Man-made Handmade
March 3, 2019
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
Have you noticed that most people who work in polymer will cite nature as their primary inspiration? Do you, or would you, too? But isn’t it ironic that, as inspired as we are by nature, we work with a wholly man-made material? I’ve been thinking about this because, as I polished up the Polymer Journeys 2019 book, I was making notes on some of the trends and I noticed that all but three people who cited their inspiration said they were inspired by nature. It got me to thinking about why we aren’t more inspired by the man-made world, as rich and diverse as it is.
My curiosity piqued, I did some research and made more notes to see if, for one, my perception was correct in that polymer artists look to nature more than anything and, secondly, to see what things other than nature inspire people. So, the observations that inspiration from nature is predominant in polymer art was upheld by all I looked through. I also found it interesting that, when it boils down to it, nearly everything in almost all art forms looks to be inspired by nature or by man-made styles and designs that themselves were inspired by nature. To see examples of where nature is inspiration for man-made design, just take a look at styles such as Baroque or Art Deco. Flowers, trees, leaves, vines, butterflies, birds, and a myriad of other natural flora and fauna are evident sources of inspiration in the forms and lines of those styles. We might be inspired by the designs of that age but the inspiration is still rooted in nature.
However, I did my best to find pieces that were inspired by man-made objects, scenes, or styles. Let me tell you, it was not terribly easy but just because it is less often turned to does not mean it doesn’t have wonderful forms, colors, motifs, and textures for all of us. Let’s take a look at some of the work created by polymer artists who are inspired by the man-made.
A Gallery of Man-made Inspiration
One of the first people who came to mind when thinking about man-made inspiration was Cornelia Brockstedt. She has had several series such as “Street Life” and her “City” bangles. She also did a series of what she called “graphical studies” in 2015. So I went to her Flickr photo stream to find something to share with you and it struck me that, even with the graphical tendencies and inspiration taken from city life, there is so much organic that shows up in her work. This tended to be true with a lot of artists. This pendant, one of my favorite pieces of hers, was inspired by sidewalks and the grass that grows up from around it. So it was inspired by man-made walkways but with contrast in the nature that is still sneaking in.
Another artist who came to mind, even before I started my search, was Sona Grigoryan. She did a lovely series of polymer and resin pieces inspired by the Barcelona cathedrals and stained-glass windows she sees where she lives.
And of course, we have to consider the work of the Georg Dinkel who is inspired by architecture and machinery to the extent that even when he decides to create some creatures, they too look mechanical. He is also, apparently, inspired by literature and humor, as this Don Quixote scene he set up with two of his mechanized creatures hints at.
And, when talking mechanical, we certainly can’t ignore the influence of the mechanical from movements like steampunk. From jewelry to sculpture to journals and phone cases, this style is everywhere but it’s hard to say whether polymer found steampunk or steampunk found polymer first. The steampunk monster heart that opened this post is a sculpture by Kimberly Hart who posts under MonsterKookies on Etsy.
Carol Blackburn, whose work is so colorful and graphic, often cites fashion styles and movements as her source of inspiration. I think these fall under her “Missoni” fashion inspired line.
Another artist who seems quite enamored of fabric but also of metal and other man-made textures is Nikolina Otrzan. Mostly, she’s just a texture fiend but you’ll notice that her textures generally have a certain uniformity to them that automatically makes them feel that they would be man-made in origin, whether they were intended to or not. Even her shapes, like these tube pieces, reflect a penchant for uniformity that is beautifully balanced with her choice of rough or edge softening surface treatments.
So has this got you pondering the possibilities of man-made forms and textures as a source of inspiration for you? I know I’ve been looking at the shapes in my house, the walls in the neighborhood, and the forms on the buildings I pass with new eyes.
Going for Man-made
Freebies
If you want to try a few man-made inspired textures or forms, there are quite a few out there although the quick and free were a bit more scarce. Nonetheless, here are a few pages with related free tutorials. You’ll want to pop the last two URLs into Google translate if it doesn’t automatically translate for you:
- Faux ceramics tutorial.
- Faux Peruvian fabric.
- There are actually a lot of steampunk tuts you can find with any search but here is a fun Steampunk Seahorse.
