Polymer in Flight

June 20, 2013

I have to confess that the movement idea for this week wasn’t something I came up with on my own. Denise Graham, who works in polymer “clay paintings” and has been very sweet to share work beyond what she has contributed for the Wall Art articles you’ve seen in the present Summer 2013 issue (and will see more of in the upcoming Fall 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine), sent me this intriguing piece you see here. The idea of flight and its emulation in the breezy hanging strands that outline flight’s most iconic creature was what triggered the idea for this week.

photo 2

The floating dove piece is large — 6′ x 5 1/2 ‘! It’s rare to see something in polymer that big, but why not? Polymer makes wonderful components from which you can create larger work. And with its light weight, it makes a great material for kinetic sculpture that is dependent upon changes in airflow, like this piece.

Denise has been thinking outside the box in polymer ever since she moved from watercolor to this new and amazing medium. She presently has several classes on CraftArtEdu teaching her clay painting techniques. Although these are not classes on kinetic sculpture, they teach you another option for using polymer in a painterly way. From still life to water to clouds & starry skies, Denise’s classes may open up a whole new world for you — and that can be quite ‘moving’!

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Kinetic Fun

June 19, 2013

Yesterday we touched on ways to add visual movement to your work; but visual is only way one to add the excitement of movement to artwork. Kinetic design involves creating work that actually moves due to the way it is used or where it is displayed.

Jewelry lends itself to kinetic design quite easily since it is displayed on a person and we do expect people to move about, providing the motion that engages that part of the design. If you are familiar with Alice Stroppel’s fun and whimsical work, you probably do not find it surprising that she has played with kinetic design. Here is a necklace the uses both visual movement (in the lines of the canes) as well as actual movement. Part of the whimsy here is in how the dangling beads will dance back and forth and the whole set can move on the main cord as the wearer moves about.

circles-and-squares

Dangles are a pretty common method of adding movement to jewelry. Allowing the whole focal set here to move quite freely along the neck cord will just add to the sense of liveliness and fun in this piece. Such additions to the design aren’t hard to implement as you can see by Alice’s basic engineering here. If you have a piece that you want to add a little liveliness or whimsy to, something as simple as dangling beads can do that quite easily for you.

 

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Polymer in Flight

June 20, 2013
Posted in

I have to confess that the movement idea for this week wasn’t something I came up with on my own. Denise Graham, who works in polymer “clay paintings” and has been very sweet to share work beyond what she has contributed for the Wall Art articles you’ve seen in the present Summer 2013 issue (and will see more of in the upcoming Fall 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine), sent me this intriguing piece you see here. The idea of flight and its emulation in the breezy hanging strands that outline flight’s most iconic creature was what triggered the idea for this week.

photo 2

The floating dove piece is large — 6′ x 5 1/2 ‘! It’s rare to see something in polymer that big, but why not? Polymer makes wonderful components from which you can create larger work. And with its light weight, it makes a great material for kinetic sculpture that is dependent upon changes in airflow, like this piece.

Denise has been thinking outside the box in polymer ever since she moved from watercolor to this new and amazing medium. She presently has several classes on CraftArtEdu teaching her clay painting techniques. Although these are not classes on kinetic sculpture, they teach you another option for using polymer in a painterly way. From still life to water to clouds & starry skies, Denise’s classes may open up a whole new world for you — and that can be quite ‘moving’!

blog Banner Ad 230x125  PA Blog2d--2013-03Mar

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Kinetic Fun

June 19, 2013
Posted in

Yesterday we touched on ways to add visual movement to your work; but visual is only way one to add the excitement of movement to artwork. Kinetic design involves creating work that actually moves due to the way it is used or where it is displayed.

Jewelry lends itself to kinetic design quite easily since it is displayed on a person and we do expect people to move about, providing the motion that engages that part of the design. If you are familiar with Alice Stroppel’s fun and whimsical work, you probably do not find it surprising that she has played with kinetic design. Here is a necklace the uses both visual movement (in the lines of the canes) as well as actual movement. Part of the whimsy here is in how the dangling beads will dance back and forth and the whole set can move on the main cord as the wearer moves about.

circles-and-squares

Dangles are a pretty common method of adding movement to jewelry. Allowing the whole focal set here to move quite freely along the neck cord will just add to the sense of liveliness and fun in this piece. Such additions to the design aren’t hard to implement as you can see by Alice’s basic engineering here. If you have a piece that you want to add a little liveliness or whimsy to, something as simple as dangling beads can do that quite easily for you.

 

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