A Wave and a Tease
June 18, 2018
Inspirational Art
As of Thursday, I will be out of the country, gallivanting about with my family in Europe for a couple of weeks. Per doctor’s orders, I am trying to completely unplug so I will post something for you Wednesday and then, after that, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing from a number of other well-respected and accomplished artists as they share work by some favorite artists of theirs. It should be a nice, refreshing, change of pace for a couple of weeks, for you and I.
While I am gone, my assistant, Sydney, will be will be working away on our upcoming books we officially announced last week. Her first order of business will be working on the invitation list for the 2018 edition of Polymer Journeys, slated to come out in October. Consideration for inclusion in the book is by invitation only and although we have quite the list going already, we want to make sure we don’t miss anybody because you don’t have the right email or we’re simply not aware of what you’re doing. If you think your work should be included, see the details below.
Sydney will also be orchestrating the continued work on our first Polymer Art Projects tutorial collection – Organics. We’ll share the cover and set you up for pre-sale opportunities soon after I get back in mid-July. But, in the meantime, I’m going to be a terrible person and tease you by sharing a couple of pieces you will be able to make from the upcoming Projects book. Not to get you overly excited too early but I’m excited and dying to share some of this with you.
Here are variations on a pendant necklace that Debbie Crothers will teach you how to make in her tutorial in the book. She shares a number of her lovely surface treatments as well as a creative polymer clasp and other wonderful accents and touches. I asked Debbie to be part of this book because of her colorful, well-designed, but loose-feeling approach to surface design. She shows you how to complete a version of one of these but you’ll be able to easily take from the skills she teaches and create unique pieces of your own.
If you don’t follow Debbie and her blog, you can do so here. She often throws out little freebie tutorials as well as selling her fun and engaging video tutorials on her site here.
Polymer Journeys Invitations: If you were invited to participate in Polymer Journeys last time, you will be in the pool for the initial rounds to choose who gets invitations but please update us with your most recent email if it has changed since then. If you have not been previously invited but would like to be because your work represents some of the best that polymer has to offer and/or are contributing to the polymer community in unique or significantly supportive ways, you can request consideration for an invitation.
To be considered, fill out an invitation request here. Note that making a request does not guarantee an invitation as we are limited to 250 invitations and so we will narrow down the list in the first round before invitations are even sent out. Invitations go out mid-July. Submissions of work completed between 2016 and 2018 will be due in early September. If you have questions while I’m out, you can write Sydney at connect[at]thepolymerarts.com.
Outside Inspiration: The Humble Button Clasp
May 31, 2013
Inspirational Art
Today we’re just going to take a quick look and a well-deserved bow to a humble finding used regularly in seed bead pieces – the button style clasp. This is simply a bead or button that slips through a loop to secure it. It’s quite the popular clasp among seed bead artists for both necklaces and bracelets.
This bracelet showing a pretty typical button clasp is by Rachel of Balanced Crafts in Dublin, Ireland. This shows a button clasp that is really the central focus of the piece, one that contrasts with the even pattern of the beading, adding that focal point to bring it all together.
Here’s one more by bead artist Smadar Grossman. Looks somewhat like a toggle clasp, doesn’t it? The toggle and button clasp are essentially the same concept, only the entry point with a button clasp is a loop, and the back-up piece is the larger part of the pair.
Do these give you any good ideas? You can make the button from polymer, although you will need a cord, ribbon, or beaded loop of some sort to accomplish create this kind of clasp; but the cool thing is, the loop can be made basically invisible if the button half of the clasp is big enough. That way the button can become a focal point or a major component, without even drawing attention to its necessary function. Neat, huh?
Front Side Connections
May 28, 2013
Inspirational Art
Since I brought up polymer clasps yesterday, I thought I’d talk about a variation on that type of connection: the front side toggle, and derivations of it. The connection for a necklace does not have to be at the back. If you are making a piece with a central focal bead, why not make the bead a connectors as well?
One of my favorite versions of this is the almost bolo-like polymer and filigree pieces Janet Pitcher creates for her Petal Pushers line of polymer jewelry. The focal bead is like the entry point half of a toggle; but instead of an insertion piece that will back up against the opening of the entry point, Janet creates weighted lengths of ribbons with beads created from the same petal canes as the center piece. The bead-weighted ribbons are threaded through the focal bead, and hang there as part of the design.
This is not, by far, the only option for front side connections. A really showy or beautifully done toggle type clasp can operate as a focal bead, or a large bead sliced in half with magnets in either half can be the central focus of a necklace or bead design. Just don’t relegate your beautiful connectors to the back of the necklace or bracelet if showing them off out front will make for a gorgeous piece of jewelry.
