A Dramatic Shift

April 28, 2019

Pier Voulkos boxes

Of all the fabulous polymer clay techniques, which would you say is the most dramatic? There are certainly a lot of them that can be bright and colorful, shiny and sparkling, dramatic and graphic, but could you pick out just one that you think has the most impact when first seen?

I have to say, the one technique that really pops for me is mica shift. It can be colorful, shimmery, and quite dramatic, and has the added effect of looking three-dimensional when it is not. And who doesn’t love a visual illusion?

Mica shift has waned in popularity of late. I’m not sure why because it is just such a gorgeous technique. But when I started researching the idea of making mica shift the theme this week, I found myself on really old posts and pages, looking at work that was created 10, 20 or 30 years ago. That made me all the more determined to bring this technique’s wonderful effects back into the limelight here.

For those unfamiliar with the technique or how it works, here is a little history and explanation for you.

The effect itself is a result of manipulating the mica in metallic clays into orderly layers that you can then manipulate in a controlled manner. This can be done because mica, a shiny, silvery, layered mineral, forms tiny flakes when ground up. The flat side of these flakes are reflective, but the sides are not (like a mirror.) So, if mica is flat side up, it reflects light, but a stack of mica seen from the side is just dark.

You control the mica in your clay by conditioning it in a pasta machine, folding the sheeted clay in half and running it through over and over. The pasta machine rollers, squeezing the clay down, also nudges the flakes to lay flat. Eventually, all the flat faces of all those tiny flakes are facing up in the sheet, causing it to be reflective and shiny.

So then imagine what happens to all those perfectly flat flakes if you press something into them? The flakes get tilted, showing their dark sides (gosh, sounds like some people I’ve known!) That’s where the control comes in. You decide where to distort that perfectly flat sea of face up flakes with a texture sheet, a blade, or hand tools, and where there is distortion, there will be dark outlines of tilted mica. Those outlines are there under the surface too, as the flakes, like tiny dominoes, knock each other over under the invading lines of a texture sheet or a hand tool.

You can also just play with the difference between the shiny surface and the dark sides by stacking mica sheets and cutting it up, rolling sheets into a cane, or twisting or folding a narrow stack, just to name a few approaches. In these cases, the sides of the original layers stay dark and the surface stays shiny, so you have dramatic contrast.

Mica shift in polymer has been called by other names over the years. One of the original innovators of this technique, Pier Voulkos, (those are her boxes opening this post) called it her “invisible caning”. Later, Karen Lewis referred to Pier’s technique as chatoyant, a French term meaning to shine like a cat’s eye, which is used in gemology to describe the bright reflected bands of light caused by aligned inclusions in a stone. That’s certainly fitting for polymer mica shift too.

Let’s take a look at some truly dramatic and lovely examples of this technique.

Shifty Ideas

Around the same time period that Pier was experimenting with her invisible canes, Mike Buesseler was playing with mica clay sheets and “ingots”, stacking then cutting, twisting, texturing and curling up sections of these sheets and ingots to create beads and surface design.

Here is a beautiful necklace using a very simple technique of twisting a square strand of stacked mica sheets.

I would explain more about Mike but, instead, I’m going to let him explain for himself in what is, to this day, the best video class that I have ever viewed. No joke. I’d rather you stop reading this post and watch that video, if it’s all you have time for today. The video is well over an hour-long and it is twenty years old but, no matter how long you’ve been working with polymer or how much you think you know about mica shift, it is well worth your while. It also has an interesting little story about how it came to be a free master class for all. Check it out on YouTube here.

 

Grant Diffendaffer has long been my polymer clay hero. His mica shift and designs are breathtaking. Although he worked with techniques derived from all the early developed mica shift techniques, his most impressive are his impression pieces. This type of mica shift, sometimes called “ghost shift”, is created by impressing a texture into a sheet of well-conditioned mica clay and then the raised layer of clay is shaved off with a very sharp tissue blade making a smooth surface but leaving the illusion of dimension. Grant created his own texture sheets and then applied them to mica clay Skinner blends. His choice of blended colors surrounded by textured black makes for some very dramatic pieces.

 

Some of the most dramatic and graphic mica shift you’ll see to this day comes from the studio of Dan Cormier. A lot of his effects come from cutting and puncturing straight down through the clay. When using a blade, the clay shifts only in the cuts where the blade separates the clay causing just a hairline distortion and thus, very thin dark lines. Puncturing shifts more clay as the tool pushes clay aside to get through. The advantage of these distortions, however, is that the design is present and consistent all the way through the stack.

