All It’s Cracked Up To Be
March 17, 2019
Inspirational Art
What is it about weathered and worn surfaces that so many people find attractive these days? Mind you, I am very much one of them. I have a whole line of work called “Beautiful Decay” that explores the beauty I find in the deterioration of durable materials. But the one related effect that seems to be everywhere these days is crackling. Who doesn’t love a good crackle! From shabby chic furniture to crazed ceramics to crackle glass decor, the look of a deteriorating surface seems to have wide-ranging appeal.
Knowing that, it’s not really a surprise that crackle is so popular as a polymer technique. A great many of us are already texture fiends and, if you love texture then you are going to try crackle- so there’s one of the reasons for its popularity in polymer. But we also know that there is a market for work with crackled surfaces since it pops up in so many areas related to decoration and adornment, making it a safe bet if you sell your work.
There is no one right or best way to create a crackled surface in polymer. You may not have realized it, but there are literally dozens of ways to create crackle. It can be created with a crackle paint medium, partially cured layers of polymer (like I show you in my Controlled Crackle technique which you can find in your Fall 2011 edition of The Polymer Arts), dried paint (or glaze or gilders’ paste or floor wax) on raw clay, metal leaf on raw clay, leaching, alcohol treatments, or by creating a faux texture with impressed materials. And I know I am still missing a few in that list!
So, let’s enjoy some crackle work today and wrap up with a few tutorials on different crackle techniques that you can try out.
Let’s Get Cracking
One of my personal favorite “cracklers” is Staci Louise Smith. She uses a number of different techniques to achieve a wide range of cracked texture. In the necklace below, her crackle is not subtle. It is not evenly spread across her beads either but rather, it is rough and tumble and scattered in energetic horizontal lines. Her soft coloring calms the chaos of the crackle which is also balanced out by the many other purposeful accents and lines from the wire.
Staci can also do subtle as evidenced by the opening piece, a Balance Bowl from her tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book. (You can get the book on our website if you want to make one of these stunning bowls.)
Check out this blog post where she shares how she makes the necklace here along with sketches and her thoughts on the process.
A subtle crackle can often take a bit more patience but what a lovely effect it can have. It may not even be obvious at first that the beads on this necklace below by Ursa Polak have a crackle surface, but the weathered feel comes across immediately. Take a close look to see all the fine-lined cracks that add to the depth and variation of the surface.
Kroma Crackle is a lovely gel medium that itself dries and cracks without having to stretch the clay and yet remains flexible so that you can manipulate the clay without the cracked material popping off. Once you worked with it for a bit you can control the size of the crackle pretty well. You can add small amounts of acrylic paint or mica powders to give yourself a wide variety of color options. You can also apply paints, inks, dyes and other colorants on it after its dry.
These earrings are by Els van Haasen uses Kroma Crackle on polymer. You can see how regular a crackle you can get with this medium. But it can definitely be quite varied once you come to understand how to use it.
You almost forget that the technique that was most commonly used by the highly esteemed Elise Winters, who we lost just this year, was also a crackle technique. Her work was very controlled, as was crackle but that was probably the most recognizable part about her signature style. I can only imagine the work she put into gaining such control over her crackle, but it just shows what can be done when we invest a bit of patience into our work. (I erroneously put in that this was metal leaf when I first posted but, no, it’s paint, which also takes such skilled control, having to ensure that the paint is evenly applied to get such fine crackle.)
This is actually a piece of mine from some years back. It includes alcohol treated raw clay, controlled cracking of partially cured clay, and metal leaf colored with alcohol ink. The alcohol treatment is a way of drying out the surface of raw clay to get a very fine crazing. It’s a bit of a tricky technique but it sure worked here. That helped create the uneven surface of the partially cured polymer under the metal leaf, giving it a burning ember look.
Let’s Crack You Up
Ready to try some various cracking techniques? Here are a few freebies to get you going:
If you want to try the straightforward Paint Crackle Techniques:
- Grab a craft acrylic (the cheap acrylics work better than artist tube acrylics which tend to stretch rather than crack) or tempera paint and a well-conditioned sheet of polymer rolled on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
- Brush a moderate (not heavy) layer of the paint onto the polymer. Wait for it to completely dry.
- Then roll it through the pasta machine set at two settings down from the thickness you created the sheet on. You can stop here or, for wider, more varied crackle, turn the sheet 90°, adjust the pasta machine down another one or two settings and run it through again.
- You should have a nice crackle now but if your paint is stretching rather than cracking, rolling another sheet of polymer and lay the crackle sheet on top and then start rolling it through the pasta machine again. Eventually, the paint will crack but sometimes you need a really thick layer of polymer to start in order to stretch it far enough. Tempera paint won’t stretch and cracks very nicely if you have that on hand or fancy a run to your local craft store. You could also get some crackle medium while you’re out and follow the instructions to crackle paint directly on your raw polymer clay.
You can find some examples of the use of different paints on this post by Jan Geisen.
For more tutorials online:
- One of the things I didn’t show you in the samples above was how to use impression material to create a faux crackle effect. I use crumpled aluminum foil for this and then use the antiquing approach of rubbing acrylic paint into the cracks after its cured and wiping it off. But Katie Oskin has an interesting material to share in this online tutorial, as well as showing the effect of painting it before she impresses it.
