Tile Talk
May 12, 2019
Inspirational Art
Do you ever stop to ask yourself if what you create makes you happy? It seems like a silly question since creating is usually passion driven so being able to feed that passion should make you happy, right? But have you ever found yourself creating something because you believe it is the kind of thing other people would like but later realize that you don’t enjoying making it?
I found that happened a lot when I was a selling artist. You get wrapped up in what you think the market would want, what you think will sell best at the next show, and you’d be just making things for the money and not because it’s what you want to make. Other times we think that in a particular material, like polymer clay, it is best used for certain forms such as jewelry and home decor. But as we all know, polymer can do almost anything and yet 85% of it being created and shared online is jewelry. Jewelry is pretty fun stuff to make, sure, but if you enjoy polymer, just keep in mind you don’t have to make jewelry.
I myself have been moving away from jewelry. A pendant or pair of earrings are oftentimes still the best items to create to show off a polymer technique for a magazine article or tutorial but more and more, I create objects without an end goal in mind and am really enjoying just making little objects and samples of techniques. Last year, I started to see patterns and connections between them and eventually started putting them in shadow boxes. You can see an example of one of my “specimen” boxes in the latest Polymer Journeys book, if you’re curious. I’m also trying to devise a class for doing it. It’s so much fun!
But when I have to create jewelry because I am vetting an article for the magazine or want to make a gift, I have lately found that I don’t look forward to the engineering of it – figuring out how it is going to hang, what stringing material will work best, what findings I need, as well as worrying about comfort and durability. I find I don’t want to think about those things when I create and it’s not out of some kind of laziness, it’s just not what I want to spend my mental and creative energy on, and I’m good with that. I just really want to follow creative paths that make me happy right now.
To that end (and because I’ve spent so much time in tile stores lately), I’ve decided I might just focus on tiles for a while. They are a very freeing form. A tile is just a canvas for 3D materials. You can do whatever you want on them. You can make them any size, any shape, and can attach whatever you want or attack it however you want. I think we really should all give ourselves the freedom to play with this form, to let ourselves be free to create from the heart with a material we love. At the end of a session of tile making, you may find you are really looking forward to creating necklaces or making beads or covering vases. But I am going to suggest you give a tile a try here and there to just let yourself create freely. Doing this can help with your designs in other forms.
To that end, of course, I’m going to share some tiles this weekend. I am going to share a lot of non-polymer ones because I think, if you’ve spent any time online, you’ve probably seen your share of polymer tiles these last few years, especially with the Fimo 50 year challenge a couple of years back and with the common inches exchanges (inches are just tiny tiles). So, I’ve got a quite a mix for you but it is all art that can translate to polymer even if it is in another material.
Laying it All Out
The opening image of this post is a photo from a class conducted by Laurie Mika. She is well-known for her colorful and intricate collage/mosaic pieces which, by the way, she teaches at various events. This collection of student work was from a polymer clay tapestry class she taught at the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Nashville just a few of weeks ago. They are all just lovely. There is no high-end technical skill needed to put these types of things together which makes them ideal for exploring color and texture and just letting yourself go. (You can check Laurie’s workshop schedule on her website.)
Jael Thorp caught my eye some years back with her “clay doodles”, including the one below. I thought they looked like zentangles for clayers. Can you imagine the flow state she must’ve been in to create this? You can just get so completely lost in this kind of work and that is a big part of why people find tiles such a wonderful creative outlet.
Check out this post with her various doodles from some years back. She went on to refine her technique, making beautiful beads and home decor with the same type of application. You can find them on her Flickr photostream.
Let’s move from polymer to ceramics now. It is a rare thing in ceramics that can’t be replicated in some fashion in polymer so I find ceramic art quite inspiring. Here is one of my favorite tile makers in ceramics, Chris Gryder, who has gone a bit more three-dimensional of late but his tile compositions are timeless.
