie Aliens then you would likely then recognize the imagery of Swiss sculptor, painter and set designer, H.R. Giger who designed the alien and extraterrestrial environments for that movie, in the work of Aniko Kolesnikova that you see here. This journal cover is a display piece that Aniko uses to show off her hand tooled polymer sculpture techniques. The melding of Aniko’s skills and the Giger imagery makes for gorgeous lines and intriguing textures as well as being an combined example from two different artists of how beautiful the dark renditions of the imagination can be.

Most of Aniko’s work is not that dark, she just embraces this as part of all that is beautiful in this world. Or that’s how I see her work. I mean, her moniker is “Mandarin Duck” (I don’t know why … ) and commonly refers to her blog readers as “honey bunnies”, so she’s definitely not all about the dark side. See more of her varied work on her website and more journals on this Pinterest board.

 

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Making an Impression … all over.

December 4, 2013
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We have another example of scatter composition in this necklace from Aniko Kolesnikova. Since we’ve already done this for a couple days, why do you think this composition works? Or do you?

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I think it does. The elements, although different colors and irregularly placed, are all the same basic form–impressed and filled with colored clay, or in some cases a little extra bit of cane. The overall surface texture of the pieces are also impressed with hand tools so the overall surface is similar.

Hand tool texturing can be widely varied and works great for the scattered look or when kept in an orderly pattern. (By the way, we have a great article in the most recent issue of The Polymer Arts by Anke Humpert. It explores a variety of marks and various pointed hand tools, and explains how to explore them and other tools on your own–don’t miss out on that!) Aniko does quite a lot with hand tools as you’ll see if you spend some time on her website.

 

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.

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Outside Inspiration: Obsessive Ceramics

February 1, 2013
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Ricky Maldonado has to be at least a little bit obsessive. I saw his ceramic work as an image on Pinterest first and thought for certain I was looking at a polymer cane covered form. But no, the designs he applies are completely hand done, every dot, every dash drawn out on the piece before he carefully fills in the pattern with glazes.

He creates teapots, plates, gift boxes and other vessels as well as balance focused sculptures like this one he titled Alien Mardi Gras.

2005alienMardiGras

 

Ricky’s work is just another reminder that with polymer, we really do have it easy. We can develop patterns of intense intricacy with a handful of skillful steps and end up with yards of it from that one process. We can cover any kind of form with an infinite array of color, marks and texture and rather rapidly.

But sometimes, an extensive, hand applied process just can’t be beat. We have a couple artists in the next issue that apply detail carefully and fastidiously to achieve a complexity that draws you in not just in wonder at the visual impact but also in wonder at the patience and vision that created them. When the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts comes out (due to be mailed in digital and print out by the 18th) look for the work of artists such as Aniko Kolesnikova, Gera Scott Chandler, Marisol Ross, Sandra McCaw and Susan Dyer … all artist who obviously spend a great deal of time working out and developing the details in their pieces.

Quick and simple can be great for producing a large number of items that can be sold at a reasonable cost but as an artist, there is nothing to compare to a piece you spend hours and days, maybe even weeks or months with, a piece that gets every last consideration and fully expresses your intent and vision. These kinds of pieces take time, are harder to sell for a price worthy of your efforts (we also have an article on pricing your art work in this next issue) and can be much harder to part, especially if you don’t do this kind of thing often. But then, if you find you love it and do have a hard time parting with such pieces, doesn’t that just tell you that you probably need to take this approach more often?

Something to ponder this weekend. Me, I will be pondering the last of the seemingly never-ending details that accompany a periodical being readied for the printer. At least this is the kind of project is something I not only have no problem parting with, I am thrilled to send it out to all of you so you can get as excited about the inspiring ideas, words and art of the artists who so generously share their stories and work with us this issue.  I very much look forward to hearing what you think.

 

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