- In this video tutorial, Sandy Huntress shows you how to crackle very thin sheets of partially cured polymer clay.
- Crackling can be done on round surfaces too! Here’s an online tutorial using metal leaf on bicone beads to create crackle. Keep in mind you could do the same thing by painting the beads and then rolling them around to get it crack.
Do you know of other great crackle tutorials or want to point out another crackling technique I didn’t mention? Drop a comment below (if you’re on this post’s page online) or click on the title of this post to go to the post’s page and share the info with us all. It would be much appreciated!
Bits of News
- The IPCA announced the winners of the IPCA awards on Wednesday. Here is a video presentation of it. Or you can find the list here.
- Registration is now open for Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes new online course, Matrix Canes.
- What are you doing with your tax refund this year? How about getting that NeverKnead machine you’ve been wanting for forever? Get 10% off your new machine now on the website. Use promo code 10PERCENT.
Okay… Off with me. Working on the next issue of The Polymer Studio. Get your subscription or catch up if you didn’t get the first issue by just jumping over to the website now.
Know that your purchases and subscriptions help me pay the bills so I can justify the time I put into sharing all the good stuff on this blog. Help me help you as we collectively feed our addiction to polymer!
Have a wonderful and creative week! –Sage
Hole-y Design
March 10, 2019
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, Technique tutorials
Here is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain… Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it’s empty space, isn’t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own – it’s a design element.
I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.
Let’s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.
Hole-y Jewelry
First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can’t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.
Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn’t it?
Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream or her Facebook page to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.
Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don’t overly dominate.
Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher’s lariat style “Petal Pusher” necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed – by an arrangement of canes slices here – not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website and her Facebook page here.
Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by Еnkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.
Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others – some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually – are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plavšić , also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.
Punching Your Own Holes
Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn’t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.
- Just punch holes randomly around a thick sheet of clay – it could be a sheet that you’ve treated with some technique or maybe marbled or otherwise mixed the clay.) Then, using a large cutter as a frame, place the large cutter at different points in your sheet to find a pattern of holes you like, and just punch it out. You can further color or treat it however you like and/or place it on a form to give it dimension. You could also take a cutter that is larger than the other small holes you punched into the sheet and make a large focal point hole in the chosen section.
- If you don’t like the sharp cuts of a cutter, soften them by laying a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the clay – make sure it is smooth with no wrinkles to start – then punch them out and it will add a bevel to the edges of the holes.
- For a more organic look, hand tool it. Press a ball stylus, knitting needle or other round tipped hand tool straight down into the clay and then move it around in a circular motion until you have created a hole. Do this over and over again, randomly and close together to create a texture, or place them purposefully in a pattern or judiciously as focal points.
- If you prefer a bit of direction as you start your hole-y crusade, here is a fun and easy tutorial that creates a simple but energetic and contemporary looking jewelry piece:
- Or you may want to grab your copy (or buy a copy) of the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book, in which holes play a role in several of the pieces in the book including a similarly styled pendant and brooch by Eva Haskova to what I showed you above but with her lovely take on a brain cane.
We also have a beautiful and easy to make boho-esque pendant project, created in the more organic hole making style, in the first issue of The Polymer Studio that the artist, Anna Malnaya calls “Martian Footprints”. So if you have that issue and haven’t tried it, go grab your copy and try that out. If you don’t have a copy, get it on the website – the digital edition is available for immediate download in most countries or order the print edition and we will ship it off to you.
Need Supplies or Inspiration?
Poly Clay Play is having a Spring Fling Sale! Get 10% off your whole cart (some exceptions apply.) Use coupon code Spring Fling, March 9 – 16, 2019. Shipping is closed at the shop that week (hence the sale) but you can take advantage of the discounts now and your goodies will be off to you the following week.
Discount pricing is available now on Christi Friesen’s new Nudge Cards. Get $4 off the set on her website here. No promo code needed!
On our Tenth Muse Arts site, discount packages for books and backorder magazines are available now. Buy One Get One Half off on Print + digital packages of the beautiful new Polymer Journeys 2019 book, or on packages including BOTH editions of Polymer Journeys – 2016 + 2019. There is also a package with all available copies of The Polymer Arts for basically half off the cover. See the website here.
Man-made Handmade
March 3, 2019
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
Have you noticed that most people who work in polymer will cite nature as their primary inspiration? Do you, or would you, too? But isn’t it ironic that, as inspired as we are by nature, we work with a wholly man-made material? I’ve been thinking about this because, as I polished up the Polymer Journeys 2019 book, I was making notes on some of the trends and I noticed that all but three people who cited their inspiration said they were inspired by nature. It got me to thinking about why we aren’t more inspired by the man-made world, as rich and diverse as it is.
My curiosity piqued, I did some research and made more notes to see if, for one, my perception was correct in that polymer artists look to nature more than anything and, secondly, to see what things other than nature inspire people. So, the observations that inspiration from nature is predominant in polymer art was upheld by all I looked through. I also found it interesting that, when it boils down to it, nearly everything in almost all art forms looks to be inspired by nature or by man-made styles and designs that themselves were inspired by nature. To see examples of where nature is inspiration for man-made design, just take a look at styles such as Baroque or Art Deco. Flowers, trees, leaves, vines, butterflies, birds, and a myriad of other natural flora and fauna are evident sources of inspiration in the forms and lines of those styles. We might be inspired by the designs of that age but the inspiration is still rooted in nature.