In this composition, each tile is its own separate piece but he’s connected them all with these lines that he creates through the grid of tiles. So, really, you can make a whole bunch of tiles without worrying about what they’re going to end up as, and then, if you want to put them together as a composition because they have a similar or complementary set of color palettes, textures, or motifs, you can use lines that flow throughout to visually connect them for a larger composite composition. This approach would allow you to just make tiles as the muse directs and then you can later make them into a larger wall piece.
If you like this piece, go browse through his website or his Instagram page for more fantastic inspiring wall compositions in tile.
Keep in mind, just because tiles start out flat, they are not two-dimensional and you can create extremely three-dimensional pieces on them. Here’s one example with some very organic forms and textures created by Lauren Blakey, another ceramic artist.
And here’s another three-dimensional example in glass by Shayna Leib.
As you can see, tile work is open to all types of materials so keep that in mind as you sit down to tile. Mix in anything that your heart and muse desires. Mix and match mediums, embed oddball trinkets you’ve kept for, as yet, unknown reasons, and just keep an open mind.
After pulling these examples for you, I realized that all the examples are squares here. You don’t have to create square tiles to play with but that is the more common form. However, if you’re not feeling square, try a free form shape or an oblong one or maybe, because today is Mother’s Day, create a big heart for all the mothers out there. Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing women!
Here’s a heart from Tina Ruppert of Wisecrackin’ Mosaics on Etsy. Pick a favorite shape and a bunch of canes or other scraps of clay and you can do something along these lines as well.
Getting Squared Away
I’m going to leave you with these thoughts and hopefully some curiosity about playing around with a tile or two, in whatever form and techniques interest you. If you need some jumpstart tutorials, here are a few places you can go:
Sara Evans has a video about her tile making process here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAxYwgJfLo
If you want to do something tile like but still want it to be something functional when done, maybe you would like this polymer clay tile box tutorial –
https://mermaidsden.com/blog/2015/02/12/polymer-clay-tile-box
Or have fun with one of our true masters of polymer clay tiles, Chris Kapono, with her very detailed and yet tremendously fun tile project in the Polymer Arts Projects book which you can purchase and download digitally if you need it immediately or order the print edition from our website.
I opened with a discussion about doing what makes you happy and hope it gives you some food for thought. If you want to hear a couple of transformative stories in that vein, please be sure to get your copy of The Polymer Studio Issue #2, recently released, which starts and ends with stories about finding one’s happy place with one about Christine Dumont’s studio complete with a visual tour, and the other about Donna Greenberg’s focus moving from jewelry to large wall art. Check out the Issue #2 Sampler if you haven’t seen the new issues yet.
We’re daily trying to find are happy place over here as our house has continued to be demolished more and more, beyond what we (or our contractor) expected even. Old plumbing can be a tricky thing! If it would just warm up here, it wouldn’t be so bad. A cold Southern California in May is just weird.
I’d share progress shots of the house but it’s pretty much just down to studs and busted up concrete floors. Oh… And a large trench across the whole of the front yard for a new drain line. I’m thinking about making it into a moat. Like a habitrail (if you remember those hamster houses) for our pond fish. They could just swim circles around the house! Okay, probably not but gotta have fun with all this bedlam, even if it’s just dreaming up nonsense like that!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother’s Day! I’m off to have mimosas with the family’s fabulous females myself! Enjoy the day and your coming week!
Outside Inspiration: A Burst of Swirling Spots
April 17, 2015
Inspirational Art
I pulled this one out particularly for you mad cane slicing artists who might want some fresh ideas for creating patterns with your slices. Barbara Takenaga is a painter who works solely in pattern rather than imagery or abstraction. Her paintings have the illusion of depth and movement that creates wonderful drama, as well as an often mesmerizing effect.
Since the energy and movement is created by the arrangement and size of the forms–spots, in this case–one can easily imagine creating such movement with cane slices using canes of various sizes. A few extruded snakes to emphasize the lines and you could end up with some pretty amazing wall or decorative art.
