More Fun with Extruders
September 13, 2014 Inspirational Art
So after a week of extruder contemplation, have you gone into the studio to try out some new ideas yourself? Well, if not, but you’re anxious to try something out, here are a few ideas for you.
A shaped cane with no background fill? Is that possible? According to Lilu of Russia, you can do this with an extruder. How is that possible? Even our brave artist here can’t say how this works, but can show us successful results. The caveat is that you lose about half your clay to scraps as the ends come out mangled. But, with so many scrap cane techniques to put those towards, that might not be the worse thing to happen.
For those of you who want something more straightforward and less experimental, try these extruded snake surface designs with graduated colors created by Lucy Struncova. No real mysteries here … just extrude small snakes in graduated colors (if you’ve not done that before, go here for the classic tutorial on creating rainbow snakes with an extruder), lay them side by side, use the edge of a credit card, or long thin needle tool to impress the lines perpendicular to the snakes and cut out shapes as desired. A quick easy way to get a surface design with a range of colors and complex looking texture.
Or, you can do both! Roll your scrap ends from the background-less extruded cane through the pasta machine, punch a stack of discs to put back into the extruder, extrude snakes to your heart’s content and make Lucy’s snake and line textured sheets. Then accent them with cane slices. Don’t you love how versatile polymer can be? Even using the same stack of clay through several techniques.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Extruded Moonlight
September 11, 2014 Inspirational Art
Claire Fairweather, herself, sent this along when she saw we were doing an extruded themed week. In her words: “‘Extruded Light’ is a candle bowl, approximately 6-inches in diameter. I made it by winding extruded, translucent Premo polymer clay around a spherical glass bowl. It looks great with a color changing LED candle in it, but is difficult to photograph. The white candle light, in this photograph, shows the extruded strings the best.”
I know how you all love translucent clay applications, so it would have been hard not to share this. The idea is pretty simple, but the wrapped strings add a calm horizontal texture. My editorial assistant, Paula Gilbert, is here with me for the opening of The Great Create at which I am doing demos (tonight in Denver!) and teaching a class on Saturday. Paula saw this bowl and said that looks like a glowing moon. And, so it does. I wish I had time to ask Claire how she got the craters in it or if they were incidental. Happy, unintended element if so.
Claire creates award-winning polymer work and writes her blog from New Zealand.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Mandala Yarns
September 10, 2014 Inspirational Art
Today, I pulled up this fun piece for you.
This is not, obviously, all about extrusion, but I couldn’t pass it up. This elephant is only one in a series of decorated elephant forms created by Latvian artist Kni Kni. She did one for each month of the year. This mandala elephant was created for August. She uses extruded ‘yarns’ as she calls them, to wrap around the center form, which was pressed from a handmade stamp. Her ‘yarns’ were also used to decorate the elephant’s features.
In other work, we see quite a bit of the extruded ropes wrapped in swirls and even indented to make the striated lines you see here, but it is usually used on fully covered forms. The open space on the elephant helps keep the finely and skillfully decorated piece from getting overwhelmingly busy.
You can read about how and why Kni created this particular elephant on her blog. These are actually even more amazing when you see the whole series. Go take a look at them all on her Flickr photostream.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Woven Vessel
September 9, 2014 Inspirational Art
The popularity of the extruded cane has led to some wonderful experimentation using the reveal options provided by the nature of the cane. Laying these canes sideways gives you a series of layers to dig down into and expose.
This particular vessel created by Germany’s Vera Kleist Thom has these canes laid out in a weave pattern, but the shaving down of the outer layers gives it a kind of worn stone appearance. So, do we have woven stone? Intriguing. The combination makes for a beautiful, calm visual texture. The colors follow this calm theme by being primarily neutral, but there are a few rich reds and brilliant, ocean blues that accent the weave.
Give yourself a treat and look at the other vessels and jewelry she has created using this technique on her Flickr page. Just beautiful, contemporary pieces.
Carving out and revealing layers is nothing new for Vera, and right now, you can get some of her amazing cut-in bead necklaces and loose beads that we featured here in November of 2013 from her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Extruded Fun
September 8, 2014 Inspirational Art
There is just too much fun being had out there with extruded clay methods lately, so let’s take a look at a handful of what is being done and see if we can’t entice you into a bit of extruded play this week!
