Captivating Cookie Collections
June 24, 2017
Inspirational Art
We don’t often look at food as inspiration on this blog but I am starting to think maybe we should. Just look at these cookies! They are little works of art that I can’t imagine actually eating, or at least there would be great hesitation … at first. I bet they are as delicious as they are beautiful.
This tasty artisan is Frances of the Banana Bakery in Dallas. Texas. With a background is in product design, she had a good basis for developing visually appealing pastries when she started on her baking journey in 2010. Realizing that this was where her real passion lies, she left the world of product design behind and turned to focusing on the thing she loved the most–decorating sugar cookies. Her love of this art is quite apparent and her skill is mind-blowing. It’s not that other people are not doing this kind of thing but from what I’ve seen, her skill and range of application is fairly rare.
As for why this would be a polymer inspiration … I suspect it is obvious how one could create this kind of thing in polymer either with extruded strings or as design inspiration for polymer embroidery. The color combinations are wonderfully joyful and could be a source of color palette ideas.
The sad thing is, you can’t order these shipped to your house, at least not at present. It looks like she keeps exceptionally busy filling orders as it is but if you are in the Dallas area, I’d suggest making a point of seeking out the shop. In the meantime, you’ll just have to drool from a distance with a stop by Frances’ website or Facebook page.
Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Take a piece or technique that you have recently created or worked with and make at least 5, preferably 10, or more, versions of the piece or technique. Change it up each time in some significant way to see where your muse takes you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Decked Out Art Deco Bottle
February 9, 2017
Inspirational Art
Here is another way to cover a bottle, this time with the careful layering of sheeted and extruded clay. Beth Petricoin leans on the clean planes and lines of machined clay to help create a well finished and precise design. Her choice of art deco for inspiration works well with the sheets and extruded snakes since the era is marked by crisp shapes and balanced patterns.
And lucky us … Beth documented her process, making it look so very easy, even though I know it had to take a lot of patient application, not to mention a lot of clay. This old liquor bottle is quite large–16″ (a little over 40 cm) tall–and she used 7+ blocks of clay to complete it. I think it would be hard to find someone who would not agree that it was an effort well worth the time and clay.
Take a look at the process on her blog here. Her polymer work can also be found in her Etsy shop and her Flickr photostream.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
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.
Outside Inspiration: Extruded Fall
August 8, 2014
Inspirational Art
This is the look of fall I think of as the season approaches.
The burning colors of orange-reds with yellows against ashy whites. But then, I live in Colorado where the aspen trees light the Rocky Mountains on fire as they change from lush to stark. These pieces are extruded wall vases. That is extruded ceramic clay. I really want to see that extruder. It must be amazing! I hope it has a motor.
Luckily, artist Michael Macone, is aided by his two sons, Miles and Clayton, (does anyone else find it funny that he named one of his kids Clay-ton?), so whatever extruding they do, it’s not one set of hands and arms on that. Michael looks to be best known for a unique engraving technique he developed that allows him to etch his designs right into the clay, rather than placing them only on the surface. This looks to be the technique on the top-end tiles of these vases. But, I just really like that simple twist to them. It allows more than one side to show from any view and gives it a bit of movement.
As in polymer, classic fall colors are fairly popular in ceramics, probably more so since earthen clay in these earthy warm-colored glazes go so well together. If you are looking for natural fall palettes, perusing through ceramic arts on Pinterest, Flickr or Google images will bring you many wonderful and inspiring combinations.
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.
We don’t often look at food as inspiration on this blog but I am starting to think maybe we should. Just look at these cookies! They are little works of art that I can’t imagine actually eating, or at least there would be great hesitation … at first. I bet they are as delicious as they are beautiful.
This tasty artisan is Frances of the Banana Bakery in Dallas. Texas. With a background is in product design, she had a good basis for developing visually appealing pastries when she started on her baking journey in 2010. Realizing that this was where her real passion lies, she left the world of product design behind and turned to focusing on the thing she loved the most–decorating sugar cookies. Her love of this art is quite apparent and her skill is mind-blowing. It’s not that other people are not doing this kind of thing but from what I’ve seen, her skill and range of application is fairly rare.
As for why this would be a polymer inspiration … I suspect it is obvious how one could create this kind of thing in polymer either with extruded strings or as design inspiration for polymer embroidery. The color combinations are wonderfully joyful and could be a source of color palette ideas.
The sad thing is, you can’t order these shipped to your house, at least not at present. It looks like she keeps exceptionally busy filling orders as it is but if you are in the Dallas area, I’d suggest making a point of seeking out the shop. In the meantime, you’ll just have to drool from a distance with a stop by Frances’ website or Facebook page.
Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Take a piece or technique that you have recently created or worked with and make at least 5, preferably 10, or more, versions of the piece or technique. Change it up each time in some significant way to see where your muse takes you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read More
Here is another way to cover a bottle, this time with the careful layering of sheeted and extruded clay. Beth Petricoin leans on the clean planes and lines of machined clay to help create a well finished and precise design. Her choice of art deco for inspiration works well with the sheets and extruded snakes since the era is marked by crisp shapes and balanced patterns.
And lucky us … Beth documented her process, making it look so very easy, even though I know it had to take a lot of patient application, not to mention a lot of clay. This old liquor bottle is quite large–16″ (a little over 40 cm) tall–and she used 7+ blocks of clay to complete it. I think it would be hard to find someone who would not agree that it was an effort well worth the time and clay.
Take a look at the process on her blog here. Her polymer work can also be found in her Etsy shop and her Flickr photostream.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreSo 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.
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.
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.
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.
This is the look of fall I think of as the season approaches.
The burning colors of orange-reds with yellows against ashy whites. But then, I live in Colorado where the aspen trees light the Rocky Mountains on fire as they change from lush to stark. These pieces are extruded wall vases. That is extruded ceramic clay. I really want to see that extruder. It must be amazing! I hope it has a motor.
Luckily, artist Michael Macone, is aided by his two sons, Miles and Clayton, (does anyone else find it funny that he named one of his kids Clay-ton?), so whatever extruding they do, it’s not one set of hands and arms on that. Michael looks to be best known for a unique engraving technique he developed that allows him to etch his designs right into the clay, rather than placing them only on the surface. This looks to be the technique on the top-end tiles of these vases. But, I just really like that simple twist to them. It allows more than one side to show from any view and gives it a bit of movement.
As in polymer, classic fall colors are fairly popular in ceramics, probably more so since earthen clay in these earthy warm-colored glazes go so well together. If you are looking for natural fall palettes, perusing through ceramic arts on Pinterest, Flickr or Google images will bring you many wonderful and inspiring combinations.
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.