Tutorial Shops
Your best sources of tutorial with man-made inspiration are going to cost a couple of bucks, but are well worth it. Here are some of my favorite shops for this:
- Anything from Nikolina Otrzan‘s shop is just fabulous.
- Angela Barenholtz has beautiful fabric techniques to share.
- If you really just want to get more graphical, you can’t beat tutorials from Bettina Welker.
A Bit o’ News
And now for a few tidbits about things going on in the polymer community you might want to know about:
Vote for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards!
The International Polymer Clay Association member voting is now open through March 8. Active members should have received an email with a link for your ballot. If your membership has expired please renew at www.theipca.org before March 8, 2019 so that you may vote for your favorites.
Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes Online Courses
Dan and Tracy have recently announced the lineup for their 2019 online Master Classes. Check out the present information and sign up for future announcements on their website here.
Polymer Journeys 2019 has been released!
- Our latest publication, the second installment of the Polymer Journeys retrospective series was released this morning in digital format for those who purchased early or otherwise supported the project. (It was noon PST time if you need to search your inbox or your spam folder if not there.)
- Print Pre-orders (ordered prior to Feb 27th) will go into the mail a little later than we had hoped but will be shipped directly from the printer on March 6. Our shipment should be our doorstep March 8, so newer orders will ship out as soon as we have them in our hot little hands. Buy yours here if you haven’t yet. (We’ve already sold half our print run so don’t wait too long!)
- BOGO Half Off! We’ve added special package pricing for the new book … Purchase both the 2016 and 2019 edition of Polymer Journeys with half off the 2016 book, or get both the print and digital edition of the new 2019 book with half off the digital. No promo code needed. Packages available here when you click on the Polymer Journeys book cover here.
- The Polymer Arts Collection on sale for HALF off! Purchases the whole collection of The Polymer Arts and get HALF off the entire package – all 29 Digital issues or the 23 Print issues we still have available. If you want to collect them, now would be the time!
Until next week, have an inspired and creative Sunday and upcoming week!
The Blue Between the Buildings
May 13, 2016
Inspirational Art
Silvia Ortiz de la Torre offered up her vision of a sky on this Fimo 50 World Project tile as one familiar to many people–the small patch of sky seen through a crowding of city skyscrapers. Maybe this is not the sky you most often think of when you envision sky, but for many this is a very common daily view. There is certainly something about seeing that small patch of blue hanging there beyond the reach of these immensely tall buildings that attracts the eye.
As amazing and beautiful as the man-made structures can be, I think most all of us gravitate towards the natural world more strongly. The directional lines of the buildings Silvia outlines make that focus on the sky automatic. And her choice to make that sun both glow in the blue sky and come through the form of a building in a singular burst of red color makes that both the resting point, a place our eye does not feel like it has to bounce around as it is pushed by the strong lines of the buildings, and a focal point. It’s a beautiful and expert composition.
Interested in seeing all the tiles in the Fimo 50 World Project? You can casually go through the submission that were posted on the project’s Facebook page or on Cynthia Tinapple’s Instagram page she set up for it.
Inspiration Challenge of the Day: Create or design something that contrasts man-made with natural. What elements of each are you drawn to? Or consider a favorite natural object or form and recreate it with very clean and structured lines. Or take a man-made form and make it organic looking.
________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Humans Elevating Nature
September 22, 2013
Ponderings
When I started researching the theme for this past week, I jumped over to the online thesaurus and was surprised to find that the synonyms for “man-made” were all things like “fake”, “counterfeit,” and “false”. There was no synonym that celebrated the genius of human creation, that referred to things made by man as positive. How silly is that? Man-made is not a bad thing, not when done with care and awareness.
So here is a quote to counter that negative sense of man-made:
What We Build
September 21, 2013
Inspirational Art
I’m actually surprised that more urban polymer artists don’t look out their windows and want to reflect back the cityscape around them. What human beings have created is incredible. We build both functional and artistic structures all over the globe, forever changing the landscape with our huge buildings, bridges, and ports. Some may find this sad as it represents an absence of nature’s creations, but we too are from nature and our creations are still part of this world. We can’t stop the progress of civilization, but at least we can celebrate the beauty we add.
Ana Belchi celebrates the cityscape through a series of pins she created. Nature gets its say in this piece with the added patina and rust, representative of time and corrosion.