 

Here’s another take on mica shift from my own table. These gauge earrings might seem a bit more shimmery than a lot of mica shift as I add plain mica powder (bought from handmade cosmetic suppliers) and translucent clay to my metallic polymer clay to bring up the shimmer a notch. These are created from Skinner blend sheets that were stacked, twisted, and rolled smooth before curling them up. They also receive a lot of denim buffing. My mica shift effect is actually the same basic technique that Mike used for the necklace you see above but I twisted it tighter and rolled it smooth with an acrylic plate.

 

Just so you know, 3 of the artist’s mentioned here no longer work in polymer clay which is why you aren’t getting the abundance of information and links I can usually offer. Pier, Mike and Grant are all multi-disciplinary creatives who moved on to another creative form—Pier returned to dancing, Mike to music and Grant has stayed in crafts but has been exploring a variety of materials and forms. Regardless, we can sure be grateful for their time with us!

 

Curious Shift

If this little discussion of mica shift has you anxious to get to the studio table and try it out, I heartily encourage you to do so. In fact, I would like to challenge you all to create a little (or a lot) of mica shift this week. I’m going to do the same, creating some new designs with ideas I came up with after researching this post. I’ll share what I’ve done next week and post them to my personal Instagram page.

Do you think you can you get in one mica shift project before the end of the week? Try it and then please send me a photo or link you would be willing to share online, and I’ll see what I can share at the end of next week’s post. You could also just post to Instagram and tag with #polymerartschallenge or message me on Facebook at The Polymer Studio page or write back if you’re getting this by email.

If you have some great mica shift pieces to add to the discussion, leave a comment at the end of the post for us to check out.

And with that, I have to run. Its been a crazy week. There were some problems with production  and getting Issue #2 of The Polymer Studio wrapped up (the release for the new issue will be in a couple of days, April 30th, so keep an eye out for it in your inbox, if you have a digital edition coming, and your mailbox in the weeks to come. Or subscribe or order the issue on our website!) and then we’ve been having problems with the city getting our plans through so we can move forward with the renovations here at the house (many people are still rebuilding from the huge fires we had in November, so they are busy beavers at the planning offices) but, finally, the demolition begins tomorrow and there is still a last few things to prepare. Good news though … we put the refrigerator on the porch instead of in my studio! Yay! We moved the liquor cabinet in here instead. MUCH better idea. I think. Or will it be weird that I can pour a glass of port without leaving my chair here? Well, we shall see.

Until next Sunday my dear readers … have a wonderful week!

 

 

On the Flipside

November 2, 2018

We are going to hop back to the new book, Polymer Art Projects—Organic (which you can still get 10% off on for the next couple of days, promo code PAP10), for one last day this week to give you another taste and some additional information on one of the beautiful projects in there.

One of our contributors, Fabi Ajates, has this wonderful collection of objects at the end of her tutorial, showing you some of the different decor items you can make with the many little techniques she teaches. In a conversation we had after the tutorial was in layout, I found out that some of the objects are actually reversible and Fabi, with the help of her son David, graciously sent us these additional images and some information about the pieces for you to enjoy. Here is what they sent:

CORAL KELP

All the textures and shapes I create are one-of-a-kind and handmade, conceived in the pursuit of the pieces’ harmony and the most dramatic result. Furthermore, the project [in the book] is meant to be versatile because it can be used not only to create jewelry such as the necklace, but also décor elements which can add a touch of individuality. When used for interior design pieces, these can have a double purpose which makes this technique even more resourceful, attractive, and interesting.

What looked like a turquoise coral vase from which a leaf of kelp languidly emerges, has become a bowl or small plate. We observe the same effect with the piece that imitates an anemone; its face changes relative to whether it sits upright or it is reversed, while it contrasts or harmonizes with the landscape and with the rest of the pieces.

Inspired by coral and marine vegetation, [these forms are] mysterious nature that awaits silently like a treasure in the depths of seas and oceans whose colors and shades, a combination of seawater and sunlight, are uniquely beautiful.

Thanks for the extra images and your thoughts, Fabi!

Find out more about this amazing artist who has not let her deaf condition or language barriers get in the way of sharing her skills. Check out her class schedule here and follow her artistic adventures on her blog.

And don’t forget to get in on the 10% off offer to get your own copy of the book or other items we presently have in print, here on The Polymer Arts website. Use promo code PAP10 before midnight on Sunday Pacific time to get the discount off everything in your cart!

