Asymmetrical Matchmaking
May 26, 2019
Inspirational Art
What earring camp of design are you in? Do you always make earrings that match, or do you occasionally create a mismatched pair? Or are you one of those rare birds that abhors the symmetry of a matched pair and avoids it completely? I have lately come to the conclusions that I am a bit tired of matching earring. I couldn’t say why but I’ve started grabbing just one of two different pairs and wearing those as a set. My decisions, however, are not random. I have a lot of earrings with similar designs or techniques and I choose the new pairing with an eye to there being some kind of recognizable connection between the newly partnered set because recognizable connection is what makes a pair of earrings a match.
Design is all about making connections for the viewer of the work. It’s about developing a relationship physically, visually, or conceptually between the elements of an item (or set) so that people see the work as cohesive and intentional. That doesn’t mean that everything needs to literally match or mirror, as it is often done with earrings. People seem to think earrings in a pair need to match unless you’re going for some funky or edgy aesthetic.
However, I’d like to show you that earrings can be created unmatched or asymmetrical and still look contemporary, sophisticated, or otherwise just fabulous. There is a whole range of things you can do to throw off the symmetry between a pair of earrings. It can be subtle like a color change or rearrangement of the same elements, or it can be extreme like a size or visual weight difference. Regardless of the chosen differences, the earrings in a well-designed unmatched set will feel related in some fashion, often having several matching elements but not symmetry between them but it could also be that they are complete opposites or are unrelated visually but are grouped in our mind through common concepts. Let’s go on and I’ll explain.
Creative Match Making
Let’s start with subtle mismatching in our matchmaking of earrings. This can be done by changing just one aspect. Color is easy to change up, but it can also get complicated as there are characteristics of color itself that need to be matched to make two different colors work together such as saturation and value. If you have a great grasp of color, then try that out. Otherwise, you might start with something a little more straightforward like size, shape, or texture.
Here is a brilliant example by Bettina Welker. These earrings are sophisticated but relatively simple in design. They get a boost of energy by the simple but discordant change of texture in the pair.
Placement is also an easy way to throw they symmetry off while keeping the same visual weight and size, aspects that can help ensure the earrings look like they belong together. This pair from Jagna Birecka does just that in a very simple way. She just turned the first order of strung elements upside down for the second earring. The fact that both end elements are round makes the changeup not quite as jarring or wonky as it could be while still being immediately noticeable.
When the color palette and primary shapes are the same, it really doesn’t matter where the elements land on an earring. If the color palette feels the same and some other big design elements such as shape and size are equivalent, you can change up the placement of the pattern and the balance of color between the pair and they will look quite matched and sophisticated. This set by Nikolina Ortzan is a great example of that. She uses the same set of colors in each earring (and the pendant) and has nothing but circular shapes so you might not even notice that they are not the same but you certainly feel the energy the disparity exudes.
If you like this kind of mismatch, peruse through Nikolina’s Flickr photostream. She employs this approach quite a lot and very successfully.
Concepts, not just visual elements, can create the connected relationship between the pair in an earring set. It was hard to find really great sets in polymer (it’s not like people are hash tagging #ConceptuallyMishmatchedPolymerEarrings on Instagram) so let me demonstrate conceptual relationships with a couple of other materials.
For instance, the classic Moon and Sun icons are easily recognized as related and are often used in jewelry. In this enamel and gem set pair by Diego Percossi Papi, the designer also ensured a recognizable relationship by using the same style and types details. The curved and very pointed ends of the moon echo the wavy and very pointed ends of the sun. The colors and materials used also remain consistent between the two. There is also a consideration of balance. Even though they are visually quite different forms, they feel equal. As Diego puts it. “The moon is longer to compensate for the sun that weighs more in color and size. The sun would be much more invasive, with its large areas of enamel, which is a form of balance and respect for the moon.”
The great thing about conceptual relationships is that you can really stretch the differences visually and have few, if any, commonalities between the two earrings if the concept is strong. Take this xylophone and its hammer. We know they belong together, that they come as a set so the instrument can be played and so they “match” conceptually. These cute fabricated earrings by Candyflaps and Sprinkles are made from vintage xylophone parts, and can still be played!
Combine conceptual images and strong design elements and it might take a second for people to realize that they are unmatched. Luann Udell’s Shaman Mask earrings are the same size and shape and are both faux ivory and well as being face masks, However, the faces have different expressions and shading. They are similar enough in how they are rendered and in what they are to give them a strong relationship on top of the already strong connection in shape.
You can also develop a relationship between two different earrings when they are two halves of one thing, such as this scene that spans the pair of polymer earrings created by Tishaia. Each earring is well composed on its own but creates a little scene when side by side. She has more obvious halves too which you can find on her Instagram page. I just thought this one was gorgeously done. 
Mix and Match
Okay … ready to mismatch some earring sets? Isn’t it just great to give yourself permission to go unmatched?
Understanding that earrings in a set should have some commonality, you can easily create new sets, maybe even from elements you already have. Pull out your box or bin or drawer of unused elements and start mixing and matching. Lay out beads and other pieces in sets when you find elements that have at least a couple of matching or related color palettes, shapes, sizes, or other design elements and see how you like them as earring pairs. I bet you’ll find at least a few. You can strengthen their connection by using the same spacer beads, dangles and/or findings in the final construction of the earrings. Lay these options out and see what you come up with.
You can even take the beads that are alike and change up the spacers and findings to give them some of that asymmetrical energy. Dangles are particularly effective. You can even add dangles to just one side, like Valeria of Jewellry for World on Etsy does here.
If you want to change up your findings, learning to make your own unique ear wires is a great place to start mixing it up. Here is an easy tutorial from Janet Liu of Crystals and Clay, with 5 designs to get you jumpstarted on creating your own ear wires or it might be a good refresher if you haven’t done it in a while.
For Love of Hot Water
Who is tired of hearing about my house drama? I think I am! This week we lost the use of our one working shower when something got sucked into the hot water line and killed the old show faucet. The glamping quickly turned into a more standard camping experience as running water and showers were absent most of the week. Luckily, we have family nearby so there were trips made just for showers!
On a positive note, we are also now in the “putting things back together” stage. This past week was all running pipes and gas lines and new electrical in the walls and attic. Nothing photo worthy. But, whew! Nice to be past the destruction phase. We get to start drywalling next week. Very exciting!
Yesterday was the first truly nice day since this all started. High of 73F and sunny! Much time was spent out in the yard. But today we have a high of 58F and its spitting rain. The wildly varying temperature range reminds me of Colorado (where we’d say “Don’t like the weather? Wait 15 minutes.”) who just got walloped by a winter storm this past week. Weather is just being funky this year. Is it out of whack where you are too?
Well, I hope that, regardless of the weather, you have time to hit the studio to mismatch and have fun trying out earring combinations. Or just getting time to play. For my US readers, enjoy your family and friends on this Memorial Day and take a little time out to remember the folks who gave their lives defending and fighting for us and for others around the globe. Have a great coming week!
Tile Talk
May 12, 2019
Inspirational Art
Do you ever stop to ask yourself if what you create makes you happy? It seems like a silly question since creating is usually passion driven so being able to feed that passion should make you happy, right? But have you ever found yourself creating something because you believe it is the kind of thing other people would like but later realize that you don’t enjoying making it?
I found that happened a lot when I was a selling artist. You get wrapped up in what you think the market would want, what you think will sell best at the next show, and you’d be just making things for the money and not because it’s what you want to make. Other times we think that in a particular material, like polymer clay, it is best used for certain forms such as jewelry and home decor. But as we all know, polymer can do almost anything and yet 85% of it being created and shared online is jewelry. Jewelry is pretty fun stuff to make, sure, but if you enjoy polymer, just keep in mind you don’t have to make jewelry.
