Pushing Faux Organics
September 2, 2014
Inspirational Art
Another article in the fall issue that could have had a lot more examples in it if we had the room was about playing with faux techniques. The ideas outlined in the article are about emulating something that you find in nature, but adjusting characteristics to create something that doesn’t exist. A number of fantastic artists contributed their versions of this with examples.
Page McNall contributed an example of faux wood. A small faux log to be exact, but that is hardly the end of her beyond-natural faux examples. She is definitely one of those exploratory artists I often talk about, never really settling into one form or style, but does gorgeous work in her variety of approaches. One of her newer explorations that I just love and would have liked to have included are these this faux semi-translucent organics. This is really pushing the idea of natural faux polymer. The pieces look like they could be something in nature, but I’m pretty sure there is nothing quite like the majority of these.
To get a better view of the individual pieces here, as well as her rather fascinating work, visit her Flickr page. And for more ideas on how to play with and push faux techniques, well, see the latest issue of The Polymer Arts!
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.
Marrying Form and Texture
August 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
Today’s artistic inspiration was sent to me by reader Fran Harkes who only sent this to me yesterday, but it tied in so well to our first piece this week that I thought I just needed to share it right away.
These fantastic little pendants were created by Britain’s Nicola Morse. The reason I wanted to tie them in to yesterday’s post is that in both cases we are looking at some pretty, but simple, textures made so much more exciting and intriguing because of the forms they are shaped into.
It’s definitely easy to see how it worked in yesterday’s pieces because they were monochromatic beads, so texture and from was what it was all about. But, these pendants have the added bonus of some really intense colors. If you imagine the pieces from yesterday and today as flat, you can see how much of their appeal they would lose flattened. Shape helps make them.
As it turns out, the beads from yesterday have an available tutorial. You can go here to learn to make those organic stamped beads. (Thank you to both Randee Ketzel and Sue Hammer for sending the tutorial link.) So, does anyone know if there is a tutorial related to today’s pieces? These hollow shapes would be so much fun to work with.
In the meantime, Nicola’s website has some other fun stuff to ponder, especially her approach to a faux ceramic look. Enjoy!
Thank you Fran, for such a great find!
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.
Real Faux Fun
August 19, 2014
Inspirational Art
Things have gone a little bonkers over here so apologies for the late posting and any errors here. Due to a family emergency and people being out of town, I do not have my back-up people to help keep my dyslexic errors in check. Hope you can put up with it for a day! But then these fantastic faux wavelite stones by Ilenia Moreni don’t need a lot of explanation. I had not even heard of wavelite until I saw these and now I’m fascinated by the rock. But honestly–and I hope Mother Nature doesn’t hear this–I think I like Ilenia’s version even better. The visual texture with those strong radial lines so strongly draw the eye. And what’s even more exciting … she has an inexpensive Faux Wavelite tutorial so you can make these yourself! How fun.
Ilenia does a lot of faux work and is quite adept at it. She has even made up a few of her own versions of nature’s creations which is why I was on her Flickr page last week and found these. She’s contributing to the article on pushing faux effects from being realistic to being something that looks like it could exist in nature but has never been seen before. Look for the “Pushing Faux” article in the Fall issue of The Polymer Arts coming out Aug 30th for ideas on how to push your natural faux effects to create beautiful new effects all your own.
You may recall Ilenia was featured in the gallery section of our Summer 2014 issue but she’s been working away and has a ton more fun stuff to drool over. Find more of her work on her Flickr pages and her website.
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.
Elegant Reading
June 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
More than just jewelry can be created with an elegant and rough or rustic look. This book, created by Samantha Braud, has a gorgeous faux antiqued surface filled with texture and imagery. The elegance comes from a sense of age and the neutral palette as well as finely applied forms. I find the juxtaposition of the ocean images and the handwriting rather curious–just makes me want to open it up and see what secrets or stories are hidden inside.
We featured Samantha’s art several months ago on an Outside Inspiration post for her metal work. Her metal and wire work is just as intricate and fantastical as her polymer pieces. Check out more of her art and her fantastical style on her website and 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.
Breaking Traditions in Faux (And the Summer Issue is out!)
