Balancing Color & Contrast

November 26, 2018

We are going to be dropping in on some big names this week and next to see what they are up to and what they have to inspire us with.

First up: Bonnie Bishoff. Her focus on jewelry these last couple years has been a journey through a variety of styles as she moves from working primarily in veneers on furniture with her partner J.M. Syron to smaller and more intimate work. But regardless of the style, her quietly strong and confident sense of color and pattern mark each piece like a signature. These lovely earrings are paired almost solely by color scheme although they do work within a limited set of variations in composition, visual texture and shapes.  Each variation relays a slightly different mood, adjusted through the level of contrast in value and hue. The subtlety of this communication is what really brings home how masterful her color work is.

You can see what I mean by looking at the body of her work. You can do so by jumping onto her Instagram page and the website she shares with J.M. Syron.

Moody Creatures

June 29, 2018

PhotGuest Blog Post by Donna Greenberg

We don’t seem to talk much about emotion or mood in polymer art. We share a lot about color, design, construction, and problem-solving, which are all necessary and practical ideas, but seem to shy away from work that is clearly emotional, thought-provoking or even frightening. Although not a polymer artist, Beth Cavener’s work takes this subject head on with her large-scale animal sculptures and offers us food for thought, especially those of us that love to create human or animal sculptures.

Hares, foxes and other familiar and beloved creatures in folklore are given uncanny human-like facial and bodily expressions, making us look twice at Cavener’s sculptures. Occasionally she will even add a decidedly human body part to the animal, yet manages to do this in such a way as to make it seem quite natural.  Her creatures seem to have been frozen in a moment of action, often expressing fear, uncertainty or other primitive human instincts. If we look closely, we can almost see our own human emotions reflected in them. It’s not always comfortable to witness these works, but Cavener’s attention to every detail, exquisite craftsmanship and control of the narrative masterfully lures us into her world nonetheless.

Her sculptures are also technically brilliant. The artist methodically goes through multiple steps during weeks and months of creating thumbnail sketches and numerous small maquettes, and then makes many changes in designing the right armature before she even starts on her final work. Yet as traditional as some of her methods are, she still has no fear of flouting “rules” when it comes to achieving her desired look. Interestingly, Cavener ignores most ceramic glaze-type finishes in exchange for basic household latex paint, an action that is often frowned upon in purist ceramic circles. Keeping a limited color palette helps support the mood as well as shows off her prodigious sculptural handwork. Surprisingly as well, she will sometimes incorporate classical delft porcelain colors with elegant Japanese-style tattoo designs such as those on the snake in “Tangled Up in You” which adds a soft, accepting moodiness to an otherwise disturbing subject. Combining all these disparate artistic goals in any single piece could easily become a messy affair for many of us, but in the hands and mind of a master like Cavener, it all comes together beautifully.

See more of Beth Cavener’s striking work at her website.

Check out the new “BioSystem” wall works from Donna Greenberg on Facebook. This is a brand new series incorporating her love of organic forms such as lichen, fungi, and corals with her interest in painted details in a true wall-hung format. Her self-challenge is in combining multiple intricate complex forms with a limited color palette to create depth and dimension with a strong yet subtle outcome. Visit Donna’s website here.

Versatile Nature

January 17, 2018

Is this pattern from cobblestones, beehives, bubbles on the surface of sudsy water, or the mash of cells under a microscope? I have no idea, but I do know this kind of pattern is all over the place in nature. I cannot be sure which, if any, of those guesses inspired the surface design of Sandrine Arevalo Zamora’s tube here but what I do know now is that you can take that fun natural pattern and add a great color palette and you have the formula for a piece of adornment that the eye will gravitate towards.

I think I gravitated towards this not just because of the color and pattern but because it is just a tube. And I wondered what she created this for. I was thinking napkin ring (we’ll blame that on a recent visit to Ikea), which, I think, you still could use it for but she is selling this as a versatile scarf and necklace component. It really does make a great scarf piece and is very easily tossed onto a chain or leather thong for an eye-catching necklace. Click the image to get to her Instagram string of images for how she suggests this is used.