I myself have been moving away from jewelry. A pendant or pair of earrings are oftentimes still the best items to create to show off a polymer technique for a magazine article or tutorial but more and more, I create objects without an end goal in mind and am really enjoying just making little objects and samples of techniques. Last year, I started to see patterns and connections between them and eventually started putting them in shadow boxes. You can see an example of one of my “specimen” boxes in the latest Polymer Journeys book, if you’re curious. I’m also trying to devise a class for doing it. It’s so much fun!
But when I have to create jewelry because I am vetting an article for the magazine or want to make a gift, I have lately found that I don’t look forward to the engineering of it – figuring out how it is going to hang, what stringing material will work best, what findings I need, as well as worrying about comfort and durability. I find I don’t want to think about those things when I create and it’s not out of some kind of laziness, it’s just not what I want to spend my mental and creative energy on, and I’m good with that. I just really want to follow creative paths that make me happy right now.
To that end (and because I’ve spent so much time in tile stores lately), I’ve decided I might just focus on tiles for a while. They are a very freeing form. A tile is just a canvas for 3D materials. You can do whatever you want on them. You can make them any size, any shape, and can attach whatever you want or attack it however you want. I think we really should all give ourselves the freedom to play with this form, to let ourselves be free to create from the heart with a material we love. At the end of a session of tile making, you may find you are really looking forward to creating necklaces or making beads or covering vases. But I am going to suggest you give a tile a try here and there to just let yourself create freely. Doing this can help with your designs in other forms.
To that end, of course, I’m going to share some tiles this weekend. I am going to share a lot of non-polymer ones because I think, if you’ve spent any time online, you’ve probably seen your share of polymer tiles these last few years, especially with the Fimo 50 year challenge a couple of years back and with the common inches exchanges (inches are just tiny tiles). So, I’ve got a quite a mix for you but it is all art that can translate to polymer even if it is in another material.
Laying it All Out
The opening image of this post is a photo from a class conducted by Laurie Mika. She is well-known for her colorful and intricate collage/mosaic pieces which, by the way, she teaches at various events. This collection of student work was from a polymer clay tapestry class she taught at the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Nashville just a few of weeks ago. They are all just lovely. There is no high-end technical skill needed to put these types of things together which makes them ideal for exploring color and texture and just letting yourself go. (You can check Laurie’s workshop schedule on her website.)
Jael Thorp caught my eye some years back with her “clay doodles”, including the one below. I thought they looked like zentangles for clayers. Can you imagine the flow state she must’ve been in to create this? You can just get so completely lost in this kind of work and that is a big part of why people find tiles such a wonderful creative outlet.
Check out this post with her various doodles from some years back. She went on to refine her technique, making beautiful beads and home decor with the same type of application. You can find them on her Flickr photostream.
Let’s move from polymer to ceramics now. It is a rare thing in ceramics that can’t be replicated in some fashion in polymer so I find ceramic art quite inspiring. Here is one of my favorite tile makers in ceramics, Chris Gryder, who has gone a bit more three-dimensional of late but his tile compositions are timeless.
In this composition, each tile is its own separate piece but he’s connected them all with these lines that he creates through the grid of tiles. So, really, you can make a whole bunch of tiles without worrying about what they’re going to end up as, and then, if you want to put them together as a composition because they have a similar or complementary set of color palettes, textures, or motifs, you can use lines that flow throughout to visually connect them for a larger composite composition. This approach would allow you to just make tiles as the muse directs and then you can later make them into a larger wall piece.
If you like this piece, go browse through his website or his Instagram page for more fantastic inspiring wall compositions in tile.
Keep in mind, just because tiles start out flat, they are not two-dimensional and you can create extremely three-dimensional pieces on them. Here’s one example with some very organic forms and textures created by Lauren Blakey, another ceramic artist.
And here’s another three-dimensional example in glass by Shayna Leib.
As you can see, tile work is open to all types of materials so keep that in mind as you sit down to tile. Mix in anything that your heart and muse desires. Mix and match mediums, embed oddball trinkets you’ve kept for, as yet, unknown reasons, and just keep an open mind.
After pulling these examples for you, I realized that all the examples are squares here. You don’t have to create square tiles to play with but that is the more common form. However, if you’re not feeling square, try a free form shape or an oblong one or maybe, because today is Mother’s Day, create a big heart for all the mothers out there. Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing women!
Here’s a heart from Tina Ruppert of Wisecrackin’ Mosaics on Etsy. Pick a favorite shape and a bunch of canes or other scraps of clay and you can do something along these lines as well.
Getting Squared Away
I’m going to leave you with these thoughts and hopefully some curiosity about playing around with a tile or two, in whatever form and techniques interest you. If you need some jumpstart tutorials, here are a few places you can go:
Sara Evans has a video about her tile making process here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAxYwgJfLo
If you want to do something tile like but still want it to be something functional when done, maybe you would like this polymer clay tile box tutorial –
https://mermaidsden.com/blog/2015/02/12/polymer-clay-tile-box
Or have fun with one of our true masters of polymer clay tiles, Chris Kapono, with her very detailed and yet tremendously fun tile project in the Polymer Arts Projects book which you can purchase and download digitally if you need it immediately or order the print edition from our website.
I opened with a discussion about doing what makes you happy and hope it gives you some food for thought. If you want to hear a couple of transformative stories in that vein, please be sure to get your copy of The Polymer Studio Issue #2, recently released, which starts and ends with stories about finding one’s happy place with one about Christine Dumont’s studio complete with a visual tour, and the other about Donna Greenberg’s focus moving from jewelry to large wall art. Check out the Issue #2 Sampler if you haven’t seen the new issues yet.
We’re daily trying to find are happy place over here as our house has continued to be demolished more and more, beyond what we (or our contractor) expected even. Old plumbing can be a tricky thing! If it would just warm up here, it wouldn’t be so bad. A cold Southern California in May is just weird.
I’d share progress shots of the house but it’s pretty much just down to studs and busted up concrete floors. Oh… And a large trench across the whole of the front yard for a new drain line. I’m thinking about making it into a moat. Like a habitrail (if you remember those hamster houses) for our pond fish. They could just swim circles around the house! Okay, probably not but gotta have fun with all this bedlam, even if it’s just dreaming up nonsense like that!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother’s Day! I’m off to have mimosas with the family’s fabulous females myself! Enjoy the day and your coming week!
Splitting the Difference
April 21, 2019
Inspirational Art
Happy Easter or Chag Sameach or simply happy Sunday to you! I wasn’t sure I was going to get this one out between holidays and family and wrapping up the latest issue of The Polymer Studio (there has been a slight delay with the printer so we still have time to get you on the list for the first shipment from the printer if you subscribe or pre-order before Monday night … go here to get yours) and picking out shower and floor tile (yes, there is a tad more drama at Tenth Muse headquarters, a.k.a. home, which I will expound upon at the end for those of you find it humorous to see what craziness I’m steeped in.)
So, have you ever been in the middle of a busy, stressful, crazy, chaotic day and then all of a sudden you just are coming up with new art projects from out of nowhere? Well, yesterday I was in this ginormous tile shop, putting white tiles against dark tiles and smooth stone surfaces next to busy mosaics trying to see what works and, of course, being so design focused, when it didn’t work I would ask myself why, and when it did, I asked myself why as well. (My mind is like a three-year-old… Why this? Why that? Why…?) This led to considering how I pair up surfaces in my own artwork. The fact is, I don’t do a ton of it, but I do really like it.