Time spent wandering her gallery is like a trip through a galactic field of stars and sometimes kind of like an acid trip, but it’s wonderfully engrossing. You will get lost in the work. You have been warned.
http://www.barbaratakenaga.com/
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: Challenged by Simplicity
December 5, 2014
Inspirational Art
It would seem that successful, simple compositions would be fairly easy to achieve, but I have found that in order to be successful with simple creations is many times more difficult than with complex ones. When the elements are few and spare, every single choice made counts in a big way. This is how I see the challenge in the work of Jon Ryan. His work is gorgeous, but rarely even approaches complexity.
This carved scale aluminum brooch of his epitomizes this. There is really only one color, and that is slightly graduated. There is one texture in the scales, and the form is balanced. That is all that is here, and yet, you can recognize the genius of the design and the bold beauty of it, even if you don’t have any idea why that is so apparent. The genius is in being reserved while choosing elements that make the brooch feel alive. Scales are, of course, an element of reptiles, so there is a hint of a living creature. The slight change in the tint of the color makes the blue glow, so it gives off a sense of soft light and energy. Also, the form curves just enough on either end to introduce movement. These choices along with an impeccable finish is what makes this feel so masterly. I have a hard time imagining how I would go about creating something anywhere near as elegant with such minimalism. I find it quite amazing.
Jon’s body of work is all about simplicity. And, lucky for us, there is an easily recognized correlation to be seen between his metal work and working in polymer. Take even just a few seconds to look at his Flickr portfolio album to see what I mean. If you are intrigued by his work, you can read more about his process on his blog.
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.
Ripples Gone Wild
September 25, 2014
Inspirational Art
If yesterday’s version of ripples was controlled and reserved, today’s rippling beads border on being a full-fledged party.
Although Daniela Wernli, also known as Dr. Fimo, only uses one color plus white in these beads, the energy here is very high, but you know the color isn’t a primary factor for that. The beads actually push the whole idea of what a ripple is and can be. You see ripples in the twisted clay curls with their repetition and progression wrapped into tight swirls that ramps up the sense of movement, making for a very energized piece.
In case you were wondering, Daniela was named Dr. Fimo by her family because she is often seen wandering about with her polymer work gloves on. See more of her work, especially some very interesting dots and rolled clay pieces, on her Flickr page.
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.
Controlled Ripples
September 24, 2014
Inspirational Art
We’ve looked at a few rather free-form versions of rippling, but ripples can also be well controlled and stylized while maintaining that similarly energized feel of movement.
The pins that emerged in The Broken Internet Project had a lot of controlled, but high-energy lines in the designs, most likely due to their inspiration being a pin by the meticulous Dan Cormier, a pin that had a zigzag line (a cousin to the ripple, you could say) through the center of it. I loved Cornelia Brockstedt’s interpretation with both a controlled rippling Skinner blend and a silhouette of a ripple inserted next to it. Calm, but energized. It’s almost the definition of that.
If you never had the chance to see the whole Broken Internet Project results, be sure to jump over to The Cutting Edge’s Facebook page to see them all together. And, for more by the fabulous Cornelia Brockstedt, take a look at her website or her Flickr pages for her latest pieces.
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.
An Adventureland of Ideas
July 30, 2014
Inspirational Art
A more traditional approach to wall sculpture, but keeping with the use of smaller parts to complete a larger and whole part, would be something like this fantastical piece by Layl McDill. Her wall sculptures are composed of a wide variety of cane slices, beads and sheets of marbled or surface treated clay.
The entrancing thing about Layl’s work is just how wildly playful it is. This work is not about finish, precision or any particular technique. It’s about the story and a child-like ability to let the imagination roam freely.
This piece entitled “Blingo Flamingo Adventureland” has to be my favorite piece of hers to date. Every part of this piece either reaches out or swings back, and used alongside the high-energy of the colors and cane patterns, creates this frenetically kinetic composition. Such fun!
