The Collaborative Path
January 3, 2015
Inspirational Art
A last idea to push you into new territory this year would be to try a collaboration; you could work with another artist and share the process of creation. You could have equal say in all the elements of a piece, or you could each work independently on components that are brought together later. One of you could start a piece, and the other can finish it. You can collaborate with other polymer artists, artists in other mediums, including two-dimensional art forms (any 2-D image can be used as a transfer or as a background for instance).
So who do you know that you might want to work with? It’s kind of a scary prospect, isn’t it? I have collaborations in mind with a couple people this year, and I’m almost too scared to ask! But I know it will push me to get into the studio when I would otherwise let the magazine take over and it will push me to think in ways I haven’t before.
Here is a collaboration between Carol Simmons and Rebecca Watkins from 2013. Can you see what each of them contributed? And isn’t is wonderful how cohesive it is? You can read up on their project in the post Carol has on her blog.
So what do you think? Are you going to push yourself and try something completely different this year? If you do, let me know. Send photos, and we’ll look at sharing them as they come up!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Shift and Illustrated
November 5, 2014
Inspirational Art
Here are a couple interesting examples of creating depth using polymer. I thought it was particularly interesting that they are the same forms created by the same artist, who obviously has some interest in the subject.
On the left we have some seriously mashed mica shift with a great organic look, while on the right we have a pure illustration created with a shadow cane. I love some dramatic mica shift, but I have to say the shadow cane is the the one that really draws you in. Take a closer look at Jeanette Kandray’s cane on her Flickr page. Those paving stone-like formations seem to get deeper the more you look at them. Well, maybe a lack of sleep helps with the illusion, but I’m sure well rested, it’s still pretty impressive.
Speaking of sleep deprivation, I’m going to get back to my never ending To Do list in hopes of getting some sleep tonight. I’ll leave you to ogle these and the many other projects on Jeanette’s Flickr photostream and her website. And if you like that cane, lucky us … Jeanette has a tutorial of it available on her Etsy site.
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.
Floating Points
June 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
This organic sculpture brooch by Jana Roberts Benzon has enough interesting curves and twists, not to mention intriguing textures and bright colors, to hold its own without a lot of additional elements. But it is the small floating points that emerge from its interior that make this piece work so well. They work as focal points as well as adding an element of airiness to what could have been a relatively heavy feeling piece. There was already a lot of movement in the edges of the folds but the additional points moving out and away from it really make this piece come alive.
You can see more of Jana’s work on her website and her Flickr photostream as well as checking out her classes on CraftEdu, her own DVDs, and her workshops schedule.
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.
Cane Components–Breaking it Down
July 10, 2013
Inspirational Art, Tips and Tricks
When it comes down to it, canes are not much more than components that we collect into a visually cohesive whole. It sounds simple. Bring a number of shapes, colors and/or lines together and you have a cane. But its the intention of the design, the way you choose components and how you arrange them that makes the cane worthy of becoming that important part of a piece of art.
One of the best ways to learn about arrangement of components for a cane is to actually do it backwards; start with any visual item of a recognizable image you wish–an illustration or a photo–and break it down into its components. Identify each color, each shape, every line that makes up the image. From these components you can reproduce the image in a cane. But first you need the analytical skill to break it down.
A big box of colored pencils can help you break down the colors in the image. Make sample ‘swatches’ of the colors with the color pencils on the side of a print out of the image. Yes, you could do this with polymer as well; but the color pencils keep you in a narrow focus of just analyzing color, not creating it, and speeds up the process. Same goes for not using a computer aided analysis of the image … you need to walk yourself through this, going through the process of comparing each color to the selection you have available.
To break down the shapes and lines, a bit of tracing paper upon which you outline each block of color and each complete line you would need to duplicate in a single polymer color will help you see the individual components.
This analysis you go through in order to reproduce the image will force your brain to do something it purposely and necessarily does not normally do … see an image as the bits and pieces that make it up, not the whole of the image itself. It can be quite a hurdle to get your brain to stop trying to make a recognizable image out of the pieces before it. But this is what you must do to reproduce an image as a cane. And learning how components work together will help you in creating even the most abstract canes. You learn how shapes, lines and colors work together, and that is the basis of every cane you will ever make.
Canes are not that different from pointillism or representational mosaics. An artist puts different colored dots or shapes together, and when you back away from the surface so you can’t see the components a complete image emerges. Take a look at any of Julie Eakes incredible examples of caning to see this exact effect.