I think this also came to mind because I had the pleasure of online chatting with Kimberly Arden, a potential contributor for a future issue, and she showed me some of her pendants and earrings which are often a split canvas – one side is busy with canes or extruder veneers and one side is a lightly textured black with a flower or other form laid on it in using just a few canes, like the one you see opening this post. So, I’m there comparing tiles and thinking about her pendants which got me thinking about how often we pair up surfaces in art and next thing you know, I’m writing you this post with all this in mind. That’s how these themes happen!
So, let’s just ponder the idea of having two different surfaces next to each other on the same canvas or form. How is this done to in a way that still creates a cohesive piece and what are the different ways this can be applied?
Splitting the Canvas
Two or more different surfaces on the same canvas or form is a great method for creating contrast but like any other element, two surfaces that are not alike do have to have some kind of connection to make them work together in a piece. Yes, that connection is there physically when the surfaces are within the same framework in or attached to a singular object, but that is not usually enough. The best way to ensure a connection is to have at least one design element that is the same or very similar.
For instance, both sides could be the same color but very different textures. Olga Bulat does this in this necklace. Making it monochromatic keeps us focused on that texture and that difference which creates the energy in the piece.
Now, Olga could have had two different colors in the above piece but the colors themselves would have had to have some commonality. For example, both sides could be pastel, or both might be similarly bright. They could even be next to each other or completely opposite each other on the color wheel (because complete opposites also connect in our mind as being related but in an opposing fashion, if that makes sense. Think how much green and red there is at Christmas time. It works, color wise, right?)
Below is an example of using different colors but with the same texture so that there is commonality in the texture, but at the same time, the colors are also completely opposite (a dark, rich, warm brown versus a light, colorless, cool gray). These opposites are paired in our mind the way good and evil, young and old, and night and day are paired conceptually.
This is the genius of Meisha Barbee who also puts the canvas split on the horizontal (notice how many of the examples I show you today are split vertically – vertical has a lot of energy but it doesn’t mean that vertical is right for every piece.) Just changing the color however does not give the work a ton of energy so she adds a band of multicolored spots. I added a few more examples below the first pendant so you can see the various ways she pairs up the competing sides of the canvas. She uses large bands to separate when the surface pattern is subtle but goes for a simple slim line on the one with a bottom half already busy and full of extruded canes slices.
And speaking of changing up directions, you can also change up the point at which they meet. It doesn’t have to be a straight line or a simple curve Here is a simple design, actually done in terra-cotta, offered by a website called Tradenimbo. The zigzag line splits up the two sides with enough energy to carry the simple graphic look. Note how the pendant is the stronger design between it and the earrings, with the dots being a place of focus and rest for the eye as it jumps back and forth between the two sides.
Juxtaposing two different surface designs doesn’t mean it needs to be on the same canvas facing the viewer in the same direction. It could be on something three-dimensional so that the viewer has to walk around to compare. Or take it a step further and have a different surface on the front and back or get really ingenious and make it a curved surface so you can see both sides at the same time as Arden Bardol does with these whimsical earrings of hers.
You can also contrast different surfaces by creating one surface on the outside and another on the inside. Martina Buriánová did that here with two surfaces contrasted in pattern and treatment, yet with similar or highly contrasting colors which make a strong connection between them.
Splitting up is Not Hard to Do
If you find these contrasting surfaces interesting, click on any of the above artist names to see additional pieces for further inspiration. Then get to work trying your own!
Here is a simple series of steps you can try right now … A Cane Split Canvas:
- Choose a cane (or a few canes that go together) and pick a base clay in a complementary color.
- Roll a thick sheet of the solid color and apply canes to just one section, trimming or lining them up to create a boundary between a cane side and a solid clay color side.
- Burnish the canes into the clay sheet so the surface is smooth.
- Then, texturize a similar sized section next to the canes. You can use something as simple as sandpaper or add lots of tiny dots with a hand tool or stripes or lines or whatever you like, but I think you will find it more successful if the texture is very different from the canes. So, for instance, if you applied a series of flower canes with dots in the center, don’t texturize with dots but rather create something quite unlike anything in the flowers, such as a lot of orderly vertical lines or go for the randomness of a filter sponge texture. The cool thing about applying texture here is that if you don’t like it you can burnish it away and try something else.
- Once you have a texture that you like, use a cookie cutter, first as a frame to find the section to cut that includes the two sides– it doesn’t have to be half canes and half texture. In fact, 1/3 to 2/3 will probably look nicer in many cases. Move your cookie cutter around to see what you like.
- Once you find the section you like, cover it with plastic wrap and cut with your cutter.
- Your new split canvas form can be used as the beginning of a more complex piece or punch a hole at the top and you have a pendant or the first of a pair of earrings.
Now, if you want to splice together two different sheets of clay onto the same piece, you might want to check out this tutorial by Samantha Burroughs.
You may also want to take a look at the first issue of The Polymer Studio for the great tutorial by Julie Picarello who has a beautifully simple way to splice together a mokume gane slice and simple textured clay.
Got any great split canvases of your own? Share it with us by leaving a comment or a link at the end of the post!
Now for the Great Tile Adventure
Story time! For those entertained by the little dramas of my little life.
So, as you might have read in previous posts, we have been forced to do a kitchen renovation earlier than planned, in part because of a drain that collapsed under the slab on the kitchen side. The bad news came when the plumbers came out to plan the job and determined that the drain in the master bath was about to go as well so in addition to the kitchen, we have to tear out the shower in the bathroom. Oh, joy!
Actually, we were kind of happy about this because we really dislike that shower. It’s like a tiny tile covered phone booth, which is great for singing in but, not big enough for even a tiny mobile recording studio to make that worthwhile, it’s otherwise rather claustrophobic feeling. This is not to say that the news and the added cost to the budget didn’t give me a few more gray hairs, but I won’t be sad to see that go.
So, after spending two hours in a tile shop yesterday, mostly searching for just the right basic white but still subtly veined tile (veins in a cool, not a warm gray on a cool but not bright white – we are both artists so the color conversations have been quite intense) to go with our more dramatic accent choices and coming home and putting every tile sample we bought up against the wall, and not finding any to be quite right, I went into my studio for something and there in my stack of tiles on my studio table was the exact pattern of tile we were looking for. And I’ve been curing clay on it for the last six years! Now we just have to see if we can find eight full boxes of it somewhere!
Here I am giving my better half the not so great news that our ideal tile came from my studio stash and I don’t remember where I got it. But at least we know what we like!
I’m also, by the way, designing and making our kitchen backsplash which will, of course, have polymer in it somehow. So that should be exciting. Especially the part where I have to figure out how to carve out the time to do actually make that happen. But I will!
So, with my head full of tile images, I say goodbye to you for now. Have a wonderful rest of your holiday weekend and a great coming week.
Hole-y Design
March 10, 2019
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, Technique tutorials
Here is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain… Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it’s empty space, isn’t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own – it’s a design element.
I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.
Let’s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.
Hole-y Jewelry
First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can’t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.
Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn’t it?
Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream or her Facebook page to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.
Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don’t overly dominate.
Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher’s lariat style “Petal Pusher” necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed – by an arrangement of canes slices here – not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website and her Facebook page here.
Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by Еnkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.
Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others – some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually – are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plavšić , also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.
Punching Your Own Holes
Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn’t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.
- Just punch holes randomly around a thick sheet of clay – it could be a sheet that you’ve treated with some technique or maybe marbled or otherwise mixed the clay.) Then, using a large cutter as a frame, place the large cutter at different points in your sheet to find a pattern of holes you like, and just punch it out. You can further color or treat it however you like and/or place it on a form to give it dimension. You could also take a cutter that is larger than the other small holes you punched into the sheet and make a large focal point hole in the chosen section.