May 22, 2013
Inspirational Art
The really, truly amazing and incredible thing about working with polymer … you can make ANYTHING you want out of the stuff. (Well, I have yet to see properly emulated hair but close!) The thing is, we have this medium that has few limitations and endless possibilities but so often when faux stone or other faux natural materials are created from it, it is in the common natural colors and usually even in the same traditional forms we’ve seen them for centuries. Now I know some stones are expensive and making them in polymer just allows for an inexpensive option. And I am all for making faux ivory rather than getting real ivory from the source. Making faux that looks just like we’d expect the real material to look does make sense but what doesn’t make sense is why more people don’t move beyond what nature and tradition has made?
Let’s take jade for example. We think of it as green and Asian. So we see tons of faux polymer jade in variations of green in simple beads or Asian motifs. Understandable. But why be limited by what has been done?
Desiree McCrorey has never approached anything in a traditional manner as far as I can tell and that penchant has resulted in some really unusual and beautiful work. I mean, have you ever seen jade like in the necklace here?
I don’t know how difficult if would be to carve real jade into such forms but since its so easy with polymer, why not take advantage of that capability and go beyond what is usually done with the real material?
And why always green? I remember wondering that in the first year I worked with polymer. Nature already makes all these beautiful variations of soft greens in jade. But why not bright blues? Or purples? Or reds? Or all of them together.
Here you get to peek at one of my very early pieces when I was playing with what I called rainbow jade. I just kept pushing the idea of jade–the semi-translucence and inclusions often seen in it–using the basic mixing techniques common for faux jade but with unnatural colors and variation, not just between beads but within them. Because … why not?
So if you’re going to do faux stones and the like and you want to work on variation, why not look at doing what nature and tradition has not? Use different colors, different inclusions, and definitely different forms and motifs. We have the power to create that which never existed before. Embrace the power!
And … the Summer 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts is out! All print issues are in the mail and on the way and digital access was sent out to all subscribers last night. If you have a print issue coming, it takes 5-10 days so with the last of them mailed off this morning (and with Memorial Day in the midst of mailing time here) most of you should have it by the end of the month/first week of June. If you have a digital issue due to you but haven’t seen it in your inbox, check you spam/junk mail folders as they can get filtered there. Add connect@thepolymerarts.com to your safe sender list or address book to keep TPA mail from getting spam filtered.
And if you don’t have a copy on the way, go get it. This is a very cool, very packed issue. Talk about inspiration for variation … sheesh! Inclusions, hats, wall art, a huge list of covered object ideas, variation through collaboration, new wire findings ideas for polymer, changing up backgrounds for you photos and even variation in your selling technique to get more sales at shows! Much, much more of course. Get it here: www.thepolymerarts.com
The Faux Enamel Options
May 16, 2013
Inspirational Art
First, because people are waiting to hear, we’d like to announce that the winner of the Sample Cosmic Ceramic project is … Karen Donald! Congrats!
Thank you all for chiming in on the faux versus variation question and taking part in the giveaway. I’m going to line up more giveaways so we can do this regularly. Write me with any suggestions for things you’d like me to try to get for these contests. Or if you’re a retailer of any kind and have something you’d like to giveaway from your shop, let me know. Write me directly at sbray@thepolymerarts.com
So … it would be remiss of me this week not to bring up what may be the faux techniques most widely experimented with when it comes to emulating other art forms–enamel. The common approach usually involves liquid polymer and alcohol inks and/or mica powders. The challenge tends to be in creating a base that has borders and/or channels to hold in and control the faux enamel. And there are a lot of different approaches for this.
At the beginning of the month, we visited Eugena’s artwork … she uses wire as her loose borders. It’s a gorgeous effect. It does take precision and patience, well worth the work, but isn’t for everyone. My favorite is the wax impression technique (See the Winter 2011 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine for the tutorial on this) because carving the wax to create the negative design has endless possibilities and there is nothing I’ve found that allows finer detail. But if you want to try something more straight forward, take a look at these “molds” cut into erasers and clay by Madrid’s Fabi.
She briefly explains the process on her Flickr page (although I think it was sent through a translator as it has some ‘interesting’ terms.) The advantage of erasers is the crispness of the lines although curves have to be more difficult to cut. I think her “gouging” tools must be engraving tools. You can get an inexpensive set at art and craft stores if you want to get into this. They can be used to easily cut into cured clay for other effects as well.