Ana goes through a whole series of experiments with patina, which you can find on her blog. She is a wide-ranging polymer artist with beautiful finishes. Take a look over the pieces in her store as well.
Outside Inspiration: Creating from Tools
September 20, 2013
Inspirational Art
I just wanted to stop and think about a possible source of inspiration that I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of in polymer, most likely because we don’t deal with any particularly intricate versions of it: the tool. Our tools are pretty straightforward, but if you venture into the hand-tool section of the hardware store, there are some really interesting forms such as bobs, hand planers, lathe knives, and specialty drill bits. Get yourself into other crafter’s studios (like those of glass-, ceramic-, fiber-, and metal-smiths), and you’ll find even more cool and curious items.
We can really draw inspiration from anything; but specialized tools can be particularly interesting, since their forms are based on specific and unusual functions that may need special handles or angles to work. I remember the first time I saw an old-style block plane. The handles made such beautiful shapes. Here is the profile of an antique version; it could be a sculpture unto itself.
Okay, you probably think I’m nuts; but really, if you stop and look at a tool or–any functional object–and see it for its form, pattern, colors, or texture, you can find all kinds of unexpected beauty and inspiration. I assume that’s how Jude Clarke decided to create this pin out of rulers.
I had never really looked at a ruler as anything but the most banal tool, something I’ve had around me since I was in grade school. But the rhythm of the line repetition and the elegant font of the numbers make for a beautiful surface design. There’s also a great juxtaposition between the ruler and the diamond, the contrast of ordinary and precious, which gives you pause and makes you stop and think about how a ruler might be seen as highly valued as a gemstone. Or at least, I did; I don’t know that I will ever look at a ruler quite the same way again.
Fascination with Wheels
September 19, 2013
Inspirational Art
You’ve probably been trying to guess what our other man-made inspiration was in Tuesday’s amulets. This one might have been harder to identify, as it was more in the form than from a literal interpretation of a source. Wheels themselves are man-made objects, but the form isn’t wholly absent from nature. There is the underside of a mushroom, the cross-section of citrus fruit, and certain parts of microscopic organisms that have that round shape and ‘spokes’ of some sort. Our Tuesday amulets were formed like wheels, round with lines leading to the center. When searching for man-made inspirations in polymer, our penchant for wheels was readily apparent–not just in forms, but things with wheels as well. From cars and bikes to kaleidoscope and pinwheel canes, the wheel form pops up in polymer quite a bit.
And we don’t just show our wheels straight on; we also like to display their sides. A few years ago, a handful of bobbin necklaces started appearing. Bobbins are just wheels; they are more related to gears than what we put on bikes, but the basic form is the same, and it’s all man-made. This bobbin necklace from Dotty McMillan shows how fun the sides of a wheel form can be.
We, just as other humans, do like our spinning things!
In So Many Words
September 18, 2013
Inspirational Art
If you read yesterday’s post and took a guess at the two elements of man-made inspiration in the amulets that I was going to talk about, you probably came up with something about the runes. Runes are characters in ancient alphabets, specifically in Germanic-based languages. (English is one, even though we’ve been burdened with arbitrarily applied Latin rules for the last couple centuries. But that is a soap box to get on in another place and time. ) One of the first and truly most unique things we created as a species is writing. Other creatures can create structures and designs; they even have their own versions of language. But no other creature has created writing.
That may be part of why we have such an affinity for any kind of lettering, although we are certainly drawn more to words of our own language. Once you learn to read you can’t help but be drawn to text wherever you find it. Yes, we are overly inundated with the written word in our modern lives and ignore much of it, but it will take more than that kind of overdose to keep us from being drawn to and reading any small set of words we find in a piece of art.
This mosaic by Julie Ann Haas would be difficult not to stop and read, even if it was among dozens of other wall pieces. It has both words and imagery to convey it’s meaning and speaks to a feeling we have probably all had at one time or another (perhaps especially so for us artists).
What did you see first when looking at this? I’m guessing the word ‘cracked’. Well, it is rather large, centered, and a word at that. It’s hard not to just keep returning to it, as it really gets the point across. You can read the rest of it once, but all you need to see after that is this one word. Eventually you probably found yourself looking over the rest of the piece to see what imagery and symbols were inserted to support this statement. If you did, I would think you were smiling by the time you were done examining it. The happy and playful figures along with the words are reassuring for those of us who think of ourselves as cracked all the time!