- If you don’t like the sharp cuts of a cutter, soften them by laying a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the clay – make sure it is smooth with no wrinkles to start – then punch them out and it will add a bevel to the edges of the holes.
- For a more organic look, hand tool it. Press a ball stylus, knitting needle or other round tipped hand tool straight down into the clay and then move it around in a circular motion until you have created a hole. Do this over and over again, randomly and close together to create a texture, or place them purposefully in a pattern or judiciously as focal points.
- If you prefer a bit of direction as you start your hole-y crusade, here is a fun and easy tutorial that creates a simple but energetic and contemporary looking jewelry piece:
- Or you may want to grab your copy (or buy a copy) of the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book, in which holes play a role in several of the pieces in the book including a similarly styled pendant and brooch by Eva Haskova to what I showed you above but with her lovely take on a brain cane.
We also have a beautiful and easy to make boho-esque pendant project, created in the more organic hole making style, in the first issue of The Polymer Studio that the artist, Anna Malnaya calls “Martian Footprints”. So if you have that issue and haven’t tried it, go grab your copy and try that out. If you don’t have a copy, get it on the website – the digital edition is available for immediate download in most countries or order the print edition and we will ship it off to you.
Need Supplies or Inspiration?
Poly Clay Play is having a Spring Fling Sale! Get 10% off your whole cart (some exceptions apply.) Use coupon code Spring Fling, March 9 – 16, 2019. Shipping is closed at the shop that week (hence the sale) but you can take advantage of the discounts now and your goodies will be off to you the following week.
Discount pricing is available now on Christi Friesen’s new Nudge Cards. Get $4 off the set on her website here. No promo code needed!
On our Tenth Muse Arts site, discount packages for books and backorder magazines are available now. Buy One Get One Half off on Print + digital packages of the beautiful new Polymer Journeys 2019 book, or on packages including BOTH editions of Polymer Journeys – 2016 + 2019. There is also a package with all available copies of The Polymer Arts for basically half off the cover. See the website here.
Salted Old Beads
January 24, 2015
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Has this week’s selection of faux ancient and old art got you thinking about ways to create more of that look in your own work? The techniques used to create these looks can be applied to a variety of forms and even be reinvented using brighter colors and not-so-old-looking contrasting textures and finishes. Searching for something fun and easy to get you started on that track, if you haven’t already, I found this delightfully easy and highly textural tutorial for you.
The blog post with this tutorial is originally in Russian, but I’ll send you to the the translated to English version here. It’s really pretty well laid out in the photos, and the steps are simple but with a beautiful and sophisticated result, as can be seen in the necklace Russia’s Katerina Sidorova designed from her technique. The layering of the clay is an ingenious way of adding that additional color for the aged look since it will show on the ends and wherever the salt digs through the very thin top layer to the colors underneath. So no additional painting or other color is needed. Pretty neat.
Katerina is the shop owner at Russia’s online polymer and jewelry supply shop, KalinkaPolinka, and for what I think must be wholesale or at least bulk-buying, Kalinka-Pro. If you are on that side of the globe, it is a shop well worth checking out. But for everyone everywhere, she has a great page on her website of articles, free tutorials and links to other tutorials that would be a great starting point for other new avenues to explore.
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.
Of Stamp Carving and Swellegant and Wire and Whorls
January 15, 2015
Inspirational Art
Do you like to mix things up? Today we have a blog post that will give you a taste of a number of techniques you can apply to a wide range of other work. Carve your own rubber stamps, create colorful patinas on stamped polymer clay and wrap up your patina-colored pieces with wire frames full of loops and whorls.
This great mixed media approach is a result of explorations by wire artist, Gayle Bird. She seems unafraid of trying and mixing it up with all kinds of materials to create her intricate pieces. Wire is her home base material, but polymer, glass, stones and found objects play important roles in her neckpieces and rings.
Her post on these mixed media pendants can be found on her website. You won’t find a lot of very specific instructions but rather a series of ideas. For those ideas that really pique your interest, take it a step further and seek out independent instruction for more details. If you’re looking for a how-to on carving rubber stamps with linoleum cutters, try this Stamp Carving 101 lesson here. For using Swellegant, B’sue’s Swellegant articles are some of the best. And for wire work, well, there are many, many sources for that, but you can start with some of Gayle’s tutorials or go to Pinterest and search for “wire work tutorials” to show a wide range from which to choose the approach that interests 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 supporting our advertising partners.
Vintaj Patina Time
January 14, 2015
Inspirational Art
Who here likes mokume and also likes working with inks? I bet I’d see a lot of hands raised if I could actually see you all. This link will send you to a kind of exploration, that doubles as a tutorial, on working with Vintaj inks with a mokume technique. Vintaj is an opaque ink created to be used with metals, but Amy Crawley decided to try it out with polymer.
What I’m getting from her experiments is that this is a good alternative for opaque color layers. We already have metallic foils and gilder’s paste, and you can use oil paints or alcohol inks for varying levels of transparency, but we don’t have any good opaque options. Acrylic paints, because they become a stretchy plastic when dried, stretches when cut, so it makes a rather funky color layer that can also pull your layers apart when cutting. Trust me, I tried, and it was a mess. But the Vintaj ink doesn’t stretch. It will crack, though, which is actually kind of cool.
So I thought I’d share this with you all as an alternative idea for mokume layers. It made me think that maybe tempura paints would work in a similar manner — crackling, not stretching, when manipulated and cut. In any case, if you are up for exploring mokume layer options, this set of three blog entries and her results may get you thinking and get you playing.
Her original experiments with Vintaj just on the surface of clay is the first post Amy write on Vintaj. Then go here for the first half of her mokume and Vintaj process, and here for the final steps.
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.
Vibrant Caning
January 13, 2015
Inspirational Art
This tutorial caught my eye, I have to admit, because of all the vibrant color. It’s also a nice form that undulates, not unlike those glowing bullseye canes that make the center of the outside slices.
The tutorial and the finished set you see here were created by Karina Formanova and include a number of simple yet effectively combined canes, as well as a how-to on creating the form and building up the layers it needs. Although you are supposedly just learning to create a bracelet, you learn some further composite caning, forming, finishing and color combining. So, really, it’s a pretty full little tutorial when it comes down to it.
You can find the full tutorial on Karina’s LiveMaster pages. Also, drop by her page of buttons and other fun bits also there on LiveMaster for other fun ideas and color combinations.
A Dusting of Design
January 12, 2015
Inspirational Art
So, I thought this week I’d simply do what is trending for the new year on Pinterest. Turns out tutorials and how-to tips are the big thing right now. That was rather heartening to see really. Its great that so many people are looking for ideas to expand and explore. So this week will pretty much be that … showing some of the better tutorials and resources for you to expand your polymer knowledge base.
Iris Mishly’s website, PolyPediaOnline, is a wealth of wonderful, easy to follow tutorials. The PDF and video formats explore all kinds of techniques and forms. This stencil tutorial looks a lot like silk screen, but the look is actually created with easy-to-use pastel chalk and craft stencils; you can find them at pretty much any large craft store. Not only that, this tutorial is free!
Like silk screen (which I still would encourage you try at some point — we have all the tips and resources you might need in the The Polymer Arts‘ 2014 Winter issue), this stencil method gives you quickly patterned surfaces that can add visual texture and contrast to your pieces, without the mess of paint. While the lines may not be quite as clean and some of the application looks lighter than with silk screen, that could be more desirable since it can give an aged or rough look. The only thing Iris doesn’t mention is sealing the chalk. You can use any polymer-compatible sealer, but spray sealers such as PYMII or water based Varathane would likely be best so as to not dislodge any chalk while sealing.
