Outside Inspiration: Patience in Black

May 23, 2014

I am a sucker for nice recycled work. Reducing the impact on the environment and creating amazing art in the process is, well, a beautiful thing.

This bit of work you see here is amazing. I thought it looked like an intricately carved tire. Upon close inspection I saw that, yes, it actually was an intricately carved tire! And so beautiful. I can’t imagine how long it took to do this but when seeing things like this, I feel like a bit of a wimp. Polymer is so immediately responsive–we can make highly intricate looking pieces quite quickly with stamps and textures. Even our work with hand tools is relatively easy. What if we just took a little more time, a touch more care; what if we spent days and weeks creating the most beautiful thing we could imagine instead of finding the shortcuts? What would we end up with?

f3c2cfc57d0ebbb8c6382f07e55cac78

The amazing artist with what must be an endless supply of patience is Belgium’s Wim Delvoye. Wim works in a wide variety of rather random materials, not just tires. If you like the intricacy and detail here, you need to see his stainless steel carvings–they are similar to the tire but with dozens of layers. His front page is cartoony and fun but the work underneath is quite sophisticated. Enjoy!

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   polymer clay overlapping cane   14P1 cover Fnl

Carving Hollow Polymer

March 4, 2013

I thought you all would really like the gourd art I posted on Friday’s but wow … I’ve never received so many emails about how blown away you were by any single thing we’ve posted. (By the way, if you really like a post and you get this by email, instead of replying to the email, click the title link to leave a message on the blog post so you can share your thoughts with everyone, not just me. Much more fun that way!)  The idea of carving polymer in such a fashion has grabbed more than a few people’s imagination.

I don’t want you all to let the idea drop by the wayside either. It can and has been done in intricate detail. Perhaps you saw some of Daniel Torres’ hollow bracelets year before last as images made the rounds due to his appearance at the 2011 Clay Carnival. If you missed them, here is one of his more ‘hole’y pieces.

5538436760_2d6c69706b

 

Now, Daniel uses a very cool but specific technique to make these. You would really need to take a class with him to do this kind of hollow form work (He is a fountain of information and a really intelligent and funny guy to boot so if you have the chance to take a class with him, don’t hesitate!) But similar work could be done by using half round forms or something else dimensional but not requiring tricky hollow form processes.

My mind is still spinning with ideas although I’m so occupied with getting ready for Synergy 3 and all the usual magazine business that I won’t be able to try anything out until later this month. I hope those of you who have expressed trying a bit of carving won’t have to wait. Go to it and please do share with me what you do.

Speaking of sharing, there are just two more days to get in work to be considered for the polymer clay show at the Flow Arts Gallery this Spring. The Polymer Clay Guild of Minnesota has organized the national show for polymer clay artists. It’s a juried exhibition with over $500 in awards. Here is the link to submit: http://www.flowartspace.com/submit-work.html Go forth and share! (And win some bucks if you can!)

 

Outside Inspiration: Unbelievable Gourds

March 1, 2013

Trying to figure out which of Mark Doolittle’s gourds to share with you was a serious exercise in restraint. I was inclined to post a dozen of them for he creates such a variety and this is no ordinary gourd art. Not that I even need to tell you that. You can see it from this one image:

DoolittleGourd

 

Mark carves the gourds and his wife Kathy creates the paper appliques that add the color to the pieces.  I wondered as I looked through his gorgeous online gallery if he ever tried combining polymer with these. How wonderful would that be?

This has me seriously considering trying out gourd carving just so I can see first hand the possibilities with polymer. Of course, we could even make our own polymer vessels to carve and add to. The idea machine in my head has just been going full bore since finding these. You really must take a moment to go to his site and see the huge variety of stunning pieces. He does similar work in wood as well so there is a just a ton of eye candy on this site. Get a cup of something warm and explore!

Outside Inspiration: Patience in Black

May 23, 2014
Posted in

I am a sucker for nice recycled work. Reducing the impact on the environment and creating amazing art in the process is, well, a beautiful thing.

This bit of work you see here is amazing. I thought it looked like an intricately carved tire. Upon close inspection I saw that, yes, it actually was an intricately carved tire! And so beautiful. I can’t imagine how long it took to do this but when seeing things like this, I feel like a bit of a wimp. Polymer is so immediately responsive–we can make highly intricate looking pieces quite quickly with stamps and textures. Even our work with hand tools is relatively easy. What if we just took a little more time, a touch more care; what if we spent days and weeks creating the most beautiful thing we could imagine instead of finding the shortcuts? What would we end up with?

f3c2cfc57d0ebbb8c6382f07e55cac78

The amazing artist with what must be an endless supply of patience is Belgium’s Wim Delvoye. Wim works in a wide variety of rather random materials, not just tires. If you like the intricacy and detail here, you need to see his stainless steel carvings–they are similar to the tire but with dozens of layers. His front page is cartoony and fun but the work underneath is quite sophisticated. Enjoy!

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   polymer clay overlapping cane   14P1 cover Fnl

Read More

Carving Hollow Polymer

March 4, 2013
Posted in

I thought you all would really like the gourd art I posted on Friday’s but wow … I’ve never received so many emails about how blown away you were by any single thing we’ve posted. (By the way, if you really like a post and you get this by email, instead of replying to the email, click the title link to leave a message on the blog post so you can share your thoughts with everyone, not just me. Much more fun that way!)  The idea of carving polymer in such a fashion has grabbed more than a few people’s imagination.

I don’t want you all to let the idea drop by the wayside either. It can and has been done in intricate detail. Perhaps you saw some of Daniel Torres’ hollow bracelets year before last as images made the rounds due to his appearance at the 2011 Clay Carnival. If you missed them, here is one of his more ‘hole’y pieces.

5538436760_2d6c69706b

 

Now, Daniel uses a very cool but specific technique to make these. You would really need to take a class with him to do this kind of hollow form work (He is a fountain of information and a really intelligent and funny guy to boot so if you have the chance to take a class with him, don’t hesitate!) But similar work could be done by using half round forms or something else dimensional but not requiring tricky hollow form processes.

My mind is still spinning with ideas although I’m so occupied with getting ready for Synergy 3 and all the usual magazine business that I won’t be able to try anything out until later this month. I hope those of you who have expressed trying a bit of carving won’t have to wait. Go to it and please do share with me what you do.

Speaking of sharing, there are just two more days to get in work to be considered for the polymer clay show at the Flow Arts Gallery this Spring. The Polymer Clay Guild of Minnesota has organized the national show for polymer clay artists. It’s a juried exhibition with over $500 in awards. Here is the link to submit: http://www.flowartspace.com/submit-work.html Go forth and share! (And win some bucks if you can!)

 

Read More

Outside Inspiration: Unbelievable Gourds

March 1, 2013
Posted in

Trying to figure out which of Mark Doolittle’s gourds to share with you was a serious exercise in restraint. I was inclined to post a dozen of them for he creates such a variety and this is no ordinary gourd art. Not that I even need to tell you that. You can see it from this one image:

DoolittleGourd

 

Mark carves the gourds and his wife Kathy creates the paper appliques that add the color to the pieces.  I wondered as I looked through his gorgeous online gallery if he ever tried combining polymer with these. How wonderful would that be?

This has me seriously considering trying out gourd carving just so I can see first hand the possibilities with polymer. Of course, we could even make our own polymer vessels to carve and add to. The idea machine in my head has just been going full bore since finding these. You really must take a moment to go to his site and see the huge variety of stunning pieces. He does similar work in wood as well so there is a just a ton of eye candy on this site. Get a cup of something warm and explore!

Read More
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