Subtle Contrast

June 2, 2016

Tatiana Lipatova

I’m sorry this blog is getting out a day late. Did you miss it? I really try not to do that, but it’s been a challenging week hence my being drawn to things that are a little off from what one might expect. I would use the word blemished except that I find this kind of work so lovely. This piece looks a lot like things I have been working on this past year, however, its creator Tatiana Lipatova, is in Russia. So, I know we haven’t exchanged notes, but then other people have been working with this kind of creeping texture on their pieces.

This necklace uses a subtle contrast with a shiny set of hollow beads–donut beads, of sorts, although off center and squared off–and unusual leather wrappings as well as this calcification-like texture. It looks like the texture was added from a treated sheet, one that was hand tooled, unless she has a stamp like this and she did a Sutton slice kind of thing. Regardless, the texture ties in the cleanness of the smooth bead with the roughness of the leather and other textured beads here. It doesn’t hurt that this is a color palette I am often drawn to use myself. Warm metals have such a sense of life to them, don’t they.

It was a challenge to find Tatiana, very much buried in her world in St. Petersburg, I think. But she has some really lovely pieces, most not going the way of faux decay either. Although it’s the European version of Facebook, no matter where you are in the world, you should still be able to browse her photos here. Do take the time to scroll down a ways as you browse. Her style keeps changing and beautiful little treasures keep popping up for you to admire.

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Take two very different styles, textures, materials, or colors and create a third element that you feel can tie them together. Design or create a new piece from this triad of subtle contrast.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

never knead -july-2015c-125  2Wards Blog May 2016  PCTV March 2016 Blog

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  The Great Create Sept 15 blog  businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

The Paper and Polymer Advantage

izabela-nowak-upcycling-collierMy little contribution to the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts is an article on ways to combine paper with polymer. I did a lot of research to see if there was anything else I could share with readers beyond what I had done in the past with paper casting and collage style techniques and … wow! There are tons of ways paper can be used to kick up your work. It offers ways to make production less expensive and pieces lighter for castings and as cores for large beads, it can add interesting textures both tactile and visual, and, because it can go in the oven at polymer clay curing temperatures, it can be used over, under, inside of, and just about any way you want it with your raw clay and it all can go into the oven together.

My foray into paper and polymer came initially from looking for less expensive and less noxious ways to cast sculpted pieces I had created in polymer and wanted to duplicate. I went on to use the material as a substrate, to make light sculptural and bead cores and to make hollow beads. But the things they are doing with paper in the craft world is amazing, and looks a lot like polymer sometimes. From mokume-like carved stacks of paper to rolled beads to textured, stamped, and molded paper–the work is beautiful and a very direct source of inspiration for polymer artists. If you haven’t seen what I am talking about just google something like “paper jewelry” or “paper craft” on Google, Pinterest, Etsy or Flickr. It’s fascinating.

The other super cool thing about paper craft is that much of it is being made from recycled and upcycled paper sources. I do all my paper casting using junk mail and old newspapers and my collage work is from magazines I would otherwise just throw away. But those are not the only sources of paper we can recycle and combine with polymer pieces. This necklace by Izabela Nowak is a beautiful example of where using a paper source rather than polymer has a distinct advantage.

All those discs are cut from milk and juice cartons. Creating something like that with polymer would be intensely time-consuming and curing extremely thin polymer and keeping it flat takes a few tricks. I am not saying its impossible–I’ve done it myself–but why do that if you can get a similar effect while keeping more trash out of a landfill? And  … it’s cheap or free! You gotta love that.

Izabela actually does a ton of work in paper and upcycled materials. She doesn’t often combine her polymer and paper but I find the pieces in which she doe, more interesting than the paper alone. The polymer adds solidity and texture the paper can’t and the paper offers crisp edges and smooth surfaces that are more difficult to do in polymer. So together, they make quite the pair!

Get your copy of the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts for this and other great article sure to get your creative juice flowing!

 

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Search for paper craft, paper jewelry, or recycled art and find a piece you are drawn to. Don’t spend a lot of time looking. Then figure out what that one thing is that is really drawing you to that piece. Use that element … whether it’s the way the work was created (rolled, folded, molded), the form of the piece, or even the combination of colors, and use it to design or create your next piece.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

  

 PCTV March 2016 Blog 

___________________________________________

Marrying Form and Texture

August 26, 2014

Nikola MorseToday’s artistic inspiration was sent to me by reader Fran Harkes who only sent this to me yesterday, but it tied in so well to our first piece this week that I thought I just needed to share it right away.

These fantastic little pendants were created by Britain’s Nicola Morse. The reason I wanted to tie them in to yesterday’s post is that in both cases we are looking at some pretty, but simple, textures made so much more exciting and intriguing because of the forms they are shaped into.

It’s definitely easy to see how it worked in yesterday’s pieces because they were monochromatic beads, so texture and from was what it was all about. But, these pendants have the added bonus of some really intense colors. If you imagine the pieces from yesterday and today as flat, you can see how much of their appeal they would lose flattened. Shape helps make them.

As it turns out, the beads from yesterday have an available tutorial.  You can go here to learn to make those organic stamped beads. (Thank you to both Randee Ketzel and Sue Hammer for sending the tutorial link.) So, does anyone know if there is a tutorial related to today’s pieces? These hollow shapes would be so much fun to work with.

In the meantime, Nicola’s website has some other fun stuff to ponder, especially her approach to a faux ceramic look. Enjoy!