However, I did my best to find pieces that were inspired by man-made objects, scenes, or styles. Let me tell you, it was not terribly easy but just because it is less often turned to does not mean it doesn’t have wonderful forms, colors, motifs, and textures for all of us. Let’s take a look at some of the work created by polymer artists who are inspired by the man-made.
A Gallery of Man-made Inspiration
One of the first people who came to mind when thinking about man-made inspiration was Cornelia Brockstedt. She has had several series such as “Street Life” and her “City” bangles. She also did a series of what she called “graphical studies” in 2015. So I went to her Flickr photo stream to find something to share with you and it struck me that, even with the graphical tendencies and inspiration taken from city life, there is so much organic that shows up in her work. This tended to be true with a lot of artists. This pendant, one of my favorite pieces of hers, was inspired by sidewalks and the grass that grows up from around it. So it was inspired by man-made walkways but with contrast in the nature that is still sneaking in.
Another artist who came to mind, even before I started my search, was Sona Grigoryan. She did a lovely series of polymer and resin pieces inspired by the Barcelona cathedrals and stained-glass windows she sees where she lives.
And of course, we have to consider the work of the Georg Dinkel who is inspired by architecture and machinery to the extent that even when he decides to create some creatures, they too look mechanical. He is also, apparently, inspired by literature and humor, as this Don Quixote scene he set up with two of his mechanized creatures hints at.
And, when talking mechanical, we certainly can’t ignore the influence of the mechanical from movements like steampunk. From jewelry to sculpture to journals and phone cases, this style is everywhere but it’s hard to say whether polymer found steampunk or steampunk found polymer first. The steampunk monster heart that opened this post is a sculpture by Kimberly Hart who posts under MonsterKookies on Etsy.
Carol Blackburn, whose work is so colorful and graphic, often cites fashion styles and movements as her source of inspiration. I think these fall under her “Missoni” fashion inspired line.
Another artist who seems quite enamored of fabric but also of metal and other man-made textures is Nikolina Otrzan. Mostly, she’s just a texture fiend but you’ll notice that her textures generally have a certain uniformity to them that automatically makes them feel that they would be man-made in origin, whether they were intended to or not. Even her shapes, like these tube pieces, reflect a penchant for uniformity that is beautifully balanced with her choice of rough or edge softening surface treatments.
So has this got you pondering the possibilities of man-made forms and textures as a source of inspiration for you? I know I’ve been looking at the shapes in my house, the walls in the neighborhood, and the forms on the buildings I pass with new eyes.
Going for Man-made
Freebies
If you want to try a few man-made inspired textures or forms, there are quite a few out there although the quick and free were a bit more scarce. Nonetheless, here are a few pages with related free tutorials. You’ll want to pop the last two URLs into Google translate if it doesn’t automatically translate for you:
- Faux ceramics tutorial.
- Faux Peruvian fabric.
- There are actually a lot of steampunk tuts you can find with any search but here is a fun Steampunk Seahorse.
Tutorial Shops
Your best sources of tutorial with man-made inspiration are going to cost a couple of bucks, but are well worth it. Here are some of my favorite shops for this:
- Anything from Nikolina Otrzan‘s shop is just fabulous.
- Angela Barenholtz has beautiful fabric techniques to share.
- If you really just want to get more graphical, you can’t beat tutorials from Bettina Welker.
A Bit o’ News
And now for a few tidbits about things going on in the polymer community you might want to know about:
Vote for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards!
The International Polymer Clay Association member voting is now open through March 8. Active members should have received an email with a link for your ballot. If your membership has expired please renew at www.theipca.org before March 8, 2019 so that you may vote for your favorites.
Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes Online Courses
Dan and Tracy have recently announced the lineup for their 2019 online Master Classes. Check out the present information and sign up for future announcements on their website here.
Polymer Journeys 2019 has been released!
- Our latest publication, the second installment of the Polymer Journeys retrospective series was released this morning in digital format for those who purchased early or otherwise supported the project. (It was noon PST time if you need to search your inbox or your spam folder if not there.)
- Print Pre-orders (ordered prior to Feb 27th) will go into the mail a little later than we had hoped but will be shipped directly from the printer on March 6. Our shipment should be our doorstep March 8, so newer orders will ship out as soon as we have them in our hot little hands. Buy yours here if you haven’t yet. (We’ve already sold half our print run so don’t wait too long!)
- BOGO Half Off! We’ve added special package pricing for the new book … Purchase both the 2016 and 2019 edition of Polymer Journeys with half off the 2016 book, or get both the print and digital edition of the new 2019 book with half off the digital. No promo code needed. Packages available here when you click on the Polymer Journeys book cover here.
- The Polymer Arts Collection on sale for HALF off! Purchases the whole collection of The Polymer Arts and get HALF off the entire package – all 29 Digital issues or the 23 Print issues we still have available. If you want to collect them, now would be the time!
Until next week, have an inspired and creative Sunday and upcoming week!
