A Bit Abstracted

Have you ever thought about how often polymer work is abstract? Many polymer artists who work in jewelry, wall art, and functional art do not work with recognizable imagery. Quite often polymer artists express themselves with little more than color, lines, forms, and textures. Technically, much of polymer art is decorative art due to so much of polymer craft being created in functional forms (decorative art being defined as functional as well as beautiful), but is there that great a difference between the intuitive arrangement of elements to create mood, impressions, and symbolic meaning in a piece of jewelry and that used in a painting on canvas? Well, no, there’s not, except in how we categorize it.

Unfortunately, that separate categorization, in my view, performs two disservices—it allows for a perceived difference in value (where art that is not functional, created just for art’s sake, is deemed more valuable) and creates a mystique around non-functional abstract art that makes us think we need to “understand” it, while nearly the same thing on a pendant can simply be admired. I find that sad. Why can’t just any piece of art be simply admired without looking for deeper meaning? Let’s look at just a few pieces that you can recognize as similar to familiar polymer work but is not, and use it as a back door to appreciating the inspiration that non-functional art can be for us “decorative” artists.

Abstracted Double-Takes

Take a look at the beautiful mixed media painting by Carol Nelson that opens this post. Can’t you see it as a lovely polymer pendant? Carol’s painting is cracked and textured and layered with metal foil. Is that not a familiar combination in polymer too? I think of the wonderfully crackled and painterly effects of Debbie Crothers’ work like this pendant below when rummaging through Carol’s portfolio.

If you are familiar with the polymer and metal jewelry of Susan Dyer, then this next painting might immediately bring to mind some of Susan’s well-known designs, of which there is one example below. The painting is Squares with Concentric Circles by Vassily Kandinsky.

These two pieces are so similar, you might think the jewelry was a direct translation of the painting but I would guess the designs came either quite independently or wholly unconsciously from the painting.

Much of polymer surface design is about abstract expression. We just immerse ourselves in the color, texture, marks, and mix of materials until we’ve manipulated it into a place that speaks to us. I know that is how I worked on abstract paintings when I had my short stint with those. I imagine that is not too different from what Christine Krainock was about when she created her painting Drifting Away, that you see below.

Now, doesn’t that remind you a bit of some lovely mokume created with translucent polymer and metal leaf, such as in this bracelet by Tatiana Parshikova? It’s a different material but has a similar feel, doesn’t it?  That painting would make a lovely bracelet if the painter was so inclined to make her work decorative art.

So, why isn’t our jewelry highly revered abstract works of art? In some arenas it is in its own way but being functional or wearable will likely always be separate from what is often referred to as “fine art”. It really doesn’t matter though. What does matter is that what we often do in polymer can be derived from much larger work hung on walls in museums and galleries. Also, if you’ve been stumped by abstract art but can appreciate the wide breadth of polymer art, you can apply your appreciation of the decorative to an appreciation of abstract paintings–the colors, textures, lines, etc. are used in a similar manner and often with similar goals.

So if you have time this week, maybe you can go to a museum or traipse through some galleries and try to imagine the pieces you see translated into polymer. You might find some amazing inspiration and ideas in work you just hadn’t considered in that way before.

VAB-ulous March

The next Virtual Art Box will be released at the end of the coming week and here’s a peek at the digital cover. Not only will we be exploring our passions, finding one’s unique artistic voice and, the wide world of mark making, I have a couple amazing discount offers for members as well. March is going to be a great month! Come join us if you haven’t already.

Shimmer and Shine

Also, if you haven’t seen the newsletter, I am presently taking submission ideas for tutorials for the next book, Shimmer & Shine Polymer Art Projects. You can get more details by going to this online version of the newsletter if you are interested in pitching an idea.

My apologies for any distracting typos this post. I’ve been a bit exhausted and my dyslexia, usually quite mild, is playing havoc with my proofreading skills. So, I’m off to just relax for a bit before I take up the reins on a busy first week of the month.

Have a beautiful first week of March!

The Purpose of Intention

February 9, 2020

How often, when you sit down to create something, do you think about why you’re doing it, the story behind what you are creating, or even just the theme or look? Apparently, it’s not overly common, at least not amongst the readers writing me this weekend.

Friday evening, I finally got the Virtual Art Box out after some technical difficulties that required a change of plans on the backend. I was a bit frazzled over reworking the technical stuff and, even though I was happy with the content I’d created, I was getting a bit nervous about how this new project would be received. But, as I wrote in the immersive design article for the Virtual Art Box project, things generally work out well when you have a particular idea in mind and you make all your decisions based on that overriding intention.

Well, my intention for the Virtual Art Box was to immerse the readers in a particular design idea that can be explored throughout the month. I was hoping that the primary design article, supported by the additional content the readers would journey through, would encourage them to really delve into the idea I presented in a purposeful and substantial way. But the question was, would they?

I thought it might be a bit of a challenge this first month since my chosen theme is conceptual rather than being a more concrete design element. But it’s just such an important concept in art. The immersive design theme this month is “Intention”. It’s simply the idea that when you sit down to create something, you can be more successful and have a more fulfilling creative experience if you have an overriding idea of what you are creating in terms of its purpose and its concept, concept being the theme, story, style or whatnot.

Well, I think my own intention to keep my focus on making the Virtual Art Box an immersive learning experience is working. Already. (Yay!) I have to say that I am a bit startled and overwhelmed by the reception of the project so far. In a community where publications, both in print and online, are dominated by project tutorials and things that are “easy and fun” (not that there’s anything wrong with fun at all!), my approach feels rather serious even though, as many of you may have seen, I do try to stay conversational and lighthearted and occasionally I just get silly. Art should be fun, and enjoyable, and fulfilling. But making good art in a truly fulfilling creative life does take work. I don’t know why I was worried that people wouldn’t want to put the work in. You, my readers, have always been pretty gung ho!

I already have a few Creative Pursuit challenge forms in (this is the part of the Box in which you create a self-challenge, and the form shares it with me and with you, and I help track it and keep you motivated.) It turns out, people look to be quick intrigued by the idea of working with intention. I love that I’m not the only art nerd who gets into things like that!

The thing is, I think  intention is the core of all design. Without it, no matter how well you understand the various aspects of design, construction, workmanship, etc., it is difficult to create a successful design. Every piece of art needs a base, a core, a grounding concept from which the artist can build, otherwise the work risks being chaotic. It’s true that a chaotic design could work but only if it is the artist’s intention to create chaos. Then it has purpose. But chaos without intent is not art; it is just messy.

Intention not only gets you where you want to go but it helps guide your design choices along the way. When you make design choices based on what works for your overriding intention, the result will be a cohesive, purposeful, and, most likely, well-designed piece.

Now, I know, some of you are already thinking that you don’t want to think so deliberately about what you’re creating or that you just like to explore. Exploration, creating for the joy of it, and stream of consciousness creating are still processes with a particular intention. Because isn’t the success of a piece really measured against how well it fulfills your intention?

Let’s look at a few of the examples.

Debbie Crothers prefers to explore and make lots of pieces as she exhausts a technique or material’s possibilities. She doesn’t usually work with a finished piece in mind but, with extensive exploration as her intention, she finds success in much of what she does and ends up with undeniably stunning beads.

 

Joseph Barbaccia specializes in inspired polymer illustrations of people and things he admires and enjoys so his intention is to visually represent objects, places, and beings from his view point such as this great portrait of David Lynch.

 

In Melanie Muir’s Summer Seas in White cuff, you can see that from the colors to the patterns, even to how the patterns are tilted on the tilted square of the beads, this piece speaks of bright light on rippling ocean waters. Her intention is clear and all her design choices align with the intended look.

 

Are you starting to get the picture? If so, think about what your intention means to you and what you intention is next time you sit down to the studio table. And if this concept really intrigues you, even if you don’t want to subscribe, you can buy the Virtual Art Box for just the one month, get all the details and ideas I am offering on how to make intention a new and exciting tool for your creative work, and see how you like the Box.

Now, if you signed up for the Virtual Art Box and didn’t see your access email, check your spam folders. It went out Friday evening (PST). If you purchased it online (rather than had your prior magazine subscription balance transferred to the Virtual Art Box), you should find the PDF package download in your account on the website. If you expected it and can’t find it in either place, write me and we’ll get you fixed up.

 

And with that, I am off to relax a bit. Its been a bit of a marathon getting the new project off the ground but now that is has taken wing, it’s time to attend to me a bit and I am going to make that include some further intention … the intention to make studio time a priority at least a couple days a week. How do you ensure you get the creative time in that you need? Maybe we’ll look at that subject a bit this week as well.

In the meantime, have an intentionally, purposefully, and mindfully creative week!

Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019

Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

Crosswise Crafts

Heather Campbell – “Keep Circling”

If you read this blog because polymer is your primary art material, do you consider yourself a polymer artist or a mixed-media artist? This question has arisen in a few conversations recently – how to identify oneself as an artist – and also in regard to the content of these blogs posts because a lot of people that are writing me of late have turned out not to be primarily polymer artists, or at least identify themselves as mixed-media rather than polymer artists. I think that’s really cool and I don’t find it terribly surprising that people who work in other art materials are interested in polymer because polymer has so much crossover and such a wide range of possible applications.

I mean, is polymer clay the only material in your art studio? Aside from maybe dedicated caners, I think the majority of us who identify as polymer artists also have drawers and bins and boxes of other things like beads, fabric, paints, paper, resin, and so much more. So, is your polymer art really a type of mixed-media art? And what is mixed-media art really anyways?

And most of all… do the labels really matter?

Labels are important for the purpose of organizing all the information we are inundated with daily, but unfortunately, it also puts people and concepts in restrictive boxes and that can become problematic. When someone is labeled (or calls themselves) a polymer artist, it doesn’t mean that they work only with polymer or even primarily with polymer. They may simply have an affinity for the material more than any other single material.

Not only do we use a lot of other materials in polymer work, but we can also so readily draw inspiration from looking at artwork in materials. I, myself, find fiber art to be an immense resource for ideas in my polymer work, especially modern quilting, so I thought I’d bring you along to explore some of the ways today’s quilt art and polymer creatively crossover.