Missing Grant

July 23, 2018

In going back through my polymer picks I saved over the years to consider for the blog, I came across some older work from people who no longer create in polymer. It might seem sad but it is simply that some artists move on from a material to find other materials that express the type of work they want to do in that time period. Although I am obviously a big promoter of polymer as an art material, there should be an adage that goes, “Just because you can do it with polymer doesn’t mean you should do it with polymer.” Sometimes another material is just a better choice.

The one polymer artist I personally miss the most is Grant Diffendaffer, whose gorgeous vessel you see here. His mica shift and the visual texture he created with it are still, today, some of the most amazing examples of the technique. Well done mica shift will always have a bit of an internal glow, but the colors Grant chose and the way his patterns shift and flow make the work come alive.

There is more than just an internal glow in Grant’s work. The mica reflects so brightly that it appears that there is a light behind that surface. And although I voraciously took in every page of his book back when I started, I was not able to figure out how he created the variation in visual texture. Not back then at least. I am thinking I need to give it another shot now that I know so much more than I did a decade ago.

His book, Polymer Clay Beads, is still a treasure of information, however, he no longer works in polymer. He did work with it for a while after his jewelry and decor era, creating props of sorts. He is back working in jewelry now but in 3-D printing resin. His portfolio on his website shows all of his work from polymer to 3-D printing. If you’re interested in the progression of his artwork or just want to see what is up to, take a look at his website and his Facebook page, Steadcraft.

Inside a Glass Tower

July 20, 2018

Since we got on a glass kick this week, I rummaged through my outside inspiration board on Pinterest and came up with this fantastic artist who I have long wanted to share with you.

Jean Fernandes was born in India but was raised both there and in California. After graduating with a Masters in Glass from the University of Texas at Arlington, she became an award-winning emerging artist and winner of a 2015 Niche award.

And it’s no wonder. Just look at this simple but mesmerizing cast glass tower she created in 2015—its interiors look almost alive with movement. The basic shape and grayscale color palette allows the interior lines and undulating forms to captivate us without distraction. The vertical shape relies on a sense of strength, as vertical forms and lines do, adding to the monumental feel of this piece even though it’s only 16 inches high.

Jean considers herself a multimedia artist although glass has been her primary medium. To quote her from an interview in 2015, “Often, I work with glass because of its conceptual flexibility and duality. It has the ability to be fragile or strong, transparent or opaque, stiff or flexible, etc. and acts as an excellent metaphor in my work. The properties of the media are often integral to my work; I’ve used yarn for its softness and strength, ice for its temporality, wax for its ability to melt when introduced to heat, etc. and all of these qualities often play a large role in the concept of the piece I am working on.”

This brings up an interesting thought that I’ve discussed with several artists recently and that is whether our art is defined by our medium or do we work with the mediums that help us to define our art? I think those who put the artwork first may often find themselves working in various mediums simply because they’re looking for the materials that help them realize what they want to express. It’s wonderful that polymer’s versatility can fulfill many artistic needs so readily, but I thought I’d take this moment to remind us that we can, and should, use other mediums when it helps us express what it is we want to put out there in the world.

Take a look at more of Jean’s work on her website here.

 

Through a Glass Prettily

July 16, 2018

Apparently, I’m a bit of a wreck. I’m only telling you this because you are probably going to see a bit of a slowdown in our publications coming out and maybe a little less research here on the blog. As many of you know, I’m the only full-time person who works on The Polymer Arts projects and I’m dealing with two injuries that occurred earlier this year and arthritis in my neck, none of which are happy with how much I work. So, doctor’s orders, I have to cut my computer time down the next few months while I focus on healing. It’s going to be hard to slow down, workaholic that I am, but I’m counting on you all to hold me to it!

So to minimize my research time, I’m going to be pulling things to share from my stash on my Pinterest boards and favorites on Instagram and Flickr and such for a while. We will, therefore, be seeing a fair amount of older work, but there’s so much really inspirational and timeless work to share.

This week’s first piece is from Adrianne Jeswiet whose work I discovered not too long ago. Her shop on Etsy is called “Kissing Glass” and it is filled with various glass vessels covered in detailed imagery. This piece includes tiny dragonflies, water lilies, irises and cattails applied to a recycled glass vase colored with glass paint. Take a close look to see the myriad of tiny details that are sure to make this a conversation piece wherever it finds its new home.

Pop over to Adrianne’s Etsy shop to see the full range of what she does.

