Cat’s out of the Bag
May 23, 2018 Inspirational Art
I’m not sure how it happened but we somehow got Nikolina Otrzan to “spill the beads” on her unique, signature textures that she creates for her jewelry components. She shares not one, not two, but four different textures and even variations on those so it’s more like a dozen possible textures you can get out of completing her tutorial in this issue. It turns out, they are all pretty easy to do. They will just take some patience to do it as neatly as she does.
We were not able to fit in examples of all the ways these beads could be used. As seen here, her textured components can be artfully composed to decorate home décor and not just as beads for jewelry. Her cat seems to approve of these mirrors as well. And what a great idea. If you have a stash of flat-backed beads or components that work together, decorate a mirror, frame, or another object they can be attached to. Your spare components will have a home and you too can end up with some beautiful—as you see in the article—pet-approved décor.
Nikolina is a very thorough and detailed instructor. If, after getting into those textures in the article, you find that you want more, all you need to do is go to her Etsy shop to get another tutorial from the couple dozen she has available right now.
The Summer Cover!
April 23, 2018 Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
This beautiful Monday, I’m sharing with you the latest cover for the upcoming issue of The Polymer Arts, graced by the beautifully balanced jewelry of Dorata Kaszczyszyn.
Summer is soon to be here and the Summer issue – themed “Everything in Its Place” – will be here next month to help you greet the season. You can look forward to such articles as:
- Looking for Balance with Christi Friesen (part of a new regular section by Christi, called “What Are You Looking at?”)
- The Art of Meredith Dittmar
- Remembering Tory Hughes
- Spilling the Beads: a textural tutorial with Nikolina Otrzan
- Tiny Tiles: a variation tutorial with Chris Kapono
- Design Your Own Silkscreens
- Translucent Silkscreen: a tutorial with Sage Bray
- Composing Photos for Every Occasion with syndee holt
- Making the Most of Your Time
- Lessons from Knitting with Ginger Davis Allman
- Colors Spotlight with Lorraine Vogel by Lindly Haunani
Renewal notices went out over the last couple weeks but if you’ve not had the chance to renew your subscription or subscribe, you’ll want to be sure to do so soon so you can be on that initial list to get the first copies fresh from the printer (or for digital readers, fresh from our server). We lock down the mailing lists in the first week of May. The release date for the summer issue is set for May 20th.
If you have questions about your subscription, you’re welcome to write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com or, if you get this by email, just hit reply. Sydney, my fabulous assistant and keeper of subscription lists, will get back to you shortly but be a little patient if it takes a day or so. She’s just getting back from a very exciting weekend … she just got married! Congrats and all the best to Sydney and Ben!
Words Going Round
May 23, 2017 Inspirational Art
Okay, let’s get serious this week. First, a bit of business for readers anxiously awaiting the new issue of The Polymer Arts. The richly packed Color themed Summer edition has had its release date confirmed! Look for digital copies to land in your mailbox on May 30th with print editions all being on the way out from the printer by that day as well.
While we wait for that exciting issue to make its way to us, I thought we’d turn our attention to a few of our more prolific artists whose work is jamming up my lists and Pinterest boards, waiting to be featured.
Nikolina Otrzan has been doing some remarkably sophisticated work with very simple shapes and surface treatments lately. Like these tubes. Tubes with dots. And on the rustic side. Simple but eye-catching in solid, matte colors, these are all about ’round’, with round tubes and round dots and nothing else to distract on the earrings.
On the necklace, there is a distraction in the form of words. Words will always be distracting. Our eyes go straight to them to try and glean their meaning. They are a focal point without having to sit on one point. I love that these are on a round surface so that there is no beginning or end to the imprinted text. There is also no one word or meaning that can be gleaned at a glance so the words are not calling out some obvious message. The necklace also, still stays in the ’round’ theme but there is a more varied energy in the texture of the text, so that it has a more intricate and energized feel to it.
Nikolina’s shop on Etsy is full of inexpensive yet in-depth tutorials on her piece and techniques. If you are looking for something different to play around with this coming week, her tutorials would be a great place to start. For more visual inspiration, take a look at her work on Flickr.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Last Chance and a Little Fun
May 13, 2013 Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
A little bit of business to chat about today but we’ll get back to our standard programming tomorrow.