You can find this tutorial on YouTube and on Iris’ website, but be sure to check out what other goodies, free and otherwise, she has waiting for you on PolyPedia Online and PolyPedia Online Express.
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.
What earring camp of design are you in? Do you always make earrings that match, or do you occasionally create a mismatched pair? Or are you one of those rare birds that abhors the symmetry of a matched pair and avoids it completely? I have lately come to the conclusions that I am a bit tired of matching earring. I couldn’t say why but I’ve started grabbing just one of two different pairs and wearing those as a set. My decisions, however, are not random. I have a lot of earrings with similar designs or techniques and I choose the new pairing with an eye to there being some kind of recognizable connection between the newly partnered set because recognizable connection is what makes a pair of earrings a match.
Design is all about making connections for the viewer of the work. It’s about developing a relationship physically, visually, or conceptually between the elements of an item (or set) so that people see the work as cohesive and intentional. That doesn’t mean that everything needs to literally match or mirror, as it is often done with earrings. People seem to think earrings in a pair need to match unless you’re going for some funky or edgy aesthetic.
However, I’d like to show you that earrings can be created unmatched or asymmetrical and still look contemporary, sophisticated, or otherwise just fabulous. There is a whole range of things you can do to throw off the symmetry between a pair of earrings. It can be subtle like a color change or rearrangement of the same elements, or it can be extreme like a size or visual weight difference. Regardless of the chosen differences, the earrings in a well-designed unmatched set will feel related in some fashion, often having several matching elements but not symmetry between them but it could also be that they are complete opposites or are unrelated visually but are grouped in our mind through common concepts. Let’s go on and I’ll explain.
Creative Match Making
Let’s start with subtle mismatching in our matchmaking of earrings. This can be done by changing just one aspect. Color is easy to change up, but it can also get complicated as there are characteristics of color itself that need to be matched to make two different colors work together such as saturation and value. If you have a great grasp of color, then try that out. Otherwise, you might start with something a little more straightforward like size, shape, or texture.
Here is a brilliant example by Bettina Welker. These earrings are sophisticated but relatively simple in design. They get a boost of energy by the simple but discordant change of texture in the pair.
Placement is also an easy way to throw they symmetry off while keeping the same visual weight and size, aspects that can help ensure the earrings look like they belong together. This pair from Jagna Birecka does just that in a very simple way. She just turned the first order of strung elements upside down for the second earring. The fact that both end elements are round makes the changeup not quite as jarring or wonky as it could be while still being immediately noticeable.
When the color palette and primary shapes are the same, it really doesn’t matter where the elements land on an earring. If the color palette feels the same and some other big design elements such as shape and size are equivalent, you can change up the placement of the pattern and the balance of color between the pair and they will look quite matched and sophisticated. This set by Nikolina Ortzan is a great example of that. She uses the same set of colors in each earring (and the pendant) and has nothing but circular shapes so you might not even notice that they are not the same but you certainly feel the energy the disparity exudes.
If you like this kind of mismatch, peruse through Nikolina’s Flickr photostream. She employs this approach quite a lot and very successfully.
Concepts, not just visual elements, can create the connected relationship between the pair in an earring set. It was hard to find really great sets in polymer (it’s not like people are hash tagging #ConceptuallyMishmatchedPolymerEarrings on Instagram) so let me demonstrate conceptual relationships with a couple of other materials.
For instance, the classic Moon and Sun icons are easily recognized as related and are often used in jewelry. In this enamel and gem set pair by Diego Percossi Papi, the designer also ensured a recognizable relationship by using the same style and types details. The curved and very pointed ends of the moon echo the wavy and very pointed ends of the sun. The colors and materials used also remain consistent between the two. There is also a consideration of balance. Even though they are visually quite different forms, they feel equal. As Diego puts it. “The moon is longer to compensate for the sun that weighs more in color and size. The sun would be much more invasive, with its large areas of enamel, which is a form of balance and respect for the moon.”
The great thing about conceptual relationships is that you can really stretch the differences visually and have few, if any, commonalities between the two earrings if the concept is strong. Take this xylophone and its hammer. We know they belong together, that they come as a set so the instrument can be played and so they “match” conceptually. These cute fabricated earrings by Candyflaps and Sprinkles are made from vintage xylophone parts, and can still be played!
Combine conceptual images and strong design elements and it might take a second for people to realize that they are unmatched. Luann Udell’s Shaman Mask earrings are the same size and shape and are both faux ivory and well as being face masks, However, the faces have different expressions and shading. They are similar enough in how they are rendered and in what they are to give them a strong relationship on top of the already strong connection in shape.
You can also develop a relationship between two different earrings when they are two halves of one thing, such as this scene that spans the pair of polymer earrings created by Tishaia. Each earring is well composed on its own but creates a little scene when side by side. She has more obvious halves too which you can find on her Instagram page. I just thought this one was gorgeously done.
Mix and Match
Okay … ready to mismatch some earring sets? Isn’t it just great to give yourself permission to go unmatched?
Understanding that earrings in a set should have some commonality, you can easily create new sets, maybe even from elements you already have. Pull out your box or bin or drawer of unused elements and start mixing and matching. Lay out beads and other pieces in sets when you find elements that have at least a couple of matching or related color palettes, shapes, sizes, or other design elements and see how you like them as earring pairs. I bet you’ll find at least a few. You can strengthen their connection by using the same spacer beads, dangles and/or findings in the final construction of the earrings. Lay these options out and see what you come up with.
You can even take the beads that are alike and change up the spacers and findings to give them some of that asymmetrical energy. Dangles are particularly effective. You can even add dangles to just one side, like Valeria of Jewellry for World on Etsy does here.
If you want to change up your findings, learning to make your own unique ear wires is a great place to start mixing it up. Here is an easy tutorial from Janet Liu of Crystals and Clay, with 5 designs to get you jumpstarted on creating your own ear wires or it might be a good refresher if you haven’t done it in a while.
For Love of Hot Water
Who is tired of hearing about my house drama? I think I am! This week we lost the use of our one working shower when something got sucked into the hot water line and killed the old show faucet. The glamping quickly turned into a more standard camping experience as running water and showers were absent most of the week. Luckily, we have family nearby so there were trips made just for showers!
On a positive note, we are also now in the “putting things back together” stage. This past week was all running pipes and gas lines and new electrical in the walls and attic. Nothing photo worthy. But, whew! Nice to be past the destruction phase. We get to start drywalling next week. Very exciting!
Yesterday was the first truly nice day since this all started. High of 73F and sunny! Much time was spent out in the yard. But today we have a high of 58F and its spitting rain. The wildly varying temperature range reminds me of Colorado (where we’d say “Don’t like the weather? Wait 15 minutes.”) who just got walloped by a winter storm this past week. Weather is just being funky this year. Is it out of whack where you are too?
Well, I hope that, regardless of the weather, you have time to hit the studio to mismatch and have fun trying out earring combinations. Or just getting time to play. For my US readers, enjoy your family and friends on this Memorial Day and take a little time out to remember the folks who gave their lives defending and fighting for us and for others around the globe. Have a great coming week!
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Do you ever stop to ask yourself if what you create makes you happy? It seems like a silly question since creating is usually passion driven so being able to feed that passion should make you happy, right? But have you ever found yourself creating something because you believe it is the kind of thing other people would like but later realize that you don’t enjoying making it?