Julie’s Etsy shop is named Little Altars Everywhere (officially abbreviated to LilAltarsEverywhere.) She says “I am particularly inspired when creating pieces that elevate the human spirit …” and you’ll see as you look through her shop, she’s pretty darn good at doing that.
Concrete Inspiration
September 17, 2013
Inspirational Art
Well, one man-made thing we do see drawn (sometimes literally) into the work of polymer artists is the texture we find in walls and paths–bricks, stepping stones, rock walls, and cobblestone streets. These come pretty close to being nature-based with the stone or stone like elements that make up these walls, walks, and roads; but it’s what the structures themselves represent that often draws us to them. Walls represent things like protection or barriers, and roads are symbols of opportunity or the unknown future. The textures of these things can, on their own, bring up the same associations. Whether the association is positive or less so, most people will feel a connection to these things and so we see, in our easily textured medium, the regular appearance of elements that represent walls and roads.
These necklaces by Spain’s Noelia Contreras bring the textures of a man-made concrete or stone structure into a a spiritual realm by having these textures frame runes and stand as the base for rune stones in these pieces presented as amulets. The pieces are full of implied and literal symbols; without even knowing what the runes are, you get from them collectively a sense of ritual, myth, and history.
I’ll let these pieces stand as introduction to two other types of man-made elements that we often see in polymer art, elements that are filled with meaning and have a long history for mankind. Can you identify what they might be? We’ll talk about them in the next couple posts. Just wanted to get you thinking. You are welcome to post your guesses!
Design Inspired by Man-Made
September 16, 2013
Inspirational Art
We spend a lot of time looking at inspiration that comes directly from nature here so I thought this week we should look at things inspired by man. That turned out to be a tall order. Man-made inspiration seems to make up only a fraction of inspiring sources for polymer artists which made finding subjects for this week’s theme challenging. It is even more challenging if I try to eliminate man-made creations that were inspired by nature themselves. It all comes back to nature at some point, really, but this week I aim to find work inspired by our purely functional forms. We’ll see how that goes.
Of course, when you first think about man-made inspiration in our community, the steampunk trend is likely to come immediately to mind. I will try not to make this a steampunk week but let’s start with that as a first example. Mind you, I like the steampunk aesthetic having been exposed to its basics even before there was such a categorized aesthetic but it is harder and harder to find it done well these days.
I think the original idea of steampunk–an fantasy-esque alternate history of Victorian times with anachronistic technology–has been rather buried under some misconception that it can be simply represented by the presence of watch gears. I am not a purist and I don’t believe an idea should be preserved in its original form just for the sake of preserving it but it is a little disappointing that the idea of steampunk or even just the borrowing of elements of that aesthetic is so often used as the only reason for creating a piece rather than creating work that calls for including such elements.
What exactly does that mean? Well, you can say “I want to create a steampunk piece based on a heart shape.” That’s fine but I would not call that making art. If you instead wanted to show the idea of love being an automated emotion for some people or if you wanted to contrast human emotion with the machinery of our every day world then a heart that has gears and metal plates created with these concepts in mind could become art as long as it also follows rules of good design.
The fact is, too much steampunkery is slapped together without concern for concept or good design. Watch gears and screw heads tossed onto a form do not alone make a piece beautiful or interesting. So I decided my first task was to find a piece that was inspired by steampunk but for which good design obviously came first. I think this piece by Australia’s Sabine Spiesser is exactly that. Can you see why?
In this piece Sabine uses watch gears as visual design elements, creating lines and focal points within the beads that make up this necklace. She is visually presenting an abstraction, time, as a rich and beautiful concept with movement, color and texture. The gears are laid out in an orderly fashion which can be read as reflecting on how we use the organizational construct of time. Time visually winds its way through the piece, presenting itself in both large a small ways in much the same way as we think of time with its big and small moments in our lives. I can’t say that Sabine had these specific ideas in mind as she created the necklace but she does end up with a piece using watch parts to build and support the design, not to have watch gears just for the sake of it.