If you want to really dig into this concept, read through Julie’s blog and/or get one of her CraftArtEdu classes on caning.
A last idea to push you into new territory this year would be to try a collaboration; you could work with another artist and share the process of creation. You could have equal say in all the elements of a piece, or you could each work independently on components that are brought together later. One of you could start a piece, and the other can finish it. You can collaborate with other polymer artists, artists in other mediums, including two-dimensional art forms (any 2-D image can be used as a transfer or as a background for instance).
So who do you know that you might want to work with? It’s kind of a scary prospect, isn’t it? I have collaborations in mind with a couple people this year, and I’m almost too scared to ask! But I know it will push me to get into the studio when I would otherwise let the magazine take over and it will push me to think in ways I haven’t before.
Here is a collaboration between Carol Simmons and Rebecca Watkins from 2013. Can you see what each of them contributed? And isn’t is wonderful how cohesive it is? You can read up on their project in the post Carol has on her blog.
So what do you think? Are you going to push yourself and try something completely different this year? If you do, let me know. Send photos, and we’ll look at sharing them as they come up!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Here are a couple interesting examples of creating depth using polymer. I thought it was particularly interesting that they are the same forms created by the same artist, who obviously has some interest in the subject.
On the left we have some seriously mashed mica shift with a great organic look, while on the right we have a pure illustration created with a shadow cane. I love some dramatic mica shift, but I have to say the shadow cane is the the one that really draws you in. Take a closer look at Jeanette Kandray’s cane on her Flickr page. Those paving stone-like formations seem to get deeper the more you look at them. Well, maybe a lack of sleep helps with the illusion, but I’m sure well rested, it’s still pretty impressive.
Speaking of sleep deprivation, I’m going to get back to my never ending To Do list in hopes of getting some sleep tonight. I’ll leave you to ogle these and the many other projects on Jeanette’s Flickr photostream and her website. And if you like that cane, lucky us … Jeanette has a tutorial of it available on her Etsy site.
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.
This organic sculpture brooch by Jana Roberts Benzon has enough interesting curves and twists, not to mention intriguing textures and bright colors, to hold its own without a lot of additional elements. But it is the small floating points that emerge from its interior that make this piece work so well. They work as focal points as well as adding an element of airiness to what could have been a relatively heavy feeling piece. There was already a lot of movement in the edges of the folds but the additional points moving out and away from it really make this piece come alive.
You can see more of Jana’s work on her website and her Flickr photostream as well as checking out her classes on CraftEdu, her own DVDs, and her workshops schedule.
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.
When it comes down to it, canes are not much more than components that we collect into a visually cohesive whole. It sounds simple. Bring a number of shapes, colors and/or lines together and you have a cane. But its the intention of the design, the way you choose components and how you arrange them that makes the cane worthy of becoming that important part of a piece of art.
One of the best ways to learn about arrangement of components for a cane is to actually do it backwards; start with any visual item of a recognizable image you wish–an illustration or a photo–and break it down into its components. Identify each color, each shape, every line that makes up the image. From these components you can reproduce the image in a cane. But first you need the analytical skill to break it down.
A big box of colored pencils can help you break down the colors in the image. Make sample ‘swatches’ of the colors with the color pencils on the side of a print out of the image. Yes, you could do this with polymer as well; but the color pencils keep you in a narrow focus of just analyzing color, not creating it, and speeds up the process. Same goes for not using a computer aided analysis of the image … you need to walk yourself through this, going through the process of comparing each color to the selection you have available.
To break down the shapes and lines, a bit of tracing paper upon which you outline each block of color and each complete line you would need to duplicate in a single polymer color will help you see the individual components.
This analysis you go through in order to reproduce the image will force your brain to do something it purposely and necessarily does not normally do … see an image as the bits and pieces that make it up, not the whole of the image itself. It can be quite a hurdle to get your brain to stop trying to make a recognizable image out of the pieces before it. But this is what you must do to reproduce an image as a cane. And learning how components work together will help you in creating even the most abstract canes. You learn how shapes, lines and colors work together, and that is the basis of every cane you will ever make.
Canes are not that different from pointillism or representational mosaics. An artist puts different colored dots or shapes together, and when you back away from the surface so you can’t see the components a complete image emerges. Take a look at any of Julie Eakes incredible examples of caning to see this exact effect.
If you want to really dig into this concept, read through Julie’s blog and/or get one of her CraftArtEdu classes on caning.
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