I tried translating the French commentary she posted with this and got something about balloons so perhaps she was not inspired by nature but being Google was translating, one just doesn’t know. Nonetheless, if you look, you’ll see this pattern all over. Sandrine plans on teaching this technique in Provence Easter week at the Polymériades event along with Christine Dumont, Karine Barrera, and Mathilde Colas. Check out Sandrine’s Instagram and Facebook page for more of her work.

Captivating Cookie Collections

June 24, 2017

We don’t often look at food as inspiration on this blog but I am starting to think maybe we should. Just look at these cookies! They are little works of art that I can’t imagine actually eating, or at least there would be great hesitation … at first. I bet they are as delicious as they are beautiful.

This tasty artisan is Frances of the Banana Bakery in Dallas. Texas. With a background is in product design, she had a good basis for developing visually appealing pastries when she started on her baking journey in 2010. Realizing that this was where her real passion lies, she left the world of product design behind and turned to focusing on the thing she loved the most–decorating sugar cookies. Her love of this art is quite apparent and her skill is mind-blowing. It’s not that other people are not doing this kind of thing but from what I’ve seen, her skill and range of application is fairly rare.

As for why this would be a polymer inspiration … I suspect it is obvious how one could create this kind of thing in polymer either with extruded strings or as design inspiration for polymer embroidery. The color combinations are wonderfully joyful and could be a source of color palette ideas.

The sad thing is, you can’t order these shipped to your house, at least not at present. It looks like she keeps exceptionally busy filling orders as it is but if you are in the Dallas area, I’d suggest making a point of seeking out the shop. In the meantime, you’ll just have to drool from a distance with a stop by Frances’ website or Facebook page.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Take a piece or technique that you have recently created or worked with and make at least 5, preferably 10, or more, versions of the piece or technique. Change it up each time in some significant way to see where your muse takes you.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.

        The Great Create Sept 15 blog

businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front   Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog

_________________________________________

Spots of Tendrils

June 8, 2016

Klavdija Kurent sideline layers tendril bracelet

Moving along with the minimal color palette, as well as an unusual way to work tendrils into a piece, I have here, for your kind consideration, a piece by the lovely Klavdija Kurent who is always very inventive and exploratory.

The chaos here is kept to a minimum and feels more like a small rebellion by some underground snakes wanting to get out and dance. The circular layers of the bracelet keep a hand-hewn quality while being very controlled with its regular pattern. The contrast comes in with these squiggling little tendrils that add just the spark needed with their shiny red tips. Their grouping and where they are rooted along with their direction and degree of wave all vary to add a bit of an unexpectedly festive touch. That just goes to show that not every element in a piece must fit a particular style or theme. A change in style, even within a piece, can also be valid. As long as it’s obviously intentional.

If you too are attracted to the unexpected, take some time to tour Klavdija’s Flickr photostream and her blog.

 

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Take an existing piece you’ve been working on or a design you commonly create and try adding an element or elements in a very different style or theme. It should have some connection to the other elements, thematically, visually, or otherwise.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

never knead -july-2015c-125  2Wards Blog May 2016  PCTV March 2016 Blog

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  The Great Create Sept 15 blog  businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Polymer Color Recipes in an App? Why, Yes!

color MixrSo I spent my day at Sandy Camp in San Diego with a wonderfully enthusiastic group. I taught a mokume gane workshop with my little clayers coming up with some gorgeous results. However, I was too busy chatting and answering questions to direct my in-room photographer (thanks Mrs. Friesen!) to get some close up shots of the really wonderful color combinations and patterns that filled the tables. But what I did get, as did the rest of the lucky attendees, was a first look at a great new app created by our community’s own Nancy Ulrich. It may not seem like digital apps would have a place in hands-on craft, but this one was created just for clayers like you and me. Especially if you like color.

