In Search of Art

December 31, 2018

Here you are, on the eve of the new year. What are your resolutions for the upcoming year? Isn’t that the big question tonight? Well, in my humble opinion, the only thing that really matters, art-wise, is that you create and that what you create is something that makes you happy and satisfies your soul. Now, how do you make that happen?

A big part of keeping yourself creating and doing something that makes you happy is keeping motivated with fresh ideas flowing. That is really hard to do all alone in your head so getting outside help is extremely advantageous. To that end, I want to share with you a few options for keeping yourself motivated this coming year as this week’s theme.

Of course, keeping subscribed or checked in on this blog as well as other excellent blogs such as Cynthia Tinapples’s “Polymer Clay Daily” will be a great help. I would also suggest looking at non-polymer artwork. This can be easily done through other art blogs as they will basically do the searching for you. Some of my favorites are Colossal, which looks at all types of art but, it seems to me, they show more craft art than a lot of art blogs but mostly it’s full of amazing crazy work.

If you focus on jewelry-making, you should really check out the Art Jewelry Forum blog. I think I first became aware of this blog when led there by a search for work by Ford and Forlano. This post, which you can click through to here, featured some gorgeous jewelry by the duo including the necklace you see here. Although they do not commonly feature polymer clay, it will introduce you to a lot of mixed-media that can readily inspire polymer ideas as well as beautifully designed pieces.

You can also search for blogs by keywords plus the word blog for additional resources of inspiration, such as +art +jewelry +blog, or +polymer +clay +blog. Try it out and see what treasures you find!

 

 

Ripples in the Works

September 22, 2014

Kim Cavendar First of all, apologies for nothing showing up over the weekend. We had some glitch that wasn’t letting us post. It took all weekend to get it figured out so we had to just abandon our Saturday post. I’m aiming to make up for that with a Sunday post this week.

This week we’re going to look at rippling and related visuals. Inspired by Shibori and Shibori like items on Pinterest, my editorial assistant Paula Gilbert, sent me a number of links to Shirbori like pieces. Shibori, according to the entry on Wikipedia, is a Japanese tie-dying technique. There are an infinite number of ways one can bind, stitch, fold, twist, or compress cloth for Shibori, and each way results in very different patterns.”

In polymer, folding or fitting together sections of blended clay can readily emulate the look of shibori. This beautiful bracelet was created by Kim Cavender, and looks to be inspired by a common folded and stitched technique used with silks in Shibori. Her notes on Flickr do point to dyed silk ribbons as the inspiration.

If you want to see the wide variety of Shibori techniques out there, just punch the term into Google images, Pinterest or Flickr and you will find yourself just drowning in all the luscious textures and colors shibori artists’ offer. And for more Kim Cavender, take a look at her Flickr pages and 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.

14-P3 Fall-Play cover Full sm   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2   3d star ad  Polymania Advert 125  tpa-125x125-blog

Sparkling SkyScrapers

November 27, 2012

Last winter the cover of The Polymer Arts was graced with beautiful brocade polymer purses by Iris Mishly of PolyPediaOnline. Iris is quite the innovator and her library of tutorials as well as her blog is a treasure box of fantastic ideas. One of her more recent tutorials is on a technique she refers to as ‘SkyScraper” in reference to the sparkling effect of tall city buidlings in the sun.

The necklace here is an example of what the technique can create. She emphasizes that the process requires baking before creating so we can surmise that there will be some very different ideas and tricks to be gleaned from this class in particular.

Iris’ tutorials follow a growing trend of artists that combine lengthy videos and printed materials into a very in-depth and intensive class you can take at your own pace and at a significantly lower cost than traveling and attending workshops. Not that technology will ever begin to replace that hands-on, in-person experience but with the wealth of information out there from generous artists all over the world, this technology and approach is a great way to get a wonderfully broad and diverse polymer education.

See all of Iris’ tutorial classes here. She also offers quite a number of free tuts  and free videos with additional tips and ideas.

Pastels and Polymer

One of the coolest things about polymer is that you can use virtually any art material with it in some fashion. On some trips to art and craft stores, I will wander every aisle and think of ways to use what I find.

So it really is no surprise to see someone using pastels on polymer. In a way it’s just a matte version of mica powders but unlike the standard matte powder option I have in my studio–cosmetic grade iron oxides–pastels come in dozens of colors.  Hélène Jeanclaude shows just how to prepare and use pastels on her blog here in order to make items like this beautiful rust and patina look necklace.

Another cool thing about pastels is that they are not created equal … the pigment saturation from one brand to the next can be drastically different but that just means you have more options. If you want lighter more diffused color, the inexpensive kid’s sets should work just fine. The more expensive pastels sold by the stick at fine art supply stores can be so wonderfully saturated that the colors just glow. And there is everything in between. Just more color to play with!