The Summer issue is at the printers and rolling down the machines as I write this. It’s so exciting … can’t wait to get my copies here! But the first copies get sent out to the readers directly from the printer. I send them the list of readers to mail tomorrow so if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy or need to subscribe or renew your print subscription, today is the day to do so! Just go here to do so: http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html
This issue is packed!! Tons of fun to be had between learning about collaborative art work, being inspired by combining other materials with polymer, ideas for adhering polymer to all kinds of objects, exploring inclusions, ideas for great photo backgrounds, making wire findings for polymer and so much eye candy and inspiration you can take straight to the studio. Don’t miss it!
Because this issue was so packed, we couldn’t include everything sent to us or that I wanted to show you. Like this garden pendant from Nikolina Otrzan …
Nikolina has such a unique, fun and quirky style. Her pieces just make you smile. She is a featured gallery artist in this upcoming issue and I hope will continue to share with us in the future. She is also a CraftArtEdu instructor with one her coolest techniques–her Colori pieces–up as a tutorial now. Take a look at what she has to offer and keep your eye out as she has more coming soon!
Working with Quiet Space
June 6, 2012 Inspirational Art
The response to the Stroppel article in our recent Summer 2012 issue and the fan base she and the technique have is bringing more and more variations of it out of the woodwork. (If you are a fan of this technique do check out the Stroppel Cane Flickr group.)
Here Nikolina Otržan of Croatia combines Stroppel canes with a Rex Ray influenced design. Visual texture (remember that discussion in the texture article in the Spring 2012 issue?) contrasted with large smooth spaces make the small area of Stroppel caning really stand out. This approach is not unlike utlizing white space in a painting or drawing (or in the layout of a magazine, actually) to bring the eye into the primary area of focus. The ‘quiet’ spaces recede in importance, playing up the busy spaces.
So if you have a texture, cane or other surface treatment with a lot of color and/or detail, you might consider balancing it out with calm, broad, solid spaces in order to direct the viewer’s eye where you want them to focus.
Thanks to Maja DeLorean for bringing her friend Nikolina’s work to my attention!
I’m not sure how it happened but we somehow got Nikolina Otrzan to “spill the beads” on her unique, signature textures that she creates for her jewelry components. She shares not one, not two, but four different textures and even variations on those so it’s more like a dozen possible textures you can get out of completing her tutorial in this issue. It turns out, they are all pretty easy to do. They will just take some patience to do it as neatly as she does.
We were not able to fit in examples of all the ways these beads could be used. As seen here, her textured components can be artfully composed to decorate home décor and not just as beads for jewelry. Her cat seems to approve of these mirrors as well. And what a great idea. If you have a stash of flat-backed beads or components that work together, decorate a mirror, frame, or another object they can be attached to. Your spare components will have a home and you too can end up with some beautiful—as you see in the article—pet-approved décor.
Nikolina is a very thorough and detailed instructor. If, after getting into those textures in the article, you find that you want more, all you need to do is go to her Etsy shop to get another tutorial from the couple dozen she has available right now.
Read More
This beautiful Monday, I’m sharing with you the latest cover for the upcoming issue of The Polymer Arts, graced by the beautifully balanced jewelry of Dorata Kaszczyszyn.
Summer is soon to be here and the Summer issue – themed “Everything in Its Place” – will be here next month to help you greet the season. You can look forward to such articles as:
- Looking for Balance with Christi Friesen (part of a new regular section by Christi, called “What Are You Looking at?”)
- The Art of Meredith Dittmar
- Remembering Tory Hughes
- Spilling the Beads: a textural tutorial with Nikolina Otrzan
- Tiny Tiles: a variation tutorial with Chris Kapono
- Design Your Own Silkscreens
- Translucent Silkscreen: a tutorial with Sage Bray
- Composing Photos for Every Occasion with syndee holt
- Making the Most of Your Time
- Lessons from Knitting with Ginger Davis Allman
- Colors Spotlight with Lorraine Vogel by Lindly Haunani
Renewal notices went out over the last couple weeks but if you’ve not had the chance to renew your subscription or subscribe, you’ll want to be sure to do so soon so you can be on that initial list to get the first copies fresh from the printer (or for digital readers, fresh from our server). We lock down the mailing lists in the first week of May. The release date for the summer issue is set for May 20th.