Crosswise Crafts

Quilt art is a form of fiber art which pushes beyond functional bedcovers and quilted clothing of the past. Fiber Art itself is a relatively recent term, first used shortly after World War II to categorize fine art using natural or synthetic fiber as the material. This speaks to how relatively new the focus has been on fiber as an art form. Luckily, the term quickly worked its way out of the relatively elite world of curators and art historians into a more generalized use encompassing all fiber-based artistic applications, from weaving and quilting to intensely detailed embroidery and monumental outdoor installations.

There has been a tremendous amount of experimentation going on in fiber arts since the latter decades of the twentieth century, something as polymer artists we understand and applaud but, unlike polymer the many forms of fiber art draw from some of mankind’s oldest crafts so experimentation tends to rally not around techniques but around form, nontraditional materials, unusual use and placement of materials, and conceptual approaches, especially those involving cultural issues and activism. This makes it a rich source of inspiration that can really light the way for new possibilities in polymer.

As I’m sure you know, not only do we emulate fiber in polymer, we also have methods of construction and layout with veneers and inlays which use basically the same approach as quilting, less the sewing. Both art forms also technically work in three-dimensions but are commonly composed in two-dimensions which is why I think it’s such a great arena to look to for a creative shot in the arm.

Here is a very direct example of the crossover between quilting and polymer. Lindly Haunani draws the patterns for her polymer quilts directly from classic quilt patterns, like this one based on a half square quilt design.

She uses these wall pieces to examine and teach color. She also applies the concepts to brooches like these lovely pieces.

By the way, Lindly has a series of workshops teaching color through the creation of veneers and polymer quilts coming up in late August/early September at Creative Journey Studios. You can check those out here.

 

Although classic quilt patterns pop up in polymer quite often, contemporary quilts are nothing like these. Here is an example of traditional quilting techniques but without the traditional patterns by Lisa Jenni. Do the colors or composition poke at your creative brain but with polymer on the mind? It could be an arrangement with alcohol ink dyed polymer, striped canes, and stamped clay medallions, right?

 

That quilt reminds me a little bit of Gera Scott Chandler’s work. The colors and the emphasis on oblong circles are probably the connections but you see how one could possibly inspire the other, yes?

 

And how have we not seen something like this piece below done in polymer? This is embroidered quilting by Susan Lenz It’s less than 3’ x 2’ so such a piece in polymer would not be a monumental task. This has given me an idea … I think I know what I’m going to do with all the inchies collected over the years. Let’s all make wall pieces from our collections!

Be sure to look at Susan’s Lancet window series too. They have a similarly open layout but in kind of stained-glass patterns.

 

Contemporary quilts, like polymer, are not restricted to a two-dimensional canvas or flat layers. There are a lot of things being added into and onto quilts today. Just look at this riot of wonder by Molly Jean Hobbit.

Does this piece bring to mind any polymer artists who also use lots of pieces and materials in their work? Maybe Laurie Mika, Heather Campbell (as seen in the opening image), or even Christi Friesen with her mixed-media mosaics? If you have always liked what these ladies are doing, just imagine the fresh batch of ideas you could get from contemporary quilts.

Want to really delve into the quilt world now? You go down a rabbit hole by simply putting “quilt art” into Pinterest, or you could start on the Contemporary Quilt Art associations gallery pages. Click on each image to get a whole slew of additional quilts by various artists. It’s quite the fabulous (and possibly time gobbling) rabbit hole to go down.

Want to do a little polymer quilting of your own today? Well, you could sit down to this video by Jan Montarsi, demonstrating how to make striped polymer quilt squares. Mind you, he uses his new Create Template, but you could do it without the template if you want to get right to it. If you have the latest edition of The Polymer Studio, Issue #3, go to Jan’s article on multicolor blends first to make some really bright and saturated blended sheets to work with. If you didn’t subscribe or purchase your copy yet, you can get an immediate digital download or order a print edition on the website here. And you can get Jan’s templates here.

 

Where Two Crafts Collide – working with the Craft Industry Alliance

So, my curiosity about this mixed media labeling question pushed me to do some research early last month and, in the process, I found the Craft Industry Alliance. This is a fairly new organization – it was created in 2015 – but it is growing quite quickly as an information and supportive advocacy trade association for all working craft artists – this includes you!

I really liked that this organization recognizes craft art as a broader community that is not segregated by material or form. Since the founders are primarily fiber artist, however, it started out heavy in that arena, but they are actively growing into other communities. I know this because the president of CIA (gosh, their acronym sounds so covert!) contacted me after I joined their organization online with an earnest request to get to know the polymer community better. After a lovely chat and a few emails, we are now working on polymer based content for the Alliance. How cool is that?

So, what is this organization and what might it do for you? Well, here is the skinny, straight from President, Abby Glassenberg:

Craft Industry Alliance is a community of craft professionals. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections within a supportive trade association. Artists who are interested in becoming teachers of their craft, writing books, and showing their work in galleries need to think about setting up a solid business foundation from which to grow. Marketing and branding, legal, accounting and tax issues, social media and blogging … these are all issues creative business owners need to think through. Don’t do it alone! Come together with 1,300+ fellow members in a supportive community where you can find solid answers to your questions, make connections with the right people, and find the resources you need. Check it out at https://www.craftindustryalliance.org  

As you can see, the organization is focused on active artists who show and sell their work or promote themselves as teachers or writers. It doesn’t really matter how small or how big your creative operation is, you’ll always benefit from a little help and I think it’s a fantastic idea to have a community of people from all areas of craft supporting each other. I’ve always been a little worried that the polymer community has remained a bit insular since we have issues that few other material arenas have, being such a very young material, working with a plastic in an environmentally sensitive world, and battling the “kids art material” image. But growth in this community will come from the outside, not from within so the more we reach out and network with other craft artists and the larger craft community, the more energized and innovative we will be as a whole and that will keep the community growing and vital.

The Sage Sabbatical

So, as most of you probably know by now, August starts my little sabbatical from production work on print publications so I can attend to some health issues. I have to admit, it’s made me a little depressed. It’s just rather sudden and I’m such a workaholic and so used to having a deadline hanging over me all the time so it’s a little unnerving. Luckily, it actually started out busy since we wrapped up the release of The Polymer Studio Issue #3. It turned out just beautiful and we’ve already received so many great comments on it with particular excitement around articles like the fascinating story of Brazil’s polymer master, Beatriz Cominatto, Debbie Crothers’ acrylic and polymer exploration, and Jan’s multi-color skinner blend techniques.

If you’re waiting on your copy, the digital edition went out on the 31st – check spam/junk mail folders if you’re due one and didn’t see it in your inbox. Print editions went to the post office this past Wednesday, so they are on the way too. I have my batch of stock here if you need to order it. Just go to the website.

We also added a Special 3 issue Package of all three of The Polymer Studio issues if you need to do some catching up.

If you’re unfamiliar with my silly little situation that forced me into taking time off, you can find the more-or-less full story in our most recent newsletter here.

If you don’t get our twice a month newsletter, signing up for the newsletter is one of the best ways to stay informed on our publications and new projects, of which there will be something before the year ends even if I can’t do print! But yes, I promise I will not overextend myself and do with the doctor orders!

Speaking of which … I should go now. I hope you are excited by the peek at quilts and the connection to polymer. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and an inspired week!

Questioning Focus

July 7, 2019

“Fabiclay” brooch by Klio Tsaliki

Are you one of those people who finds an interesting path and goes down its until you find the end or do you like to wander about? I know that’s kind of a vague question, but you could apply it as a metaphor to goals in your life, the path of your career, or the way you create your artwork. I recently read some excerpts by Thomas Edison on the importance of keeping focused. He said, “The one prudence in life is concentration, the one evil is dissipation.” I don’t know if I wholly agree with that or, at least, I think it’s not so readily summed up in one tidy sentence.

I bet you can come up with at least a couple of artists off the top of your head who have come up with a treatment in polymer clay that they create with almost exclusively and have become quite masterful at it. But I think you come up with quite a few artists who consistently try different things, exploring, growing, and changing their style and focus on the artwork. Would you say that the person who focuses is probably doing better work than the person who is constantly exploring?

Perhaps it’s because we are talking about art that I can so readily dismiss Edison’s comment. I have always thought that, for most artists, art is about the exploration. I think if you find one technique and worked very hard to perfect it, you might get overly comfortable because you will more likely succeed with each successive piece as you hone your skill. And yes, I am presenting that as a possible problem. I am a strong believer in the value of messing up and creating pieces that “fail” on some level. It’s those experiences that really teach us and allow us to grow as artists. However, I do think that masterful artists who stick with one approach do, especially in their mind, make a lot of mistakes and have numerous pieces that failed or fell short of the artist’s expectations for every piece of work we would deem a masterpiece.

The bottom line is, I think whatever journey your imagination and curiosity leads you on is the right path to follow with your creative work. Don’t fight it if you like to stick with one technique and refine it over and over or if you get easily bored once you feel you’ve mastered something enough to understand it and want to move on to the next challenge. The journey of our creative process is as individual and unique as our own artwork.

Let’s look at a few examples of people on both sides of this coin – those dedicated to a primary technique and those that constantly change their focus. Then you can decide for yourself if Edison had a point or not.

Single Minded Tangents

There are so many artists that come to mind that focus on a single technique or process and have mastered it to a mind-blowing extent. Elise Winters is one of the first that comes to mind when it comes to technique. This surface treatment was her signature and her legacy and no one, that I’ve seen, has yet matched her skill with it.

 

When it comes to form, I don’t think anyone else in the polymer community has made more of the same form than Ron Lehocky with his hearts. But here’s an example of staying focused on one thing while exploring just about everything else you can. He’s made tens of thousands of hearts and no two are the same. Here are examples of the variations he came up with from a single Skinner blend.

 

One of the most masterful and single-minded people of process would have to be Jon Stuart Anderson with his cane covered animals and functional objects. Although caning is his focus as far as technique, he is constantly exploring pattern and how it affects the form. It’s a subtle exploration but if you look back through his work you’ll see how the application of pattern has changed over the years and how he is constantly exploring new forms to apply them to, working on how the new forms will show off the canes or how the canes will accentuate the forms.

