How To Clay Doodle
January 17, 2015
Inspirational Art
Have you started doodling yet? We talked about doodling as a drawing technique yesterday, but you know what … you can also doodle with clay! The main objective in clay doodling is to create something unplanned, to let your mind and hands work up a design that comes from unconscious ideas and to follow the patterns that emerge with your directionless play. Like drawing doodles, this kind of clay play can relieve stress and help you break though design problems and the creatives blahs.
These cabochon beads are clay doodles by Jael Thorp. See just how beautiful a bit of clay doodling can be? Jael actually does a lot of clay doodling. Even those pieces she doesn’t list as doodles, such as cane-covered ornaments and extrusions decorated hearts, have a definite doodling feel to them. They are great examples of how limitless this doodling with clay idea is. There aren’t any restrictions as to how you doodle with clay. Use extrusions, bits of clay, cane slices, sheets of clay you take hand tools to or embellishments. It’s about letting the mind and hands go and seeing where they take you.
To see more of Jael’s work, visit her Art Fire shop or her Flickr pages. You can read about her process on her award-winning blog site, “Jael’s Art Jewels 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.
Stacking Up Whimsy
September 3, 2014
Inspirational Art
A good portion of the articles in our new issue are, at least in part, interviews with multiple artists so you get a well-rounded view of the ideas our contributors have brought you. One particularly insightful as well as fun article is the one exploring the idea of humor and whimsy in art. Contributor Sherilyn Dunn interviewed four amazing artists for this–Christi Friesen, Layl McDill, Doreen Kassel and Maureen Carlson. Maureen Carlson was one of the first names in polymer that I knew since her book Family and Friends in Polymer Clay was one of the first polymer books I ever bought. Along with being a talented sculptor, she has very inventive, fun and thought-provoking pieces and I wish we’d had more room to show off her playful yet seriously expressive side.
This doll for instance, is a wonderful example of mixing whimsy with a personal message. This piece is made up of stackable and mobile elements of polymer enhanced with paints and powders as well as the words and ideas you see on it. Play is evident in the movable parts and the toy like construction but there’s a bit of the serious instilled in it. I know at one time she taught this as a workshop as a way to explore personal expression. What a fun workshop that must have been.
Don’t miss the insightful comments and observations in the “Art of Humor and Whimsy” article you’ll find in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. And for more fun and thought-provoking pieces, take a look at Maureen’s gallery.
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.
Have you started doodling yet? We talked about doodling as a drawing technique yesterday, but you know what … you can also doodle with clay! The main objective in clay doodling is to create something unplanned, to let your mind and hands work up a design that comes from unconscious ideas and to follow the patterns that emerge with your directionless play. Like drawing doodles, this kind of clay play can relieve stress and help you break though design problems and the creatives blahs.
These cabochon beads are clay doodles by Jael Thorp. See just how beautiful a bit of clay doodling can be? Jael actually does a lot of clay doodling. Even those pieces she doesn’t list as doodles, such as cane-covered ornaments and extrusions decorated hearts, have a definite doodling feel to them. They are great examples of how limitless this doodling with clay idea is. There aren’t any restrictions as to how you doodle with clay. Use extrusions, bits of clay, cane slices, sheets of clay you take hand tools to or embellishments. It’s about letting the mind and hands go and seeing where they take you.
To see more of Jael’s work, visit her Art Fire shop or her Flickr pages. You can read about her process on her award-winning blog site, “Jael’s Art Jewels 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.
A good portion of the articles in our new issue are, at least in part, interviews with multiple artists so you get a well-rounded view of the ideas our contributors have brought you. One particularly insightful as well as fun article is the one exploring the idea of humor and whimsy in art. Contributor Sherilyn Dunn interviewed four amazing artists for this–Christi Friesen, Layl McDill, Doreen Kassel and Maureen Carlson. Maureen Carlson was one of the first names in polymer that I knew since her book Family and Friends in Polymer Clay was one of the first polymer books I ever bought. Along with being a talented sculptor, she has very inventive, fun and thought-provoking pieces and I wish we’d had more room to show off her playful yet seriously expressive side.
This doll for instance, is a wonderful example of mixing whimsy with a personal message. This piece is made up of stackable and mobile elements of polymer enhanced with paints and powders as well as the words and ideas you see on it. Play is evident in the movable parts and the toy like construction but there’s a bit of the serious instilled in it. I know at one time she taught this as a workshop as a way to explore personal expression. What a fun workshop that must have been.
Don’t miss the insightful comments and observations in the “Art of Humor and Whimsy” article you’ll find in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. And for more fun and thought-provoking pieces, take a look at Maureen’s gallery.
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.