Thank you Fran, for such a great find!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

Subtle Contrast

June 2, 2016
Posted in

Tatiana Lipatova

I’m sorry this blog is getting out a day late. Did you miss it? I really try not to do that, but it’s been a challenging week hence my being drawn to things that are a little off from what one might expect. I would use the word blemished except that I find this kind of work so lovely. This piece looks a lot like things I have been working on this past year, however, its creator Tatiana Lipatova, is in Russia. So, I know we haven’t exchanged notes, but then other people have been working with this kind of creeping texture on their pieces.

This necklace uses a subtle contrast with a shiny set of hollow beads–donut beads, of sorts, although off center and squared off–and unusual leather wrappings as well as this calcification-like texture. It looks like the texture was added from a treated sheet, one that was hand tooled, unless she has a stamp like this and she did a Sutton slice kind of thing. Regardless, the texture ties in the cleanness of the smooth bead with the roughness of the leather and other textured beads here. It doesn’t hurt that this is a color palette I am often drawn to use myself. Warm metals have such a sense of life to them, don’t they.

It was a challenge to find Tatiana, very much buried in her world in St. Petersburg, I think. But she has some really lovely pieces, most not going the way of faux decay either. Although it’s the European version of Facebook, no matter where you are in the world, you should still be able to browse her photos here. Do take the time to scroll down a ways as you browse. Her style keeps changing and beautiful little treasures keep popping up for you to admire.

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Take two very different styles, textures, materials, or colors and create a third element that you feel can tie them together. Design or create a new piece from this triad of subtle contrast.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

never knead -july-2015c-125  2Wards Blog May 2016  PCTV March 2016 Blog

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  The Great Create Sept 15 blog  businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Read More

The Paper and Polymer Advantage

March 11, 2016
Posted in ,

izabela-nowak-upcycling-collierMy little contribution to the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts is an article on ways to combine paper with polymer. I did a lot of research to see if there was anything else I could share with readers beyond what I had done in the past with paper casting and collage style techniques and … wow! There are tons of ways paper can be used to kick up your work. It offers ways to make production less expensive and pieces lighter for castings and as cores for large beads, it can add interesting textures both tactile and visual, and, because it can go in the oven at polymer clay curing temperatures, it can be used over, under, inside of, and just about any way you want it with your raw clay and it all can go into the oven together.

My foray into paper and polymer came initially from looking for less expensive and less noxious ways to cast sculpted pieces I had created in polymer and wanted to duplicate. I went on to use the material as a substrate, to make light sculptural and bead cores and to make hollow beads. But the things they are doing with paper in the craft world is amazing, and looks a lot like polymer sometimes. From mokume-like carved stacks of paper to rolled beads to textured, stamped, and molded paper–the work is beautiful and a very direct source of inspiration for polymer artists. If you haven’t seen what I am talking about just google something like “paper jewelry” or “paper craft” on Google, Pinterest, Etsy or Flickr. It’s fascinating.

The other super cool thing about paper craft is that much of it is being made from recycled and upcycled paper sources. I do all my paper casting using junk mail and old newspapers and my collage work is from magazines I would otherwise just throw away. But those are not the only sources of paper we can recycle and combine with polymer pieces. This necklace by Izabela Nowak is a beautiful example of where using a paper source rather than polymer has a distinct advantage.

All those discs are cut from milk and juice cartons. Creating something like that with polymer would be intensely time-consuming and curing extremely thin polymer and keeping it flat takes a few tricks. I am not saying its impossible–I’ve done it myself–but why do that if you can get a similar effect while keeping more trash out of a landfill? And  … it’s cheap or free! You gotta love that.

Izabela actually does a ton of work in paper and upcycled materials. She doesn’t often combine her polymer and paper but I find the pieces in which she doe, more interesting than the paper alone. The polymer adds solidity and texture the paper can’t and the paper offers crisp edges and smooth surfaces that are more difficult to do in polymer. So together, they make quite the pair!

Get your copy of the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts for this and other great article sure to get your creative juice flowing!

 

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Search for paper craft, paper jewelry, or recycled art and find a piece you are drawn to. Don’t spend a lot of time looking. Then figure out what that one thing is that is really drawing you to that piece. Use that element … whether it’s the way the work was created (rolled, folded, molded), the form of the piece, or even the combination of colors, and use it to design or create your next piece.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:

  

 PCTV March 2016 Blog 

___________________________________________

Read More

Marrying Form and Texture

August 26, 2014
Posted in

Nikola MorseToday’s artistic inspiration was sent to me by reader Fran Harkes who only sent this to me yesterday, but it tied in so well to our first piece this week that I thought I just needed to share it right away.

These fantastic little pendants were created by Britain’s Nicola Morse. The reason I wanted to tie them in to yesterday’s post is that in both cases we are looking at some pretty, but simple, textures made so much more exciting and intriguing because of the forms they are shaped into.

It’s definitely easy to see how it worked in yesterday’s pieces because they were monochromatic beads, so texture and from was what it was all about. But, these pendants have the added bonus of some really intense colors. If you imagine the pieces from yesterday and today as flat, you can see how much of their appeal they would lose flattened. Shape helps make them.

As it turns out, the beads from yesterday have an available tutorial.  You can go here to learn to make those organic stamped beads. (Thank you to both Randee Ketzel and Sue Hammer for sending the tutorial link.) So, does anyone know if there is a tutorial related to today’s pieces? These hollow shapes would be so much fun to work with.

In the meantime, Nicola’s website has some other fun stuff to ponder, especially her approach to a faux ceramic look. Enjoy!

Thank you Fran, for such a great find!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

Read More
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