Well, that’s a silly thing to say. Who here doesn’t like color? But who here dreads trying to work up a color palette then figure out the color recipe for each color? If you raised a virtual hand in response to both those questions, then the ColorMixr app is going to be your new best friend! This is a purely polymer-clay-centric, color-picking, and palette-creating app. It was just released last night–it had just gone live in the Google Store hours before the demo I saw and the first Apple downloads happened by people in the room as Nancy presented it.

Here’s how it works: You take a photo, upload an image, or pick something you find online and feed it into the app . The app has little circles that will automatically pick out 5 colors to create a palette but you can also move over the image until each circle is over a color you want (see the screen shot upper left). You can also choose colors in a color wheel to adjust the color choices (screen shot upper right). Once you have your palette saved inot your palette library (screen shot lower left), tap on the palette to get a list of the color recipes for each color in it (screen shot lower right) … based off your specified brand of polymer! That’s pretty darn nifty! And know that Nancy has personally mixed and checked all 2000+ colors recipes available in this app–she even brought all the boxes of samples she made to prove it. Phew! She has been one busy lady!

We’ll be working on a review and a how-to-use-it article for the next issue, but in the meantime, download it for yourself and go play! It’s free to use for the next 30 days. If you like it, you can have this handy tool literally at your fingertips to capture any color sets you see out and about or online for a monthly membership ($3.99 with big discounts for pre-paid 6 & 12 month memberships) with regular color updates and/or new colors every week. Just search for “ColorMixr” (no ‘e’ in mixer) in the Google App store or Apple store.

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

     

     Print

Monochrome Mokume

November 27, 2014

rebecca geoffery mokume monoI always hesitate to post pieces with little or no color, as they just don’t get that immediate attention that really colorful work does. But, it would be hard not to talk about monochrome, which is another classic color palette that is ideal for mokume. The advantage of monochrome is it’s striking and often graphical nature. As artists, we are forced to look at value, form, line, etc. instead of leaning on color. Now, I know lots of  color is one of the fun advantages to creating mokume, but monochrome is a little bit of a challenge and one that can result in amazing pieces.

This pendant by Rebecca Geoffery is just one such example. The fact that she worked with a very controlled approach to line and value works so well for a piece that can’t lean on the impact of color at all. Sure, this could have been done in a really striking set of colors, but I think it might actually have taken away from the beauty of the lines and the repetition. They take front and center in this simple piece, and I think it’s just about perfect as is.

I can’t sign off today without a virtual hug to all my American friends celebrating Thanksgiving today. This is the day we should be contemplating the truly wonderful and blessed advantages, people and opportunities in our life. I am most thankful to you, my many readers, who allow me to blather on about things I love and am so passionate about. Thank you for allowing me to have this as part of my daily life! A very Happy Thanksgiving and a big hug to all my friends and readers across the globe!

 

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.

businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front      TPA Blog Newsletter Ad  ShadesofClay 1014 v2  lpedit  

Mokume Color & Contest Winner

November 24, 2014

???????????????????????????????I know we’ve looked at mokume before, but I have quite a few pieces that I’ve been storing up and want to share. Since the question of color palettes came up almost every day last week, let’s look at mokume and the chosen colors palettes as a jumping off point for this week’s discussion.

This set of mokume pieces was created by Carrie Harvey using a tutorial by Albina called “Hidden Flowers” (find it on Clay Lessons here.) I don’t usually post student renditions of other people’s techniques, but I think this was well done, and the color palette and shapes were a decent departure from that in the tutorial (as least as far as I can tell), which is as it should be. And the technique is really a take on mokume polymer, so it’s not particularly exclusive. It does, however, offer us an opportunity to talk about color choices.

This palette is pretty straight-forward, but can you recognize right off why it works? You have a sky blue, a coppery brown and a rust red. The blue and copper (basically orange for the sake of this conversation) are color opposites while the rust red is analogous to the orange (next to each other on the color wheel), which makes it a close contrast to the blue. In other words, all the colors have a relationship to each other, either contrasting or close enough to give the color palette cohesiveness. Although, this is a rather scientific look at these color choices, the instinctive connection comes from nature. The copper and rust red are fall leaf colors you might commonly see against a clear blue autumn sky. Nature knows how to use colors well herself, so if you are every stumped, take a look outside!