I love this bowl below. It shows more “quiet space” with those swaths of black to red canes, than I think I’ve ever seen in his work before. The relatively unpatterned area so dramatically contrasts the complex canes designs but you can take in the individual cane and pattern placement more readily because the eye has a place to rest, giving you a moment to rest and to process more of what you’re seeing

 

This whole subject matter recalls to me a conversation Rosanna Faillace and I had with Melanie Muir in Rome last year. We were talking about people who stick with one technique and don’t branch out and Melanie, seeming to think it might be a negative thing, said “That’s me. I’m a one trick pony.” But of course, she’s not. She loves her inlaid mokume gane veneers, but she is constantly exploring construction and different forms on which to present these, resulting in pieces like this beautiful bracelet.

Frenetically Fabulous

I myself am of the exploratory variety of artists. I do wish I had a little more focus and could spend more time on any single technique, form, or process, but the thing is, my curiosity about what else I could do is a stronger driving force, so I go with that. There are a LOT of us artistic explorers in polymer art as polymer just cries out to be explored.

When it comes to an exploratory approach in polymer, Debbie Crothers is the first person who comes to mind. You can see her gorgeous acrylic on polymer beads on the front of the upcoming issue of The Polymer Studio. Her penchant for exploration is why she is writing the “Mix it Up” articles in the magazine. She always has something she’s playing around with and she does love to share. She does occasionally show the results of both her good and not so successful explorations, which I love because it demonstrates her willingness to try, to make mistakes, and to do the work over and over again until she has mastered it. It is highly unlikely that Debbie would have gotten the results she got in these beads below if she didn’t go through a lot of trial and error first. The final results are well worth the exploration!

 

Another person I’ve been following for years is Klio Tsaliki. She’ll try almost anything and, in the process, comes up with some great techniques and approaches. Some attempts come out better than others, but I love that she shares it all, or at least enough for us to see that she is not afraid to try anything that interests her. I find that very inspiring. A couple of years ago she was playing with metallic silkscreen and the possible fabric-like quality of polymer, as you can see in the opening photo of this post. More recently, she’s played with translucent clay and LED lights, as seen below.

Klio’s newest work has been in the up and coming new clay from Fimo, “Leather Effect”. Once cured, this clay is supposed to be very much like leather. You can see here on the Fimo website that it is very pliable and can be cut and even stitched. I don’t know about you, but I have never been so excited about a new line of polymer clay! It’s not available in the US yet, and I don’t know how widely distributed it is in Europe, but there is supposed to be news about that soon and, trust me, when it is available, I’m going to be playing with it quite a bit as leather was one of my first materials I made jewelry from. You can go to Klio’s Flickr photostream to see what she’s been doing with it.

Another name for exploration is pioneering. Pioneers need to explore their subject extensively to find those new and intriguing aspects that lead the rest of us to their fresh finds. In general, you’ll find that most of the folks we identify as polymer pioneers were and are highly exploratory. Just look at what Kathleen Dustin has done throughout her career. From ornate purses to translucent layered brooches to reinterpretations of textile patterns such as with these new brooches below, you never really know what Kathleen will be working on next and yet, all her work is masterfully constructed and impeccably finished. I think her exploration keeps her work fresh for us and, most especially, for her and her passion for her work.

 

Focus on Yourself

So, as you see, there are many approaches to the creative process, all of which have value and result in beautiful, emotive, and inspiring work. So, no, I don’t think focus and concentration on one technique, form, or even material, is necessary but I do think keeping a sharp focus on the overriding creative goal – to make fulfilling artwork, financially supportive artwork, satiating your curiosity, or whatever the important creative motivation is for you – is something to keep a watchful eye on.

Speaking of focus … The construction on my house is in the finishing stages now. That hasn’t helped me with my focus on getting the next issue out, neither has my tendinitis and back issue which was such a huge problem last year. The thing is, in the last year, I have not really had enough time off to completely heal and am having issues again. I’m pretty sure I can get this issue to the printer in time to have it out by the end of the month but I’m probably going to have a heart-to-heart with my doctor on what I really need to do to get this healed and am working out a bit of time off later this month. This is one area where keeping focus would be very helpful!

I will keep you apprised of any shakeups in production if you are a subscriber to The Polymer Studio so just stay tuned here. And next week maybe I can get you pictures of the house for those of you who are curious. Everything’s under plastic wrap right now as they finish plastering and painting. But it’s horribly exciting seeing it come together!

So, I will leave you with these thoughts on focus and exploration. I hope it brings you some interesting insights for your own process and work. Have a fabulous week!

 

Your Morning Book

June 30, 2019

Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover

Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.

This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.

So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.

Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”

At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then),  I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.

When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.

I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.

Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.

So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.

A Book and It’s Cover

The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.

If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.

Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.

 

If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.

 

Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.

 

I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)

Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.

You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!

 

New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July

If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.

Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.

 

Painter for a Day

I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!

Mixing and Mingling, New Cover, & 33% off Back issues

We have a bit of business to do first today but it’s exciting business! I wanted to share with you the next cover of The Polymer Studio, coming late April.

We are thrilled to include projects from Cynthia Tinapple, our featured and interviewed artist for this issue, as well as Christi Friesen, Kathy Koontz, Elena Mori, the Mitchell sisters, Deb Hart, and Wendy Moore. Also, tips, tricks, and other bits of wisdom from Debbie Crothers, Ginger Davis Allman, and little old me. And you won’t want to miss the tour of Christine Dumont’s studio, complete with a conversation about her space and process, which I think you’ll find very intriguing.

All this and more, just a month away! Support our projects, this blog, and the betterment of your own polymer journey, of course, or just because you’d like to look at all the pretty things tucked into those pages, by subscribing to The Polymer Studio here.

(Be sure to scroll down to the last section for the 33% off sale stuff.)

A Fine Mix-up

So, did you get a chance to look through the winning entries for the IPCA awards? Here’s the link again if you didn’t see them. The winning entries are just beautiful and maybe even a bit surprising. If you saw it, did you notice any trends or changes in trends and what was presented? I thought it was interesting that there were a lot of mixed-media pieces where polymer clay might have been the focus, but other materials played large roles in important design aspects and visual impact of the work.

One of the reasons I find this so interesting is that the idea of expanding into other materials seems to be a regular conversation myself and many other people are having. I couldn’t say exactly what that means but I do believe that polymer, with its unparalleled flexibility for combining with other materials, has kind of come of age where our exploration of what it can do is being placed on the back burner in order to focus on artistic expression. I look at these mixed-media pieces in the awards and other pieces I find during my research and general perusing online, and it seems that we are seeing more instances where polymer centric artists decide what they want to make and then determine the best materials for the work rather than push to see if polymer can be used for most, if not all, of the components of a piece. Or perhaps I am just hoping this is the case because I would love to see more folks focused on personal expression will rather than letting our obsessive, but understandable, infatuation with the material determine our creative parameters.

Of course, for most of us who work in polymer now, this colorful, durable, and chameleon material will remain our primary love and, regardless of other options, we will often still try to do as much as we can with polymer, if just to see if we can push it a little bit farther. But, opening oneself up to the possibilities of combining it with other materials in major ways will allow us, and even the viewer, to focus more on the design and expression and less on the material itself, which will let the artist’s expression, vision, creativity, and aesthetic really shine. I find this very exciting!

So, this week, let’s look at some of the mixed-media pieces where other materials play a primary role alongside polymer. This could be very helpful for you if you have felt like you’re in a rut or are too often hitting technical or design walls in your work. Trying out a different material may just be the thing to inject you with new enthusiasm and, possibly, send you down a new path with your artwork.

Mixed Directions

Let’s first look at some of the winners of the IPCA awards and in many ways that other materials have been mixed in.

This first piece is both a mixed-media and a mixed artist piece. Ellen Prophater or worked with Sherry Mozer, a glass artist, led to the use of the black glass piece with its shades of green within reflected in the mokume polymer it sits upon. It is set in a silver bezel and accented with Swarovski crystals. Both the mokume and the glass show off a subtle transparency, drawing the connection between the two along with the green cast colors. It’s a nice reminder that collaboration can also push us in new directions making new discoveries in our work and even ourselves and our friendships.

 

Donna Greenberg just killed it as the professional mixed-media category. This wall piece is called Wedgewood Wave but the word that keeps coming to mind for me is swoon. Not just because I feel like swooning, it’s just so gorgeous, but that’s also the word that comes to mind from that fabulous flow of energy through those waves, back into the pool of blue. Those waves are paper, but the application of color and shape are similar to the polymer pieces so the different materials feel cohesive. This is definitely one of those cases where another medium was the better choice. Trying to create those waves in polymer would’ve been just silly, even though it could be done. The paper gives a lighter feel to the overall piece as well as a light and easy flow to the visual movement. She also used Ultralight polymer alongside the Arches cold press paper, acrylic gouache paints, watercolor pencils, and Apoxie paste, each material fulfilling its purpose in a way that another material would not have been as successful with.

 

With the issue of the environment heavy in many of our minds, we are seeing a lot of exploration into found or recycled or upcycled items. Sarah Machtey offered up this steam punk pouch necklace with removable magnifying glass for the mixed media category of the awards with a bit of all of that. The front and back of this small pouch is from a soda can turned inside out – you can still see the printing of the soda can on the inside – but she embossed the can with decorative lines and used mica powder infused liquid polymer in the recesses to make them stand out. The band across the top is upcycled copper from a renovation project while the side leaves and earrings are polymer clay. Not sure if the magnifying glass was bought or found but it certainly could have been reused from something else.

The pouch is 7” (18 cm) in height from the top edge to the bottom of the magnifying glass, so it’s no small bit of tin on there. Of course, she could have used polymer to create the metal sections but it would’ve been a bulkier piece. The tin keeps the weight down as well as adding some structural strength that would only have been accomplished with a much thicker wall of polymer.

 

Keep in mind, when we are talking mixed-media it doesn’t necessarily have to be another art material. For instance, I combined poetry with photos of polymer in a challenge last year that I was posting on my personal Instagram page. Other people mix it up by installing the work in unusual places so that the what is placed on becomes part of the artwork such as fairy doors installed on walls or in tree trunks or tiles installed into a kitchen backsplash. Rachel Gourley takes it just a touch further, installing her little collections so that they recede into the landscape. She scatters her polymer elements out and about in natural settings, looking much like organic growths but unexpected in their color, shape, and placement.