This is a really detailed piece so you will want to be sure to visit her Flickr page and see the piece in her detailed shots as well as look at the beautiful pieces she’s been making of late. She has really done some great work expanding on Eugena’s faux cloisonné technique as well as creating work that is becoming more and more recognizable as her own fresh, original, artistic voice.
Have you noticed that most people who work in polymer will cite nature as their primary inspiration? Do you, or would you, too? But isn’t it ironic that, as inspired as we are by nature, we work with a wholly man-made material? I’ve been thinking about this because, as I polished up the Polymer Journeys 2019 book, I was making notes on some of the trends and I noticed that all but three people who cited their inspiration said they were inspired by nature. It got me to thinking about why we aren’t more inspired by the man-made world, as rich and diverse as it is.
My curiosity piqued, I did some research and made more notes to see if, for one, my perception was correct in that polymer artists look to nature more than anything and, secondly, to see what things other than nature inspire people. So, the observations that inspiration from nature is predominant in polymer art was upheld by all I looked through. I also found it interesting that, when it boils down to it, nearly everything in almost all art forms looks to be inspired by nature or by man-made styles and designs that themselves were inspired by nature. To see examples of where nature is inspiration for man-made design, just take a look at styles such as Baroque or Art Deco. Flowers, trees, leaves, vines, butterflies, birds, and a myriad of other natural flora and fauna are evident sources of inspiration in the forms and lines of those styles. We might be inspired by the designs of that age but the inspiration is still rooted in nature.
However, I did my best to find pieces that were inspired by man-made objects, scenes, or styles. Let me tell you, it was not terribly easy but just because it is less often turned to does not mean it doesn’t have wonderful forms, colors, motifs, and textures for all of us. Let’s take a look at some of the work created by polymer artists who are inspired by the man-made.
A Gallery of Man-made Inspiration
One of the first people who came to mind when thinking about man-made inspiration was Cornelia Brockstedt. She has had several series such as “Street Life” and her “City” bangles. She also did a series of what she called “graphical studies” in 2015. So I went to her Flickr photo stream to find something to share with you and it struck me that, even with the graphical tendencies and inspiration taken from city life, there is so much organic that shows up in her work. This tended to be true with a lot of artists. This pendant, one of my favorite pieces of hers, was inspired by sidewalks and the grass that grows up from around it. So it was inspired by man-made walkways but with contrast in the nature that is still sneaking in.
Another artist who came to mind, even before I started my search, was Sona Grigoryan. She did a lovely series of polymer and resin pieces inspired by the Barcelona cathedrals and stained-glass windows she sees where she lives.
And of course, we have to consider the work of the Georg Dinkel who is inspired by architecture and machinery to the extent that even when he decides to create some creatures, they too look mechanical. He is also, apparently, inspired by literature and humor, as this Don Quixote scene he set up with two of his mechanized creatures hints at.
And, when talking mechanical, we certainly can’t ignore the influence of the mechanical from movements like steampunk. From jewelry to sculpture to journals and phone cases, this style is everywhere but it’s hard to say whether polymer found steampunk or steampunk found polymer first. The steampunk monster heart that opened this post is a sculpture by Kimberly Hart who posts under MonsterKookies on Etsy.
Carol Blackburn, whose work is so colorful and graphic, often cites fashion styles and movements as her source of inspiration. I think these fall under her “Missoni” fashion inspired line.
Another artist who seems quite enamored of fabric but also of metal and other man-made textures is Nikolina Otrzan. Mostly, she’s just a texture fiend but you’ll notice that her textures generally have a certain uniformity to them that automatically makes them feel that they would be man-made in origin, whether they were intended to or not. Even her shapes, like these tube pieces, reflect a penchant for uniformity that is beautifully balanced with her choice of rough or edge softening surface treatments.
So has this got you pondering the possibilities of man-made forms and textures as a source of inspiration for you? I know I’ve been looking at the shapes in my house, the walls in the neighborhood, and the forms on the buildings I pass with new eyes.
Going for Man-made
Freebies
If you want to try a few man-made inspired textures or forms, there are quite a few out there although the quick and free were a bit more scarce. Nonetheless, here are a few pages with related free tutorials. You’ll want to pop the last two URLs into Google translate if it doesn’t automatically translate for you:
- Faux ceramics tutorial.
