Reinterpret a Flower
February 3, 2015
Inspirational Art
I was really going to try and avoid flowers this week, not because they aren’t wonderful and lovely, but because we already have such a love affair with them in this community. I figured we’ve seen quite a bit, and it would be more useful to find other subjects. But then there were these. I have had these earrings in my little chest of goodies to share for a while, but it took until this theme for me to figure out why I think they are so well done. I think it’s the fact that the creator, Deb Cooper, made the whole earring a flower with stalk included, rather than just adding flowers to a circle of clay. Sometimes it’s just the very simplest of adjustments that takes something from nice to fantastic, from interesting to amazing.
All the choices here were the right choices: the translucent clay to catch the light and show variation in the colors, the colors themselves, leaving the flower with very organically ruffled petals and not spoiling it with any other additions. These actually got me to stop and consider what you could do to make a gauge earring from real flowers. But these would certainly last longer.
You can find Deb’s wide array of cleverly decorated gauge earrings on Etsy and on her Deviant art page.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Imagining Stone Bones
January 21, 2015
Inspirational Art
Alright, this piece isn’t in itself particularly old-looking, but it does represent another element of time and hide a possible story in its history. Plus, I just think it’s a beautiful piece.
France’s Karine Barrera regularly creates tribal or ethnic pieces, but I don’t think there are any particular civilizations they are drawn from. Rather they seem to be an amalgamation of tribal aesthetics. This one appears to be a most interesting composition of stone, although its form is more reminiscent of bone; the gentle curves recall tusks, claws and ribs.
But if it were stone, what kind of stone would have such layers? Or is the white not supposed to be stone but a material for joining two types of stone? What kind of material is that? What kind of people would find these shapes and the combination of stones meaningful? There are so many possible stories that can be imagined for this piece.
Karine’s work is full of possible stories. Even in her explanation in the blog post, her words are translated from French to say, at one point, that these “are stories designs”. Not sure what that means exactly, but Google Translate creates some pretty wacky text sometimes. In the end, it’s not so much about the story the artist has in her head but what the viewer of the piece comes up with. If your work makes someone stop and consider and create their own little stories and worlds in their mind from what they see, you have succeeded in communicating and maybe even entertaining. And that makes for some pretty good art. See more examples of this kind of thing on Karine’s blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Making Your Own Fire
January 10, 2015
Inspirational Art
Especially for those of you who are still dealing with those extremely low temperatures and tons of snow, how about ending this week of warm creations with a warm creation of your own? I looked around at canes of flames and found this lovely version. This tutorial is by Russia’s Viktoria, who goes by Nika on Livemaster.
The translator says she calls it barbed wire, which could have been her intention, but you only see that effect when the cane is set back to back, as in the bracelet and necklace set below. Then it kind of resembles Melanie West’s cephalopod eye canes, which might have been her inspiration, but definitely with more of an edgy flame construction.
It’s not a difficult cane. However, when it’s used in consciously chosen compositions, it makes for some complex textures and patterning, as you see in her application here. And changing up the color combinations, as you’ll see at the end of her tutorial, creates some pretty cool results as well.
So go have fun and stay warm!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
I was really going to try and avoid flowers this week, not because they aren’t wonderful and lovely, but because we already have such a love affair with them in this community. I figured we’ve seen quite a bit, and it would be more useful to find other subjects. But then there were these. I have had these earrings in my little chest of goodies to share for a while, but it took until this theme for me to figure out why I think they are so well done. I think it’s the fact that the creator, Deb Cooper, made the whole earring a flower with stalk included, rather than just adding flowers to a circle of clay. Sometimes it’s just the very simplest of adjustments that takes something from nice to fantastic, from interesting to amazing.
All the choices here were the right choices: the translucent clay to catch the light and show variation in the colors, the colors themselves, leaving the flower with very organically ruffled petals and not spoiling it with any other additions. These actually got me to stop and consider what you could do to make a gauge earring from real flowers. But these would certainly last longer.
You can find Deb’s wide array of cleverly decorated gauge earrings on Etsy and on her Deviant art page.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Read More
Alright, this piece isn’t in itself particularly old-looking, but it does represent another element of time and hide a possible story in its history. Plus, I just think it’s a beautiful piece.
France’s Karine Barrera regularly creates tribal or ethnic pieces, but I don’t think there are any particular civilizations they are drawn from. Rather they seem to be an amalgamation of tribal aesthetics. This one appears to be a most interesting composition of stone, although its form is more reminiscent of bone; the gentle curves recall tusks, claws and ribs.
But if it were stone, what kind of stone would have such layers? Or is the white not supposed to be stone but a material for joining two types of stone? What kind of material is that? What kind of people would find these shapes and the combination of stones meaningful? There are so many possible stories that can be imagined for this piece.
Karine’s work is full of possible stories. Even in her explanation in the blog post, her words are translated from French to say, at one point, that these “are stories designs”. Not sure what that means exactly, but Google Translate creates some pretty wacky text sometimes. In the end, it’s not so much about the story the artist has in her head but what the viewer of the piece comes up with. If your work makes someone stop and consider and create their own little stories and worlds in their mind from what they see, you have succeeded in communicating and maybe even entertaining. And that makes for some pretty good art. See more examples of this kind of thing on Karine’s blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Especially for those of you who are still dealing with those extremely low temperatures and tons of snow, how about ending this week of warm creations with a warm creation of your own? I looked around at canes of flames and found this lovely version. This tutorial is by Russia’s Viktoria, who goes by Nika on Livemaster.
The translator says she calls it barbed wire, which could have been her intention, but you only see that effect when the cane is set back to back, as in the bracelet and necklace set below. Then it kind of resembles Melanie West’s cephalopod eye canes, which might have been her inspiration, but definitely with more of an edgy flame construction.
It’s not a difficult cane. However, when it’s used in consciously chosen compositions, it makes for some complex textures and patterning, as you see in her application here. And changing up the color combinations, as you’ll see at the end of her tutorial, creates some pretty cool results as well.
So go have fun and stay warm!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