This first piece by Spain’s Maribel Benito looks to be using the very popular cane blocks build from extruded canes. It’s not that the canes or application here are so unusual, but the fun combination of various sized circles, those delicious candy colors, the gradation of the canes and the well-tended finish make for a really beautiful piece that is both playful and sophisticated. It’s just well done.
I thought I’d go for short chatter today after my long Saturday expose. Let’s just enjoy this beauty today while I go dig up more extruded fun. The best place to find more of Maribel’s work would be on her Facebook page and on her blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Rainbow Turned into Flowers
August 23, 2014 Inspirational Art
Hopefully you’ve been having a fun week, but now for a fun weekend, right? How about something colorful and versatile to try in the studio?
These flower cup beads are created by starting with a rectangular, extruded cane then form a cup over a large ball stylus tool. I just like the stepping away from using circular extruded shapes for extruded canes. There is absolutely no reason not to make extruded canes with any shape you have available for your extruder. This long rectangular shape is particularly fun because of the striations you can make. You will see this in the bead on the first page of the tutorial that I am giving you. And why not reform the cane into long teardrops or flatten them out a little more and roll then into a rainbow jelly roll? Extrude a few and see what you can come up with!
On Poly Cat’s pages , you’ll find the Rectangular Rainbow Extruded Cane being used to create a bead, then there’s the flower cup bead steps you use the cane slices with as well. Pop the URLs for any of these links into Google translate if you want to read them in English, and your browser doesn’t automatically translate them for you. If I understand the translation correctly, the techniques she uses are inspired by others, and she has links and references to those sources so you have even more to check out if you like.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Cutting In
November 27, 2013 Inspirational Art
Cutting and slicing is part of many different polymer techiques, most commonly to reveal the colors and patterns hidden beneath the layers. Germany’s Vera Kleist accomplishes this reveal with her extruded beads, but the cutting in also creates a tactile texture.
Its amazing what a little slicing can do, don’t you think? Are there pieces you usually leave smooth that might benefit from a little cutting in?
Speaking of cutting … there is cooking to be done for the holiday! If you’ve already done your cooking or have been spared the chore through not being in the US or having someone else to supply your bounty tomorrow, look through Vera’s Etsy shop and Flickr pages for more cutting and textural ideas.
So after a week of extruder contemplation, have you gone into the studio to try out some new ideas yourself? Well, if not, but you’re anxious to try something out, here are a few ideas for you.
A shaped cane with no background fill? Is that possible? According to Lilu of Russia, you can do this with an extruder. How is that possible? Even our brave artist here can’t say how this works, but can show us successful results. The caveat is that you lose about half your clay to scraps as the ends come out mangled. But, with so many scrap cane techniques to put those towards, that might not be the worse thing to happen.
For those of you who want something more straightforward and less experimental, try these extruded snake surface designs with graduated colors created by Lucy Struncova. No real mysteries here … just extrude small snakes in graduated colors (if you’ve not done that before, go here for the classic tutorial on creating rainbow snakes with an extruder), lay them side by side, use the edge of a credit card, or long thin needle tool to impress the lines perpendicular to the snakes and cut out shapes as desired. A quick easy way to get a surface design with a range of colors and complex looking texture.
Or, you can do both! Roll your scrap ends from the background-less extruded cane through the pasta machine, punch a stack of discs to put back into the extruder, extrude snakes to your heart’s content and make Lucy’s snake and line textured sheets. Then accent them with cane slices. Don’t you love how versatile polymer can be? Even using the same stack of clay through several techniques.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read More
Claire Fairweather, herself, sent this along when she saw we were doing an extruded themed week. In her words: “‘Extruded Light’ is a candle bowl, approximately 6-inches in diameter. I made it by winding extruded, translucent Premo polymer clay around a spherical glass bowl. It looks great with a color changing LED candle in it, but is difficult to photograph. The white candle light, in this photograph, shows the extruded strings the best.”
I know how you all love translucent clay applications, so it would have been hard not to share this. The idea is pretty simple, but the wrapped strings add a calm horizontal texture. My editorial assistant, Paula Gilbert, is here with me for the opening of The Great Create at which I am doing demos (tonight in Denver!) and teaching a class on Saturday. Paula saw this bowl and said that looks like a glowing moon. And, so it does. I wish I had time to ask Claire how she got the craters in it or if they were incidental. Happy, unintended element if so.