 

And drum roll please … The winner of our active critique week is Debbie Goodrow. Congrats Debbie. You should have an email in your inbox to let you know how to claim your giveaway. Thank you all so much for commenting. I think you all win in this little contest–the comments were incredibly insightful, and the varied point of you certainly demonstrates how much of art is really in the eye of the beholder. I hope you all found that it helped inform your view of the work and that you will keep it up, if not posting comments (and I would love to see more comments just any time), at least in your own viewing of the posts and art work. I give my opinion and my view, but as you saw last week, there are many, many ways to see a work of art.

 

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.

businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front      TPA Blog Newsletter Ad  ShadesofClay 1014 v2  lpedit  

Beauty in Perfection

May 26, 2014

This week, I just want to put up some examples of perfectly executed and finished work, to focus on skill and craftsmanship and look at how that attention to detail and care in handling can be, and often is, at the center of what makes a piece work.

Daniela Klein is not a master artist, not yet, but her efforts point to really excellent potential. Looking through her Flickr photostream, you can see that a good looking finish is important to Daniela but execution has had its challenges at times. But then, in her timeline you see two pendants and the couple of pieces that come after, that show an increased attention to the fine tuning of the pieces final look. The two pendants were created in a class with Dan Cormier’s, one of our community’s absolutely perfection obsessed craftsman. This pendant, although made in Dan’s class, doesn’t look like a Dan Cormier piece but the techniques are recognizable. The color choices and lines follow trends in Daniela’s past pieces making me think she followed her own creative muse in the class but made a great effort to emulate the fine finishing details that are a large part of Dan’s signature look.

13997127577_833a78ac43_o

As far as I can tell, Daniela’s work is only present on her Flickr pages right now. But take a look at her journey there and then keep an eye out for her in the future!

 

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

Balancing Color & Contrast

November 26, 2018
Posted in

We are going to be dropping in on some big names this week and next to see what they are up to and what they have to inspire us with.

First up: Bonnie Bishoff. Her focus on jewelry these last couple years has been a journey through a variety of styles as she moves from working primarily in veneers on furniture with her partner J.M. Syron to smaller and more intimate work. But regardless of the style, her quietly strong and confident sense of color and pattern mark each piece like a signature. These lovely earrings are paired almost solely by color scheme although they do work within a limited set of variations in composition, visual texture and shapes.  Each variation relays a slightly different mood, adjusted through the level of contrast in value and hue. The subtlety of this communication is what really brings home how masterful her color work is.

You can see what I mean by looking at the body of her work. You can do so by jumping onto her Instagram page and the website she shares with J.M. Syron.

Read More

Moody Creatures

June 29, 2018
Posted in

PhotGuest Blog Post by Donna Greenberg

We don’t seem to talk much about emotion or mood in polymer art. We share a lot about color, design, construction, and problem-solving, which are all necessary and practical ideas, but seem to shy away from work that is clearly emotional, thought-provoking or even frightening. Although not a polymer artist, Beth Cavener’s work takes this subject head on with her large-scale animal sculptures and offers us food for thought, especially those of us that love to create human or animal sculptures.

Hares, foxes and other familiar and beloved creatures in folklore are given uncanny human-like facial and bodily expressions, making us look twice at Cavener’s sculptures. Occasionally she will even add a decidedly human body part to the animal, yet manages to do this in such a way as to make it seem quite natural.  Her creatures seem to have been frozen in a moment of action, often expressing fear, uncertainty or other primitive human instincts. If we look closely, we can almost see our own human emotions reflected in them. It’s not always comfortable to witness these works, but Cavener’s attention to every detail, exquisite craftsmanship and control of the narrative masterfully lures us into her world nonetheless.