A Bevy of Bezels
February 10, 2019
Inspirational Art
First, a quick announcement … the new Polymer Journeys 2019 book is now available for pre-orders!
As usual, we offer a HUGE discount for pre-ordering: $7 off the print edition cover price and $4 off the digital edition. So jump to our website to pre-order this great tome of beautiful polymer art with artist’s insights into their work as well as a historical retrospective that we hope will help continue to elevate how people see polymer in the art world and beyond.
Now onto a Bevy of Bezels …
What is your favorite kind of polymer bezel setting? Would you say you even have one? Let’s be honest, when it comes to bezels do most of us really give them a lot of thought? Some people really do but I think for many of us, when we do create one, it is probably not much more than a functional element we need in order to hold and maybe frame a stone or focal element. So, I thought this week we would take a look at what else you could do and where you can take the functional, and often essential, bezel.
Like any other element on your jewelry that can be seen, a bezel is a part of the piece’s design and so their form and finish should be quite consciously decided, which means, with polymer clay there’s a tremendous range of things that can be done with it. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with the bezel been simple and primarily functional, as long as it makes sense for the design.
That said, let’s get to the interesting point … there is so much you can do with bezels and bezel style settings in polymer clay! I could yammer on and on about all the things you can do but I think it’s better to just show you. Make notes and start considering what you do with the clay that holds in the focal pieces on your creations and how you can expand on it.
A World of Bezels
One of my favorite bezel-ers, Chris Kapono, has the most wide-ranging ways to hold down a stone with polymer. Her tile and home decor pieces are also a great examples of how bezels can be used for pieces other than jewelry. She has many more tricks up her sleeve in this regards as seen on her Flickr photostream and in her Etsy shop.
Susan Waddington has always been one of my favorite polymer bezel makers. Her bezels are almost always black but are formed into pretty much anything but a basic square or circle and they are textured and inset with additional embellishments to work with the focal piece. This one may be a decade old but it is still inspiring as is her entire collection shown on her Flickr page. I don’t think she does much polymer any more so you have to scroll down past her paintings although looking through them is no hardship either.
A bezel can also be made from individual bits, all lined up. As seen in this pendant by Elsie Smith. The setting around this bezel continues the radiating lines that those lined up little squares start around the gem.
A bezel does not have to be symmetrical, continuous, sit with the stone or focal point straightforward or even completely surround what it’s holding. These pendants by Switzerland’s Chandani of ChaNoJa Jewerly on Etsy give you a few examples of non-traditional bezel settings with polymer.
And don’t be afraid to consider creating, or having a metalsmith create, metal bezels to put your polymer clay creations into. Making her own custom precious metal bezel settings is standard for Grace Stokes’ beautiful jewelry as seen here.
The How-Tos of Polymer Bezeling
Now, if you’ve not created polymer bezels before, or you would like a refresher or some jump-start, hands-on ideas, there quite a number of tutorials and such that you can reference.
Here’s a super quick way to make a bezel that works especially well for small round stones and crystals.
- Roll up a ball of clay about the width of the stone you want to set
- Press the ball flat but not too thin then press the stone or crystal into it.
- Gently push the sides of the clay in towards the stone so that the clay sits up around its edges and holds it in. At this point it can be further embellished with powders.
- Then just scoop it off your work surface using a blade and place it on your piece, maybe with just a tiny touch of liquid polymer to guarantee its adhesion.
- You can embellish it further here too. Just impress dots or lines into it with a needle tool, being careful not to move the clay away from the stone’s edge and lose its grip on it.
That’s it! It’s a super quick and easy bezel. It can be used on other shapes besides round too. You just have to shape the clay to the same size and shape as the stone before you press it into the clay.
By the way, you can see this quick set bezel and how I often use them in Issue #1 of The Polymer Studio in my tutorial, “Shimmering Scenery Pendants”. That same tutorial also shows you how to make an easy polymer clay frame which can readily be used as a bezel setting in addition to the techniques use for frame setting surface treated polymer sheets. Get your issue or a subscription if you don’t have it already. Single issues are only $7.95 in print, $5.95 digital, and that’s for eight detailed tutorials plus other fantastic articles. Can’t even buy one tutorial for that!
For a polymer bezel similar to traditional metalsmithing bezels, take a look at Tina Holden’s tutorial on her blog here. She shares her basic bezel and then some ways to embellish that are very easy to do but give the bezels a very rich look.
For a dainty frame bezel frame with filigree, there is this classic filigree tutorial here. If you stop after the first rim is placed on and cured, you have a bezel frame for cabochons or cut polymer sheets. But the filigree stuff is fun if you have the patience for it. The text’s English may sound a little wonky because it will be translated but it’s worth trying nonetheless.
If you want, or need, to create bezels quickly, you might want to look into purchasing Cabezel molds from Shades of Clay. These molds allow you to create a frame and a perfectly fitting cabochon for it in seconds. Once you have the basic frame molded you can expand on the setting in the area beyond the bezel frame or embellish the bezel itself so although it’s a mold, it has a lot of room for customization. Shades of Clay is a great resource for all kinds of unique polymer related supplies as well. (Keep in mind, this is a Canadian retailer, so the pricing is in Canadian dollars although Wendy does ship via USPS. To estimate what it will be in US dollars, deduct about 25%.)