I found that happened a lot when I was a selling artist. You get wrapped up in what you think the market would want, what you think will sell best at the next show, and you’d be just making things for the money and not because it’s what you want to make. Other times we think that in a particular material, like polymer clay, it is best used for certain forms such as jewelry and home decor. But as we all know, polymer can do almost anything and yet 85% of it being created and shared online is jewelry. Jewelry is pretty fun stuff to make, sure, but if you enjoy polymer, just keep in mind you don’t have to make jewelry.
I myself have been moving away from jewelry. A pendant or pair of earrings are oftentimes still the best items to create to show off a polymer technique for a magazine article or tutorial but more and more, I create objects without an end goal in mind and am really enjoying just making little objects and samples of techniques. Last year, I started to see patterns and connections between them and eventually started putting them in shadow boxes. You can see an example of one of my “specimen” boxes in the latest Polymer Journeys book, if you’re curious. I’m also trying to devise a class for doing it. It’s so much fun!
But when I have to create jewelry because I am vetting an article for the magazine or want to make a gift, I have lately found that I don’t look forward to the engineering of it – figuring out how it is going to hang, what stringing material will work best, what findings I need, as well as worrying about comfort and durability. I find I don’t want to think about those things when I create and it’s not out of some kind of laziness, it’s just not what I want to spend my mental and creative energy on, and I’m good with that. I just really want to follow creative paths that make me happy right now.
To that end (and because I’ve spent so much time in tile stores lately), I’ve decided I might just focus on tiles for a while. They are a very freeing form. A tile is just a canvas for 3D materials. You can do whatever you want on them. You can make them any size, any shape, and can attach whatever you want or attack it however you want. I think we really should all give ourselves the freedom to play with this form, to let ourselves be free to create from the heart with a material we love. At the end of a session of tile making, you may find you are really looking forward to creating necklaces or making beads or covering vases. But I am going to suggest you give a tile a try here and there to just let yourself create freely. Doing this can help with your designs in other forms.
To that end, of course, I’m going to share some tiles this weekend. I am going to share a lot of non-polymer ones because I think, if you’ve spent any time online, you’ve probably seen your share of polymer tiles these last few years, especially with the Fimo 50 year challenge a couple of years back and with the common inches exchanges (inches are just tiny tiles). So, I’ve got a quite a mix for you but it is all art that can translate to polymer even if it is in another material.
Laying it All Out
The opening image of this post is a photo from a class conducted by Laurie Mika. She is well-known for her colorful and intricate collage/mosaic pieces which, by the way, she teaches at various events. This collection of student work was from a polymer clay tapestry class she taught at the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Nashville just a few of weeks ago. They are all just lovely. There is no high-end technical skill needed to put these types of things together which makes them ideal for exploring color and texture and just letting yourself go. (You can check Laurie’s workshop schedule on her website.)
Jael Thorp caught my eye some years back with her “clay doodles”, including the one below. I thought they looked like zentangles for clayers. Can you imagine the flow state she must’ve been in to create this? You can just get so completely lost in this kind of work and that is a big part of why people find tiles such a wonderful creative outlet.
Check out this post with her various doodles from some years back. She went on to refine her technique, making beautiful beads and home decor with the same type of application. You can find them on her Flickr photostream.
Let’s move from polymer to ceramics now. It is a rare thing in ceramics that can’t be replicated in some fashion in polymer so I find ceramic art quite inspiring. Here is one of my favorite tile makers in ceramics, Chris Gryder, who has gone a bit more three-dimensional of late but his tile compositions are timeless.
In this composition, each tile is its own separate piece but he’s connected them all with these lines that he creates through the grid of tiles. So, really, you can make a whole bunch of tiles without worrying about what they’re going to end up as, and then, if you want to put them together as a composition because they have a similar or complementary set of color palettes, textures, or motifs, you can use lines that flow throughout to visually connect them for a larger composite composition. This approach would allow you to just make tiles as the muse directs and then you can later make them into a larger wall piece.
If you like this piece, go browse through his website or his Instagram page for more fantastic inspiring wall compositions in tile.
Keep in mind, just because tiles start out flat, they are not two-dimensional and you can create extremely three-dimensional pieces on them. Here’s one example with some very organic forms and textures created by Lauren Blakey, another ceramic artist.
And here’s another three-dimensional example in glass by Shayna Leib.
As you can see, tile work is open to all types of materials so keep that in mind as you sit down to tile. Mix in anything that your heart and muse desires. Mix and match mediums, embed oddball trinkets you’ve kept for, as yet, unknown reasons, and just keep an open mind.
After pulling these examples for you, I realized that all the examples are squares here. You don’t have to create square tiles to play with but that is the more common form. However, if you’re not feeling square, try a free form shape or an oblong one or maybe, because today is Mother’s Day, create a big heart for all the mothers out there. Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing women!
Here’s a heart from Tina Ruppert of Wisecrackin’ Mosaics on Etsy. Pick a favorite shape and a bunch of canes or other scraps of clay and you can do something along these lines as well.
Getting Squared Away
I’m going to leave you with these thoughts and hopefully some curiosity about playing around with a tile or two, in whatever form and techniques interest you. If you need some jumpstart tutorials, here are a few places you can go:
Sara Evans has a video about her tile making process here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAxYwgJfLo
If you want to do something tile like but still want it to be something functional when done, maybe you would like this polymer clay tile box tutorial –
https://mermaidsden.com/blog/2015/02/12/polymer-clay-tile-box
Or have fun with one of our true masters of polymer clay tiles, Chris Kapono, with her very detailed and yet tremendously fun tile project in the Polymer Arts Projects book which you can purchase and download digitally if you need it immediately or order the print edition from our website.
I opened with a discussion about doing what makes you happy and hope it gives you some food for thought. If you want to hear a couple of transformative stories in that vein, please be sure to get your copy of The Polymer Studio Issue #2, recently released, which starts and ends with stories about finding one’s happy place with one about Christine Dumont’s studio complete with a visual tour, and the other about Donna Greenberg’s focus moving from jewelry to large wall art. Check out the Issue #2 Sampler if you haven’t seen the new issues yet.
We’re daily trying to find are happy place over here as our house has continued to be demolished more and more, beyond what we (or our contractor) expected even. Old plumbing can be a tricky thing! If it would just warm up here, it wouldn’t be so bad. A cold Southern California in May is just weird.
I’d share progress shots of the house but it’s pretty much just down to studs and busted up concrete floors. Oh… And a large trench across the whole of the front yard for a new drain line. I’m thinking about making it into a moat. Like a habitrail (if you remember those hamster houses) for our pond fish. They could just swim circles around the house! Okay, probably not but gotta have fun with all this bedlam, even if it’s just dreaming up nonsense like that!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother’s Day! I’m off to have mimosas with the family’s fabulous females myself! Enjoy the day and your coming week!
Read MoreHappy Easter or Chag Sameach or simply happy Sunday to you! I wasn’t sure I was going to get this one out between holidays and family and wrapping up the latest issue of The Polymer Studio (there has been a slight delay with the printer so we still have time to get you on the list for the first shipment from the printer if you subscribe or pre-order before Monday night … go here to get yours) and picking out shower and floor tile (yes, there is a tad more drama at Tenth Muse headquarters, a.k.a. home, which I will expound upon at the end for those of you find it humorous to see what craziness I’m steeped in.)
So, have you ever been in the middle of a busy, stressful, crazy, chaotic day and then all of a sudden you just are coming up with new art projects from out of nowhere? Well, yesterday I was in this ginormous tile shop, putting white tiles against dark tiles and smooth stone surfaces next to busy mosaics trying to see what works and, of course, being so design focused, when it didn’t work I would ask myself why, and when it did, I asked myself why as well. (My mind is like a three-year-old… Why this? Why that? Why…?) This led to considering how I pair up surfaces in my own artwork. The fact is, I don’t do a ton of it, but I do really like it.