Layl is the co-owner of Clay Squared to Infinity, a shop for handmade ceramic tile as well as Layl’s polymer sculptures, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Layl also posts her work on Flickr for a full, all-at-once visual dose of her child-like abandon.
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.
Do you ever stop to ask yourself if what you create makes you happy? It seems like a silly question since creating is usually passion driven so being able to feed that passion should make you happy, right? But have you ever found yourself creating something because you believe it is the kind of thing other people would like but later realize that you don’t enjoying making it?
I found that happened a lot when I was a selling artist. You get wrapped up in what you think the market would want, what you think will sell best at the next show, and you’d be just making things for the money and not because it’s what you want to make. Other times we think that in a particular material, like polymer clay, it is best used for certain forms such as jewelry and home decor. But as we all know, polymer can do almost anything and yet 85% of it being created and shared online is jewelry. Jewelry is pretty fun stuff to make, sure, but if you enjoy polymer, just keep in mind you don’t have to make jewelry.
I myself have been moving away from jewelry. A pendant or pair of earrings are oftentimes still the best items to create to show off a polymer technique for a magazine article or tutorial but more and more, I create objects without an end goal in mind and am really enjoying just making little objects and samples of techniques. Last year, I started to see patterns and connections between them and eventually started putting them in shadow boxes. You can see an example of one of my “specimen” boxes in the latest Polymer Journeys book, if you’re curious. I’m also trying to devise a class for doing it. It’s so much fun!
But when I have to create jewelry because I am vetting an article for the magazine or want to make a gift, I have lately found that I don’t look forward to the engineering of it – figuring out how it is going to hang, what stringing material will work best, what findings I need, as well as worrying about comfort and durability. I find I don’t want to think about those things when I create and it’s not out of some kind of laziness, it’s just not what I want to spend my mental and creative energy on, and I’m good with that. I just really want to follow creative paths that make me happy right now.
To that end (and because I’ve spent so much time in tile stores lately), I’ve decided I might just focus on tiles for a while. They are a very freeing form. A tile is just a canvas for 3D materials. You can do whatever you want on them. You can make them any size, any shape, and can attach whatever you want or attack it however you want. I think we really should all give ourselves the freedom to play with this form, to let ourselves be free to create from the heart with a material we love. At the end of a session of tile making, you may find you are really looking forward to creating necklaces or making beads or covering vases. But I am going to suggest you give a tile a try here and there to just let yourself create freely. Doing this can help with your designs in other forms.
To that end, of course, I’m going to share some tiles this weekend. I am going to share a lot of non-polymer ones because I think, if you’ve spent any time online, you’ve probably seen your share of polymer tiles these last few years, especially with the Fimo 50 year challenge a couple of years back and with the common inches exchanges (inches are just tiny tiles). So, I’ve got a quite a mix for you but it is all art that can translate to polymer even if it is in another material.
Laying it All Out
The opening image of this post is a photo from a class conducted by Laurie Mika. She is well-known for her colorful and intricate collage/mosaic pieces which, by the way, she teaches at various events. This collection of student work was from a polymer clay tapestry class she taught at the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Nashville just a few of weeks ago. They are all just lovely. There is no high-end technical skill needed to put these types of things together which makes them ideal for exploring color and texture and just letting yourself go. (You can check Laurie’s workshop schedule on her website.)
Jael Thorp caught my eye some years back with her “clay doodles”, including the one below. I thought they looked like zentangles for clayers. Can you imagine the flow state she must’ve been in to create this? You can just get so completely lost in this kind of work and that is a big part of why people find tiles such a wonderful creative outlet.
Check out this post with her various doodles from some years back. She went on to refine her technique, making beautiful beads and home decor with the same type of application. You can find them on her Flickr photostream.
Let’s move from polymer to ceramics now. It is a rare thing in ceramics that can’t be replicated in some fashion in polymer so I find ceramic art quite inspiring. Here is one of my favorite tile makers in ceramics, Chris Gryder, who has gone a bit more three-dimensional of late but his tile compositions are timeless.