Got Bezels?
Do you have any great bezels of your own? Or are you aware of any other great tutorials for polymer bezels? Leave links and comments in the comment section below. If you get the this by email click here to leave a comment. Myself and many a reader here would love to see more.
The Idea of a Place
January 29, 2015
Inspirational Art
Conceptual art can be about anything that isn’t literal or tangible. Abstract art seeks to represent an idea or emotion or, like in this fantastical teapot here, both.
On Pinterest, somewhere along the way, someone made a note saying this is about Israel, and I feel pretty confident that is right although I can’t find a source for that comment. But Yudit Yitzhaki, the creator of this amazing bit of decorative art, lives in Israel, and this is not the first time we’ve seen such a vibrant representation of the country. Last year we had a post about wall art by Joan Israel that also depicted a fondness for this part of the world, with similarly bright colors and busy scenery. I do love that it’s on a teapot, of all things. Teapots conjure up thoughts of comfort and warmth and a quiet afternoon taking in the scenes outside our window. So it’s perfect that Yudit’s fond imagery is on something many of us associate with that kind of emotion.
Yudit’s work is full of joy and a sense of fondness for color, energy and positive imagery. She doesn’t do only conceptual art but also functional pieces of jewelry. You do see in her work a focus on capturing an atmosphere or emotion, rather than just a purely decorative drive. Take a look for yourself on her Flickr photostream.
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.
What is it about weathered and worn surfaces that so many people find attractive these days? Mind you, I am very much one of them. I have a whole line of work called “Beautiful Decay” that explores the beauty I find in the deterioration of durable materials. But the one related effect that seems to be everywhere these days is crackling. Who doesn’t love a good crackle! From shabby chic furniture to crazed ceramics to crackle glass decor, the look of a deteriorating surface seems to have wide-ranging appeal.
Knowing that, it’s not really a surprise that crackle is so popular as a polymer technique. A great many of us are already texture fiends and, if you love texture then you are going to try crackle- so there’s one of the reasons for its popularity in polymer. But we also know that there is a market for work with crackled surfaces since it pops up in so many areas related to decoration and adornment, making it a safe bet if you sell your work.
There is no one right or best way to create a crackled surface in polymer. You may not have realized it, but there are literally dozens of ways to create crackle. It can be created with a crackle paint medium, partially cured layers of polymer (like I show you in my Controlled Crackle technique which you can find in your Fall 2011 edition of The Polymer Arts), dried paint (or glaze or gilders’ paste or floor wax) on raw clay, metal leaf on raw clay, leaching, alcohol treatments, or by creating a faux texture with impressed materials. And I know I am still missing a few in that list!
So, let’s enjoy some crackle work today and wrap up with a few tutorials on different crackle techniques that you can try out.
Let’s Get Cracking
One of my personal favorite “cracklers” is Staci Louise Smith. She uses a number of different techniques to achieve a wide range of cracked texture. In the necklace below, her crackle is not subtle. It is not evenly spread across her beads either but rather, it is rough and tumble and scattered in energetic horizontal lines. Her soft coloring calms the chaos of the crackle which is also balanced out by the many other purposeful accents and lines from the wire.
Staci can also do subtle as evidenced by the opening piece, a Balance Bowl from her tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book. (You can get the book on our website if you want to make one of these stunning bowls.)
Check out this blog post where she shares how she makes the necklace here along with sketches and her thoughts on the process.
A subtle crackle can often take a bit more patience but what a lovely effect it can have. It may not even be obvious at first that the beads on this necklace below by Ursa Polak have a crackle surface, but the weathered feel comes across immediately. Take a close look to see all the fine-lined cracks that add to the depth and variation of the surface.
Kroma Crackle is a lovely gel medium that itself dries and cracks without having to stretch the clay and yet remains flexible so that you can manipulate the clay without the cracked material popping off. Once you worked with it for a bit you can control the size of the crackle pretty well. You can add small amounts of acrylic paint or mica powders to give yourself a wide variety of color options. You can also apply paints, inks, dyes and other colorants on it after its dry.
These earrings are by Els van Haasen uses Kroma Crackle on polymer. You can see how regular a crackle you can get with this medium. But it can definitely be quite varied once you come to understand how to use it.
You almost forget that the technique that was most commonly used by the highly esteemed Elise Winters, who we lost just this year, was also a crackle technique. Her work was very controlled, as was crackle but that was probably the most recognizable part about her signature style. I can only imagine the work she put into gaining such control over her crackle, but it just shows what can be done when we invest a bit of patience into our work. (I erroneously put in that this was metal leaf when I first posted but, no, it’s paint, which also takes such skilled control, having to ensure that the paint is evenly applied to get such fine crackle.)
This is actually a piece of mine from some years back. It includes alcohol treated raw clay, controlled cracking of partially cured clay, and metal leaf colored with alcohol ink. The alcohol treatment is a way of drying out the surface of raw clay to get a very fine crazing. It’s a bit of a tricky technique but it sure worked here. That helped create the uneven surface of the partially cured polymer under the metal leaf, giving it a burning ember look.