Thread and Clay

July 2, 2018

Photo of several round needlework art piecesGuest Blog Post by Stéphanie Kilgast

Justyna Wołodkiewicz mixes embroidery with polymer clay in an always poetic way.

She seamlessly binds traditional arts to very contemporary ones, resulting in often abstract and always mesmerizing works of art.

Her work vacillates between organic shapes and precise geometry with a dash of oddity. Eyes and sad or sleepy faces often inhabit her embroidery hoops.

Her world is one of colors, and she effortlessly mixes hues and shades, giving each sculptural work a different set of emotions.

Her artist’s name, “Nibyniebo,” translates into “just like the sky,” and just like the sky, her work is an evidence of poetry that will resonate within you.

You can follow her artistic journey on Instagram and also buy certain of her pieces on her website.

Stéphanie Kilgast shares and teaches her craft through video and online tutorials. Find them at www.petitplat.fr and follow her on Instagram @petitplat.

Cat’s out of the Bag

May 23, 2018

I’m not sure how it happened but we somehow got Nikolina Otrzan to “spill the beads” on her unique, signature textures that she creates for her jewelry components. She shares not one, not two, but four different textures and even variations on those so it’s more like a dozen possible textures you can get out of completing her tutorial in this issue. It turns out, they are all pretty easy to do. They will just take some patience to do it as neatly as she does.

We were not able to fit in examples of all the ways these beads could be used. As seen here, her textured components can be artfully composed to decorate home décor and not just as beads for jewelry. Her cat seems to approve of these mirrors as well. And what a great idea. If you have a stash of flat-backed beads or components that work together, decorate a mirror, frame, or another object they can be attached to. Your spare components will have a home and you too can end up with some beautiful—as you see in the article—pet-approved décor.

Nikolina is a very thorough and detailed instructor. If, after getting into those textures in the article, you find that you want more, all you need to do is go to her Etsy shop to get another tutorial from the couple dozen she has available right now.

 

Summer 2018 is here! The Big Picture

May 21, 2018

Yesterday, the “Summer 2018 – Everything in Its Place” issue of The Polymer Arts was released digitally and the print issues were at the post office getting sorted on Friday. If you are expecting a digital edition, look in your inbox (check spam/junk mail folders if it’s not there) and print editions will start popping up in mailboxes soon (allow up to four weeks if you are on the east or southeast end of the United States or are overseas.)

Here is a collage of some of the first pages of articles if you haven’t seen the issue yet. Click on the image to get a bigger picture.

In the meantime, let’s look at some items that didn’t make it into this packed issue.

The piece you see here is actually in the issue but it’s small and there’s so much detail it seemed a shame not to provide a larger image. (You can click on the image of the tiles to get a bigger, more detailed photo.)

This nine square inches scene was created by Chris Kapono as an example of how to use her tiny tiles methods to create a series of tiles that work together. She shows the construction of this type of tile in the article and has examples of how to lay out a version of your own.

This kind of project reminds me of the “tiny steps” philosophy of goal setting, where you take a big goal and break it down into small chunks. So if you have ever thought about doing wall art or larger pieces, take a tip from this composition and break it down into multiple sections. After mapping out the larger picture, you can create one section at a time and pretty soon, you will have a complete piece. Really makes large projects much more manageable when you can break them down in some fashion.

Check out more of Chris’s work and her tutorials in her Mandarin Moon Etsy shop.

When Simple Is Complex

April 27, 2018

After all that blathering to you on Wednesday, I thought I’d keep it simple today. Let’s just enjoy some relatively minimal but beautiful canes to spark some ideas for your creative time this weekend.

Spain’s Pilar Rodríguez Domínguez creates lovely, dynamic flower petal canes. The soft but dense sets of radiating lines that dominate her designs help to create a sense of complexity with relatively few elements. I chose this one because you can see how much energy is created with the just these brushed-looking lines, three oval marks, and a vibrant burgundy red.  You don’t need a lot of different stuff to create complexity and energy.

She works similarly in almost all her canes although more commonly with highly contrasting colors to create finely controlled finished flower canes. Enjoy a good eyeful of color and pattern in her Etsy shop,  and on her InstagramFacebook, and Flickr accounts.

Also, since you all couldn’t click-through to see the work of Cécile Bos last week, as she went on vacation and shuttered her shop right after I drafted the blog on her work, take this opportunity to click-through to her website now to see her delicately detailed pieces.

