Light As an Art Medium
September 28, 2018
Inspirational Art
I felt really bad I could not fit the colorful images of this fabulous lantern into Claire Fairweather’s gallery pages, so here you go. The first image in the upper left is the piece lit with white room light, with the following images showing Claire’s intention to combine it with colored light from within the vessel.
Claire uses bullseye cane slices with a center of translucent clay to create a simple yet dramatic pattern through which an electric candle can emit colored light. Her choice of a light-changing LED candle adds a whole other aspect to the look and feel of this polymer-covered sphere and was sure to be integral to Claire’s intention with this piece, which is why I felt so bad about not being able to fit it into the layout. But at least I can share it here.
Although you may not think of light as an art medium, it definitely can be. Anything that adds color and contrast is a medium you can use to increase the impact and look of your work. And with all the ways we can use translucent polymer, light—especially colored lights—should certainly be considered a possible addition to the work if it can functionally be done.
All of Claire’s work deals with the formation of texture and images created through a mosaic-type approach but she explores the outer reaches of what a mosaic can be, using things like this lantern and the mirror you would see in the gallery pages. You can take a look at more of this work of hers on her website and her blog.
A Little Faux Lampwork
May 15, 2013
Inspirational Art
Wow … thank you all for chiming in with your comments and emails on what to do with the rest of the week. It’s really very cool to hear from you all. Perhaps we’ll pose options (and giveaways!) for upcoming weeks on a regular basis. You can tell me what is of the most interest … I get very energized writing because of your feedback rather than the ideas that pop into my head, out of the ether. And who doesn’t like a chance to get free stuff! Sounds like a win-win to me!
So, faux came in heavy right off but a call to see more about variation started coming up from behind as the evening went on. The end result is … we are going to start with faux this week then look at how to work out variations next week.
Since Iris and Hilla brought to our attention another art form emulated in polymer, why don’t we stick with other craft arts that we can create in polymer? Try to keep in mind as we look at these techniques that the objective is not to find other arts to emualte but to see new directions that polymer can be pushed in your studio. For instance, I thought we’d start with an artist who’s faux lampwork has fascinated me since I stumbled on it a few years back. I love experimenting with liquid polymer and I was fascinated by how high Sharon Solly makes her glass like dots and how well controlled they are.
Sharon may have an bit of an advantage over the rest of us as she actually does lampwork. I am really curious as to how similar the work is. I know I experimented for a while trying to get the dot not to spread. My solution was to either add just a smidge at a time, hitting it with a heat gun between dabs or preheating the base clay so the dot of liquid polymer would start to solidify immediately. The pre-heat worked well on flat items as I could lay the base clay on a hot plate/mug warmer and work on that but the round beads … I just couldn’t get the same effect that Sharon is getting. But if you can work on building up liquid polymer like this, you could add a bit of the faux lampwork look to many things you couldn’t add glass to in the first place. There are tremendous possibilities for decorative dotting!
If you are in the least bit interested, do look through Sharon’s Flicker pages. This one image is a bare tip of the iceberg … she has a broad body of work showing her on-going experimentation with this process. Actually, Sharon looks to be a major faux experimentator with a large variety of stones and dichroic-like pieces done in polymer.
So go explore some faux! Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the Cosmic Ceramic giveway as well. See you then!
I felt really bad I could not fit the colorful images of this fabulous lantern into Claire Fairweather’s gallery pages, so here you go. The first image in the upper left is the piece lit with white room light, with the following images showing Claire’s intention to combine it with colored light from within the vessel.
Claire uses bullseye cane slices with a center of translucent clay to create a simple yet dramatic pattern through which an electric candle can emit colored light. Her choice of a light-changing LED candle adds a whole other aspect to the look and feel of this polymer-covered sphere and was sure to be integral to Claire’s intention with this piece, which is why I felt so bad about not being able to fit it into the layout. But at least I can share it here.
Although you may not think of light as an art medium, it definitely can be. Anything that adds color and contrast is a medium you can use to increase the impact and look of your work. And with all the ways we can use translucent polymer, light—especially colored lights—should certainly be considered a possible addition to the work if it can functionally be done.
All of Claire’s work deals with the formation of texture and images created through a mosaic-type approach but she explores the outer reaches of what a mosaic can be, using things like this lantern and the mirror you would see in the gallery pages. You can take a look at more of this work of hers on her website and her blog.
Read MoreWow … thank you all for chiming in with your comments and emails on what to do with the rest of the week. It’s really very cool to hear from you all. Perhaps we’ll pose options (and giveaways!) for upcoming weeks on a regular basis. You can tell me what is of the most interest … I get very energized writing because of your feedback rather than the ideas that pop into my head, out of the ether. And who doesn’t like a chance to get free stuff! Sounds like a win-win to me!
So, faux came in heavy right off but a call to see more about variation started coming up from behind as the evening went on. The end result is … we are going to start with faux this week then look at how to work out variations next week.
Since Iris and Hilla brought to our attention another art form emulated in polymer, why don’t we stick with other craft arts that we can create in polymer? Try to keep in mind as we look at these techniques that the objective is not to find other arts to emualte but to see new directions that polymer can be pushed in your studio. For instance, I thought we’d start with an artist who’s faux lampwork has fascinated me since I stumbled on it a few years back. I love experimenting with liquid polymer and I was fascinated by how high Sharon Solly makes her glass like dots and how well controlled they are.
Sharon may have an bit of an advantage over the rest of us as she actually does lampwork. I am really curious as to how similar the work is. I know I experimented for a while trying to get the dot not to spread. My solution was to either add just a smidge at a time, hitting it with a heat gun between dabs or preheating the base clay so the dot of liquid polymer would start to solidify immediately. The pre-heat worked well on flat items as I could lay the base clay on a hot plate/mug warmer and work on that but the round beads … I just couldn’t get the same effect that Sharon is getting. But if you can work on building up liquid polymer like this, you could add a bit of the faux lampwork look to many things you couldn’t add glass to in the first place. There are tremendous possibilities for decorative dotting!
If you are in the least bit interested, do look through Sharon’s Flicker pages. This one image is a bare tip of the iceberg … she has a broad body of work showing her on-going experimentation with this process. Actually, Sharon looks to be a major faux experimentator with a large variety of stones and dichroic-like pieces done in polymer.
So go explore some faux! Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the Cosmic Ceramic giveway as well. See you then!
Read More