 

Putting Together Your Own Mixer

This week, I didn’t pull any tutorials for you to try because it would have to be a mad, a long list of other materials to give you any real idea of your options. Instead, I might suggest that you keep your eye open for what other polymer artists are doing with other materials. Perhaps one of the above ideas piqued your interest already. If so, research that other material and find ways to acquire or hone your skill in that medium. Just put “polymer clay and [fill in the blank with the material you’re curious about]” into the search bar on Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, or Google images and see what pops up. Add the word “tutorial” to see what offerings there are online. I’m sure there will be plenty of inspiration.

You can also grab your Spring 2015 – Diversity issue of The Polymer Arts or the Convergence themed issue from Spring of 2016, both of which have a ton of ideas around using other materials with polymer. You can see the table of contents for all back issues of The Polymer Arts on this page to check out what these issues have to offer. Then, if you don’t have the issues, you can order them on the website.

In fact, let’s have a sale!

Why don’t you grab a few back issues and take a full 33% off 3 or more! Good on digital or print, I’ll keep this up until next Sunday so grab them this week. Use promo code TPA33 at checkout.

And … I’m Off!

I would normally have some community news and deals for you to look into at this point, but I did not get to that. This week has been a struggle. I am being kept busy by a house that has decided to just fall apart all of a sudden. My creative energies have been used up relocating kitchen activities to the garage, the porch, and even my studio because of plumbing issues while getting tons of exercise running large circles around the house because the garage door won’t open, washing my clothes in the bathroom sink because the laundry machine won’t drain, and constantly shuffling ice packs from freezer to fridge because the fridge is on and off and its replacement is weeks away from getting here. All this happening two weeks before we start some (apparently!) much-needed kitchen remodeling. I’m not making this up.  But talk about mixing it up!

So, I’m going to get back to my at-home glamping while trying to get the next issue wrapped up for you. But tune in next week for more polymer pretties and inspiration, and, hopefully, less house drama from Sage’s corner! In the meantime, if you work with another medium, please share it below. Or tell us the most unusual medium you’ve combined with polymer! I’d love to get a feel for what you all are working on besides polymer. Leave links to the work as well if available! (If you get this by email, click on the post title to get to the post page and scroll down to comments.) I’m excited to see what you all have to share!

One Element at a Time

February 3, 2019

I don’t know if you have ever considered, or found important, the fact that most polymer art is a collection of elements constructed into a single piece. Yes, I know I am stating the obvious here but consider the fact that most polymer art is put together in such a way as to make the individual elements blend into a cohesiveness whole. Have you ever considered that maybe each element can be its own little piece of art, even if it’s to be a part of something bigger?

If you make the work about each individual elements and not the single composition they are part of, you should be able to give yourself more freedom in the creative process. The idea would be to just focus on the single component in front of you without regard for the other parts it may eventually be joined with. Since you don’t have to consider any other elements you should be able to just let your mind and hands go play. You could, in fact, just create tons of individual pieces and then pull together the ones that you find relate and from that create a finished piece. There would be no pressure to make things work together or fit. Does that sound intriguing?

 

Elemental Artists

There are a lot of artists that do this almost exclusively. When Debbie Crothers creates, a finished piece is usually the last thing on her mind. She is in love with seeing what the material will do and spends most of her time playing and exploring. Once her stock builds up, or just whenever the bug bites her, then she will create finished pieces of wearable art.

Recently she has also been incorporating her love of found objects as you can see in the image above. This is just a part of a very long necklace of Debbie’s. (The whole of which I’ve not seen her posted anywhere but will be featured in the upcoming Polymer Journeys 2019 book. Look for pre-sale announcements this coming week.) Each individual component definitely stands on its own here since each individual polymer and found object component is framed. But you can also see, if you look at her work on Facebook or on her website, that her pieces are almost always a variety show, one that features the results of her exploration and just having fun with the clay.

Another cool thing about this type of artwork is that the viewer will probably want to look at each and every individual component. Just the variety heightens the interest in these kinds of pieces which means the people viewing it will spend more time looking at it and more time appreciating your work. That can really help in terms of sales too because the more time someone spends looking at a piece the more likely they will be to want to buy it.

I think this kind of intrigue born of variety may be the primary draw when it comes to the jewelry of Olga Ledneva. This piece you see here is a bit more dense and has more potential movement than her newer work but I thought it was also a good example of how all these pieces, together, create a textural canvas since they are all kind of dangling on top of each other, and yet, as cohesive as it feels, you still want to look carefully at each piece in the assembly. Olga’s Facebook page and Flickr photostream are good places to look around for other assembled element ideas.

I know those  two ladies make some pretty interesting and complex components but don’t think you have to go to that extent. The individual elements you create in this process can be as simple as punched out squares such as you might see in one of Laurie Mika’s mosaics. I am such a fan of this kind of free-form collage work, one that allows you to simply show off the characteristics you love about working with clay. You can assemble bits of your alcohol ink treated sheets, mokume gane, complex canes, impressed clay components, or hand sculpted forms. A mosaic or even a necklace of just simple shapes can let those treatments and colors shine, each on their own.

Of course, this approach isn’t just for polymer clay. This brilliant green assemblage necklace by an artist known only as Gebrufa is all fabric and fiber, although some components could as easily have been polymer. My guess would be that she gave herself just the restriction of a limited color palette but otherwise made all the individual pieces as whimsy led her. Should you want to know that you can have a cohesive finished piece when you are done freely creating components, this kind of approach would give you a path to that while still creating with relative freedom.

 

So, have I got you thinking about the individual elements of your pieces in a different way now?

Planning and meticulously designing pieces is essential in many circumstances but letting yourself just explore can also be an important part of your artistic growth as it helps to free up and expand your creativity. Letting yourself just play can be hard to do when you don’t have a lot of time and you want the time you do have to result in finished pieces. Knowing you can focus on making great little individual components which you can later put together into a fabulous necklace or wall piece might just be the thing that gives you the license to let go and doodle away with your clay.

 

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

  • Want to CLAY OUT EAST or CLAY OUT WEST? Registration for both of this multi-instructor, 4 day workshop events are open now. Clay out East is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 12-15th and Clay out West will be held Sept 30 – Oct 3 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here is the link for the East event’s registration. I couldn’t scare up a link for the West event registration but you can email them at clayoutwest@aol.com to get the details.
  • Did you catch the “Make Your Own Silkscreens” article in the Summer 2018 issue of The Polymer Arts? It was so much fun to make these and right now, the company that made it so fun and easy, EZScreenPrint if having a 15% off sale but it ends today! Go here, and use coupon code JAN15. No minimum purchase required.
  • Did you know that Poly Clay Play has a Shopping Discount Club? If you go through a lot of supplies (or just tend to get overly excited around polymer clay and tools and want to buy everything you see) this discount club could help in big ways. PCP is one of my favorite shops, especially for pastes, powders, and alcohol ink. She gets them all! Go here to check out the club deal or just shop around.

Always glad to get your feedback!

Last week we did some history, this week was about how you approach your work. Did you like the subject and did it get you thinking? Or do you thoughts on other things you’d like for me to research and write about? Just let me know. Write me in the comments below this post (click here if you are reading this in an email).

 

Fond Goodbyes to Winter

I was traveling this past week, otherwise I would have posted earlier about the passing of our iconic Elise Winters. I’m sure you have heard the news through other avenues that her battle with cancer ended on New Year’s day but I wanted to post a farewell here.

Although I did not know her well, we did talk and in our few conversations, I found we had some differing views but the details mattered little as we were on the same team, wanting to promote and raise the view of polymer to the level of a fine art wherever we could. My efforts have been tiny ripples to her tremendous waves, however. Elise is the reason we have polymer art in so many museums and, especially, holding its own at the esteemed Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin where polymer is one of the six categories of craft that the museum has placed its focus on. We have so much to thank her for.

Elise’s work is readily recognizable and has never been well replicated. Her combination of Skinner blends and crazed acrylic stripes were coaxed into some of the most unusual and unexpected shapes and forms. Although her ruffled and pillow forms were some of her most widely known pieces, I have always thought the piece you see here was one of her best. It’s a brooch from 2006 called Skinner Inner Brooch. This has a much more direct and grounded energy than her well-known ruffles and its inner reveal of a bull’s-eye cane gives it another dimension, bringing us to consider what is underneath, beyond the beautiful surface.

Movement and energy of this kind were paramount in her artwork and, as we have seen, also in her passion and drive to make polymer a recognized fine art material. I hope there are enough of us to amass a similarly zealous energy to continue the work for which she paved such an integral path for our craft. Thank you, Elise.

For a look back at this legendary artist, jewelry designer, and polymer art advocate you can visit her website here.

From Winter into Spring …

I would also like to put out a reminder that the first issue of The Polymer Studio is set to go to print at the end of this week. If you would like to get the first print copies straight from the printer, be sure to purchase your subscription or single issue pre-order by this Wednesday, January 9th, to get on the direct mail list we give to the printer. The issue will be released on January 19th in digital.

You can look forward to …

Tutorials

  • Kitchen Sink Imprint Mokume by Julie Picarello
  • Magical Phoenix Feather by Christi Friesen
  • Martian Footprints Necklace by Anna Malnaya
  • Swoop Pendant by Beatrice Picq
  • More is More Fimo Bracelet by Jeannette Froese LeBlanc
  • Mosaic Stained Glass Canes by Linda Leach
  • Shimmering Scenery Pendant by Sage Bray

Tips

  • Mix a Near and Far Color Palette with Tracy Holmes
  • Mix it Up with Embossing Powders with Debbie Crothers
  • Creative Studio Organization Ideas by our Staff

Inspiration

  • Studio Tour: Small Spaces in Germany with Anke Humpert
  • In-Depth Artist Profile: Julie Picarello
  • Uncommon Clay Artist Profile: Travis Suda

… and much more!

Get your subscription here at www.ThePolymerStudio.com or www.TenthMuseArts.com.