Let’s Crack You Up
Ready to try some various cracking techniques? Here are a few freebies to get you going:
If you want to try the straightforward Paint Crackle Techniques:
- Grab a craft acrylic (the cheap acrylics work better than artist tube acrylics which tend to stretch rather than crack) or tempera paint and a well-conditioned sheet of polymer rolled on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
- Brush a moderate (not heavy) layer of the paint onto the polymer. Wait for it to completely dry.
- Then roll it through the pasta machine set at two settings down from the thickness you created the sheet on. You can stop here or, for wider, more varied crackle, turn the sheet 90°, adjust the pasta machine down another one or two settings and run it through again.
- You should have a nice crackle now but if your paint is stretching rather than cracking, rolling another sheet of polymer and lay the crackle sheet on top and then start rolling it through the pasta machine again. Eventually, the paint will crack but sometimes you need a really thick layer of polymer to start in order to stretch it far enough. Tempera paint won’t stretch and cracks very nicely if you have that on hand or fancy a run to your local craft store. You could also get some crackle medium while you’re out and follow the instructions to crackle paint directly on your raw polymer clay.
You can find some examples of the use of different paints on this post by Jan Geisen.
For more tutorials online:
- One of the things I didn’t show you in the samples above was how to use impression material to create a faux crackle effect. I use crumpled aluminum foil for this and then use the antiquing approach of rubbing acrylic paint into the cracks after its cured and wiping it off. But Katie Oskin has an interesting material to share in this online tutorial, as well as showing the effect of painting it before she impresses it.
- In this video tutorial, Sandy Huntress shows you how to crackle very thin sheets of partially cured polymer clay.
- Crackling can be done on round surfaces too! Here’s an online tutorial using metal leaf on bicone beads to create crackle. Keep in mind you could do the same thing by painting the beads and then rolling them around to get it crack.
Do you know of other great crackle tutorials or want to point out another crackling technique I didn’t mention? Drop a comment below (if you’re on this post’s page online) or click on the title of this post to go to the post’s page and share the info with us all. It would be much appreciated!
Bits of News
- The IPCA announced the winners of the IPCA awards on Wednesday. Here is a video presentation of it. Or you can find the list here.
- Registration is now open for Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes new online course, Matrix Canes.
- What are you doing with your tax refund this year? How about getting that NeverKnead machine you’ve been wanting for forever? Get 10% off your new machine now on the website. Use promo code 10PERCENT.
Okay… Off with me. Working on the next issue of The Polymer Studio. Get your subscription or catch up if you didn’t get the first issue by just jumping over to the website now.
Know that your purchases and subscriptions help me pay the bills so I can justify the time I put into sharing all the good stuff on this blog. Help me help you as we collectively feed our addiction to polymer!
Have a wonderful and creative week! –Sage
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Here is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain… Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it’s empty space, isn’t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own – it’s a design element.
I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.
Let’s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.
Hole-y Jewelry
First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can’t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.
Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn’t it?
Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream or her Facebook page to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.
Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don’t overly dominate.
Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher’s lariat style “Petal Pusher” necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed – by an arrangement of canes slices here – not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website and her Facebook page here.
Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by Еnkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.
Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others – some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually – are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plavšić , also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.
Punching Your Own Holes
Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn’t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.
- Just punch holes randomly around a thick sheet of clay – it could be a sheet that you’ve treated with some technique or maybe marbled or otherwise mixed the clay.) Then, using a large cutter as a frame, place the large cutter at different points in your sheet to find a pattern of holes you like, and just punch it out. You can further color or treat it however you like and/or place it on a form to give it dimension. You could also take a cutter that is larger than the other small holes you punched into the sheet and make a large focal point hole in the chosen section.
- If you don’t like the sharp cuts of a cutter, soften them by laying a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the clay – make sure it is smooth with no wrinkles to start – then punch them out and it will add a bevel to the edges of the holes.
- For a more organic look, hand tool it. Press a ball stylus, knitting needle or other round tipped hand tool straight down into the clay and then move it around in a circular motion until you have created a hole. Do this over and over again, randomly and close together to create a texture, or place them purposefully in a pattern or judiciously as focal points.
- If you prefer a bit of direction as you start your hole-y crusade, here is a fun and easy tutorial that creates a simple but energetic and contemporary looking jewelry piece:
- Or you may want to grab your copy (or buy a copy) of the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book, in which holes play a role in several of the pieces in the book including a similarly styled pendant and brooch by Eva Haskova to what I showed you above but with her lovely take on a brain cane.
- We also have a beautiful and easy to make boho-esque pendant project, created in the more organic hole making style, in the first issue of The Polymer Studio that the artist, Anna Malnaya calls “Martian Footprints”. So if you have that issue and haven’t tried it, go grab your copy and try that out. If you don’t have a copy, get it on the website – the digital edition is available for immediate download in most countries or order the print edition and we will ship it off to you.
Need Supplies or Inspiration?
Poly Clay Play is having a Spring Fling Sale! Get 10% off your whole cart (some exceptions apply.) Use coupon code Spring Fling, March 9 – 16, 2019. Shipping is closed at the shop that week (hence the sale) but you can take advantage of the discounts now and your goodies will be off to you the following week.