One of the things I wonder is whether we have really pushed faux enamel enough. I think there are possibilities, especially with the translucent clays, that we haven’t really seen. I’ve been playing with an idea myself but it’s not quite ready for prime time. However, tomorrow I am going to show you an artist that I think will knock your socks off, not just because it’s gorgeous work but because of the possibilities it shows us as polymer artists. She worked in real enamel and metal but the way it’s done, it actually reminds me of polymer and could be done in a way that would really push what we do with faux enamel right now. Intrigued? Well, tune in tomorrow …
A Little Faux Lampwork
May 15, 2013
Inspirational Art
Wow … thank you all for chiming in with your comments and emails on what to do with the rest of the week. It’s really very cool to hear from you all. Perhaps we’ll pose options (and giveaways!) for upcoming weeks on a regular basis. You can tell me what is of the most interest … I get very energized writing because of your feedback rather than the ideas that pop into my head, out of the ether. And who doesn’t like a chance to get free stuff! Sounds like a win-win to me!
So, faux came in heavy right off but a call to see more about variation started coming up from behind as the evening went on. The end result is … we are going to start with faux this week then look at how to work out variations next week.
Since Iris and Hilla brought to our attention another art form emulated in polymer, why don’t we stick with other craft arts that we can create in polymer? Try to keep in mind as we look at these techniques that the objective is not to find other arts to emualte but to see new directions that polymer can be pushed in your studio. For instance, I thought we’d start with an artist who’s faux lampwork has fascinated me since I stumbled on it a few years back. I love experimenting with liquid polymer and I was fascinated by how high Sharon Solly makes her glass like dots and how well controlled they are.
Sharon may have an bit of an advantage over the rest of us as she actually does lampwork. I am really curious as to how similar the work is. I know I experimented for a while trying to get the dot not to spread. My solution was to either add just a smidge at a time, hitting it with a heat gun between dabs or preheating the base clay so the dot of liquid polymer would start to solidify immediately. The pre-heat worked well on flat items as I could lay the base clay on a hot plate/mug warmer and work on that but the round beads … I just couldn’t get the same effect that Sharon is getting. But if you can work on building up liquid polymer like this, you could add a bit of the faux lampwork look to many things you couldn’t add glass to in the first place. There are tremendous possibilities for decorative dotting!
If you are in the least bit interested, do look through Sharon’s Flicker pages. This one image is a bare tip of the iceberg … she has a broad body of work showing her on-going experimentation with this process. Actually, Sharon looks to be a major faux experimentator with a large variety of stones and dichroic-like pieces done in polymer.
So go explore some faux! Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the Cosmic Ceramic giveway as well. See you then!
Another article in the fall issue that could have had a lot more examples in it if we had the room was about playing with faux techniques. The ideas outlined in the article are about emulating something that you find in nature, but adjusting characteristics to create something that doesn’t exist. A number of fantastic artists contributed their versions of this with examples.
Page McNall contributed an example of faux wood. A small faux log to be exact, but that is hardly the end of her beyond-natural faux examples. She is definitely one of those exploratory artists I often talk about, never really settling into one form or style, but does gorgeous work in her variety of approaches. One of her newer explorations that I just love and would have liked to have included are these this faux semi-translucent organics. This is really pushing the idea of natural faux polymer. The pieces look like they could be something in nature, but I’m pretty sure there is nothing quite like the majority of these.
To get a better view of the individual pieces here, as well as her rather fascinating work, visit her Flickr page. And for more ideas on how to play with and push faux techniques, well, see the latest issue of The Polymer Arts!
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’s artistic inspiration was sent to me by reader Fran Harkes who only sent this to me yesterday, but it tied in so well to our first piece this week that I thought I just needed to share it right away.
These fantastic little pendants were created by Britain’s Nicola Morse. The reason I wanted to tie them in to yesterday’s post is that in both cases we are looking at some pretty, but simple, textures made so much more exciting and intriguing because of the forms they are shaped into.
It’s definitely easy to see how it worked in yesterday’s pieces because they were monochromatic beads, so texture and from was what it was all about. But, these pendants have the added bonus of some really intense colors. If you imagine the pieces from yesterday and today as flat, you can see how much of their appeal they would lose flattened. Shape helps make them.
As it turns out, the beads from yesterday have an available tutorial. You can go here to learn to make those organic stamped beads. (Thank you to both Randee Ketzel and Sue Hammer for sending the tutorial link.) So, does anyone know if there is a tutorial related to today’s pieces? These hollow shapes would be so much fun to work with.
In the meantime, Nicola’s website has some other fun stuff to ponder, especially her approach to a faux ceramic look. Enjoy!