If you have questions about your subscription, you’re welcome to write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com or, if you get this by email, just hit reply. Sydney, my fabulous assistant and keeper of subscription lists, will get back to you shortly but be a little patient if it takes a day or so. She’s just getting back from a very exciting weekend … she just got married! Congrats and all the best to Sydney and Ben!
Read MoreOkay, let’s get serious this week. First, a bit of business for readers anxiously awaiting the new issue of The Polymer Arts. The richly packed Color themed Summer edition has had its release date confirmed! Look for digital copies to land in your mailbox on May 30th with print editions all being on the way out from the printer by that day as well.
While we wait for that exciting issue to make its way to us, I thought we’d turn our attention to a few of our more prolific artists whose work is jamming up my lists and Pinterest boards, waiting to be featured.
Nikolina Otrzan has been doing some remarkably sophisticated work with very simple shapes and surface treatments lately. Like these tubes. Tubes with dots. And on the rustic side. Simple but eye-catching in solid, matte colors, these are all about ’round’, with round tubes and round dots and nothing else to distract on the earrings.
On the necklace, there is a distraction in the form of words. Words will always be distracting. Our eyes go straight to them to try and glean their meaning. They are a focal point without having to sit on one point. I love that these are on a round surface so that there is no beginning or end to the imprinted text. There is also no one word or meaning that can be gleaned at a glance so the words are not calling out some obvious message. The necklace also, still stays in the ’round’ theme but there is a more varied energy in the texture of the text, so that it has a more intricate and energized feel to it.
Nikolina’s shop on Etsy is full of inexpensive yet in-depth tutorials on her piece and techniques. If you are looking for something different to play around with this coming week, her tutorials would be a great place to start. For more visual inspiration, take a look at her work on Flickr.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreA little bit of business to chat about today but we’ll get back to our standard programming tomorrow.
The Summer issue is at the printers and rolling down the machines as I write this. It’s so exciting … can’t wait to get my copies here! But the first copies get sent out to the readers directly from the printer. I send them the list of readers to mail tomorrow so if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy or need to subscribe or renew your print subscription, today is the day to do so! Just go here to do so: http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html
This issue is packed!! Tons of fun to be had between learning about collaborative art work, being inspired by combining other materials with polymer, ideas for adhering polymer to all kinds of objects, exploring inclusions, ideas for great photo backgrounds, making wire findings for polymer and so much eye candy and inspiration you can take straight to the studio. Don’t miss it!
Because this issue was so packed, we couldn’t include everything sent to us or that I wanted to show you. Like this garden pendant from Nikolina Otrzan …
Nikolina has such a unique, fun and quirky style. Her pieces just make you smile. She is a featured gallery artist in this upcoming issue and I hope will continue to share with us in the future. She is also a CraftArtEdu instructor with one her coolest techniques–her Colori pieces–up as a tutorial now. Take a look at what she has to offer and keep your eye out as she has more coming soon!
Read MoreThe response to the Stroppel article in our recent Summer 2012 issue and the fan base she and the technique have is bringing more and more variations of it out of the woodwork. (If you are a fan of this technique do check out the Stroppel Cane Flickr group.)
Here Nikolina Otržan of Croatia combines Stroppel canes with a Rex Ray influenced design. Visual texture (remember that discussion in the texture article in the Spring 2012 issue?) contrasted with large smooth spaces make the small area of Stroppel caning really stand out. This approach is not unlike utlizing white space in a painting or drawing (or in the layout of a magazine, actually) to bring the eye into the primary area of focus. The ‘quiet’ spaces recede in importance, playing up the busy spaces.
So if you have a texture, cane or other surface treatment with a lot of color and/or detail, you might consider balancing it out with calm, broad, solid spaces in order to direct the viewer’s eye where you want them to focus.
Thanks to Maja DeLorean for bringing her friend Nikolina’s work to my attention!
Read More