Graphical Pattern Play
April 18, 2015
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Well, has this week’s cool patterns got you hankering to try a some new dramatic patterns yourself? Here, I found a great online tutorial that uses the drama of graphical black patterns edged by white to pump up the color and pattern of scrap canes. It’s a beautifully simple technique brought to us by Pinklily of France. I decided to show you just the resultant sheets here and hope you’ll go see what can be made from them on her blog post. Because the options are too fun to miss I thought you might just get curious and click through.
The instructions on here are in French and can’t be copied into Google translate, but I think the images are pretty self-explanatory. Although she uses canes for the background, you could really use any kind of pattern from marbling to leftover mokume to Stroppel canes. You could even keep it simple with a solid or Skinner blend background. The general effect will be the same.
Pinklily is pretty generous with her tutorials on her blog, so if you like this, take some time to wander about and see what other fund stuff she might have for you.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: A Burst of Swirling Spots
April 17, 2015
Inspirational Art
I pulled this one out particularly for you mad cane slicing artists who might want some fresh ideas for creating patterns with your slices. Barbara Takenaga is a painter who works solely in pattern rather than imagery or abstraction. Her paintings have the illusion of depth and movement that creates wonderful drama, as well as an often mesmerizing effect.
Since the energy and movement is created by the arrangement and size of the forms–spots, in this case–one can easily imagine creating such movement with cane slices using canes of various sizes. A few extruded snakes to emphasize the lines and you could end up with some pretty amazing wall or decorative art.
Time spent wandering her gallery is like a trip through a galactic field of stars and sometimes kind of like an acid trip, but it’s wonderfully engrossing. You will get lost in the work. You have been warned.
http://www.barbaratakenaga.com/
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Spirited Patterns
April 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
A week of dramatic patterns would not be complete without a little Jon Anderson. You have likely seen at least a few of his larger, cane covered animals or maybe his bowls or even his guitars. But, have you seen his jewelry?
Jon’s fascination with canes is all about the pattern. The forms he covers are more of a canvas than the source of inspiration. Of course, animals and the spirit of them is where his finds a home for his patterns, but his canes come from what he has seen on his travels in other decorative artwork, as well as architecture and the decorative elements of buildings.
Jon has such an amazing eye for how to lay out the canes in a way that enhances the form. Also, his canes are so carefully created and reduced that he can bring them down to a size that can be applied onto forms as small as the pendants you see here. This means that many of us can afford to collect a few, even when our budgets are small.
Although Jon is American, he lives and creates in Bali with his wife who takes care of his promotions and PR. He also has an agent in the US who takes care of the sales and distribution of his work, so Jon gets to just focus on his art. Lucky, lucky guy.
You can read one of his only personal interviews in the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts and see more of his work on his website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Patterned Rainbow
April 15, 2015
Inspirational Art
Consistent forms or motifs in a pattern can get a bit stale, but they can also be raised to sublime heights with the judicious use of color. In this case here, Angela Garrod uses a gradient wash of color across a series of alternating lines consisting of triangles, more like arrows, to bring in variation and change the atmosphere of the piece.
The arrows create energy that pushes the eye back and forth across the width of this ‘neckring’ as she calls these forms, but the soft colors bring in a calming element. The gradient of color in the rest of the circle is deep and rich, and it borders on almost being too much of a contrast to the soft color of the center texture. But that tension may be just what Angela is after, and only the viewer or–maybe more importantly–a buyer can say whether it really works or not.
Angela has been playing quite a bit with patterns of late, as well as this interesting form of neck adornment. To see just what she has been up to, flip through her shared photos on Flickr and the gallery on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Nod to Klimt
April 14, 2015
Inspirational Art
A bit of dramatic patterning can be accomplished with a combination of patterns. Here we have an attractive combination of very Klimt-like colors and lines along with a few jeweled accents to give our eyes a stopping place here and there to rest. The accents also visually anchor the patterned clay in order to keep our view from regularly wandering off the edges.
I originally found this set on the ever intriguing blog Parole de Pate (translates as “Word of Dough” by Google, but let’s go with “Words of Clay” or its subtitle “Petit Journal de la Polymere”, which shouldn’t really need translation.)
In any case, that is where I found Arliane of Paris who made this set. She is very heavy into visual patterning, especially in the mokume techniques with some really gorgeous color palettes. For more of Arliane’s work, take a look at her blog pages.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Repeating Wave
February 25, 2015
Inspirational Art
Gradient color, as well as repetition, seems to be the theme this week. Carol Blackburn has created lovely examples of both in her interlocked strips designs. You have likely seen at least her earrings in this style which are one dangling bead of these repeated strips wrapping around and overlapping at the ends. She calls them shell earrings. But, they become something different when repeated over and over.
Take that repetition of overlapping strips in the bead element and repeat the bead. Repetition within repetition, aided by gradient color, makes for a wave of movement smoothly running from one end to the other in these pieces. She calls these her Moebius necklaces; no longer a single static object but actually off into the often unfathomable realm of mathematics. The mobius strip (also moebius strip) is said to have one side and one edge, but because it has been twisted in the middle, so that when the ends are attached, what we would have called ‘the back side’ of the strip now meets the front side. Yeah, I know. Its a little mind-boggling even when you see an image of it. How Carol brings all her strips together to wave so smoothly like this is also a mystery. This is what is so wonderful about art. When the ideas behind it start to hurt your brain, you can always just admire the beauty. The beauty here is something we can all understand.