Thank you Fran, for such a great find!
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.
Things have gone a little bonkers over here so apologies for the late posting and any errors here. Due to a family emergency and people being out of town, I do not have my back-up people to help keep my dyslexic errors in check. Hope you can put up with it for a day! But then these fantastic faux wavelite stones by Ilenia Moreni don’t need a lot of explanation. I had not even heard of wavelite until I saw these and now I’m fascinated by the rock. But honestly–and I hope Mother Nature doesn’t hear this–I think I like Ilenia’s version even better. The visual texture with those strong radial lines so strongly draw the eye. And what’s even more exciting … she has an inexpensive Faux Wavelite tutorial so you can make these yourself! How fun.
Ilenia does a lot of faux work and is quite adept at it. She has even made up a few of her own versions of nature’s creations which is why I was on her Flickr page last week and found these. She’s contributing to the article on pushing faux effects from being realistic to being something that looks like it could exist in nature but has never been seen before. Look for the “Pushing Faux” article in the Fall issue of The Polymer Arts coming out Aug 30th for ideas on how to push your natural faux effects to create beautiful new effects all your own.
You may recall Ilenia was featured in the gallery section of our Summer 2014 issue but she’s been working away and has a ton more fun stuff to drool over. Find more of her work on her Flickr pages and her website.
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.
More than just jewelry can be created with an elegant and rough or rustic look. This book, created by Samantha Braud, has a gorgeous faux antiqued surface filled with texture and imagery. The elegance comes from a sense of age and the neutral palette as well as finely applied forms. I find the juxtaposition of the ocean images and the handwriting rather curious–just makes me want to open it up and see what secrets or stories are hidden inside.
We featured Samantha’s art several months ago on an Outside Inspiration post for her metal work. Her metal and wire work is just as intricate and fantastical as her polymer pieces. Check out more of her art and her fantastical style on her website and 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.
The really, truly amazing and incredible thing about working with polymer … you can make ANYTHING you want out of the stuff. (Well, I have yet to see properly emulated hair but close!) The thing is, we have this medium that has few limitations and endless possibilities but so often when faux stone or other faux natural materials are created from it, it is in the common natural colors and usually even in the same traditional forms we’ve seen them for centuries. Now I know some stones are expensive and making them in polymer just allows for an inexpensive option. And I am all for making faux ivory rather than getting real ivory from the source. Making faux that looks just like we’d expect the real material to look does make sense but what doesn’t make sense is why more people don’t move beyond what nature and tradition has made?
Let’s take jade for example. We think of it as green and Asian. So we see tons of faux polymer jade in variations of green in simple beads or Asian motifs. Understandable. But why be limited by what has been done?
Desiree McCrorey has never approached anything in a traditional manner as far as I can tell and that penchant has resulted in some really unusual and beautiful work. I mean, have you ever seen jade like in the necklace here?
I don’t know how difficult if would be to carve real jade into such forms but since its so easy with polymer, why not take advantage of that capability and go beyond what is usually done with the real material?
And why always green? I remember wondering that in the first year I worked with polymer. Nature already makes all these beautiful variations of soft greens in jade. But why not bright blues? Or purples? Or reds? Or all of them together.
Here you get to peek at one of my very early pieces when I was playing with what I called rainbow jade. I just kept pushing the idea of jade–the semi-translucence and inclusions often seen in it–using the basic mixing techniques common for faux jade but with unnatural colors and variation, not just between beads but within them. Because … why not?
So if you’re going to do faux stones and the like and you want to work on variation, why not look at doing what nature and tradition has not? Use different colors, different inclusions, and definitely different forms and motifs. We have the power to create that which never existed before. Embrace the power!
And … the Summer 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts is out! All print issues are in the mail and on the way and digital access was sent out to all subscribers last night. If you have a print issue coming, it takes 5-10 days so with the last of them mailed off this morning (and with Memorial Day in the midst of mailing time here) most of you should have it by the end of the month/first week of June. If you have a digital issue due to you but haven’t seen it in your inbox, check you spam/junk mail folders as they can get filtered there. Add connect@thepolymerarts.com to your safe sender list or address book to keep TPA mail from getting spam filtered.