A Dramatic Shift

April 28, 2019
Posted in

Pier Voulkos boxes

Of all the fabulous polymer clay techniques, which would you say is the most dramatic? There are certainly a lot of them that can be bright and colorful, shiny and sparkling, dramatic and graphic, but could you pick out just one that you think has the most impact when first seen?

I have to say, the one technique that really pops for me is mica shift. It can be colorful, shimmery, and quite dramatic, and has the added effect of looking three-dimensional when it is not. And who doesn’t love a visual illusion?

Mica shift has waned in popularity of late. I’m not sure why because it is just such a gorgeous technique. But when I started researching the idea of making mica shift the theme this week, I found myself on really old posts and pages, looking at work that was created 10, 20 or 30 years ago. That made me all the more determined to bring this technique’s wonderful effects back into the limelight here.

For those unfamiliar with the technique or how it works, here is a little history and explanation for you.

The effect itself is a result of manipulating the mica in metallic clays into orderly layers that you can then manipulate in a controlled manner. This can be done because mica, a shiny, silvery, layered mineral, forms tiny flakes when ground up. The flat side of these flakes are reflective, but the sides are not (like a mirror.) So, if mica is flat side up, it reflects light, but a stack of mica seen from the side is just dark.

You control the mica in your clay by conditioning it in a pasta machine, folding the sheeted clay in half and running it through over and over. The pasta machine rollers, squeezing the clay down, also nudges the flakes to lay flat. Eventually, all the flat faces of all those tiny flakes are facing up in the sheet, causing it to be reflective and shiny.

So then imagine what happens to all those perfectly flat flakes if you press something into them? The flakes get tilted, showing their dark sides (gosh, sounds like some people I’ve known!) That’s where the control comes in. You decide where to distort that perfectly flat sea of face up flakes with a texture sheet, a blade, or hand tools, and where there is distortion, there will be dark outlines of tilted mica. Those outlines are there under the surface too, as the flakes, like tiny dominoes, knock each other over under the invading lines of a texture sheet or a hand tool.

You can also just play with the difference between the shiny surface and the dark sides by stacking mica sheets and cutting it up, rolling sheets into a cane, or twisting or folding a narrow stack, just to name a few approaches. In these cases, the sides of the original layers stay dark and the surface stays shiny, so you have dramatic contrast.

Mica shift in polymer has been called by other names over the years. One of the original innovators of this technique, Pier Voulkos, (those are her boxes opening this post) called it her “invisible caning”. Later, Karen Lewis referred to Pier’s technique as chatoyant, a French term meaning to shine like a cat’s eye, which is used in gemology to describe the bright reflected bands of light caused by aligned inclusions in a stone. That’s certainly fitting for polymer mica shift too.

Let’s take a look at some truly dramatic and lovely examples of this technique.

Shifty Ideas

Around the same time period that Pier was experimenting with her invisible canes, Mike Buesseler was playing with mica clay sheets and “ingots”, stacking then cutting, twisting, texturing and curling up sections of these sheets and ingots to create beads and surface design.

Here is a beautiful necklace using a very simple technique of twisting a square strand of stacked mica sheets.

I would explain more about Mike but, instead, I’m going to let him explain for himself in what is, to this day, the best video class that I have ever viewed. No joke. I’d rather you stop reading this post and watch that video, if it’s all you have time for today. The video is well over an hour-long and it is twenty years old but, no matter how long you’ve been working with polymer or how much you think you know about mica shift, it is well worth your while. It also has an interesting little story about how it came to be a free master class for all. Check it out on YouTube here.

 

Grant Diffendaffer has long been my polymer clay hero. His mica shift and designs are breathtaking. Although he worked with techniques derived from all the early developed mica shift techniques, his most impressive are his impression pieces. This type of mica shift, sometimes called “ghost shift”, is created by impressing a texture into a sheet of well-conditioned mica clay and then the raised layer of clay is shaved off with a very sharp tissue blade making a smooth surface but leaving the illusion of dimension. Grant created his own texture sheets and then applied them to mica clay Skinner blends. His choice of blended colors surrounded by textured black makes for some very dramatic pieces.

 

Some of the most dramatic and graphic mica shift you’ll see to this day comes from the studio of Dan Cormier. A lot of his effects come from cutting and puncturing straight down through the clay. When using a blade, the clay shifts only in the cuts where the blade separates the clay causing just a hairline distortion and thus, very thin dark lines. Puncturing shifts more clay as the tool pushes clay aside to get through. The advantage of these distortions, however, is that the design is present and consistent all the way through the stack.