Her sculptures are also technically brilliant. The artist methodically goes through multiple steps during weeks and months of creating thumbnail sketches and numerous small maquettes, and then makes many changes in designing the right armature before she even starts on her final work. Yet as traditional as some of her methods are, she still has no fear of flouting “rules” when it comes to achieving her desired look. Interestingly, Cavener ignores most ceramic glaze-type finishes in exchange for basic household latex paint, an action that is often frowned upon in purist ceramic circles. Keeping a limited color palette helps support the mood as well as shows off her prodigious sculptural handwork. Surprisingly as well, she will sometimes incorporate classical delft porcelain colors with elegant Japanese-style tattoo designs such as those on the snake in “Tangled Up in You” which adds a soft, accepting moodiness to an otherwise disturbing subject. Combining all these disparate artistic goals in any single piece could easily become a messy affair for many of us, but in the hands and mind of a master like Cavener, it all comes together beautifully.

See more of Beth Cavener’s striking work at her website.

Check out the new “BioSystem” wall works from Donna Greenberg on Facebook. This is a brand new series incorporating her love of organic forms such as lichen, fungi, and corals with her interest in painted details in a true wall-hung format. Her self-challenge is in combining multiple intricate complex forms with a limited color palette to create depth and dimension with a strong yet subtle outcome. Visit Donna’s website here.

Read More

Versatile Nature

January 17, 2018
Posted in

Is this pattern from cobblestones, beehives, bubbles on the surface of sudsy water, or the mash of cells under a microscope? I have no idea, but I do know this kind of pattern is all over the place in nature. I cannot be sure which, if any, of those guesses inspired the surface design of Sandrine Arevalo Zamora’s tube here but what I do know now is that you can take that fun natural pattern and add a great color palette and you have the formula for a piece of adornment that the eye will gravitate towards.

I think I gravitated towards this not just because of the color and pattern but because it is just a tube. And I wondered what she created this for. I was thinking napkin ring (we’ll blame that on a recent visit to Ikea), which, I think, you still could use it for but she is selling this as a versatile scarf and necklace component. It really does make a great scarf piece and is very easily tossed onto a chain or leather thong for an eye-catching necklace. Click the image to get to her Instagram string of images for how she suggests this is used.

I tried translating the French commentary she posted with this and got something about balloons so perhaps she was not inspired by nature but being Google was translating, one just doesn’t know. Nonetheless, if you look, you’ll see this pattern all over. Sandrine plans on teaching this technique in Provence Easter week at the Polymériades event along with Christine Dumont, Karine Barrera, and Mathilde Colas. Check out Sandrine’s Instagram and Facebook page for more of her work.

Read More

Captivating Cookie Collections

June 24, 2017
Posted in

We don’t often look at food as inspiration on this blog but I am starting to think maybe we should. Just look at these cookies! They are little works of art that I can’t imagine actually eating, or at least there would be great hesitation … at first. I bet they are as delicious as they are beautiful.

This tasty artisan is Frances of the Banana Bakery in Dallas. Texas. With a background is in product design, she had a good basis for developing visually appealing pastries when she started on her baking journey in 2010. Realizing that this was where her real passion lies, she left the world of product design behind and turned to focusing on the thing she loved the most–decorating sugar cookies. Her love of this art is quite apparent and her skill is mind-blowing. It’s not that other people are not doing this kind of thing but from what I’ve seen, her skill and range of application is fairly rare.

As for why this would be a polymer inspiration … I suspect it is obvious how one could create this kind of thing in polymer either with extruded strings or as design inspiration for polymer embroidery. The color combinations are wonderfully joyful and could be a source of color palette ideas.

The sad thing is, you can’t order these shipped to your house, at least not at present. It looks like she keeps exceptionally busy filling orders as it is but if you are in the Dallas area, I’d suggest making a point of seeking out the shop. In the meantime, you’ll just have to drool from a distance with a stop by Frances’ website or Facebook page.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Take a piece or technique that you have recently created or worked with and make at least 5, preferably 10, or more, versions of the piece or technique. Change it up each time in some significant way to see where your muse takes you.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.