In Search of Art

December 31, 2018
Posted in

Here you are, on the eve of the new year. What are your resolutions for the upcoming year? Isn’t that the big question tonight? Well, in my humble opinion, the only thing that really matters, art-wise, is that you create and that what you create is something that makes you happy and satisfies your soul. Now, how do you make that happen?

A big part of keeping yourself creating and doing something that makes you happy is keeping motivated with fresh ideas flowing. That is really hard to do all alone in your head so getting outside help is extremely advantageous. To that end, I want to share with you a few options for keeping yourself motivated this coming year as this week’s theme.

Of course, keeping subscribed or checked in on this blog as well as other excellent blogs such as Cynthia Tinapples’s “Polymer Clay Daily” will be a great help. I would also suggest looking at non-polymer artwork. This can be easily done through other art blogs as they will basically do the searching for you. Some of my favorites are Colossal, which looks at all types of art but, it seems to me, they show more craft art than a lot of art blogs but mostly it’s full of amazing crazy work.

If you focus on jewelry-making, you should really check out the Art Jewelry Forum blog. I think I first became aware of this blog when led there by a search for work by Ford and Forlano. This post, which you can click through to here, featured some gorgeous jewelry by the duo including the necklace you see here. Although they do not commonly feature polymer clay, it will introduce you to a lot of mixed-media that can readily inspire polymer ideas as well as beautifully designed pieces.

You can also search for blogs by keywords plus the word blog for additional resources of inspiration, such as +art +jewelry +blog, or +polymer +clay +blog. Try it out and see what treasures you find!

 

 

Read More

Ripples in the Works

September 22, 2014
Posted in

Kim Cavendar First of all, apologies for nothing showing up over the weekend. We had some glitch that wasn’t letting us post. It took all weekend to get it figured out so we had to just abandon our Saturday post. I’m aiming to make up for that with a Sunday post this week.

This week we’re going to look at rippling and related visuals. Inspired by Shibori and Shibori like items on Pinterest, my editorial assistant Paula Gilbert, sent me a number of links to Shirbori like pieces. Shibori, according to the entry on Wikipedia, is a Japanese tie-dying technique. There are an infinite number of ways one can bind, stitch, fold, twist, or compress cloth for Shibori, and each way results in very different patterns.”

In polymer, folding or fitting together sections of blended clay can readily emulate the look of shibori. This beautiful bracelet was created by Kim Cavender, and looks to be inspired by a common folded and stitched technique used with silks in Shibori. Her notes on Flickr do point to dyed silk ribbons as the inspiration.

If you want to see the wide variety of Shibori techniques out there, just punch the term into Google images, Pinterest or Flickr and you will find yourself just drowning in all the luscious textures and colors shibori artists’ offer. And for more Kim Cavender, take a look at her Flickr pages and 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.

14-P3 Fall-Play cover Full sm   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2   3d star ad  Polymania Advert 125  tpa-125x125-blog

Read More

Sparkling SkyScrapers

November 27, 2012
Posted in

Last winter the cover of The Polymer Arts was graced with beautiful brocade polymer purses by Iris Mishly of PolyPediaOnline. Iris is quite the innovator and her library of tutorials as well as her blog is a treasure box of fantastic ideas. One of her more recent tutorials is on a technique she refers to as ‘SkyScraper” in reference to the sparkling effect of tall city buidlings in the sun.

The necklace here is an example of what the technique can create. She emphasizes that the process requires baking before creating so we can surmise that there will be some very different ideas and tricks to be gleaned from this class in particular.

Iris’ tutorials follow a growing trend of artists that combine lengthy videos and printed materials into a very in-depth and intensive class you can take at your own pace and at a significantly lower cost than traveling and attending workshops. Not that technology will ever begin to replace that hands-on, in-person experience but with the wealth of information out there from generous artists all over the world, this technology and approach is a great way to get a wonderfully broad and diverse polymer education.

See all of Iris’ tutorial classes here. She also offers quite a number of free tuts  and free videos with additional tips and ideas.

Read More

Pastels and Polymer

November 6, 2012
Posted in ,

One of the coolest things about polymer is that you can use virtually any art material with it in some fashion. On some trips to art and craft stores, I will wander every aisle and think of ways to use what I find.

So it really is no surprise to see someone using pastels on polymer. In a way it’s just a matte version of mica powders but unlike the standard matte powder option I have in my studio–cosmetic grade iron oxides–pastels come in dozens of colors.  Hélène Jeanclaude shows just how to prepare and use pastels on her blog here in order to make items like this beautiful rust and patina look necklace.

Another cool thing about pastels is that they are not created equal … the pigment saturation from one brand to the next can be drastically different but that just means you have more options. If you want lighter more diffused color, the inexpensive kid’s sets should work just fine. The more expensive pastels sold by the stick at fine art supply stores can be so wonderfully saturated that the colors just glow. And there is everything in between. Just more color to play with!

Read More
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