I think this also came to mind because I had the pleasure of online chatting with Kimberly Arden, a potential contributor for a future issue, and she showed me some of her pendants and earrings which are often a split canvas – one side is busy with canes or extruder veneers and one side is a lightly textured black with a flower or other form laid on it in using just a few canes, like the one you see opening this post. So, I’m there comparing tiles and thinking about her pendants which got me thinking about how often we pair up surfaces in art and next thing you know, I’m writing you this post with all this in mind. That’s how these themes happen!
So, let’s just ponder the idea of having two different surfaces next to each other on the same canvas or form. How is this done to in a way that still creates a cohesive piece and what are the different ways this can be applied?
Splitting the Canvas
Two or more different surfaces on the same canvas or form is a great method for creating contrast but like any other element, two surfaces that are not alike do have to have some kind of connection to make them work together in a piece. Yes, that connection is there physically when the surfaces are within the same framework in or attached to a singular object, but that is not usually enough. The best way to ensure a connection is to have at least one design element that is the same or very similar.
For instance, both sides could be the same color but very different textures. Olga Bulat does this in this necklace. Making it monochromatic keeps us focused on that texture and that difference which creates the energy in the piece.
Now, Olga could have had two different colors in the above piece but the colors themselves would have had to have some commonality. For example, both sides could be pastel, or both might be similarly bright. They could even be next to each other or completely opposite each other on the color wheel (because complete opposites also connect in our mind as being related but in an opposing fashion, if that makes sense. Think how much green and red there is at Christmas time. It works, color wise, right?)
Below is an example of using different colors but with the same texture so that there is commonality in the texture, but at the same time, the colors are also completely opposite (a dark, rich, warm brown versus a light, colorless, cool gray). These opposites are paired in our mind the way good and evil, young and old, and night and day are paired conceptually.
This is the genius of Meisha Barbee who also puts the canvas split on the horizontal (notice how many of the examples I show you today are split vertically – vertical has a lot of energy but it doesn’t mean that vertical is right for every piece.) Just changing the color however does not give the work a ton of energy so she adds a band of multicolored spots. I added a few more examples below the first pendant so you can see the various ways she pairs up the competing sides of the canvas. She uses large bands to separate when the surface pattern is subtle but goes for a simple slim line on the one with a bottom half already busy and full of extruded canes slices.
And speaking of changing up directions, you can also change up the point at which they meet. It doesn’t have to be a straight line or a simple curve Here is a simple design, actually done in terra-cotta, offered by a website called Tradenimbo. The zigzag line splits up the two sides with enough energy to carry the simple graphic look. Note how the pendant is the stronger design between it and the earrings, with the dots being a place of focus and rest for the eye as it jumps back and forth between the two sides.
Juxtaposing two different surface designs doesn’t mean it needs to be on the same canvas facing the viewer in the same direction. It could be on something three-dimensional so that the viewer has to walk around to compare. Or take it a step further and have a different surface on the front and back or get really ingenious and make it a curved surface so you can see both sides at the same time as Arden Bardol does with these whimsical earrings of hers.
You can also contrast different surfaces by creating one surface on the outside and another on the inside. Martina Buriánová did that here with two surfaces contrasted in pattern and treatment, yet with similar or highly contrasting colors which make a strong connection between them.
Splitting up is Not Hard to Do
If you find these contrasting surfaces interesting, click on any of the above artist names to see additional pieces for further inspiration. Then get to work trying your own!
Here is a simple series of steps you can try right now … A Cane Split Canvas:
- Choose a cane (or a few canes that go together) and pick a base clay in a complementary color.
- Roll a thick sheet of the solid color and apply canes to just one section, trimming or lining them up to create a boundary between a cane side and a solid clay color side.
- Burnish the canes into the clay sheet so the surface is smooth.
- Then, texturize a similar sized section next to the canes. You can use something as simple as sandpaper or add lots of tiny dots with a hand tool or stripes or lines or whatever you like, but I think you will find it more successful if the texture is very different from the canes. So, for instance, if you applied a series of flower canes with dots in the center, don’t texturize with dots but rather create something quite unlike anything in the flowers, such as a lot of orderly vertical lines or go for the randomness of a filter sponge texture. The cool thing about applying texture here is that if you don’t like it you can burnish it away and try something else.
- Once you have a texture that you like, use a cookie cutter, first as a frame to find the section to cut that includes the two sides– it doesn’t have to be half canes and half texture. In fact, 1/3 to 2/3 will probably look nicer in many cases. Move your cookie cutter around to see what you like.
- Once you find the section you like, cover it with plastic wrap and cut with your cutter.
- Your new split canvas form can be used as the beginning of a more complex piece or punch a hole at the top and you have a pendant or the first of a pair of earrings.
Now, if you want to splice together two different sheets of clay onto the same piece, you might want to check out this tutorial by Samantha Burroughs.
You may also want to take a look at the first issue of The Polymer Studio for the great tutorial by Julie Picarello who has a beautifully simple way to splice together a mokume gane slice and simple textured clay.
Got any great split canvases of your own? Share it with us by leaving a comment or a link at the end of the post!
Now for the Great Tile Adventure
Story time! For those entertained by the little dramas of my little life.
So, as you might have read in previous posts, we have been forced to do a kitchen renovation earlier than planned, in part because of a drain that collapsed under the slab on the kitchen side. The bad news came when the plumbers came out to plan the job and determined that the drain in the master bath was about to go as well so in addition to the kitchen, we have to tear out the shower in the bathroom. Oh, joy!
Actually, we were kind of happy about this because we really dislike that shower. It’s like a tiny tile covered phone booth, which is great for singing in but, not big enough for even a tiny mobile recording studio to make that worthwhile, it’s otherwise rather claustrophobic feeling. This is not to say that the news and the added cost to the budget didn’t give me a few more gray hairs, but I won’t be sad to see that go.
So, after spending two hours in a tile shop yesterday, mostly searching for just the right basic white but still subtly veined tile (veins in a cool, not a warm gray on a cool but not bright white – we are both artists so the color conversations have been quite intense) to go with our more dramatic accent choices and coming home and putting every tile sample we bought up against the wall, and not finding any to be quite right, I went into my studio for something and there in my stack of tiles on my studio table was the exact pattern of tile we were looking for. And I’ve been curing clay on it for the last six years! Now we just have to see if we can find eight full boxes of it somewhere!
Here I am giving my better half the not so great news that our ideal tile came from my studio stash and I don’t remember where I got it. But at least we know what we like!
I’m also, by the way, designing and making our kitchen backsplash which will, of course, have polymer in it somehow. So that should be exciting. Especially the part where I have to figure out how to carve out the time to do actually make that happen. But I will!
So, with my head full of tile images, I say goodbye to you for now. Have a wonderful rest of your holiday weekend and a great coming week.
Read MoreHere is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain… Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it’s empty space, isn’t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own – it’s a design element.
I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.
Let’s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.
Hole-y Jewelry
First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can’t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.
Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn’t it?
Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream or her Facebook page to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.
Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don’t overly dominate.
Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher’s lariat style “Petal Pusher” necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed – by an arrangement of canes slices here – not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website and her Facebook page here.
Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by Еnkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.
Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others – some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually – are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plavšić , also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.
Punching Your Own Holes
Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn’t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.
- Just punch holes randomly around a thick sheet of clay – it could be a sheet that you’ve treated with some technique or maybe marbled or otherwise mixed the clay.) Then, using a large cutter as a frame, place the large cutter at different points in your sheet to find a pattern of holes you like, and just punch it out. You can further color or treat it however you like and/or place it on a form to give it dimension. You could also take a cutter that is larger than the other small holes you punched into the sheet and make a large focal point hole in the chosen section.