As of Thursday, I will be out of the country, gallivanting about with my family in Europe for a couple of weeks. Per doctor’s orders, I am trying to completely unplug so I will post something for you Wednesday and then, after that, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing from a number of other well-respected and accomplished artists as they share work by some favorite artists of theirs. It should be a nice, refreshing, change of pace for a couple of weeks, for you and I.
While I am gone, my assistant, Sydney, will be will be working away on our upcoming books we officially announced last week. Her first order of business will be working on the invitation list for the 2018 edition of Polymer Journeys, slated to come out in October. Consideration for inclusion in the book is by invitation only and although we have quite the list going already, we want to make sure we don’t miss anybody because you don’t have the right email or we’re simply not aware of what you’re doing. If you think your work should be included, see the details below.
Sydney will also be orchestrating the continued work on our first Polymer Art Projects tutorial collection – Organics. We’ll share the cover and set you up for pre-sale opportunities soon after I get back in mid-July. But, in the meantime, I’m going to be a terrible person and tease you by sharing a couple of pieces you will be able to make from the upcoming Projects book. Not to get you overly excited too early but I’m excited and dying to share some of this with you.
Here are variations on a pendant necklace that Debbie Crothers will teach you how to make in her tutorial in the book. She shares a number of her lovely surface treatments as well as a creative polymer clasp and other wonderful accents and touches. I asked Debbie to be part of this book because of her colorful, well-designed, but loose-feeling approach to surface design. She shows you how to complete a version of one of these but you’ll be able to easily take from the skills she teaches and create unique pieces of your own.
If you don’t follow Debbie and her blog, you can do so here. She often throws out little freebie tutorials as well as selling her fun and engaging video tutorials on her site here.
Polymer Journeys Invitations: If you were invited to participate in Polymer Journeys last time, you will be in the pool for the initial rounds to choose who gets invitations but please update us with your most recent email if it has changed since then. If you have not been previously invited but would like to be because your work represents some of the best that polymer has to offer and/or are contributing to the polymer community in unique or significantly supportive ways, you can request consideration for an invitation.
To be considered, fill out an invitation request here. Note that making a request does not guarantee an invitation as we are limited to 250 invitations and so we will narrow down the list in the first round before invitations are even sent out. Invitations go out mid-July. Submissions of work completed between 2016 and 2018 will be due in early September. If you have questions while I’m out, you can write Sydney at connect[at]thepolymerarts.com.
Read MoreToday we’re just going to take a quick look and a well-deserved bow to a humble finding used regularly in seed bead pieces – the button style clasp. This is simply a bead or button that slips through a loop to secure it. It’s quite the popular clasp among seed bead artists for both necklaces and bracelets.
This bracelet showing a pretty typical button clasp is by Rachel of Balanced Crafts in Dublin, Ireland. This shows a button clasp that is really the central focus of the piece, one that contrasts with the even pattern of the beading, adding that focal point to bring it all together.
Here’s one more by bead artist Smadar Grossman. Looks somewhat like a toggle clasp, doesn’t it? The toggle and button clasp are essentially the same concept, only the entry point with a button clasp is a loop, and the back-up piece is the larger part of the pair.
Do these give you any good ideas? You can make the button from polymer, although you will need a cord, ribbon, or beaded loop of some sort to accomplish create this kind of clasp; but the cool thing is, the loop can be made basically invisible if the button half of the clasp is big enough. That way the button can become a focal point or a major component, without even drawing attention to its necessary function. Neat, huh?
Read MoreSince I brought up polymer clasps yesterday, I thought I’d talk about a variation on that type of connection: the front side toggle, and derivations of it. The connection for a necklace does not have to be at the back. If you are making a piece with a central focal bead, why not make the bead a connectors as well?
One of my favorite versions of this is the almost bolo-like polymer and filigree pieces Janet Pitcher creates for her Petal Pushers line of polymer jewelry. The focal bead is like the entry point half of a toggle; but instead of an insertion piece that will back up against the opening of the entry point, Janet creates weighted lengths of ribbons with beads created from the same petal canes as the center piece. The bead-weighted ribbons are threaded through the focal bead, and hang there as part of the design.
This is not, by far, the only option for front side connections. A really showy or beautifully done toggle type clasp can operate as a focal bead, or a large bead sliced in half with magnets in either half can be the central focus of a necklace or bead design. Just don’t relegate your beautiful connectors to the back of the necklace or bracelet if showing them off out front will make for a gorgeous piece of jewelry.
Read More