 

A Bit Abstracted

March 1, 2020
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Have you ever thought about how often polymer work is abstract? Many polymer artists who work in jewelry, wall art, and functional art do not work with recognizable imagery. Quite often polymer artists express themselves with little more than color, lines, forms, and textures. Technically, much of polymer art is decorative art due to so much of polymer craft being created in functional forms (decorative art being defined as functional as well as beautiful), but is there that great a difference between the intuitive arrangement of elements to create mood, impressions, and symbolic meaning in a piece of jewelry and that used in a painting on canvas? Well, no, there’s not, except in how we categorize it.

Unfortunately, that separate categorization, in my view, performs two disservices—it allows for a perceived difference in value (where art that is not functional, created just for art’s sake, is deemed more valuable) and creates a mystique around non-functional abstract art that makes us think we need to “understand” it, while nearly the same thing on a pendant can simply be admired. I find that sad. Why can’t just any piece of art be simply admired without looking for deeper meaning? Let’s look at just a few pieces that you can recognize as similar to familiar polymer work but is not, and use it as a back door to appreciating the inspiration that non-functional art can be for us “decorative” artists.

Abstracted Double-Takes

Take a look at the beautiful mixed media painting by Carol Nelson that opens this post. Can’t you see it as a lovely polymer pendant? Carol’s painting is cracked and textured and layered with metal foil. Is that not a familiar combination in polymer too? I think of the wonderfully crackled and painterly effects of Debbie Crothers’ work like this pendant below when rummaging through Carol’s portfolio.

If you are familiar with the polymer and metal jewelry of Susan Dyer, then this next painting might immediately bring to mind some of Susan’s well-known designs, of which there is one example below. The painting is Squares with Concentric Circles by Vassily Kandinsky.

These two pieces are so similar, you might think the jewelry was a direct translation of the painting but I would guess the designs came either quite independently or wholly unconsciously from the painting.

Much of polymer surface design is about abstract expression. We just immerse ourselves in the color, texture, marks, and mix of materials until we’ve manipulated it into a place that speaks to us. I know that is how I worked on abstract paintings when I had my short stint with those. I imagine that is not too different from what Christine Krainock was about when she created her painting Drifting Away, that you see below.

Now, doesn’t that remind you a bit of some lovely mokume created with translucent polymer and metal leaf, such as in this bracelet by Tatiana Parshikova? It’s a different material but has a similar feel, doesn’t it?  That painting would make a lovely bracelet if the painter was so inclined to make her work decorative art.

So, why isn’t our jewelry highly revered abstract works of art? In some arenas it is in its own way but being functional or wearable will likely always be separate from what is often referred to as “fine art”. It really doesn’t matter though. What does matter is that what we often do in polymer can be derived from much larger work hung on walls in museums and galleries. Also, if you’ve been stumped by abstract art but can appreciate the wide breadth of polymer art, you can apply your appreciation of the decorative to an appreciation of abstract paintings–the colors, textures, lines, etc. are used in a similar manner and often with similar goals.

So if you have time this week, maybe you can go to a museum or traipse through some galleries and try to imagine the pieces you see translated into polymer. You might find some amazing inspiration and ideas in work you just hadn’t considered in that way before.

VAB-ulous March

The next Virtual Art Box will be released at the end of the coming week and here’s a peek at the digital cover. Not only will we be exploring our passions, finding one’s unique artistic voice and, the wide world of mark making, I have a couple amazing discount offers for members as well. March is going to be a great month! Come join us if you haven’t already.

Shimmer and Shine

Also, if you haven’t seen the newsletter, I am presently taking submission ideas for tutorials for the next book, Shimmer & Shine Polymer Art Projects. You can get more details by going to this online version of the newsletter if you are interested in pitching an idea.

My apologies for any distracting typos this post. I’ve been a bit exhausted and my dyslexia, usually quite mild, is playing havoc with my proofreading skills. So, I’m off to just relax for a bit before I take up the reins on a busy first week of the month.

Have a beautiful first week of March!

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The Purpose of Intention

February 9, 2020
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How often, when you sit down to create something, do you think about why you’re doing it, the story behind what you are creating, or even just the theme or look? Apparently, it’s not overly common, at least not amongst the readers writing me this weekend.

Friday evening, I finally got the Virtual Art Box out after some technical difficulties that required a change of plans on the backend. I was a bit frazzled over reworking the technical stuff and, even though I was happy with the content I’d created, I was getting a bit nervous about how this new project would be received. But, as I wrote in the immersive design article for the Virtual Art Box project, things generally work out well when you have a particular idea in mind and you make all your decisions based on that overriding intention.

Well, my intention for the Virtual Art Box was to immerse the readers in a particular design idea that can be explored throughout the month. I was hoping that the primary design article, supported by the additional content the readers would journey through, would encourage them to really delve into the idea I presented in a purposeful and substantial way. But the question was, would they?

I thought it might be a bit of a challenge this first month since my chosen theme is conceptual rather than being a more concrete design element. But it’s just such an important concept in art. The immersive design theme this month is “Intention”. It’s simply the idea that when you sit down to create something, you can be more successful and have a more fulfilling creative experience if you have an overriding idea of what you are creating in terms of its purpose and its concept, concept being the theme, story, style or whatnot.

Well, I think my own intention to keep my focus on making the Virtual Art Box an immersive learning experience is working. Already. (Yay!) I have to say that I am a bit startled and overwhelmed by the reception of the project so far. In a community where publications, both in print and online, are dominated by project tutorials and things that are “easy and fun” (not that there’s anything wrong with fun at all!), my approach feels rather serious even though, as many of you may have seen, I do try to stay conversational and lighthearted and occasionally I just get silly. Art should be fun, and enjoyable, and fulfilling. But making good art in a truly fulfilling creative life does take work. I don’t know why I was worried that people wouldn’t want to put the work in. You, my readers, have always been pretty gung ho!

I already have a few Creative Pursuit challenge forms in (this is the part of the Box in which you create a self-challenge, and the form shares it with me and with you, and I help track it and keep you motivated.) It turns out, people look to be quick intrigued by the idea of working with intention. I love that I’m not the only art nerd who gets into things like that!

The thing is, I think  intention is the core of all design. Without it, no matter how well you understand the various aspects of design, construction, workmanship, etc., it is difficult to create a successful design. Every piece of art needs a base, a core, a grounding concept from which the artist can build, otherwise the work risks being chaotic. It’s true that a chaotic design could work but only if it is the artist’s intention to create chaos. Then it has purpose. But chaos without intent is not art; it is just messy.

Intention not only gets you where you want to go but it helps guide your design choices along the way. When you make design choices based on what works for your overriding intention, the result will be a cohesive, purposeful, and, most likely, well-designed piece.

Now, I know, some of you are already thinking that you don’t want to think so deliberately about what you’re creating or that you just like to explore. Exploration, creating for the joy of it, and stream of consciousness creating are still processes with a particular intention. Because isn’t the success of a piece really measured against how well it fulfills your intention?

Let’s look at a few of the examples.

Debbie Crothers prefers to explore and make lots of pieces as she exhausts a technique or material’s possibilities. She doesn’t usually work with a finished piece in mind but, with extensive exploration as her intention, she finds success in much of what she does and ends up with undeniably stunning beads.

 

Joseph Barbaccia specializes in inspired polymer illustrations of people and things he admires and enjoys so his intention is to visually represent objects, places, and beings from his view point such as this great portrait of David Lynch.

 

In Melanie Muir’s Summer Seas in White cuff, you can see that from the colors to the patterns, even to how the patterns are tilted on the tilted square of the beads, this piece speaks of bright light on rippling ocean waters. Her intention is clear and all her design choices align with the intended look.

 

Are you starting to get the picture? If so, think about what your intention means to you and what you intention is next time you sit down to the studio table. And if this concept really intrigues you, even if you don’t want to subscribe, you can buy the Virtual Art Box for just the one month, get all the details and ideas I am offering on how to make intention a new and exciting tool for your creative work, and see how you like the Box.

Now, if you signed up for the Virtual Art Box and didn’t see your access email, check your spam folders. It went out Friday evening (PST). If you purchased it online (rather than had your prior magazine subscription balance transferred to the Virtual Art Box), you should find the PDF package download in your account on the website. If you expected it and can’t find it in either place, write me and we’ll get you fixed up.

 

And with that, I am off to relax a bit. Its been a bit of a marathon getting the new project off the ground but now that is has taken wing, it’s time to attend to me a bit and I am going to make that include some further intention … the intention to make studio time a priority at least a couple days a week. How do you ensure you get the creative time in that you need? Maybe we’ll look at that subject a bit this week as well.

In the meantime, have an intentionally, purposefully, and mindfully creative week!

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Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019
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Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

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Crosswise Crafts

August 4, 2019
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Heather Campbell – “Keep Circling”

If you read this blog because polymer is your primary art material, do you consider yourself a polymer artist or a mixed-media artist? This question has arisen in a few conversations recently – how to identify oneself as an artist – and also in regard to the content of these blogs posts because a lot of people that are writing me of late have turned out not to be primarily polymer artists, or at least identify themselves as mixed-media rather than polymer artists. I think that’s really cool and I don’t find it terribly surprising that people who work in other art materials are interested in polymer because polymer has so much crossover and such a wide range of possible applications.

I mean, is polymer clay the only material in your art studio? Aside from maybe dedicated caners, I think the majority of us who identify as polymer artists also have drawers and bins and boxes of other things like beads, fabric, paints, paper, resin, and so much more. So, is your polymer art really a type of mixed-media art? And what is mixed-media art really anyways?

And most of all… do the labels really matter?

Labels are important for the purpose of organizing all the information we are inundated with daily, but unfortunately, it also puts people and concepts in restrictive boxes and that can become problematic. When someone is labeled (or calls themselves) a polymer artist, it doesn’t mean that they work only with polymer or even primarily with polymer. They may simply have an affinity for the material more than any other single material.

Not only do we use a lot of other materials in polymer work, but we can also so readily draw inspiration from looking at artwork in materials. I, myself, find fiber art to be an immense resource for ideas in my polymer work, especially modern quilting, so I thought I’d bring you along to explore some of the ways today’s quilt art and polymer creatively crossover.