- If you don’t like the sharp cuts of a cutter, soften them by laying a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the clay – make sure it is smooth with no wrinkles to start – then punch them out and it will add a bevel to the edges of the holes.
- For a more organic look, hand tool it. Press a ball stylus, knitting needle or other round tipped hand tool straight down into the clay and then move it around in a circular motion until you have created a hole. Do this over and over again, randomly and close together to create a texture, or place them purposefully in a pattern or judiciously as focal points.
- If you prefer a bit of direction as you start your hole-y crusade, here is a fun and easy tutorial that creates a simple but energetic and contemporary looking jewelry piece:
- Or you may want to grab your copy (or buy a copy) of the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book, in which holes play a role in several of the pieces in the book including a similarly styled pendant and brooch by Eva Haskova to what I showed you above but with her lovely take on a brain cane.
- We also have a beautiful and easy to make boho-esque pendant project, created in the more organic hole making style, in the first issue of The Polymer Studio that the artist, Anna Malnaya calls “Martian Footprints”. So if you have that issue and haven’t tried it, go grab your copy and try that out. If you don’t have a copy, get it on the website – the digital edition is available for immediate download in most countries or order the print edition and we will ship it off to you.
Need Supplies or Inspiration?
Poly Clay Play is having a Spring Fling Sale! Get 10% off your whole cart (some exceptions apply.) Use coupon code Spring Fling, March 9 – 16, 2019. Shipping is closed at the shop that week (hence the sale) but you can take advantage of the discounts now and your goodies will be off to you the following week.
Discount pricing is available now on Christi Friesen’s new Nudge Cards. Get $4 off the set on her website here. No promo code needed!
On our Tenth Muse Arts site, discount packages for books and backorder magazines are available now. Buy One Get One Half off on Print + digital packages of the beautiful new Polymer Journeys 2019 book, or on packages including BOTH editions of Polymer Journeys – 2016 + 2019. There is also a package with all available copies of The Polymer Arts for basically half off the cover. See the website here.
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Has this week’s selection of faux ancient and old art got you thinking about ways to create more of that look in your own work? The techniques used to create these looks can be applied to a variety of forms and even be reinvented using brighter colors and not-so-old-looking contrasting textures and finishes. Searching for something fun and easy to get you started on that track, if you haven’t already, I found this delightfully easy and highly textural tutorial for you.
The blog post with this tutorial is originally in Russian, but I’ll send you to the the translated to English version here. It’s really pretty well laid out in the photos, and the steps are simple but with a beautiful and sophisticated result, as can be seen in the necklace Russia’s Katerina Sidorova designed from her technique. The layering of the clay is an ingenious way of adding that additional color for the aged look since it will show on the ends and wherever the salt digs through the very thin top layer to the colors underneath. So no additional painting or other color is needed. Pretty neat.
Katerina is the shop owner at Russia’s online polymer and jewelry supply shop, KalinkaPolinka, and for what I think must be wholesale or at least bulk-buying, Kalinka-Pro. If you are on that side of the globe, it is a shop well worth checking out. But for everyone everywhere, she has a great page on her website of articles, free tutorials and links to other tutorials that would be a great starting point for other new avenues to explore.
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.
Do you like to mix things up? Today we have a blog post that will give you a taste of a number of techniques you can apply to a wide range of other work. Carve your own rubber stamps, create colorful patinas on stamped polymer clay and wrap up your patina-colored pieces with wire frames full of loops and whorls.
This great mixed media approach is a result of explorations by wire artist, Gayle Bird. She seems unafraid of trying and mixing it up with all kinds of materials to create her intricate pieces. Wire is her home base material, but polymer, glass, stones and found objects play important roles in her neckpieces and rings.
Her post on these mixed media pendants can be found on her website. You won’t find a lot of very specific instructions but rather a series of ideas. For those ideas that really pique your interest, take it a step further and seek out independent instruction for more details. If you’re looking for a how-to on carving rubber stamps with linoleum cutters, try this Stamp Carving 101 lesson here. For using Swellegant, B’sue’s Swellegant articles are some of the best. And for wire work, well, there are many, many sources for that, but you can start with some of Gayle’s tutorials or go to Pinterest and search for “wire work tutorials” to show a wide range from which to choose the approach that interests 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 supporting our advertising partners.
Who here likes mokume and also likes working with inks? I bet I’d see a lot of hands raised if I could actually see you all. This link will send you to a kind of exploration, that doubles as a tutorial, on working with Vintaj inks with a mokume technique. Vintaj is an opaque ink created to be used with metals, but Amy Crawley decided to try it out with polymer.
What I’m getting from her experiments is that this is a good alternative for opaque color layers. We already have metallic foils and gilder’s paste, and you can use oil paints or alcohol inks for varying levels of transparency, but we don’t have any good opaque options. Acrylic paints, because they become a stretchy plastic when dried, stretches when cut, so it makes a rather funky color layer that can also pull your layers apart when cutting. Trust me, I tried, and it was a mess. But the Vintaj ink doesn’t stretch. It will crack, though, which is actually kind of cool.
So I thought I’d share this with you all as an alternative idea for mokume layers. It made me think that maybe tempura paints would work in a similar manner — crackling, not stretching, when manipulated and cut. In any case, if you are up for exploring mokume layer options, this set of three blog entries and her results may get you thinking and get you playing.
Her original experiments with Vintaj just on the surface of clay is the first post Amy write on Vintaj. Then go here for the first half of her mokume and Vintaj process, and here for the final steps.
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.
This tutorial caught my eye, I have to admit, because of all the vibrant color. It’s also a nice form that undulates, not unlike those glowing bullseye canes that make the center of the outside slices.
The tutorial and the finished set you see here were created by Karina Formanova and include a number of simple yet effectively combined canes, as well as a how-to on creating the form and building up the layers it needs. Although you are supposedly just learning to create a bracelet, you learn some further composite caning, forming, finishing and color combining. So, really, it’s a pretty full little tutorial when it comes down to it.
You can find the full tutorial on Karina’s LiveMaster pages. Also, drop by her page of buttons and other fun bits also there on LiveMaster for other fun ideas and color combinations.
So, I thought this week I’d simply do what is trending for the new year on Pinterest. Turns out tutorials and how-to tips are the big thing right now. That was rather heartening to see really. Its great that so many people are looking for ideas to expand and explore. So this week will pretty much be that … showing some of the better tutorials and resources for you to expand your polymer knowledge base.
Iris Mishly’s website, PolyPediaOnline, is a wealth of wonderful, easy to follow tutorials. The PDF and video formats explore all kinds of techniques and forms. This stencil tutorial looks a lot like silk screen, but the look is actually created with easy-to-use pastel chalk and craft stencils; you can find them at pretty much any large craft store. Not only that, this tutorial is free!
Like silk screen (which I still would encourage you try at some point — we have all the tips and resources you might need in the The Polymer Arts‘ 2014 Winter issue), this stencil method gives you quickly patterned surfaces that can add visual texture and contrast to your pieces, without the mess of paint. While the lines may not be quite as clean and some of the application looks lighter than with silk screen, that could be more desirable since it can give an aged or rough look. The only thing Iris doesn’t mention is sealing the chalk. You can use any polymer-compatible sealer, but spray sealers such as PYMII or water based Varathane would likely be best so as to not dislodge any chalk while sealing.
You can find this tutorial on YouTube and on Iris’ website, but be sure to check out what other goodies, free and otherwise, she has waiting for you on PolyPedia Online and PolyPedia Online Express.
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.