- Faux Peruvian fabric.
- There are actually a lot of steampunk tuts you can find with any search but here is a fun Steampunk Seahorse.
Tutorial Shops
Your best sources of tutorial with man-made inspiration are going to cost a couple of bucks, but are well worth it. Here are some of my favorite shops for this:
- Anything from Nikolina Otrzan‘s shop is just fabulous.
- Angela Barenholtz has beautiful fabric techniques to share.
- If you really just want to get more graphical, you can’t beat tutorials from Bettina Welker.
A Bit o’ News
And now for a few tidbits about things going on in the polymer community you might want to know about:
Vote for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards!
The International Polymer Clay Association member voting is now open through March 8. Active members should have received an email with a link for your ballot. If your membership has expired please renew at www.theipca.org before March 8, 2019 so that you may vote for your favorites.
Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes Online Courses
Dan and Tracy have recently announced the lineup for their 2019 online Master Classes. Check out the present information and sign up for future announcements on their website here.
Polymer Journeys 2019 has been released!
- Our latest publication, the second installment of the Polymer Journeys retrospective series was released this morning in digital format for those who purchased early or otherwise supported the project. (It was noon PST time if you need to search your inbox or your spam folder if not there.)
- Print Pre-orders (ordered prior to Feb 27th) will go into the mail a little later than we had hoped but will be shipped directly from the printer on March 6. Our shipment should be our doorstep March 8, so newer orders will ship out as soon as we have them in our hot little hands. Buy yours here if you haven’t yet. (We’ve already sold half our print run so don’t wait too long!)
- BOGO Half Off! We’ve added special package pricing for the new book … Purchase both the 2016 and 2019 edition of Polymer Journeys with half off the 2016 book, or get both the print and digital edition of the new 2019 book with half off the digital. No promo code needed. Packages available here when you click on the Polymer Journeys book cover here.
- The Polymer Arts Collection on sale for HALF off! Purchases the whole collection of The Polymer Arts and get HALF off the entire package – all 29 Digital issues or the 23 Print issues we still have available. If you want to collect them, now would be the time!
Until next week, have an inspired and creative Sunday and upcoming week!
Read More
Silvia Ortiz de la Torre offered up her vision of a sky on this Fimo 50 World Project tile as one familiar to many people–the small patch of sky seen through a crowding of city skyscrapers. Maybe this is not the sky you most often think of when you envision sky, but for many this is a very common daily view. There is certainly something about seeing that small patch of blue hanging there beyond the reach of these immensely tall buildings that attracts the eye.
As amazing and beautiful as the man-made structures can be, I think most all of us gravitate towards the natural world more strongly. The directional lines of the buildings Silvia outlines make that focus on the sky automatic. And her choice to make that sun both glow in the blue sky and come through the form of a building in a singular burst of red color makes that both the resting point, a place our eye does not feel like it has to bounce around as it is pushed by the strong lines of the buildings, and a focal point. It’s a beautiful and expert composition.
Interested in seeing all the tiles in the Fimo 50 World Project? You can casually go through the submission that were posted on the project’s Facebook page or on Cynthia Tinapple’s Instagram page she set up for it.
Inspiration Challenge of the Day: Create or design something that contrasts man-made with natural. What elements of each are you drawn to? Or consider a favorite natural object or form and recreate it with very clean and structured lines. Or take a man-made form and make it organic looking.
________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
When I started researching the theme for this past week, I jumped over to the online thesaurus and was surprised to find that the synonyms for “man-made” were all things like “fake”, “counterfeit,” and “false”. There was no synonym that celebrated the genius of human creation, that referred to things made by man as positive. How silly is that? Man-made is not a bad thing, not when done with care and awareness.
So here is a quote to counter that negative sense of man-made:
I’m actually surprised that more urban polymer artists don’t look out their windows and want to reflect back the cityscape around them. What human beings have created is incredible. We build both functional and artistic structures all over the globe, forever changing the landscape with our huge buildings, bridges, and ports. Some may find this sad as it represents an absence of nature’s creations, but we too are from nature and our creations are still part of this world. We can’t stop the progress of civilization, but at least we can celebrate the beauty we add.