 

Here’s another take on mica shift from my own table. These gauge earrings might seem a bit more shimmery than a lot of mica shift as I add plain mica powder (bought from handmade cosmetic suppliers) and translucent clay to my metallic polymer clay to bring up the shimmer a notch. These are created from Skinner blend sheets that were stacked, twisted, and rolled smooth before curling them up. They also receive a lot of denim buffing. My mica shift effect is actually the same basic technique that Mike used for the necklace you see above but I twisted it tighter and rolled it smooth with an acrylic plate.

 

Just so you know, 3 of the artist’s mentioned here no longer work in polymer clay which is why you aren’t getting the abundance of information and links I can usually offer. Pier, Mike and Grant are all multi-disciplinary creatives who moved on to another creative form—Pier returned to dancing, Mike to music and Grant has stayed in crafts but has been exploring a variety of materials and forms. Regardless, we can sure be grateful for their time with us!

 

Curious Shift

If this little discussion of mica shift has you anxious to get to the studio table and try it out, I heartily encourage you to do so. In fact, I would like to challenge you all to create a little (or a lot) of mica shift this week. I’m going to do the same, creating some new designs with ideas I came up with after researching this post. I’ll share what I’ve done next week and post them to my personal Instagram page.

Do you think you can you get in one mica shift project before the end of the week? Try it and then please send me a photo or link you would be willing to share online, and I’ll see what I can share at the end of next week’s post. You could also just post to Instagram and tag with #polymerartschallenge or message me on Facebook at The Polymer Studio page or write back if you’re getting this by email.

If you have some great mica shift pieces to add to the discussion, leave a comment at the end of the post for us to check out.

And with that, I have to run. Its been a crazy week. There were some problems with production  and getting Issue #2 of The Polymer Studio wrapped up (the release for the new issue will be in a couple of days, April 30th, so keep an eye out for it in your inbox, if you have a digital edition coming, and your mailbox in the weeks to come. Or subscribe or order the issue on our website!) and then we’ve been having problems with the city getting our plans through so we can move forward with the renovations here at the house (many people are still rebuilding from the huge fires we had in November, so they are busy beavers at the planning offices) but, finally, the demolition begins tomorrow and there is still a last few things to prepare. Good news though … we put the refrigerator on the porch instead of in my studio! Yay! We moved the liquor cabinet in here instead. MUCH better idea. I think. Or will it be weird that I can pour a glass of port without leaving my chair here? Well, we shall see.

Until next Sunday my dear readers … have a wonderful week!

 

 

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On the Flipside

November 2, 2018
Posted in

We are going to hop back to the new book, Polymer Art Projects—Organic (which you can still get 10% off on for the next couple of days, promo code PAP10), for one last day this week to give you another taste and some additional information on one of the beautiful projects in there.

One of our contributors, Fabi Ajates, has this wonderful collection of objects at the end of her tutorial, showing you some of the different decor items you can make with the many little techniques she teaches. In a conversation we had after the tutorial was in layout, I found out that some of the objects are actually reversible and Fabi, with the help of her son David, graciously sent us these additional images and some information about the pieces for you to enjoy. Here is what they sent:

CORAL KELP

All the textures and shapes I create are one-of-a-kind and handmade, conceived in the pursuit of the pieces’ harmony and the most dramatic result. Furthermore, the project [in the book] is meant to be versatile because it can be used not only to create jewelry such as the necklace, but also décor elements which can add a touch of individuality. When used for interior design pieces, these can have a double purpose which makes this technique even more resourceful, attractive, and interesting.

What looked like a turquoise coral vase from which a leaf of kelp languidly emerges, has become a bowl or small plate. We observe the same effect with the piece that imitates an anemone; its face changes relative to whether it sits upright or it is reversed, while it contrasts or harmonizes with the landscape and with the rest of the pieces.

Inspired by coral and marine vegetation, [these forms are] mysterious nature that awaits silently like a treasure in the depths of seas and oceans whose colors and shades, a combination of seawater and sunlight, are uniquely beautiful.

Thanks for the extra images and your thoughts, Fabi!

Find out more about this amazing artist who has not let her deaf condition or language barriers get in the way of sharing her skills. Check out her class schedule here and follow her artistic adventures on her blog.

And don’t forget to get in on the 10% off offer to get your own copy of the book or other items we presently have in print, here on The Polymer Arts website. Use promo code PAP10 before midnight on Sunday Pacific time to get the discount off everything in your cart!

