Changing Things Up
January 3, 2017
Uncategorized
Well, here we are … first post of 2017 and I find myself, again, focused on how to make this a year full of useful information and inspiration for everyone who so kindly drops in on my mental meanderings. To that end, I have decided to make a couple tweaks.
I’m going to have just one Inspirational Challenge a week, at the end of the week, so those who were feeling bad that they couldn’t do all three each week (not that I expected that myself!), will feel some of the pressure come off and we’ll have the weekend to work on them.
The other thing is to prioritize studio time in my schedule for myself. This will greatly be assisted by the fact that as of next week, I will finally have the space for a dedicated and properly equipped studio in California, the state I will now be calling home as I move into our new house. I still have my space in Colorado but will be there only once a quarter or so. Not traveling nearly every month will certainly help with getting more time in the studio too.
To further assist in my New Year’s resolution to find more studio time in my day, I might change up the posts a bit, as long as I can still give you great content. Just want to see what I can do with very short formats. Then, after the move I’ll put together a survey and get your input on what you’d like to see in the blogs, newsletters, magazines and books. If you have specific ideas that you think I should put to a vote in this survey, write me directly at sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com before the 14th of January.
In the meantime, let’s look at some clever designs this week that take common or familiar ideas but give them an interesting tweak. These beads are, I believe, variations on using the same striped sheets of clay but arranged in different patterns. It is hard to believe these could all be from the same initial pattern but look at each piece closely and you’ll see a bargello like concept used to arrange each one. It’s rather fascinating to identify what Jana Honnerova did here. It’s rather like some kind of brain puzzle. But it brings to mind what we can get out of pushing our arrangements.
Jana’s hallmark seems to be taking one thing and seeing what else can be done with it, both with her own techniques and the techniques she has learned from others. See whose influences you can identify in her work and what she does to change up the approach of other artists on her Flickr photostream.
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Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Things Missed
August 12, 2013
Inspirational Art
One of the more difficult parts of editing a magazine is deciding not what will go in, but what won’t. For every article you see and every artist featured, there are many more ideas and pieces that are worthy of attention and examination. This week, I thought I’d present some art, artists, ideas, and references that were in my notes or folders but which didn’t make it into this issue (not that they won’t in a future issue!) or that I wish I could have explored further.
The Fall 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts prints the last of the three article series on Wall Art put together by Alice Stroppel and Suzanne Ivester. I’ll miss their in-depth investigation into this form of polymer art, but hope to get back to the subject through other avenues of discussion. I have a whole page of ideas and artists that work in wall art that we haven’t gotten to yet. Here is one such polymer wall artist that works with tiles pieces and multiple treatments. Gail Woods began exploring the possibilities of polymer clay tiles after taking a class with the very talented Laurie Mika (who is the featured artist interviewed in our Color Spotlight in this upcoming issue, by the way.)
Her wall pieces go from mosaic to bargello to puzzle style compositions like the one here. Her wall art allows her to directly explore favorite subjects such as the ocean, being out in nature, and just the favorite things in her everyday life. Enjoy looking through her eyes in her gallery here.
Mudpile Mokume Gane
June 30, 2012
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
If you read the “Polymer Resurrection Workshop” article in the last issue of The Polymer Arts, you saw how easy it is to make successful mokume gane from scrap. I’ve been hearing from a lot of people who have been taking this scrap approach so when I ran across this tutorial by Elizabeth Campbell,, I thought I really ought to share. Here’s a resulting piece from the technique:
This is a a fun variation on the mokume gane challenge that does not require sorting the clay at all. You just use your “mud pile.” It’s perfect for leftover canes pieces and the little bits of clay you have at the bottom of your scrap bin.
If you are getting into the Bargello technique from that same article, Elizabeth has a quick overview on creating a Skinner blend Bargello sheet as well.
Well, here we are … first post of 2017 and I find myself, again, focused on how to make this a year full of useful information and inspiration for everyone who so kindly drops in on my mental meanderings. To that end, I have decided to make a couple tweaks.
I’m going to have just one Inspirational Challenge a week, at the end of the week, so those who were feeling bad that they couldn’t do all three each week (not that I expected that myself!), will feel some of the pressure come off and we’ll have the weekend to work on them.
The other thing is to prioritize studio time in my schedule for myself. This will greatly be assisted by the fact that as of next week, I will finally have the space for a dedicated and properly equipped studio in California, the state I will now be calling home as I move into our new house. I still have my space in Colorado but will be there only once a quarter or so. Not traveling nearly every month will certainly help with getting more time in the studio too.
To further assist in my New Year’s resolution to find more studio time in my day, I might change up the posts a bit, as long as I can still give you great content. Just want to see what I can do with very short formats. Then, after the move I’ll put together a survey and get your input on what you’d like to see in the blogs, newsletters, magazines and books. If you have specific ideas that you think I should put to a vote in this survey, write me directly at sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com before the 14th of January.
In the meantime, let’s look at some clever designs this week that take common or familiar ideas but give them an interesting tweak. These beads are, I believe, variations on using the same striped sheets of clay but arranged in different patterns. It is hard to believe these could all be from the same initial pattern but look at each piece closely and you’ll see a bargello like concept used to arrange each one. It’s rather fascinating to identify what Jana Honnerova did here. It’s rather like some kind of brain puzzle. But it brings to mind what we can get out of pushing our arrangements.
Jana’s hallmark seems to be taking one thing and seeing what else can be done with it, both with her own techniques and the techniques she has learned from others. See whose influences you can identify in her work and what she does to change up the approach of other artists on her Flickr photostream.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreOne of the more difficult parts of editing a magazine is deciding not what will go in, but what won’t. For every article you see and every artist featured, there are many more ideas and pieces that are worthy of attention and examination. This week, I thought I’d present some art, artists, ideas, and references that were in my notes or folders but which didn’t make it into this issue (not that they won’t in a future issue!) or that I wish I could have explored further.
The Fall 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts prints the last of the three article series on Wall Art put together by Alice Stroppel and Suzanne Ivester. I’ll miss their in-depth investigation into this form of polymer art, but hope to get back to the subject through other avenues of discussion. I have a whole page of ideas and artists that work in wall art that we haven’t gotten to yet. Here is one such polymer wall artist that works with tiles pieces and multiple treatments. Gail Woods began exploring the possibilities of polymer clay tiles after taking a class with the very talented Laurie Mika (who is the featured artist interviewed in our Color Spotlight in this upcoming issue, by the way.)
Her wall pieces go from mosaic to bargello to puzzle style compositions like the one here. Her wall art allows her to directly explore favorite subjects such as the ocean, being out in nature, and just the favorite things in her everyday life. Enjoy looking through her eyes in her gallery here.
If you read the “Polymer Resurrection Workshop” article in the last issue of The Polymer Arts, you saw how easy it is to make successful mokume gane from scrap. I’ve been hearing from a lot of people who have been taking this scrap approach so when I ran across this tutorial by Elizabeth Campbell,, I thought I really ought to share. Here’s a resulting piece from the technique:
This is a a fun variation on the mokume gane challenge that does not require sorting the clay at all. You just use your “mud pile.” It’s perfect for leftover canes pieces and the little bits of clay you have at the bottom of your scrap bin.
If you are getting into the Bargello technique from that same article, Elizabeth has a quick overview on creating a Skinner blend Bargello sheet as well.
Read More