Crosswise Crafts

Quilt art is a form of fiber art which pushes beyond functional bedcovers and quilted clothing of the past. Fiber Art itself is a relatively recent term, first used shortly after World War II to categorize fine art using natural or synthetic fiber as the material. This speaks to how relatively new the focus has been on fiber as an art form. Luckily, the term quickly worked its way out of the relatively elite world of curators and art historians into a more generalized use encompassing all fiber-based artistic applications, from weaving and quilting to intensely detailed embroidery and monumental outdoor installations.

There has been a tremendous amount of experimentation going on in fiber arts since the latter decades of the twentieth century, something as polymer artists we understand and applaud but, unlike polymer the many forms of fiber art draw from some of mankind’s oldest crafts so experimentation tends to rally not around techniques but around form, nontraditional materials, unusual use and placement of materials, and conceptual approaches, especially those involving cultural issues and activism. This makes it a rich source of inspiration that can really light the way for new possibilities in polymer.

As I’m sure you know, not only do we emulate fiber in polymer, we also have methods of construction and layout with veneers and inlays which use basically the same approach as quilting, less the sewing. Both art forms also technically work in three-dimensions but are commonly composed in two-dimensions which is why I think it’s such a great arena to look to for a creative shot in the arm.

Here is a very direct example of the crossover between quilting and polymer. Lindly Haunani draws the patterns for her polymer quilts directly from classic quilt patterns, like this one based on a half square quilt design.

She uses these wall pieces to examine and teach color. She also applies the concepts to brooches like these lovely pieces.

By the way, Lindly has a series of workshops teaching color through the creation of veneers and polymer quilts coming up in late August/early September at Creative Journey Studios. You can check those out here.

 

Although classic quilt patterns pop up in polymer quite often, contemporary quilts are nothing like these. Here is an example of traditional quilting techniques but without the traditional patterns by Lisa Jenni. Do the colors or composition poke at your creative brain but with polymer on the mind? It could be an arrangement with alcohol ink dyed polymer, striped canes, and stamped clay medallions, right?

 

That quilt reminds me a little bit of Gera Scott Chandler’s work. The colors and the emphasis on oblong circles are probably the connections but you see how one could possibly inspire the other, yes?

 

And how have we not seen something like this piece below done in polymer? This is embroidered quilting by Susan Lenz It’s less than 3’ x 2’ so such a piece in polymer would not be a monumental task. This has given me an idea … I think I know what I’m going to do with all the inchies collected over the years. Let’s all make wall pieces from our collections!

Be sure to look at Susan’s Lancet window series too. They have a similarly open layout but in kind of stained-glass patterns.

 

Contemporary quilts, like polymer, are not restricted to a two-dimensional canvas or flat layers. There are a lot of things being added into and onto quilts today. Just look at this riot of wonder by Molly Jean Hobbit.

Does this piece bring to mind any polymer artists who also use lots of pieces and materials in their work? Maybe Laurie Mika, Heather Campbell (as seen in the opening image), or even Christi Friesen with her mixed-media mosaics? If you have always liked what these ladies are doing, just imagine the fresh batch of ideas you could get from contemporary quilts.

Want to really delve into the quilt world now? You go down a rabbit hole by simply putting “quilt art” into Pinterest, or you could start on the Contemporary Quilt Art associations gallery pages. Click on each image to get a whole slew of additional quilts by various artists. It’s quite the fabulous (and possibly time gobbling) rabbit hole to go down.

Want to do a little polymer quilting of your own today? Well, you could sit down to this video by Jan Montarsi, demonstrating how to make striped polymer quilt squares. Mind you, he uses his new Create Template, but you could do it without the template if you want to get right to it. If you have the latest edition of The Polymer Studio, Issue #3, go to Jan’s article on multicolor blends first to make some really bright and saturated blended sheets to work with. If you didn’t subscribe or purchase your copy yet, you can get an immediate digital download or order a print edition on the website here. And you can get Jan’s templates here.

 

Where Two Crafts Collide – working with the Craft Industry Alliance

So, my curiosity about this mixed media labeling question pushed me to do some research early last month and, in the process, I found the Craft Industry Alliance. This is a fairly new organization – it was created in 2015 – but it is growing quite quickly as an information and supportive advocacy trade association for all working craft artists – this includes you!

I really liked that this organization recognizes craft art as a broader community that is not segregated by material or form. Since the founders are primarily fiber artist, however, it started out heavy in that arena, but they are actively growing into other communities. I know this because the president of CIA (gosh, their acronym sounds so covert!) contacted me after I joined their organization online with an earnest request to get to know the polymer community better. After a lovely chat and a few emails, we are now working on polymer based content for the Alliance. How cool is that?

So, what is this organization and what might it do for you? Well, here is the skinny, straight from President, Abby Glassenberg:

Craft Industry Alliance is a community of craft professionals. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections within a supportive trade association. Artists who are interested in becoming teachers of their craft, writing books, and showing their work in galleries need to think about setting up a solid business foundation from which to grow. Marketing and branding, legal, accounting and tax issues, social media and blogging … these are all issues creative business owners need to think through. Don’t do it alone! Come together with 1,300+ fellow members in a supportive community where you can find solid answers to your questions, make connections with the right people, and find the resources you need. Check it out at https://www.craftindustryalliance.org  

As you can see, the organization is focused on active artists who show and sell their work or promote themselves as teachers or writers. It doesn’t really matter how small or how big your creative operation is, you’ll always benefit from a little help and I think it’s a fantastic idea to have a community of people from all areas of craft supporting each other. I’ve always been a little worried that the polymer community has remained a bit insular since we have issues that few other material arenas have, being such a very young material, working with a plastic in an environmentally sensitive world, and battling the “kids art material” image. But growth in this community will come from the outside, not from within so the more we reach out and network with other craft artists and the larger craft community, the more energized and innovative we will be as a whole and that will keep the community growing and vital.

The Sage Sabbatical

So, as most of you probably know by now, August starts my little sabbatical from production work on print publications so I can attend to some health issues. I have to admit, it’s made me a little depressed. It’s just rather sudden and I’m such a workaholic and so used to having a deadline hanging over me all the time so it’s a little unnerving. Luckily, it actually started out busy since we wrapped up the release of The Polymer Studio Issue #3. It turned out just beautiful and we’ve already received so many great comments on it with particular excitement around articles like the fascinating story of Brazil’s polymer master, Beatriz Cominatto, Debbie Crothers’ acrylic and polymer exploration, and Jan’s multi-color skinner blend techniques.

If you’re waiting on your copy, the digital edition went out on the 31st – check spam/junk mail folders if you’re due one and didn’t see it in your inbox. Print editions went to the post office this past Wednesday, so they are on the way too. I have my batch of stock here if you need to order it. Just go to the website.

We also added a Special 3 issue Package of all three of The Polymer Studio issues if you need to do some catching up.

If you’re unfamiliar with my silly little situation that forced me into taking time off, you can find the more-or-less full story in our most recent newsletter here.

If you don’t get our twice a month newsletter, signing up for the newsletter is one of the best ways to stay informed on our publications and new projects, of which there will be something before the year ends even if I can’t do print! But yes, I promise I will not overextend myself and do with the doctor orders!

Speaking of which … I should go now. I hope you are excited by the peek at quilts and the connection to polymer. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and an inspired week!

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Questioning Focus

July 7, 2019
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“Fabiclay” brooch by Klio Tsaliki

Are you one of those people who finds an interesting path and goes down its until you find the end or do you like to wander about? I know that’s kind of a vague question, but you could apply it as a metaphor to goals in your life, the path of your career, or the way you create your artwork. I recently read some excerpts by Thomas Edison on the importance of keeping focused. He said, “The one prudence in life is concentration, the one evil is dissipation.” I don’t know if I wholly agree with that or, at least, I think it’s not so readily summed up in one tidy sentence.

I bet you can come up with at least a couple of artists off the top of your head who have come up with a treatment in polymer clay that they create with almost exclusively and have become quite masterful at it. But I think you come up with quite a few artists who consistently try different things, exploring, growing, and changing their style and focus on the artwork. Would you say that the person who focuses is probably doing better work than the person who is constantly exploring?

Perhaps it’s because we are talking about art that I can so readily dismiss Edison’s comment. I have always thought that, for most artists, art is about the exploration. I think if you find one technique and worked very hard to perfect it, you might get overly comfortable because you will more likely succeed with each successive piece as you hone your skill. And yes, I am presenting that as a possible problem. I am a strong believer in the value of messing up and creating pieces that “fail” on some level. It’s those experiences that really teach us and allow us to grow as artists. However, I do think that masterful artists who stick with one approach do, especially in their mind, make a lot of mistakes and have numerous pieces that failed or fell short of the artist’s expectations for every piece of work we would deem a masterpiece.

The bottom line is, I think whatever journey your imagination and curiosity leads you on is the right path to follow with your creative work. Don’t fight it if you like to stick with one technique and refine it over and over or if you get easily bored once you feel you’ve mastered something enough to understand it and want to move on to the next challenge. The journey of our creative process is as individual and unique as our own artwork.

Let’s look at a few examples of people on both sides of this coin – those dedicated to a primary technique and those that constantly change their focus. Then you can decide for yourself if Edison had a point or not.

Single Minded Tangents

There are so many artists that come to mind that focus on a single technique or process and have mastered it to a mind-blowing extent. Elise Winters is one of the first that comes to mind when it comes to technique. This surface treatment was her signature and her legacy and no one, that I’ve seen, has yet matched her skill with it.

 

When it comes to form, I don’t think anyone else in the polymer community has made more of the same form than Ron Lehocky with his hearts. But here’s an example of staying focused on one thing while exploring just about everything else you can. He’s made tens of thousands of hearts and no two are the same. Here are examples of the variations he came up with from a single Skinner blend.

 

One of the most masterful and single-minded people of process would have to be Jon Stuart Anderson with his cane covered animals and functional objects. Although caning is his focus as far as technique, he is constantly exploring pattern and how it affects the form. It’s a subtle exploration but if you look back through his work you’ll see how the application of pattern has changed over the years and how he is constantly exploring new forms to apply them to, working on how the new forms will show off the canes or how the canes will accentuate the forms.