Ana Belchi celebrates the cityscape through a series of pins she created. Nature gets its say in this piece with the added patina and rust, representative of time and corrosion.
Ana goes through a whole series of experiments with patina, which you can find on her blog. She is a wide-ranging polymer artist with beautiful finishes. Take a look over the pieces in her store as well.
I just wanted to stop and think about a possible source of inspiration that I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of in polymer, most likely because we don’t deal with any particularly intricate versions of it: the tool. Our tools are pretty straightforward, but if you venture into the hand-tool section of the hardware store, there are some really interesting forms such as bobs, hand planers, lathe knives, and specialty drill bits. Get yourself into other crafter’s studios (like those of glass-, ceramic-, fiber-, and metal-smiths), and you’ll find even more cool and curious items.
We can really draw inspiration from anything; but specialized tools can be particularly interesting, since their forms are based on specific and unusual functions that may need special handles or angles to work. I remember the first time I saw an old-style block plane. The handles made such beautiful shapes. Here is the profile of an antique version; it could be a sculpture unto itself.
Okay, you probably think I’m nuts; but really, if you stop and look at a tool or–any functional object–and see it for its form, pattern, colors, or texture, you can find all kinds of unexpected beauty and inspiration. I assume that’s how Jude Clarke decided to create this pin out of rulers.
I had never really looked at a ruler as anything but the most banal tool, something I’ve had around me since I was in grade school. But the rhythm of the line repetition and the elegant font of the numbers make for a beautiful surface design. There’s also a great juxtaposition between the ruler and the diamond, the contrast of ordinary and precious, which gives you pause and makes you stop and think about how a ruler might be seen as highly valued as a gemstone. Or at least, I did; I don’t know that I will ever look at a ruler quite the same way again.
You’ve probably been trying to guess what our other man-made inspiration was in Tuesday’s amulets. This one might have been harder to identify, as it was more in the form than from a literal interpretation of a source. Wheels themselves are man-made objects, but the form isn’t wholly absent from nature. There is the underside of a mushroom, the cross-section of citrus fruit, and certain parts of microscopic organisms that have that round shape and ‘spokes’ of some sort. Our Tuesday amulets were formed like wheels, round with lines leading to the center. When searching for man-made inspirations in polymer, our penchant for wheels was readily apparent–not just in forms, but things with wheels as well. From cars and bikes to kaleidoscope and pinwheel canes, the wheel form pops up in polymer quite a bit.
And we don’t just show our wheels straight on; we also like to display their sides. A few years ago, a handful of bobbin necklaces started appearing. Bobbins are just wheels; they are more related to gears than what we put on bikes, but the basic form is the same, and it’s all man-made. This bobbin necklace from Dotty McMillan shows how fun the sides of a wheel form can be.
We, just as other humans, do like our spinning things!
If you read yesterday’s post and took a guess at the two elements of man-made inspiration in the amulets that I was going to talk about, you probably came up with something about the runes. Runes are characters in ancient alphabets, specifically in Germanic-based languages. (English is one, even though we’ve been burdened with arbitrarily applied Latin rules for the last couple centuries. But that is a soap box to get on in another place and time. ) One of the first and truly most unique things we created as a species is writing. Other creatures can create structures and designs; they even have their own versions of language. But no other creature has created writing.
That may be part of why we have such an affinity for any kind of lettering, although we are certainly drawn more to words of our own language. Once you learn to read you can’t help but be drawn to text wherever you find it. Yes, we are overly inundated with the written word in our modern lives and ignore much of it, but it will take more than that kind of overdose to keep us from being drawn to and reading any small set of words we find in a piece of art.
This mosaic by Julie Ann Haas would be difficult not to stop and read, even if it was among dozens of other wall pieces. It has both words and imagery to convey it’s meaning and speaks to a feeling we have probably all had at one time or another (perhaps especially so for us artists).
What did you see first when looking at this? I’m guessing the word ‘cracked’. Well, it is rather large, centered, and a word at that. It’s hard not to just keep returning to it, as it really gets the point across. You can read the rest of it once, but all you need to see after that is this one word. Eventually you probably found yourself looking over the rest of the piece to see what imagery and symbols were inserted to support this statement. If you did, I would think you were smiling by the time you were done examining it. The happy and playful figures along with the words are reassuring for those of us who think of ourselves as cracked all the time!
