Exploration in the New Year
January 2, 2018 Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
First of all …. a very happy New Year and all the best to you this coming year! I am very excited to welcome 2018 and see what it has in store for us all. 2017 was a bit rough for so many of us, personally and globally, within our community and without. Every year has its challenges, of course, but I like to greet the new year with optimism and enthusiasm because it does represent so many new possibilities.
New possibilities may be about looking forward but it can be helpful to look back in order to create new and exciting futures. I’ve dug up a few interesting techniques from the past in order to, hopefully, spark some new ideas and encourage you to find new ways to use older techniques.
Let me tie into some of last week’s subjects. If you didn’t see the post about the silkscreen stencils on Friday, do check that company out. That would provide you with new designs, pre-made or custom, to try a new approach with. Then try a little something different, using multiple colors and controlled placement. I believe that is what Kleio Tsaliki was doing with these gorgeous sheets she created back in 2015. I am thinking she used stencils and pearlescent paints and, in the top two, taped off sections as she applied colors. Or maybe she is using a stencil sponge to control where the color goes, which would work for the more random placement seen in the bottom sheet.
It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how she did this as the ideas we are guessing at are quite worthy of a bit of exploration regardless. I have found some really cool, unintended effects when I have just been guessing at how other people have done the work. It just pushed me to think of new ways to approach familiar techniques.
A quick click on this link to her Flickr pages will show you the variety of sheets she created. And if you are not into guessing how she did it, she also has a tutorial on this stencil technique available in her Etsy shop.
Carve and Reveal
November 26, 2013 Inspirational Art
As I mentioned yesterday, we’ll look at ways to cut and carve polymer both in a raw and cured state this week. Today we’ll actually look at both from a single artist.
Rebecca Geoffery works in metal, enamel, and semi-precious stones as well polymer, usually mixing them. The possibility of carved polymer has a lot to do with what it will reveal beneath the surface. I thought that was the case with these pendants, until I read that the contrast is not revealed clay but paint. The paint makes it look like the carved portions were just scooped out, but it seems that they were actually solid black clay that was carved to provide a space for the paint.
But what of cutting away clay to reveal a layer below? Rebecca does this as well. With these pieces, shapes are cut out of raw clay and then laid over another layer so the contrasting color peeks out from beneath it. I love that she adds additional hand-tooled accents in the layer below as well as on the top layer.
What I think we can really take away from these examples is the variety of shapes the carved and cut clay can take on. The spaces revealed can also be just patterned or can be stylized or graphic or rough. Cutting and carving can help fulfill any mood, message or aesthetic, and adds instant complexity even when it’s not so complex.
Although this kind of work is not a major part of Rebecca’s posted collections, these pieces are making the rounds. Soon after I found and decided to write on these pieces, I found the same two photos in Cynthia Tinapple’s book Polymer Clay Global Perspectives. They are eye-catching. Most of her work is. You can see more of her polymer as well as her other work on her Flickr photostream and on her website.
Outside Inspiration: Delicate Tendrils
October 11, 2013 Inspirational Art
Wait a minute … isn’t this Friday? The day we look at some non-polymer? So what, then, is this piece made from? It sure looks like it could be polymer. It could be said to be a bit Dustin or Dever-esque even. But it’s not polymer at all.
This piece is by artist Tania Radda. She works in wood. That’s right–those tendrils spinning off the stem of this bud-like form are wood, brightly painted with automotive paint. I would not have thought of using wood to create such delicate lines and forms, but until Nan Roche started knitting with extruded polymer, I never thought of polymer as something to create loose, independent lines from either. It can be quite wonderful to see how far a material can be pushed and still fulfill the intention of the work created. Could polymer hold up the weight from this kind of form leaning on it? I can imagine that yes, it would with wire or other stiff reinforcement. It’s got me thinking about just how thin our lines could go. It may be nothing but a mental exercise, but that’s the kind of questioning of limitations that new techniques and improved approaches come from. Never accept that the way most things are done is the right or only way. Half of being an artist is exploring and half of exploring is failing and making mistakes. But that is how we learn and grow and discover the really cool stuff.