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Missing Grant

July 23, 2018
Posted in

In going back through my polymer picks I saved over the years to consider for the blog, I came across some older work from people who no longer create in polymer. It might seem sad but it is simply that some artists move on from a material to find other materials that express the type of work they want to do in that time period. Although I am obviously a big promoter of polymer as an art material, there should be an adage that goes, “Just because you can do it with polymer doesn’t mean you should do it with polymer.” Sometimes another material is just a better choice.

The one polymer artist I personally miss the most is Grant Diffendaffer, whose gorgeous vessel you see here. His mica shift and the visual texture he created with it are still, today, some of the most amazing examples of the technique. Well done mica shift will always have a bit of an internal glow, but the colors Grant chose and the way his patterns shift and flow make the work come alive.

There is more than just an internal glow in Grant’s work. The mica reflects so brightly that it appears that there is a light behind that surface. And although I voraciously took in every page of his book back when I started, I was not able to figure out how he created the variation in visual texture. Not back then at least. I am thinking I need to give it another shot now that I know so much more than I did a decade ago.

His book, Polymer Clay Beads, is still a treasure of information, however, he no longer works in polymer. He did work with it for a while after his jewelry and decor era, creating props of sorts. He is back working in jewelry now but in 3-D printing resin. His portfolio on his website shows all of his work from polymer to 3-D printing. If you’re interested in the progression of his artwork or just want to see what is up to, take a look at his website and his Facebook page, Steadcraft.

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Inside a Glass Tower

July 20, 2018
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Since we got on a glass kick this week, I rummaged through my outside inspiration board on Pinterest and came up with this fantastic artist who I have long wanted to share with you.

Jean Fernandes was born in India but was raised both there and in California. After graduating with a Masters in Glass from the University of Texas at Arlington, she became an award-winning emerging artist and winner of a 2015 Niche award.

And it’s no wonder. Just look at this simple but mesmerizing cast glass tower she created in 2015—its interiors look almost alive with movement. The basic shape and grayscale color palette allows the interior lines and undulating forms to captivate us without distraction. The vertical shape relies on a sense of strength, as vertical forms and lines do, adding to the monumental feel of this piece even though it’s only 16 inches high.

Jean considers herself a multimedia artist although glass has been her primary medium. To quote her from an interview in 2015, “Often, I work with glass because of its conceptual flexibility and duality. It has the ability to be fragile or strong, transparent or opaque, stiff or flexible, etc. and acts as an excellent metaphor in my work. The properties of the media are often integral to my work; I’ve used yarn for its softness and strength, ice for its temporality, wax for its ability to melt when introduced to heat, etc. and all of these qualities often play a large role in the concept of the piece I am working on.”

This brings up an interesting thought that I’ve discussed with several artists recently and that is whether our art is defined by our medium or do we work with the mediums that help us to define our art? I think those who put the artwork first may often find themselves working in various mediums simply because they’re looking for the materials that help them realize what they want to express. It’s wonderful that polymer’s versatility can fulfill many artistic needs so readily, but I thought I’d take this moment to remind us that we can, and should, use other mediums when it helps us express what it is we want to put out there in the world.

Take a look at more of Jean’s work on her website here.

 

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Through a Glass Prettily

July 16, 2018
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Apparently, I’m a bit of a wreck. I’m only telling you this because you are probably going to see a bit of a slowdown in our publications coming out and maybe a little less research here on the blog. As many of you know, I’m the only full-time person who works on The Polymer Arts projects and I’m dealing with two injuries that occurred earlier this year and arthritis in my neck, none of which are happy with how much I work. So, doctor’s orders, I have to cut my computer time down the next few months while I focus on healing. It’s going to be hard to slow down, workaholic that I am, but I’m counting on you all to hold me to it!

So to minimize my research time, I’m going to be pulling things to share from my stash on my Pinterest boards and favorites on Instagram and Flickr and such for a while. We will, therefore, be seeing a fair amount of older work, but there’s so much really inspirational and timeless work to share.

This week’s first piece is from Adrianne Jeswiet whose work I discovered not too long ago. Her shop on Etsy is called “Kissing Glass” and it is filled with various glass vessels covered in detailed imagery. This piece includes tiny dragonflies, water lilies, irises and cattails applied to a recycled glass vase colored with glass paint. Take a close look to see the myriad of tiny details that are sure to make this a conversation piece wherever it finds its new home.

Pop over to Adrianne’s Etsy shop to see the full range of what she does.