In this composition, each tile is its own separate piece but he’s connected them all with these lines that he creates through the grid of tiles. So, really, you can make a whole bunch of tiles without worrying about what they’re going to end up as, and then, if you want to put them together as a composition because they have a similar or complementary set of color palettes, textures, or motifs, you can use lines that flow throughout to visually connect them for a larger composite composition. This approach would allow you to just make tiles as the muse directs and then you can later make them into a larger wall piece.
If you like this piece, go browse through his website or his Instagram page for more fantastic inspiring wall compositions in tile.
Keep in mind, just because tiles start out flat, they are not two-dimensional and you can create extremely three-dimensional pieces on them. Here’s one example with some very organic forms and textures created by Lauren Blakey, another ceramic artist.
And here’s another three-dimensional example in glass by Shayna Leib.
As you can see, tile work is open to all types of materials so keep that in mind as you sit down to tile. Mix in anything that your heart and muse desires. Mix and match mediums, embed oddball trinkets you’ve kept for, as yet, unknown reasons, and just keep an open mind.
After pulling these examples for you, I realized that all the examples are squares here. You don’t have to create square tiles to play with but that is the more common form. However, if you’re not feeling square, try a free form shape or an oblong one or maybe, because today is Mother’s Day, create a big heart for all the mothers out there. Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing women!
Here’s a heart from Tina Ruppert of Wisecrackin’ Mosaics on Etsy. Pick a favorite shape and a bunch of canes or other scraps of clay and you can do something along these lines as well.
Getting Squared Away
I’m going to leave you with these thoughts and hopefully some curiosity about playing around with a tile or two, in whatever form and techniques interest you. If you need some jumpstart tutorials, here are a few places you can go:
Sara Evans has a video about her tile making process here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAxYwgJfLo
If you want to do something tile like but still want it to be something functional when done, maybe you would like this polymer clay tile box tutorial –
https://mermaidsden.com/blog/2015/02/12/polymer-clay-tile-box
Or have fun with one of our true masters of polymer clay tiles, Chris Kapono, with her very detailed and yet tremendously fun tile project in the Polymer Arts Projects book which you can purchase and download digitally if you need it immediately or order the print edition from our website.
I opened with a discussion about doing what makes you happy and hope it gives you some food for thought. If you want to hear a couple of transformative stories in that vein, please be sure to get your copy of The Polymer Studio Issue #2, recently released, which starts and ends with stories about finding one’s happy place with one about Christine Dumont’s studio complete with a visual tour, and the other about Donna Greenberg’s focus moving from jewelry to large wall art. Check out the Issue #2 Sampler if you haven’t seen the new issues yet.
We’re daily trying to find are happy place over here as our house has continued to be demolished more and more, beyond what we (or our contractor) expected even. Old plumbing can be a tricky thing! If it would just warm up here, it wouldn’t be so bad. A cold Southern California in May is just weird.
I’d share progress shots of the house but it’s pretty much just down to studs and busted up concrete floors. Oh… And a large trench across the whole of the front yard for a new drain line. I’m thinking about making it into a moat. Like a habitrail (if you remember those hamster houses) for our pond fish. They could just swim circles around the house! Okay, probably not but gotta have fun with all this bedlam, even if it’s just dreaming up nonsense like that!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother’s Day! I’m off to have mimosas with the family’s fabulous females myself! Enjoy the day and your coming week!
Read More
I pulled this one out particularly for you mad cane slicing artists who might want some fresh ideas for creating patterns with your slices. Barbara Takenaga is a painter who works solely in pattern rather than imagery or abstraction. Her paintings have the illusion of depth and movement that creates wonderful drama, as well as an often mesmerizing effect.
Since the energy and movement is created by the arrangement and size of the forms–spots, in this case–one can easily imagine creating such movement with cane slices using canes of various sizes. A few extruded snakes to emphasize the lines and you could end up with some pretty amazing wall or decorative art.