Claire creates award-winning polymer work and writes her blog from New Zealand.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreToday, I pulled up this fun piece for you.
This is not, obviously, all about extrusion, but I couldn’t pass it up. This elephant is only one in a series of decorated elephant forms created by Latvian artist Kni Kni. She did one for each month of the year. This mandala elephant was created for August. She uses extruded ‘yarns’ as she calls them, to wrap around the center form, which was pressed from a handmade stamp. Her ‘yarns’ were also used to decorate the elephant’s features.
In other work, we see quite a bit of the extruded ropes wrapped in swirls and even indented to make the striated lines you see here, but it is usually used on fully covered forms. The open space on the elephant helps keep the finely and skillfully decorated piece from getting overwhelmingly busy.
You can read about how and why Kni created this particular elephant on her blog. These are actually even more amazing when you see the whole series. Go take a look at them all on her Flickr photostream.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreThe popularity of the extruded cane has led to some wonderful experimentation using the reveal options provided by the nature of the cane. Laying these canes sideways gives you a series of layers to dig down into and expose.
This particular vessel created by Germany’s Vera Kleist Thom has these canes laid out in a weave pattern, but the shaving down of the outer layers gives it a kind of worn stone appearance. So, do we have woven stone? Intriguing. The combination makes for a beautiful, calm visual texture. The colors follow this calm theme by being primarily neutral, but there are a few rich reds and brilliant, ocean blues that accent the weave.
Give yourself a treat and look at the other vessels and jewelry she has created using this technique on her Flickr page. Just beautiful, contemporary pieces.
Carving out and revealing layers is nothing new for Vera, and right now, you can get some of her amazing cut-in bead necklaces and loose beads that we featured here in November of 2013 from her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreThere is just too much fun being had out there with extruded clay methods lately, so let’s take a look at a handful of what is being done and see if we can’t entice you into a bit of extruded play this week!
This first piece by Spain’s Maribel Benito looks to be using the very popular cane blocks build from extruded canes. It’s not that the canes or application here are so unusual, but the fun combination of various sized circles, those delicious candy colors, the gradation of the canes and the well-tended finish make for a really beautiful piece that is both playful and sophisticated. It’s just well done.
I thought I’d go for short chatter today after my long Saturday expose. Let’s just enjoy this beauty today while I go dig up more extruded fun. The best place to find more of Maribel’s work would be on her Facebook page and on her blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreHopefully you’ve been having a fun week, but now for a fun weekend, right? How about something colorful and versatile to try in the studio?
These flower cup beads are created by starting with a rectangular, extruded cane then form a cup over a large ball stylus tool. I just like the stepping away from using circular extruded shapes for extruded canes. There is absolutely no reason not to make extruded canes with any shape you have available for your extruder. This long rectangular shape is particularly fun because of the striations you can make. You will see this in the bead on the first page of the tutorial that I am giving you. And why not reform the cane into long teardrops or flatten them out a little more and roll then into a rainbow jelly roll? Extrude a few and see what you can come up with!
On Poly Cat’s pages , you’ll find the Rectangular Rainbow Extruded Cane being used to create a bead, then there’s the flower cup bead steps you use the cane slices with as well. Pop the URLs for any of these links into Google translate if you want to read them in English, and your browser doesn’t automatically translate them for you. If I understand the translation correctly, the techniques she uses are inspired by others, and she has links and references to those sources so you have even more to check out if you like.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read MoreCutting and slicing is part of many different polymer techiques, most commonly to reveal the colors and patterns hidden beneath the layers. Germany’s Vera Kleist accomplishes this reveal with her extruded beads, but the cutting in also creates a tactile texture.
Its amazing what a little slicing can do, don’t you think? Are there pieces you usually leave smooth that might benefit from a little cutting in?
Speaking of cutting … there is cooking to be done for the holiday! If you’ve already done your cooking or have been spared the chore through not being in the US or having someone else to supply your bounty tomorrow, look through Vera’s Etsy shop and Flickr pages for more cutting and textural ideas.
Read More