And if you don’t have a copy on the way, go get it. This is a very cool, very packed issue. Talk about inspiration for variation … sheesh! Inclusions, hats, wall art, a huge list of covered object ideas, variation through collaboration, new wire findings ideas for polymer, changing up backgrounds for you photos and even variation in your selling technique to get more sales at shows! Much, much more of course. Get it here: www.thepolymerarts.com
Read MoreFirst, because people are waiting to hear, we’d like to announce that the winner of the Sample Cosmic Ceramic project is … Karen Donald! Congrats!
Thank you all for chiming in on the faux versus variation question and taking part in the giveaway. I’m going to line up more giveaways so we can do this regularly. Write me with any suggestions for things you’d like me to try to get for these contests. Or if you’re a retailer of any kind and have something you’d like to giveaway from your shop, let me know. Write me directly at sbray@thepolymerarts.com
So … it would be remiss of me this week not to bring up what may be the faux techniques most widely experimented with when it comes to emulating other art forms–enamel. The common approach usually involves liquid polymer and alcohol inks and/or mica powders. The challenge tends to be in creating a base that has borders and/or channels to hold in and control the faux enamel. And there are a lot of different approaches for this.
At the beginning of the month, we visited Eugena’s artwork … she uses wire as her loose borders. It’s a gorgeous effect. It does take precision and patience, well worth the work, but isn’t for everyone. My favorite is the wax impression technique (See the Winter 2011 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine for the tutorial on this) because carving the wax to create the negative design has endless possibilities and there is nothing I’ve found that allows finer detail. But if you want to try something more straight forward, take a look at these “molds” cut into erasers and clay by Madrid’s Fabi.
She briefly explains the process on her Flickr page (although I think it was sent through a translator as it has some ‘interesting’ terms.) The advantage of erasers is the crispness of the lines although curves have to be more difficult to cut. I think her “gouging” tools must be engraving tools. You can get an inexpensive set at art and craft stores if you want to get into this. They can be used to easily cut into cured clay for other effects as well.
One of the things I wonder is whether we have really pushed faux enamel enough. I think there are possibilities, especially with the translucent clays, that we haven’t really seen. I’ve been playing with an idea myself but it’s not quite ready for prime time. However, tomorrow I am going to show you an artist that I think will knock your socks off, not just because it’s gorgeous work but because of the possibilities it shows us as polymer artists. She worked in real enamel and metal but the way it’s done, it actually reminds me of polymer and could be done in a way that would really push what we do with faux enamel right now. Intrigued? Well, tune in tomorrow …
Read MoreWow … thank you all for chiming in with your comments and emails on what to do with the rest of the week. It’s really very cool to hear from you all. Perhaps we’ll pose options (and giveaways!) for upcoming weeks on a regular basis. You can tell me what is of the most interest … I get very energized writing because of your feedback rather than the ideas that pop into my head, out of the ether. And who doesn’t like a chance to get free stuff! Sounds like a win-win to me!
So, faux came in heavy right off but a call to see more about variation started coming up from behind as the evening went on. The end result is … we are going to start with faux this week then look at how to work out variations next week.
Since Iris and Hilla brought to our attention another art form emulated in polymer, why don’t we stick with other craft arts that we can create in polymer? Try to keep in mind as we look at these techniques that the objective is not to find other arts to emualte but to see new directions that polymer can be pushed in your studio. For instance, I thought we’d start with an artist who’s faux lampwork has fascinated me since I stumbled on it a few years back. I love experimenting with liquid polymer and I was fascinated by how high Sharon Solly makes her glass like dots and how well controlled they are.
Sharon may have an bit of an advantage over the rest of us as she actually does lampwork. I am really curious as to how similar the work is. I know I experimented for a while trying to get the dot not to spread. My solution was to either add just a smidge at a time, hitting it with a heat gun between dabs or preheating the base clay so the dot of liquid polymer would start to solidify immediately. The pre-heat worked well on flat items as I could lay the base clay on a hot plate/mug warmer and work on that but the round beads … I just couldn’t get the same effect that Sharon is getting. But if you can work on building up liquid polymer like this, you could add a bit of the faux lampwork look to many things you couldn’t add glass to in the first place. There are tremendous possibilities for decorative dotting!
If you are in the least bit interested, do look through Sharon’s Flicker pages. This one image is a bare tip of the iceberg … she has a broad body of work showing her on-going experimentation with this process. Actually, Sharon looks to be a major faux experimentator with a large variety of stones and dichroic-like pieces done in polymer.
So go explore some faux! Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the Cosmic Ceramic giveway as well. See you then!
Read More