Trapping Roses
November 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
It would be particularly difficult to pass up a week dealing with the hidden and barely glimpsed without bringing up a huge influence of mine in that area, Wiwat Kamolpornwijit. Hiding little handcrafted roses and gems beneath strips or folds of clay or held by a lattice work of polymer to faux metal or black bases was the stamp of his work for a long time. It’s still his mainstay, although, he branched out into abstract forms and much more color in recent years. However, his little roses still grab me every time.
There is something in particular about a flower being trapped or hidden away that goes against our standard for flower presentation. They are usually centerpieces, standing proudly in vases or flowing from bowls or planters. They are left to present their color and grace to the open air, to enliven a room or an outdoor space. To take them and hide them or restrict them seems to be a very intentional comment, something along the lines of controlling or holding back beauty. I find it intriguing, both visually and conceptually, and I think most people, when first encountering Wiwat’s work, are also intrigued by this unusual presentation of the revered rose.
Do take a little time to peruse his website, especially if this is your first exposure to his work. He is active at shows but less so online, so his newer pieces like these earrings can be found on Pinterest boards and by searching Google images. He has a featured gallery spread in the Summer 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts as well if you would like to get a closer look and read more about this unique artist.
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.
Revealing Polymer
June 24, 2013
Inspirational Art
Polymer is a very different craft material for a number of reasons. Of course, the biggest advantage to polymer is undoubtedly its versatility. I mean, it has versatility within its versatile possibilities. What other material allows you to create forms embedded with interior imagery? Of course you will assume that I am talking about caning, which I am — sort of. Caning is just one way of working with polymer that can’t be done as easily or with such versatility with other craft materials. It’s our ability to layer and build with polymer from the inside of a form out, to reshape and manipulate it not just on the surface but within the interior of the forms we work with that gives us so many possibilities.
This layering and building allows for hidden imagery and visual texture that we can fully control. How cool is that? I though this week, we’d look at the various ways polymer can be used to bury and then reveal our visions planted within them.
This bracelet by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre is what got me thinking about this particular aspect of polymer.
This piece is caning of a sort … at least in the initial build with the polymer. But instead of caning used to create a surface design, the cane is formed into cones with an outside layer developed to be a primary element and the cane cross-section showing as a revealed interior. This use of a cane celebrates its three-dimensionality. It’s not that we don’t realize that the images we make from canes come from a roll that the image follows all the way through its length; but the end product of a cane is usually as a two-dimensional surface design. The depth of the imagery is not a consideration when used this way.
Seeing the design in a cross section makes one consider how deep the design must go. It made me think just how much actual depth polymer often has and how really cool it is that we can use this to create visual textures and patterns, both planned and unexpected, for the work we make. So this week, we’ll just have fun checking out the different ways our fellow clayers reveal this particularly versatile aspect of polymer art.
It would be particularly difficult to pass up a week dealing with the hidden and barely glimpsed without bringing up a huge influence of mine in that area, Wiwat Kamolpornwijit. Hiding little handcrafted roses and gems beneath strips or folds of clay or held by a lattice work of polymer to faux metal or black bases was the stamp of his work for a long time. It’s still his mainstay, although, he branched out into abstract forms and much more color in recent years. However, his little roses still grab me every time.
There is something in particular about a flower being trapped or hidden away that goes against our standard for flower presentation. They are usually centerpieces, standing proudly in vases or flowing from bowls or planters. They are left to present their color and grace to the open air, to enliven a room or an outdoor space. To take them and hide them or restrict them seems to be a very intentional comment, something along the lines of controlling or holding back beauty. I find it intriguing, both visually and conceptually, and I think most people, when first encountering Wiwat’s work, are also intrigued by this unusual presentation of the revered rose.
Do take a little time to peruse his website, especially if this is your first exposure to his work. He is active at shows but less so online, so his newer pieces like these earrings can be found on Pinterest boards and by searching Google images. He has a featured gallery spread in the Summer 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts as well if you would like to get a closer look and read more about this unique artist.
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.
Polymer is a very different craft material for a number of reasons. Of course, the biggest advantage to polymer is undoubtedly its versatility. I mean, it has versatility within its versatile possibilities. What other material allows you to create forms embedded with interior imagery? Of course you will assume that I am talking about caning, which I am — sort of. Caning is just one way of working with polymer that can’t be done as easily or with such versatility with other craft materials. It’s our ability to layer and build with polymer from the inside of a form out, to reshape and manipulate it not just on the surface but within the interior of the forms we work with that gives us so many possibilities.
This layering and building allows for hidden imagery and visual texture that we can fully control. How cool is that? I though this week, we’d look at the various ways polymer can be used to bury and then reveal our visions planted within them.
This bracelet by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre is what got me thinking about this particular aspect of polymer.
This piece is caning of a sort … at least in the initial build with the polymer. But instead of caning used to create a surface design, the cane is formed into cones with an outside layer developed to be a primary element and the cane cross-section showing as a revealed interior. This use of a cane celebrates its three-dimensionality. It’s not that we don’t realize that the images we make from canes come from a roll that the image follows all the way through its length; but the end product of a cane is usually as a two-dimensional surface design. The depth of the imagery is not a consideration when used this way.
Seeing the design in a cross section makes one consider how deep the design must go. It made me think just how much actual depth polymer often has and how really cool it is that we can use this to create visual textures and patterns, both planned and unexpected, for the work we make. So this week, we’ll just have fun checking out the different ways our fellow clayers reveal this particularly versatile aspect of polymer art.
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