First of all …. a very happy New Year and all the best to you this coming year! I am very excited to welcome 2018 and see what it has in store for us all. 2017 was a bit rough for so many of us, personally and globally, within our community and without. Every year has its challenges, of course, but I like to greet the new year with optimism and enthusiasm because it does represent so many new possibilities.
New possibilities may be about looking forward but it can be helpful to look back in order to create new and exciting futures. I’ve dug up a few interesting techniques from the past in order to, hopefully, spark some new ideas and encourage you to find new ways to use older techniques.
Let me tie into some of last week’s subjects. If you didn’t see the post about the silkscreen stencils on Friday, do check that company out. That would provide you with new designs, pre-made or custom, to try a new approach with. Then try a little something different, using multiple colors and controlled placement. I believe that is what Kleio Tsaliki was doing with these gorgeous sheets she created back in 2015. I am thinking she used stencils and pearlescent paints and, in the top two, taped off sections as she applied colors. Or maybe she is using a stencil sponge to control where the color goes, which would work for the more random placement seen in the bottom sheet.
It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how she did this as the ideas we are guessing at are quite worthy of a bit of exploration regardless. I have found some really cool, unintended effects when I have just been guessing at how other people have done the work. It just pushed me to think of new ways to approach familiar techniques.
A quick click on this link to her Flickr pages will show you the variety of sheets she created. And if you are not into guessing how she did it, she also has a tutorial on this stencil technique available in her Etsy shop.
Read MoreAs I mentioned yesterday, we’ll look at ways to cut and carve polymer both in a raw and cured state this week. Today we’ll actually look at both from a single artist.
Rebecca Geoffery works in metal, enamel, and semi-precious stones as well polymer, usually mixing them. The possibility of carved polymer has a lot to do with what it will reveal beneath the surface. I thought that was the case with these pendants, until I read that the contrast is not revealed clay but paint. The paint makes it look like the carved portions were just scooped out, but it seems that they were actually solid black clay that was carved to provide a space for the paint.
But what of cutting away clay to reveal a layer below? Rebecca does this as well. With these pieces, shapes are cut out of raw clay and then laid over another layer so the contrasting color peeks out from beneath it. I love that she adds additional hand-tooled accents in the layer below as well as on the top layer.
What I think we can really take away from these examples is the variety of shapes the carved and cut clay can take on. The spaces revealed can also be just patterned or can be stylized or graphic or rough. Cutting and carving can help fulfill any mood, message or aesthetic, and adds instant complexity even when it’s not so complex.
Although this kind of work is not a major part of Rebecca’s posted collections, these pieces are making the rounds. Soon after I found and decided to write on these pieces, I found the same two photos in Cynthia Tinapple’s book Polymer Clay Global Perspectives. They are eye-catching. Most of her work is. You can see more of her polymer as well as her other work on her Flickr photostream and on her website.
Read MoreWait a minute … isn’t this Friday? The day we look at some non-polymer? So what, then, is this piece made from? It sure looks like it could be polymer. It could be said to be a bit Dustin or Dever-esque even. But it’s not polymer at all.
This piece is by artist Tania Radda. She works in wood. That’s right–those tendrils spinning off the stem of this bud-like form are wood, brightly painted with automotive paint. I would not have thought of using wood to create such delicate lines and forms, but until Nan Roche started knitting with extruded polymer, I never thought of polymer as something to create loose, independent lines from either. It can be quite wonderful to see how far a material can be pushed and still fulfill the intention of the work created. Could polymer hold up the weight from this kind of form leaning on it? I can imagine that yes, it would with wire or other stiff reinforcement. It’s got me thinking about just how thin our lines could go. It may be nothing but a mental exercise, but that’s the kind of questioning of limitations that new techniques and improved approaches come from. Never accept that the way most things are done is the right or only way. Half of being an artist is exploring and half of exploring is failing and making mistakes. But that is how we learn and grow and discover the really cool stuff.
Read More