Much more and less mind boggling art by Carol can be found on her website. And, if it isn’t already, be sure that her classic book Making Polymer Clay Beads (printed in several editions including French, German and Italian) is on your book shelf for regular references. The wealth of techniques and ideas is amazing with beads for beginner to advanced. I think it’s one of the best polymer books out there.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Well, has this week’s cool patterns got you hankering to try a some new dramatic patterns yourself? Here, I found a great online tutorial that uses the drama of graphical black patterns edged by white to pump up the color and pattern of scrap canes. It’s a beautifully simple technique brought to us by Pinklily of France. I decided to show you just the resultant sheets here and hope you’ll go see what can be made from them on her blog post. Because the options are too fun to miss I thought you might just get curious and click through.
The instructions on here are in French and can’t be copied into Google translate, but I think the images are pretty self-explanatory. Although she uses canes for the background, you could really use any kind of pattern from marbling to leftover mokume to Stroppel canes. You could even keep it simple with a solid or Skinner blend background. The general effect will be the same.
Pinklily is pretty generous with her tutorials on her blog, so if you like this, take some time to wander about and see what other fund stuff she might have for you.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
I pulled this one out particularly for you mad cane slicing artists who might want some fresh ideas for creating patterns with your slices. Barbara Takenaga is a painter who works solely in pattern rather than imagery or abstraction. Her paintings have the illusion of depth and movement that creates wonderful drama, as well as an often mesmerizing effect.
Since the energy and movement is created by the arrangement and size of the forms–spots, in this case–one can easily imagine creating such movement with cane slices using canes of various sizes. A few extruded snakes to emphasize the lines and you could end up with some pretty amazing wall or decorative art.
Time spent wandering her gallery is like a trip through a galactic field of stars and sometimes kind of like an acid trip, but it’s wonderfully engrossing. You will get lost in the work. You have been warned.
http://www.barbaratakenaga.com/
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A week of dramatic patterns would not be complete without a little Jon Anderson. You have likely seen at least a few of his larger, cane covered animals or maybe his bowls or even his guitars. But, have you seen his jewelry?
Jon’s fascination with canes is all about the pattern. The forms he covers are more of a canvas than the source of inspiration. Of course, animals and the spirit of them is where his finds a home for his patterns, but his canes come from what he has seen on his travels in other decorative artwork, as well as architecture and the decorative elements of buildings.
Jon has such an amazing eye for how to lay out the canes in a way that enhances the form. Also, his canes are so carefully created and reduced that he can bring them down to a size that can be applied onto forms as small as the pendants you see here. This means that many of us can afford to collect a few, even when our budgets are small.
Although Jon is American, he lives and creates in Bali with his wife who takes care of his promotions and PR. He also has an agent in the US who takes care of the sales and distribution of his work, so Jon gets to just focus on his art. Lucky, lucky guy.
You can read one of his only personal interviews in the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts and see more of his work on his website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Consistent forms or motifs in a pattern can get a bit stale, but they can also be raised to sublime heights with the judicious use of color. In this case here, Angela Garrod uses a gradient wash of color across a series of alternating lines consisting of triangles, more like arrows, to bring in variation and change the atmosphere of the piece.
The arrows create energy that pushes the eye back and forth across the width of this ‘neckring’ as she calls these forms, but the soft colors bring in a calming element. The gradient of color in the rest of the circle is deep and rich, and it borders on almost being too much of a contrast to the soft color of the center texture. But that tension may be just what Angela is after, and only the viewer or–maybe more importantly–a buyer can say whether it really works or not.
Angela has been playing quite a bit with patterns of late, as well as this interesting form of neck adornment. To see just what she has been up to, flip through her shared photos on Flickr and the gallery on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A bit of dramatic patterning can be accomplished with a combination of patterns. Here we have an attractive combination of very Klimt-like colors and lines along with a few jeweled accents to give our eyes a stopping place here and there to rest. The accents also visually anchor the patterned clay in order to keep our view from regularly wandering off the edges.
I originally found this set on the ever intriguing blog Parole de Pate (translates as “Word of Dough” by Google, but let’s go with “Words of Clay” or its subtitle “Petit Journal de la Polymere”, which shouldn’t really need translation.)
In any case, that is where I found Arliane of Paris who made this set. She is very heavy into visual patterning, especially in the mokume techniques with some really gorgeous color palettes. For more of Arliane’s work, take a look at her blog pages.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Gradient color, as well as repetition, seems to be the theme this week. Carol Blackburn has created lovely examples of both in her interlocked strips designs. You have likely seen at least her earrings in this style which are one dangling bead of these repeated strips wrapping around and overlapping at the ends. She calls them shell earrings. But, they become something different when repeated over and over.
Take that repetition of overlapping strips in the bead element and repeat the bead. Repetition within repetition, aided by gradient color, makes for a wave of movement smoothly running from one end to the other in these pieces. She calls these her Moebius necklaces; no longer a single static object but actually off into the often unfathomable realm of mathematics. The mobius strip (also moebius strip) is said to have one side and one edge, but because it has been twisted in the middle, so that when the ends are attached, what we would have called ‘the back side’ of the strip now meets the front side. Yeah, I know. Its a little mind-boggling even when you see an image of it. How Carol brings all her strips together to wave so smoothly like this is also a mystery. This is what is so wonderful about art. When the ideas behind it start to hurt your brain, you can always just admire the beauty. The beauty here is something we can all understand.
Much more and less mind boggling art by Carol can be found on her website. And, if it isn’t already, be sure that her classic book Making Polymer Clay Beads (printed in several editions including French, German and Italian) is on your book shelf for regular references. The wealth of techniques and ideas is amazing with beads for beginner to advanced. I think it’s one of the best polymer books out there.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