I love this bowl below. It shows more “quiet space” with those swaths of black to red canes, than I think I’ve ever seen in his work before. The relatively unpatterned area so dramatically contrasts the complex canes designs but you can take in the individual cane and pattern placement more readily because the eye has a place to rest, giving you a moment to rest and to process more of what you’re seeing

 

This whole subject matter recalls to me a conversation Rosanna Faillace and I had with Melanie Muir in Rome last year. We were talking about people who stick with one technique and don’t branch out and Melanie, seeming to think it might be a negative thing, said “That’s me. I’m a one trick pony.” But of course, she’s not. She loves her inlaid mokume gane veneers, but she is constantly exploring construction and different forms on which to present these, resulting in pieces like this beautiful bracelet.

Frenetically Fabulous

I myself am of the exploratory variety of artists. I do wish I had a little more focus and could spend more time on any single technique, form, or process, but the thing is, my curiosity about what else I could do is a stronger driving force, so I go with that. There are a LOT of us artistic explorers in polymer art as polymer just cries out to be explored.

When it comes to an exploratory approach in polymer, Debbie Crothers is the first person who comes to mind. You can see her gorgeous acrylic on polymer beads on the front of the upcoming issue of The Polymer Studio. Her penchant for exploration is why she is writing the “Mix it Up” articles in the magazine. She always has something she’s playing around with and she does love to share. She does occasionally show the results of both her good and not so successful explorations, which I love because it demonstrates her willingness to try, to make mistakes, and to do the work over and over again until she has mastered it. It is highly unlikely that Debbie would have gotten the results she got in these beads below if she didn’t go through a lot of trial and error first. The final results are well worth the exploration!

 

Another person I’ve been following for years is Klio Tsaliki. She’ll try almost anything and, in the process, comes up with some great techniques and approaches. Some attempts come out better than others, but I love that she shares it all, or at least enough for us to see that she is not afraid to try anything that interests her. I find that very inspiring. A couple of years ago she was playing with metallic silkscreen and the possible fabric-like quality of polymer, as you can see in the opening photo of this post. More recently, she’s played with translucent clay and LED lights, as seen below.

Klio’s newest work has been in the up and coming new clay from Fimo, “Leather Effect”. Once cured, this clay is supposed to be very much like leather. You can see here on the Fimo website that it is very pliable and can be cut and even stitched. I don’t know about you, but I have never been so excited about a new line of polymer clay! It’s not available in the US yet, and I don’t know how widely distributed it is in Europe, but there is supposed to be news about that soon and, trust me, when it is available, I’m going to be playing with it quite a bit as leather was one of my first materials I made jewelry from. You can go to Klio’s Flickr photostream to see what she’s been doing with it.

Another name for exploration is pioneering. Pioneers need to explore their subject extensively to find those new and intriguing aspects that lead the rest of us to their fresh finds. In general, you’ll find that most of the folks we identify as polymer pioneers were and are highly exploratory. Just look at what Kathleen Dustin has done throughout her career. From ornate purses to translucent layered brooches to reinterpretations of textile patterns such as with these new brooches below, you never really know what Kathleen will be working on next and yet, all her work is masterfully constructed and impeccably finished. I think her exploration keeps her work fresh for us and, most especially, for her and her passion for her work.

 

Focus on Yourself

So, as you see, there are many approaches to the creative process, all of which have value and result in beautiful, emotive, and inspiring work. So, no, I don’t think focus and concentration on one technique, form, or even material, is necessary but I do think keeping a sharp focus on the overriding creative goal – to make fulfilling artwork, financially supportive artwork, satiating your curiosity, or whatever the important creative motivation is for you – is something to keep a watchful eye on.

Speaking of focus … The construction on my house is in the finishing stages now. That hasn’t helped me with my focus on getting the next issue out, neither has my tendinitis and back issue which was such a huge problem last year. The thing is, in the last year, I have not really had enough time off to completely heal and am having issues again. I’m pretty sure I can get this issue to the printer in time to have it out by the end of the month but I’m probably going to have a heart-to-heart with my doctor on what I really need to do to get this healed and am working out a bit of time off later this month. This is one area where keeping focus would be very helpful!

I will keep you apprised of any shakeups in production if you are a subscriber to The Polymer Studio so just stay tuned here. And next week maybe I can get you pictures of the house for those of you who are curious. Everything’s under plastic wrap right now as they finish plastering and painting. But it’s horribly exciting seeing it come together!

So, I will leave you with these thoughts on focus and exploration. I hope it brings you some interesting insights for your own process and work. Have a fabulous week!

 

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Your Morning Book

June 30, 2019
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Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover

Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.

This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.

So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.

Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”

At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then),  I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.

When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.

I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.

Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.

So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.

A Book and It’s Cover

The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.

If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.

Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.

 

If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.

 

Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.

 

I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)

Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.

You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!

 

New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July

If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.

Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.

 

Painter for a Day

I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!

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Mixing and Mingling, New Cover, & 33% off Back issues

March 24, 2019
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We have a bit of business to do first today but it’s exciting business! I wanted to share with you the next cover of The Polymer Studio, coming late April.

We are thrilled to include projects from Cynthia Tinapple, our featured and interviewed artist for this issue, as well as Christi Friesen, Kathy Koontz, Elena Mori, the Mitchell sisters, Deb Hart, and Wendy Moore. Also, tips, tricks, and other bits of wisdom from Debbie Crothers, Ginger Davis Allman, and little old me. And you won’t want to miss the tour of Christine Dumont’s studio, complete with a conversation about her space and process, which I think you’ll find very intriguing.

All this and more, just a month away! Support our projects, this blog, and the betterment of your own polymer journey, of course, or just because you’d like to look at all the pretty things tucked into those pages, by subscribing to The Polymer Studio here.

(Be sure to scroll down to the last section for the 33% off sale stuff.)

A Fine Mix-up

So, did you get a chance to look through the winning entries for the IPCA awards? Here’s the link again if you didn’t see them. The winning entries are just beautiful and maybe even a bit surprising. If you saw it, did you notice any trends or changes in trends and what was presented? I thought it was interesting that there were a lot of mixed-media pieces where polymer clay might have been the focus, but other materials played large roles in important design aspects and visual impact of the work.

One of the reasons I find this so interesting is that the idea of expanding into other materials seems to be a regular conversation myself and many other people are having. I couldn’t say exactly what that means but I do believe that polymer, with its unparalleled flexibility for combining with other materials, has kind of come of age where our exploration of what it can do is being placed on the back burner in order to focus on artistic expression. I look at these mixed-media pieces in the awards and other pieces I find during my research and general perusing online, and it seems that we are seeing more instances where polymer centric artists decide what they want to make and then determine the best materials for the work rather than push to see if polymer can be used for most, if not all, of the components of a piece. Or perhaps I am just hoping this is the case because I would love to see more folks focused on personal expression will rather than letting our obsessive, but understandable, infatuation with the material determine our creative parameters.

Of course, for most of us who work in polymer now, this colorful, durable, and chameleon material will remain our primary love and, regardless of other options, we will often still try to do as much as we can with polymer, if just to see if we can push it a little bit farther. But, opening oneself up to the possibilities of combining it with other materials in major ways will allow us, and even the viewer, to focus more on the design and expression and less on the material itself, which will let the artist’s expression, vision, creativity, and aesthetic really shine. I find this very exciting!

So, this week, let’s look at some of the mixed-media pieces where other materials play a primary role alongside polymer. This could be very helpful for you if you have felt like you’re in a rut or are too often hitting technical or design walls in your work. Trying out a different material may just be the thing to inject you with new enthusiasm and, possibly, send you down a new path with your artwork.

Mixed Directions

Let’s first look at some of the winners of the IPCA awards and in many ways that other materials have been mixed in.

This first piece is both a mixed-media and a mixed artist piece. Ellen Prophater or worked with Sherry Mozer, a glass artist, led to the use of the black glass piece with its shades of green within reflected in the mokume polymer it sits upon. It is set in a silver bezel and accented with Swarovski crystals. Both the mokume and the glass show off a subtle transparency, drawing the connection between the two along with the green cast colors. It’s a nice reminder that collaboration can also push us in new directions making new discoveries in our work and even ourselves and our friendships.

 

Donna Greenberg just killed it as the professional mixed-media category. This wall piece is called Wedgewood Wave but the word that keeps coming to mind for me is swoon. Not just because I feel like swooning, it’s just so gorgeous, but that’s also the word that comes to mind from that fabulous flow of energy through those waves, back into the pool of blue. Those waves are paper, but the application of color and shape are similar to the polymer pieces so the different materials feel cohesive. This is definitely one of those cases where another medium was the better choice. Trying to create those waves in polymer would’ve been just silly, even though it could be done. The paper gives a lighter feel to the overall piece as well as a light and easy flow to the visual movement. She also used Ultralight polymer alongside the Arches cold press paper, acrylic gouache paints, watercolor pencils, and Apoxie paste, each material fulfilling its purpose in a way that another material would not have been as successful with.

 

With the issue of the environment heavy in many of our minds, we are seeing a lot of exploration into found or recycled or upcycled items. Sarah Machtey offered up this steam punk pouch necklace with removable magnifying glass for the mixed media category of the awards with a bit of all of that. The front and back of this small pouch is from a soda can turned inside out – you can still see the printing of the soda can on the inside – but she embossed the can with decorative lines and used mica powder infused liquid polymer in the recesses to make them stand out. The band across the top is upcycled copper from a renovation project while the side leaves and earrings are polymer clay. Not sure if the magnifying glass was bought or found but it certainly could have been reused from something else.

The pouch is 7” (18 cm) in height from the top edge to the bottom of the magnifying glass, so it’s no small bit of tin on there. Of course, she could have used polymer to create the metal sections but it would’ve been a bulkier piece. The tin keeps the weight down as well as adding some structural strength that would only have been accomplished with a much thicker wall of polymer.

