Outside Inspiration: Beautiful Empty Frames
December 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
Yep … back to frames again today. There are just so many beautiful pieces with unique ways to incorporate frames.
Here, we have earrings by metal jewelry artist Nisa Smiley that are more than just frames. In actuality, what the open spaces frame is negative space. That negative space is filled with whatever your imagination comes up with or with the background beyond. Open metal work like this feels airy and light, which matches the wing imagery here.
Nisa works her pieces to bring elements of nature to the metal. She says “When creating a piece of jewelry, I strive to combine five elements of nature that speak most strongly to me: color, pattern, texture, organic shape, and metal. My sense of design recognizes these patterns, textures, and colors to be the ultimate complement to the human figure.” Can you discern the five elements she is working towards in this piece?
Although these frames may seem a bit delicate to create in polymer, open work and the framing of negative space is still a viable idea to work into your pieces when that airiness or space for the imagination are desired. You can see a bit more of this along with beautiful stones and colorfully treated metals in more of Nisa pieces 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.
Orbiting Frames
December 10, 2014
Inspirational Art
Strangely, this week has become all about frames, which, of course, fits with the theme of the new issue, but my thoughts and the pieces I am being drawn to are these multilayer frames. So, here is one other option for playing with multiple frames in one piece.
I love this idea of creating windows and multiples of them layered on top of one another, but not lining them up. The tiered windows still bring focus to the center image as frames will do, but the off-kilter layering of them creates such vibrant, yet contained movement. These are a beautiful bit of genius created by Vee (Veesuel), who has several versions of these; primarily with more solid colored surface treatments. I am rather fond of the cane work versions, as it adds to the energy of the pieces; an energy matched by the movement the varied placement of the frames create.
Vee does some beautifully finished work in a variety of styles. And her site is quite pretty and easy to navigate. So, why not grab a cup of something yummy and warm and go visit her for a while?
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.
Framed Opportunity
December 9, 2014
Inspirational Art
I think we are all rather familiar with the idea of a decorative frame. We’ve seen them on old paintings, antique mirrors and even around windows and doors. Frames can be a work of art unto themselves. So when framing your own work, why not go ahead and consider pushing the decorative aspect just as you might with your bails, clasps, spacer beads or any other element added to your work? Just how far can you take it?
Well, one possible answer as to how far you can take decorative framing can be found in the work of Julie Eakes, who is the featured artist in Maggie Maggio’s “Color Spotlight” section of our winter issue. These highly-detailed and deeply, layered frames may not fit a lot of work since the business of the frames would compete with the image it is surrounding, but in a case like this, it rather matches. Julie is best know for her face cane and pointillism, so the images she frames are the strongest types of images we are drawn to (we gravitate to faces before any other easily, recognized imagery), and her canes are quite complex, so the frames work with these images rather than drown them out.
How far could you take your frames so that they work with what you are framing? Or could fun with complex frames push you to create more complex images? You can read more about why and how Julie creates these canes and frames in the article and read more about her work on her blog.
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.
Wrap it Around
January 28, 2014
Inspirational Art
One of the primary reasons for using frames is to finish off the edge of a bead or element so it is functional but it doesn’t have to be purely functional. It is going to show, so why not make it a major part of the design?
Ivana Brozova has brought her frame into the design by creating a wave to the edge that comes up onto the bead’s surface. It gives the frame more surface so the analogous colors in the frame become a more substantial part of the bead and the wave in the frame plays off the aquatic theme of the necklace.
Ivana is another explorer in the ways of polymer with some wonderfully different, often edgy but always intriguing work. Take a swim through her artistic world on her Flickr photostream.
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.
Yep … back to frames again today. There are just so many beautiful pieces with unique ways to incorporate frames.
Here, we have earrings by metal jewelry artist Nisa Smiley that are more than just frames. In actuality, what the open spaces frame is negative space. That negative space is filled with whatever your imagination comes up with or with the background beyond. Open metal work like this feels airy and light, which matches the wing imagery here.
Nisa works her pieces to bring elements of nature to the metal. She says “When creating a piece of jewelry, I strive to combine five elements of nature that speak most strongly to me: color, pattern, texture, organic shape, and metal. My sense of design recognizes these patterns, textures, and colors to be the ultimate complement to the human figure.” Can you discern the five elements she is working towards in this piece?
Although these frames may seem a bit delicate to create in polymer, open work and the framing of negative space is still a viable idea to work into your pieces when that airiness or space for the imagination are desired. You can see a bit more of this along with beautiful stones and colorfully treated metals in more of Nisa pieces 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.
Strangely, this week has become all about frames, which, of course, fits with the theme of the new issue, but my thoughts and the pieces I am being drawn to are these multilayer frames. So, here is one other option for playing with multiple frames in one piece.
I love this idea of creating windows and multiples of them layered on top of one another, but not lining them up. The tiered windows still bring focus to the center image as frames will do, but the off-kilter layering of them creates such vibrant, yet contained movement. These are a beautiful bit of genius created by Vee (Veesuel), who has several versions of these; primarily with more solid colored surface treatments. I am rather fond of the cane work versions, as it adds to the energy of the pieces; an energy matched by the movement the varied placement of the frames create.
Vee does some beautifully finished work in a variety of styles. And her site is quite pretty and easy to navigate. So, why not grab a cup of something yummy and warm and go visit her for a while?
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.
I think we are all rather familiar with the idea of a decorative frame. We’ve seen them on old paintings, antique mirrors and even around windows and doors. Frames can be a work of art unto themselves. So when framing your own work, why not go ahead and consider pushing the decorative aspect just as you might with your bails, clasps, spacer beads or any other element added to your work? Just how far can you take it?
Well, one possible answer as to how far you can take decorative framing can be found in the work of Julie Eakes, who is the featured artist in Maggie Maggio’s “Color Spotlight” section of our winter issue. These highly-detailed and deeply, layered frames may not fit a lot of work since the business of the frames would compete with the image it is surrounding, but in a case like this, it rather matches. Julie is best know for her face cane and pointillism, so the images she frames are the strongest types of images we are drawn to (we gravitate to faces before any other easily, recognized imagery), and her canes are quite complex, so the frames work with these images rather than drown them out.
How far could you take your frames so that they work with what you are framing? Or could fun with complex frames push you to create more complex images? You can read more about why and how Julie creates these canes and frames in the article and read more about her work on her blog.
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.
One of the primary reasons for using frames is to finish off the edge of a bead or element so it is functional but it doesn’t have to be purely functional. It is going to show, so why not make it a major part of the design?
Ivana Brozova has brought her frame into the design by creating a wave to the edge that comes up onto the bead’s surface. It gives the frame more surface so the analogous colors in the frame become a more substantial part of the bead and the wave in the frame plays off the aquatic theme of the necklace.
Ivana is another explorer in the ways of polymer with some wonderfully different, often edgy but always intriguing work. Take a swim through her artistic world on her Flickr photostream.
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.