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Thread and Clay

July 2, 2018
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Photo of several round needlework art piecesGuest Blog Post by Stéphanie Kilgast

Justyna Wołodkiewicz mixes embroidery with polymer clay in an always poetic way.

She seamlessly binds traditional arts to very contemporary ones, resulting in often abstract and always mesmerizing works of art.

Her work vacillates between organic shapes and precise geometry with a dash of oddity. Eyes and sad or sleepy faces often inhabit her embroidery hoops.

Her world is one of colors, and she effortlessly mixes hues and shades, giving each sculptural work a different set of emotions.

Her artist’s name, “Nibyniebo,” translates into “just like the sky,” and just like the sky, her work is an evidence of poetry that will resonate within you.

You can follow her artistic journey on Instagram and also buy certain of her pieces on her website.

Stéphanie Kilgast shares and teaches her craft through video and online tutorials. Find them at www.petitplat.fr and follow her on Instagram @petitplat.

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Cat’s out of the Bag

May 23, 2018
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I’m not sure how it happened but we somehow got Nikolina Otrzan to “spill the beads” on her unique, signature textures that she creates for her jewelry components. She shares not one, not two, but four different textures and even variations on those so it’s more like a dozen possible textures you can get out of completing her tutorial in this issue. It turns out, they are all pretty easy to do. They will just take some patience to do it as neatly as she does.

We were not able to fit in examples of all the ways these beads could be used. As seen here, her textured components can be artfully composed to decorate home décor and not just as beads for jewelry. Her cat seems to approve of these mirrors as well. And what a great idea. If you have a stash of flat-backed beads or components that work together, decorate a mirror, frame, or another object they can be attached to. Your spare components will have a home and you too can end up with some beautiful—as you see in the article—pet-approved décor.

Nikolina is a very thorough and detailed instructor. If, after getting into those textures in the article, you find that you want more, all you need to do is go to her Etsy shop to get another tutorial from the couple dozen she has available right now.

 

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Summer 2018 is here! The Big Picture

May 21, 2018
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Yesterday, the “Summer 2018 – Everything in Its Place” issue of The Polymer Arts was released digitally and the print issues were at the post office getting sorted on Friday. If you are expecting a digital edition, look in your inbox (check spam/junk mail folders if it’s not there) and print editions will start popping up in mailboxes soon (allow up to four weeks if you are on the east or southeast end of the United States or are overseas.)

Here is a collage of some of the first pages of articles if you haven’t seen the issue yet. Click on the image to get a bigger picture.

In the meantime, let’s look at some items that didn’t make it into this packed issue.

The piece you see here is actually in the issue but it’s small and there’s so much detail it seemed a shame not to provide a larger image. (You can click on the image of the tiles to get a bigger, more detailed photo.)

This nine square inches scene was created by Chris Kapono as an example of how to use her tiny tiles methods to create a series of tiles that work together. She shows the construction of this type of tile in the article and has examples of how to lay out a version of your own.

This kind of project reminds me of the “tiny steps” philosophy of goal setting, where you take a big goal and break it down into small chunks. So if you have ever thought about doing wall art or larger pieces, take a tip from this composition and break it down into multiple sections. After mapping out the larger picture, you can create one section at a time and pretty soon, you will have a complete piece. Really makes large projects much more manageable when you can break them down in some fashion.

Check out more of Chris’s work and her tutorials in her Mandarin Moon Etsy shop.

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When Simple Is Complex

April 27, 2018
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After all that blathering to you on Wednesday, I thought I’d keep it simple today. Let’s just enjoy some relatively minimal but beautiful canes to spark some ideas for your creative time this weekend.

Spain’s Pilar Rodríguez Domínguez creates lovely, dynamic flower petal canes. The soft but dense sets of radiating lines that dominate her designs help to create a sense of complexity with relatively few elements. I chose this one because you can see how much energy is created with the just these brushed-looking lines, three oval marks, and a vibrant burgundy red.  You don’t need a lot of different stuff to create complexity and energy.

She works similarly in almost all her canes although more commonly with highly contrasting colors to create finely controlled finished flower canes. Enjoy a good eyeful of color and pattern in her Etsy shop,  and on her InstagramFacebook, and Flickr accounts.

Also, since you all couldn’t click-through to see the work of Cécile Bos last week, as she went on vacation and shuttered her shop right after I drafted the blog on her work, take this opportunity to click-through to her website now to see her delicately detailed pieces.

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