 

Keep in mind, when we are talking mixed-media it doesn’t necessarily have to be another art material. For instance, I combined poetry with photos of polymer in a challenge last year that I was posting on my personal Instagram page. Other people mix it up by installing the work in unusual places so that the what is placed on becomes part of the artwork such as fairy doors installed on walls or in tree trunks or tiles installed into a kitchen backsplash. Rachel Gourley takes it just a touch further, installing her little collections so that they recede into the landscape. She scatters her polymer elements out and about in natural settings, looking much like organic growths but unexpected in their color, shape, and placement.

 

Putting Together Your Own Mixer

This week, I didn’t pull any tutorials for you to try because it would have to be a mad, a long list of other materials to give you any real idea of your options. Instead, I might suggest that you keep your eye open for what other polymer artists are doing with other materials. Perhaps one of the above ideas piqued your interest already. If so, research that other material and find ways to acquire or hone your skill in that medium. Just put “polymer clay and [fill in the blank with the material you’re curious about]” into the search bar on Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, or Google images and see what pops up. Add the word “tutorial” to see what offerings there are online. I’m sure there will be plenty of inspiration.

You can also grab your Spring 2015 – Diversity issue of The Polymer Arts or the Convergence themed issue from Spring of 2016, both of which have a ton of ideas around using other materials with polymer. You can see the table of contents for all back issues of The Polymer Arts on this page to check out what these issues have to offer. Then, if you don’t have the issues, you can order them on the website.

In fact, let’s have a sale!

Why don’t you grab a few back issues and take a full 33% off 3 or more! Good on digital or print, I’ll keep this up until next Sunday so grab them this week. Use promo code TPA33 at checkout.

And … I’m Off!

I would normally have some community news and deals for you to look into at this point, but I did not get to that. This week has been a struggle. I am being kept busy by a house that has decided to just fall apart all of a sudden. My creative energies have been used up relocating kitchen activities to the garage, the porch, and even my studio because of plumbing issues while getting tons of exercise running large circles around the house because the garage door won’t open, washing my clothes in the bathroom sink because the laundry machine won’t drain, and constantly shuffling ice packs from freezer to fridge because the fridge is on and off and its replacement is weeks away from getting here. All this happening two weeks before we start some (apparently!) much-needed kitchen remodeling. I’m not making this up.  But talk about mixing it up!

So, I’m going to get back to my at-home glamping while trying to get the next issue wrapped up for you. But tune in next week for more polymer pretties and inspiration, and, hopefully, less house drama from Sage’s corner! In the meantime, if you work with another medium, please share it below. Or tell us the most unusual medium you’ve combined with polymer! I’d love to get a feel for what you all are working on besides polymer. Leave links to the work as well if available! (If you get this by email, click on the post title to get to the post page and scroll down to comments.) I’m excited to see what you all have to share!

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One Element at a Time

February 3, 2019
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I don’t know if you have ever considered, or found important, the fact that most polymer art is a collection of elements constructed into a single piece. Yes, I know I am stating the obvious here but consider the fact that most polymer art is put together in such a way as to make the individual elements blend into a cohesiveness whole. Have you ever considered that maybe each element can be its own little piece of art, even if it’s to be a part of something bigger?

If you make the work about each individual elements and not the single composition they are part of, you should be able to give yourself more freedom in the creative process. The idea would be to just focus on the single component in front of you without regard for the other parts it may eventually be joined with. Since you don’t have to consider any other elements you should be able to just let your mind and hands go play. You could, in fact, just create tons of individual pieces and then pull together the ones that you find relate and from that create a finished piece. There would be no pressure to make things work together or fit. Does that sound intriguing?

 

Elemental Artists

There are a lot of artists that do this almost exclusively. When Debbie Crothers creates, a finished piece is usually the last thing on her mind. She is in love with seeing what the material will do and spends most of her time playing and exploring. Once her stock builds up, or just whenever the bug bites her, then she will create finished pieces of wearable art.

Recently she has also been incorporating her love of found objects as you can see in the image above. This is just a part of a very long necklace of Debbie’s. (The whole of which I’ve not seen her posted anywhere but will be featured in the upcoming Polymer Journeys 2019 book. Look for pre-sale announcements this coming week.) Each individual component definitely stands on its own here since each individual polymer and found object component is framed. But you can also see, if you look at her work on Facebook or on her website, that her pieces are almost always a variety show, one that features the results of her exploration and just having fun with the clay.

Another cool thing about this type of artwork is that the viewer will probably want to look at each and every individual component. Just the variety heightens the interest in these kinds of pieces which means the people viewing it will spend more time looking at it and more time appreciating your work. That can really help in terms of sales too because the more time someone spends looking at a piece the more likely they will be to want to buy it.

I think this kind of intrigue born of variety may be the primary draw when it comes to the jewelry of Olga Ledneva. This piece you see here is a bit more dense and has more potential movement than her newer work but I thought it was also a good example of how all these pieces, together, create a textural canvas since they are all kind of dangling on top of each other, and yet, as cohesive as it feels, you still want to look carefully at each piece in the assembly. Olga’s Facebook page and Flickr photostream are good places to look around for other assembled element ideas.

I know those  two ladies make some pretty interesting and complex components but don’t think you have to go to that extent. The individual elements you create in this process can be as simple as punched out squares such as you might see in one of Laurie Mika’s mosaics. I am such a fan of this kind of free-form collage work, one that allows you to simply show off the characteristics you love about working with clay. You can assemble bits of your alcohol ink treated sheets, mokume gane, complex canes, impressed clay components, or hand sculpted forms. A mosaic or even a necklace of just simple shapes can let those treatments and colors shine, each on their own.

Of course, this approach isn’t just for polymer clay. This brilliant green assemblage necklace by an artist known only as Gebrufa is all fabric and fiber, although some components could as easily have been polymer. My guess would be that she gave herself just the restriction of a limited color palette but otherwise made all the individual pieces as whimsy led her. Should you want to know that you can have a cohesive finished piece when you are done freely creating components, this kind of approach would give you a path to that while still creating with relative freedom.

 

So, have I got you thinking about the individual elements of your pieces in a different way now?

Planning and meticulously designing pieces is essential in many circumstances but letting yourself just explore can also be an important part of your artistic growth as it helps to free up and expand your creativity. Letting yourself just play can be hard to do when you don’t have a lot of time and you want the time you do have to result in finished pieces. Knowing you can focus on making great little individual components which you can later put together into a fabulous necklace or wall piece might just be the thing that gives you the license to let go and doodle away with your clay.

 

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

  • Want to CLAY OUT EAST or CLAY OUT WEST? Registration for both of this multi-instructor, 4 day workshop events are open now. Clay out East is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 12-15th and Clay out West will be held Sept 30 – Oct 3 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here is the link for the East event’s registration. I couldn’t scare up a link for the West event registration but you can email them at clayoutwest@aol.com to get the details.
  • Did you catch the “Make Your Own Silkscreens” article in the Summer 2018 issue of The Polymer Arts? It was so much fun to make these and right now, the company that made it so fun and easy, EZScreenPrint if having a 15% off sale but it ends today! Go here, and use coupon code JAN15. No minimum purchase required.
  • Did you know that Poly Clay Play has a Shopping Discount Club? If you go through a lot of supplies (or just tend to get overly excited around polymer clay and tools and want to buy everything you see) this discount club could help in big ways. PCP is one of my favorite shops, especially for pastes, powders, and alcohol ink. She gets them all! Go here to check out the club deal or just shop around.

Always glad to get your feedback!

Last week we did some history, this week was about how you approach your work. Did you like the subject and did it get you thinking? Or do you thoughts on other things you’d like for me to research and write about? Just let me know. Write me in the comments below this post (click here if you are reading this in an email).

 

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Fond Goodbyes to Winter

January 7, 2019
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I was traveling this past week, otherwise I would have posted earlier about the passing of our iconic Elise Winters. I’m sure you have heard the news through other avenues that her battle with cancer ended on New Year’s day but I wanted to post a farewell here.

Although I did not know her well, we did talk and in our few conversations, I found we had some differing views but the details mattered little as we were on the same team, wanting to promote and raise the view of polymer to the level of a fine art wherever we could. My efforts have been tiny ripples to her tremendous waves, however. Elise is the reason we have polymer art in so many museums and, especially, holding its own at the esteemed Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin where polymer is one of the six categories of craft that the museum has placed its focus on. We have so much to thank her for.

Elise’s work is readily recognizable and has never been well replicated. Her combination of Skinner blends and crazed acrylic stripes were coaxed into some of the most unusual and unexpected shapes and forms. Although her ruffled and pillow forms were some of her most widely known pieces, I have always thought the piece you see here was one of her best. It’s a brooch from 2006 called Skinner Inner Brooch. This has a much more direct and grounded energy than her well-known ruffles and its inner reveal of a bull’s-eye cane gives it another dimension, bringing us to consider what is underneath, beyond the beautiful surface.

Movement and energy of this kind were paramount in her artwork and, as we have seen, also in her passion and drive to make polymer a recognized fine art material. I hope there are enough of us to amass a similarly zealous energy to continue the work for which she paved such an integral path for our craft. Thank you, Elise.

For a look back at this legendary artist, jewelry designer, and polymer art advocate you can visit her website here.

From Winter into Spring …

I would also like to put out a reminder that the first issue of The Polymer Studio is set to go to print at the end of this week. If you would like to get the first print copies straight from the printer, be sure to purchase your subscription or single issue pre-order by this Wednesday, January 9th, to get on the direct mail list we give to the printer. The issue will be released on January 19th in digital.

You can look forward to …

Tutorials

  • Kitchen Sink Imprint Mokume by Julie Picarello
  • Magical Phoenix Feather by Christi Friesen
  • Martian Footprints Necklace by Anna Malnaya
  • Swoop Pendant by Beatrice Picq
  • More is More Fimo Bracelet by Jeannette Froese LeBlanc
  • Mosaic Stained Glass Canes by Linda Leach
  • Shimmering Scenery Pendant by Sage Bray

Tips

  • Mix a Near and Far Color Palette with Tracy Holmes
  • Mix it Up with Embossing Powders with Debbie Crothers
  • Creative Studio Organization Ideas by our Staff

Inspiration

  • Studio Tour: Small Spaces in Germany with Anke Humpert
  • In-Depth Artist Profile: Julie Picarello
  • Uncommon Clay Artist Profile: Travis Suda

… and much more!

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