        The Great Create Sept 15 blog

businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front   Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog

_________________________________________

Read More

Spots of Tendrils

June 8, 2016
Posted in

Klavdija Kurent sideline layers tendril bracelet

Moving along with the minimal color palette, as well as an unusual way to work tendrils into a piece, I have here, for your kind consideration, a piece by the lovely Klavdija Kurent who is always very inventive and exploratory.

The chaos here is kept to a minimum and feels more like a small rebellion by some underground snakes wanting to get out and dance. The circular layers of the bracelet keep a hand-hewn quality while being very controlled with its regular pattern. The contrast comes in with these squiggling little tendrils that add just the spark needed with their shiny red tips. Their grouping and where they are rooted along with their direction and degree of wave all vary to add a bit of an unexpectedly festive touch. That just goes to show that not every element in a piece must fit a particular style or theme. A change in style, even within a piece, can also be valid. As long as it’s obviously intentional.

If you too are attracted to the unexpected, take some time to tour Klavdija’s Flickr photostream and her blog.

 

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Take an existing piece you’ve been working on or a design you commonly create and try adding an element or elements in a very different style or theme. It should have some connection to the other elements, thematically, visually, or otherwise.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

never knead -july-2015c-125  2Wards Blog May 2016  PCTV March 2016 Blog

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  The Great Create Sept 15 blog  businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Read More

Polymer Color Recipes in an App? Why, Yes!

October 9, 2015
Posted in ,

color MixrSo I spent my day at Sandy Camp in San Diego with a wonderfully enthusiastic group. I taught a mokume gane workshop with my little clayers coming up with some gorgeous results. However, I was too busy chatting and answering questions to direct my in-room photographer (thanks Mrs. Friesen!) to get some close up shots of the really wonderful color combinations and patterns that filled the tables. But what I did get, as did the rest of the lucky attendees, was a first look at a great new app created by our community’s own Nancy Ulrich. It may not seem like digital apps would have a place in hands-on craft, but this one was created just for clayers like you and me. Especially if you like color.

Well, that’s a silly thing to say. Who here doesn’t like color? But who here dreads trying to work up a color palette then figure out the color recipe for each color? If you raised a virtual hand in response to both those questions, then the ColorMixr app is going to be your new best friend! This is a purely polymer-clay-centric, color-picking, and palette-creating app. It was just released last night–it had just gone live in the Google Store hours before the demo I saw and the first Apple downloads happened by people in the room as Nancy presented it.

Here’s how it works: You take a photo, upload an image, or pick something you find online and feed it into the app . The app has little circles that will automatically pick out 5 colors to create a palette but you can also move over the image until each circle is over a color you want (see the screen shot upper left). You can also choose colors in a color wheel to adjust the color choices (screen shot upper right). Once you have your palette saved inot your palette library (screen shot lower left), tap on the palette to get a list of the color recipes for each color in it (screen shot lower right) … based off your specified brand of polymer! That’s pretty darn nifty! And know that Nancy has personally mixed and checked all 2000+ colors recipes available in this app–she even brought all the boxes of samples she made to prove it. Phew! She has been one busy lady!

We’ll be working on a review and a how-to-use-it article for the next issue, but in the meantime, download it for yourself and go play! It’s free to use for the next 30 days. If you like it, you can have this handy tool literally at your fingertips to capture any color sets you see out and about or online for a monthly membership ($3.99 with big discounts for pre-paid 6 & 12 month memberships) with regular color updates and/or new colors every week. Just search for “ColorMixr” (no ‘e’ in mixer) in the Google App store or Apple store.

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

     

     Print

Read More

Monochrome Mokume

November 27, 2014
Posted in

rebecca geoffery mokume monoI always hesitate to post pieces with little or no color, as they just don’t get that immediate attention that really colorful work does. But, it would be hard not to talk about monochrome, which is another classic color palette that is ideal for mokume. The advantage of monochrome is it’s striking and often graphical nature. As artists, we are forced to look at value, form, line, etc. instead of leaning on color. Now, I know lots of  color is one of the fun advantages to creating mokume, but monochrome is a little bit of a challenge and one that can result in amazing pieces.