Julie’s Etsy shop is named Little Altars Everywhere (officially abbreviated to LilAltarsEverywhere.) She says “I am particularly inspired when creating pieces that elevate the human spirit …” and you’ll see as you look through her shop, she’s pretty darn good at doing that.
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Well, one man-made thing we do see drawn (sometimes literally) into the work of polymer artists is the texture we find in walls and paths–bricks, stepping stones, rock walls, and cobblestone streets. These come pretty close to being nature-based with the stone or stone like elements that make up these walls, walks, and roads; but it’s what the structures themselves represent that often draws us to them. Walls represent things like protection or barriers, and roads are symbols of opportunity or the unknown future. The textures of these things can, on their own, bring up the same associations. Whether the association is positive or less so, most people will feel a connection to these things and so we see, in our easily textured medium, the regular appearance of elements that represent walls and roads.
These necklaces by Spain’s Noelia Contreras bring the textures of a man-made concrete or stone structure into a a spiritual realm by having these textures frame runes and stand as the base for rune stones in these pieces presented as amulets. The pieces are full of implied and literal symbols; without even knowing what the runes are, you get from them collectively a sense of ritual, myth, and history.
I’ll let these pieces stand as introduction to two other types of man-made elements that we often see in polymer art, elements that are filled with meaning and have a long history for mankind. Can you identify what they might be? We’ll talk about them in the next couple posts. Just wanted to get you thinking. You are welcome to post your guesses!
We spend a lot of time looking at inspiration that comes directly from nature here so I thought this week we should look at things inspired by man. That turned out to be a tall order. Man-made inspiration seems to make up only a fraction of inspiring sources for polymer artists which made finding subjects for this week’s theme challenging. It is even more challenging if I try to eliminate man-made creations that were inspired by nature themselves. It all comes back to nature at some point, really, but this week I aim to find work inspired by our purely functional forms. We’ll see how that goes.
Of course, when you first think about man-made inspiration in our community, the steampunk trend is likely to come immediately to mind. I will try not to make this a steampunk week but let’s start with that as a first example. Mind you, I like the steampunk aesthetic having been exposed to its basics even before there was such a categorized aesthetic but it is harder and harder to find it done well these days.
I think the original idea of steampunk–an fantasy-esque alternate history of Victorian times with anachronistic technology–has been rather buried under some misconception that it can be simply represented by the presence of watch gears. I am not a purist and I don’t believe an idea should be preserved in its original form just for the sake of preserving it but it is a little disappointing that the idea of steampunk or even just the borrowing of elements of that aesthetic is so often used as the only reason for creating a piece rather than creating work that calls for including such elements.
What exactly does that mean? Well, you can say “I want to create a steampunk piece based on a heart shape.” That’s fine but I would not call that making art. If you instead wanted to show the idea of love being an automated emotion for some people or if you wanted to contrast human emotion with the machinery of our every day world then a heart that has gears and metal plates created with these concepts in mind could become art as long as it also follows rules of good design.
The fact is, too much steampunkery is slapped together without concern for concept or good design. Watch gears and screw heads tossed onto a form do not alone make a piece beautiful or interesting. So I decided my first task was to find a piece that was inspired by steampunk but for which good design obviously came first. I think this piece by Australia’s Sabine Spiesser is exactly that. Can you see why?
In this piece Sabine uses watch gears as visual design elements, creating lines and focal points within the beads that make up this necklace. She is visually presenting an abstraction, time, as a rich and beautiful concept with movement, color and texture. The gears are laid out in an orderly fashion which can be read as reflecting on how we use the organizational construct of time. Time visually winds its way through the piece, presenting itself in both large a small ways in much the same way as we think of time with its big and small moments in our lives. I can’t say that Sabine had these specific ideas in mind as she created the necklace but she does end up with a piece using watch parts to build and support the design, not to have watch gears just for the sake of it.
This is a really detailed piece so you will want to be sure to visit her Flickr page and see the piece in her detailed shots as well as look at the beautiful pieces she’s been making of late. She has really done some great work expanding on Eugena’s faux cloisonné technique as well as creating work that is becoming more and more recognizable as her own fresh, original, artistic voice.
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