Time spent wandering her gallery is like a trip through a galactic field of stars and sometimes kind of like an acid trip, but it’s wonderfully engrossing. You will get lost in the work. You have been warned.
http://www.barbaratakenaga.com/
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
It would seem that successful, simple compositions would be fairly easy to achieve, but I have found that in order to be successful with simple creations is many times more difficult than with complex ones. When the elements are few and spare, every single choice made counts in a big way. This is how I see the challenge in the work of Jon Ryan. His work is gorgeous, but rarely even approaches complexity.
This carved scale aluminum brooch of his epitomizes this. There is really only one color, and that is slightly graduated. There is one texture in the scales, and the form is balanced. That is all that is here, and yet, you can recognize the genius of the design and the bold beauty of it, even if you don’t have any idea why that is so apparent. The genius is in being reserved while choosing elements that make the brooch feel alive. Scales are, of course, an element of reptiles, so there is a hint of a living creature. The slight change in the tint of the color makes the blue glow, so it gives off a sense of soft light and energy. Also, the form curves just enough on either end to introduce movement. These choices along with an impeccable finish is what makes this feel so masterly. I have a hard time imagining how I would go about creating something anywhere near as elegant with such minimalism. I find it quite amazing.
Jon’s body of work is all about simplicity. And, lucky for us, there is an easily recognized correlation to be seen between his metal work and working in polymer. Take even just a few seconds to look at his Flickr portfolio album to see what I mean. If you are intrigued by his work, you can read more about his process on his blog.
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.
If yesterday’s version of ripples was controlled and reserved, today’s rippling beads border on being a full-fledged party.
Although Daniela Wernli, also known as Dr. Fimo, only uses one color plus white in these beads, the energy here is very high, but you know the color isn’t a primary factor for that. The beads actually push the whole idea of what a ripple is and can be. You see ripples in the twisted clay curls with their repetition and progression wrapped into tight swirls that ramps up the sense of movement, making for a very energized piece.
In case you were wondering, Daniela was named Dr. Fimo by her family because she is often seen wandering about with her polymer work gloves on. See more of her work, especially some very interesting dots and rolled clay pieces, on her Flickr page.
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.
We’ve looked at a few rather free-form versions of rippling, but ripples can also be well controlled and stylized while maintaining that similarly energized feel of movement.
The pins that emerged in The Broken Internet Project had a lot of controlled, but high-energy lines in the designs, most likely due to their inspiration being a pin by the meticulous Dan Cormier, a pin that had a zigzag line (a cousin to the ripple, you could say) through the center of it. I loved Cornelia Brockstedt’s interpretation with both a controlled rippling Skinner blend and a silhouette of a ripple inserted next to it. Calm, but energized. It’s almost the definition of that.
If you never had the chance to see the whole Broken Internet Project results, be sure to jump over to The Cutting Edge’s Facebook page to see them all together. And, for more by the fabulous Cornelia Brockstedt, take a look at her website or her Flickr pages for her latest pieces.
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.
A more traditional approach to wall sculpture, but keeping with the use of smaller parts to complete a larger and whole part, would be something like this fantastical piece by Layl McDill. Her wall sculptures are composed of a wide variety of cane slices, beads and sheets of marbled or surface treated clay.
The entrancing thing about Layl’s work is just how wildly playful it is. This work is not about finish, precision or any particular technique. It’s about the story and a child-like ability to let the imagination roam freely.
This piece entitled “Blingo Flamingo Adventureland” has to be my favorite piece of hers to date. Every part of this piece either reaches out or swings back, and used alongside the high-energy of the colors and cane patterns, creates this frenetically kinetic composition. Such fun!
Layl is the co-owner of Clay Squared to Infinity, a shop for handmade ceramic tile as well as Layl’s polymer sculptures, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Layl also posts her work on Flickr for a full, all-at-once visual dose of her child-like abandon.
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.
Read More