This pendant by Rebecca Geoffery is just one such example. The fact that she worked with a very controlled approach to line and value works so well for a piece that can’t lean on the impact of color at all. Sure, this could have been done in a really striking set of colors, but I think it might actually have taken away from the beauty of the lines and the repetition. They take front and center in this simple piece, and I think it’s just about perfect as is.

I can’t sign off today without a virtual hug to all my American friends celebrating Thanksgiving today. This is the day we should be contemplating the truly wonderful and blessed advantages, people and opportunities in our life. I am most thankful to you, my many readers, who allow me to blather on about things I love and am so passionate about. Thank you for allowing me to have this as part of my daily life! A very Happy Thanksgiving and a big hug to all my friends and readers across the globe!

 

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.

businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front      TPA Blog Newsletter Ad  ShadesofClay 1014 v2  lpedit  

Read More

Mokume Color & Contest Winner

November 24, 2014
Posted in

???????????????????????????????I know we’ve looked at mokume before, but I have quite a few pieces that I’ve been storing up and want to share. Since the question of color palettes came up almost every day last week, let’s look at mokume and the chosen colors palettes as a jumping off point for this week’s discussion.

This set of mokume pieces was created by Carrie Harvey using a tutorial by Albina called “Hidden Flowers” (find it on Clay Lessons here.) I don’t usually post student renditions of other people’s techniques, but I think this was well done, and the color palette and shapes were a decent departure from that in the tutorial (as least as far as I can tell), which is as it should be. And the technique is really a take on mokume polymer, so it’s not particularly exclusive. It does, however, offer us an opportunity to talk about color choices.

This palette is pretty straight-forward, but can you recognize right off why it works? You have a sky blue, a coppery brown and a rust red. The blue and copper (basically orange for the sake of this conversation) are color opposites while the rust red is analogous to the orange (next to each other on the color wheel), which makes it a close contrast to the blue. In other words, all the colors have a relationship to each other, either contrasting or close enough to give the color palette cohesiveness. Although, this is a rather scientific look at these color choices, the instinctive connection comes from nature. The copper and rust red are fall leaf colors you might commonly see against a clear blue autumn sky. Nature knows how to use colors well herself, so if you are every stumped, take a look outside!

 

And drum roll please … The winner of our active critique week is Debbie Goodrow. Congrats Debbie. You should have an email in your inbox to let you know how to claim your giveaway. Thank you all so much for commenting. I think you all win in this little contest–the comments were incredibly insightful, and the varied point of you certainly demonstrates how much of art is really in the eye of the beholder. I hope you all found that it helped inform your view of the work and that you will keep it up, if not posting comments (and I would love to see more comments just any time), at least in your own viewing of the posts and art work. I give my opinion and my view, but as you saw last week, there are many, many ways to see a work of art.

 

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Beauty in Perfection

May 26, 2014
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This week, I just want to put up some examples of perfectly executed and finished work, to focus on skill and craftsmanship and look at how that attention to detail and care in handling can be, and often is, at the center of what makes a piece work.

Daniela Klein is not a master artist, not yet, but her efforts point to really excellent potential. Looking through her Flickr photostream, you can see that a good looking finish is important to Daniela but execution has had its challenges at times. But then, in her timeline you see two pendants and the couple of pieces that come after, that show an increased attention to the fine tuning of the pieces final look. The two pendants were created in a class with Dan Cormier’s, one of our community’s absolutely perfection obsessed craftsman. This pendant, although made in Dan’s class, doesn’t look like a Dan Cormier piece but the techniques are recognizable. The color choices and lines follow trends in Daniela’s past pieces making me think she followed her own creative muse in the class but made a great effort to emulate the fine finishing details that are a large part of Dan’s signature look.

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As far as I can tell, Daniela’s work is only present on her Flickr pages right now. But take a look at her journey there and then keep an eye out for her in the future!

 

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.

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