Discount pricing is available now on Christi Friesen’s new Nudge Cards. Get $4 off the set on her website here. No promo code needed!
On our Tenth Muse Arts site, discount packages for books and backorder magazines are available now. Buy One Get One Half off on Print + digital packages of the beautiful new Polymer Journeys 2019 book, or on packages including BOTH editions of Polymer Journeys – 2016 + 2019. There is also a package with all available copies of The Polymer Arts for basically half off the cover. See the website here.
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Have you noticed that most people who work in polymer will cite nature as their primary inspiration? Do you, or would you, too? But isn’t it ironic that, as inspired as we are by nature, we work with a wholly man-made material? I’ve been thinking about this because, as I polished up the Polymer Journeys 2019 book, I was making notes on some of the trends and I noticed that all but three people who cited their inspiration said they were inspired by nature. It got me to thinking about why we aren’t more inspired by the man-made world, as rich and diverse as it is.
My curiosity piqued, I did some research and made more notes to see if, for one, my perception was correct in that polymer artists look to nature more than anything and, secondly, to see what things other than nature inspire people. So, the observations that inspiration from nature is predominant in polymer art was upheld by all I looked through. I also found it interesting that, when it boils down to it, nearly everything in almost all art forms looks to be inspired by nature or by man-made styles and designs that themselves were inspired by nature. To see examples of where nature is inspiration for man-made design, just take a look at styles such as Baroque or Art Deco. Flowers, trees, leaves, vines, butterflies, birds, and a myriad of other natural flora and fauna are evident sources of inspiration in the forms and lines of those styles. We might be inspired by the designs of that age but the inspiration is still rooted in nature.
However, I did my best to find pieces that were inspired by man-made objects, scenes, or styles. Let me tell you, it was not terribly easy but just because it is less often turned to does not mean it doesn’t have wonderful forms, colors, motifs, and textures for all of us. Let’s take a look at some of the work created by polymer artists who are inspired by the man-made.
A Gallery of Man-made Inspiration
One of the first people who came to mind when thinking about man-made inspiration was Cornelia Brockstedt. She has had several series such as “Street Life” and her “City” bangles. She also did a series of what she called “graphical studies” in 2015. So I went to her Flickr photo stream to find something to share with you and it struck me that, even with the graphical tendencies and inspiration taken from city life, there is so much organic that shows up in her work. This tended to be true with a lot of artists. This pendant, one of my favorite pieces of hers, was inspired by sidewalks and the grass that grows up from around it. So it was inspired by man-made walkways but with contrast in the nature that is still sneaking in.
Another artist who came to mind, even before I started my search, was Sona Grigoryan. She did a lovely series of polymer and resin pieces inspired by the Barcelona cathedrals and stained-glass windows she sees where she lives.
And of course, we have to consider the work of the Georg Dinkel who is inspired by architecture and machinery to the extent that even when he decides to create some creatures, they too look mechanical. He is also, apparently, inspired by literature and humor, as this Don Quixote scene he set up with two of his mechanized creatures hints at.
And, when talking mechanical, we certainly can’t ignore the influence of the mechanical from movements like steampunk. From jewelry to sculpture to journals and phone cases, this style is everywhere but it’s hard to say whether polymer found steampunk or steampunk found polymer first. The steampunk monster heart that opened this post is a sculpture by Kimberly Hart who posts under MonsterKookies on Etsy.
Carol Blackburn, whose work is so colorful and graphic, often cites fashion styles and movements as her source of inspiration. I think these fall under her “Missoni” fashion inspired line.
Another artist who seems quite enamored of fabric but also of metal and other man-made textures is Nikolina Otrzan. Mostly, she’s just a texture fiend but you’ll notice that her textures generally have a certain uniformity to them that automatically makes them feel that they would be man-made in origin, whether they were intended to or not. Even her shapes, like these tube pieces, reflect a penchant for uniformity that is beautifully balanced with her choice of rough or edge softening surface treatments.
So has this got you pondering the possibilities of man-made forms and textures as a source of inspiration for you? I know I’ve been looking at the shapes in my house, the walls in the neighborhood, and the forms on the buildings I pass with new eyes.
Going for Man-made
Freebies
If you want to try a few man-made inspired textures or forms, there are quite a few out there although the quick and free were a bit more scarce. Nonetheless, here are a few pages with related free tutorials. You’ll want to pop the last two URLs into Google translate if it doesn’t automatically translate for you:
- Faux ceramics tutorial.
- Faux Peruvian fabric.
- There are actually a lot of steampunk tuts you can find with any search but here is a fun Steampunk Seahorse.
Tutorial Shops
Your best sources of tutorial with man-made inspiration are going to cost a couple of bucks, but are well worth it. Here are some of my favorite shops for this:
- Anything from Nikolina Otrzan‘s shop is just fabulous.
- Angela Barenholtz has beautiful fabric techniques to share.
- If you really just want to get more graphical, you can’t beat tutorials from Bettina Welker.
A Bit o’ News
And now for a few tidbits about things going on in the polymer community you might want to know about:
Vote for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards!
The International Polymer Clay Association member voting is now open through March 8. Active members should have received an email with a link for your ballot. If your membership has expired please renew at www.theipca.org before March 8, 2019 so that you may vote for your favorites.
Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes Online Courses
Dan and Tracy have recently announced the lineup for their 2019 online Master Classes. Check out the present information and sign up for future announcements on their website here.
Polymer Journeys 2019 has been released!
- Our latest publication, the second installment of the Polymer Journeys retrospective series was released this morning in digital format for those who purchased early or otherwise supported the project. (It was noon PST time if you need to search your inbox or your spam folder if not there.)
- Print Pre-orders (ordered prior to Feb 27th) will go into the mail a little later than we had hoped but will be shipped directly from the printer on March 6. Our shipment should be our doorstep March 8, so newer orders will ship out as soon as we have them in our hot little hands. Buy yours here if you haven’t yet. (We’ve already sold half our print run so don’t wait too long!)
- BOGO Half Off! We’ve added special package pricing for the new book … Purchase both the 2016 and 2019 edition of Polymer Journeys with half off the 2016 book, or get both the print and digital edition of the new 2019 book with half off the digital. No promo code needed. Packages available here when you click on the Polymer Journeys book cover here.
- The Polymer Arts Collection on sale for HALF off! Purchases the whole collection of The Polymer Arts and get HALF off the entire package – all 29 Digital issues or the 23 Print issues we still have available. If you want to collect them, now would be the time!
Until next week, have an inspired and creative Sunday and upcoming week!
Read MoreFirst, a quick announcement … the new Polymer Journeys 2019 book is now available for pre-orders!
As usual, we offer a HUGE discount for pre-ordering: $7 off the print edition cover price and $4 off the digital edition. So jump to our website to pre-order this great tome of beautiful polymer art with artist’s insights into their work as well as a historical retrospective that we hope will help continue to elevate how people see polymer in the art world and beyond.
Now onto a Bevy of Bezels …
What is your favorite kind of polymer bezel setting? Would you say you even have one? Let’s be honest, when it comes to bezels do most of us really give them a lot of thought? Some people really do but I think for many of us, when we do create one, it is probably not much more than a functional element we need in order to hold and maybe frame a stone or focal element. So, I thought this week we would take a look at what else you could do and where you can take the functional, and often essential, bezel.
Like any other element on your jewelry that can be seen, a bezel is a part of the piece’s design and so their form and finish should be quite consciously decided, which means, with polymer clay there’s a tremendous range of things that can be done with it. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with the bezel been simple and primarily functional, as long as it makes sense for the design.
That said, let’s get to the interesting point … there is so much you can do with bezels and bezel style settings in polymer clay! I could yammer on and on about all the things you can do but I think it’s better to just show you. Make notes and start considering what you do with the clay that holds in the focal pieces on your creations and how you can expand on it.
A World of Bezels
One of my favorite bezel-ers, Chris Kapono, has the most wide-ranging ways to hold down a stone with polymer. Her tile and home decor pieces are also a great examples of how bezels can be used for pieces other than jewelry. She has many more tricks up her sleeve in this regards as seen on her Flickr photostream and in her Etsy shop.
Susan Waddington has always been one of my favorite polymer bezel makers. Her bezels are almost always black but are formed into pretty much anything but a basic square or circle and they are textured and inset with additional embellishments to work with the focal piece. This one may be a decade old but it is still inspiring as is her entire collection shown on her Flickr page. I don’t think she does much polymer any more so you have to scroll down past her paintings although looking through them is no hardship either.
A bezel can also be made from individual bits, all lined up. As seen in this pendant by Elsie Smith. The setting around this bezel continues the radiating lines that those lined up little squares start around the gem.
A bezel does not have to be symmetrical, continuous, sit with the stone or focal point straightforward or even completely surround what it’s holding. These pendants by Switzerland’s Chandani of ChaNoJa Jewerly on Etsy give you a few examples of non-traditional bezel settings with polymer.
And don’t be afraid to consider creating, or having a metalsmith create, metal bezels to put your polymer clay creations into. Making her own custom precious metal bezel settings is standard for Grace Stokes’ beautiful jewelry as seen here.
The How-Tos of Polymer Bezeling
Now, if you’ve not created polymer bezels before, or you would like a refresher or some jump-start, hands-on ideas, there quite a number of tutorials and such that you can reference.
Here’s a super quick way to make a bezel that works especially well for small round stones and crystals.
- Roll up a ball of clay about the width of the stone you want to set
- Press the ball flat but not too thin then press the stone or crystal into it.
- Gently push the sides of the clay in towards the stone so that the clay sits up around its edges and holds it in. At this point it can be further embellished with powders.
- Then just scoop it off your work surface using a blade and place it on your piece, maybe with just a tiny touch of liquid polymer to guarantee its adhesion.
- You can embellish it further here too. Just impress dots or lines into it with a needle tool, being careful not to move the clay away from the stone’s edge and lose its grip on it.
That’s it! It’s a super quick and easy bezel. It can be used on other shapes besides round too. You just have to shape the clay to the same size and shape as the stone before you press it into the clay.
By the way, you can see this quick set bezel and how I often use them in Issue #1 of The Polymer Studio in my tutorial, “Shimmering Scenery Pendants”. That same tutorial also shows you how to make an easy polymer clay frame which can readily be used as a bezel setting in addition to the techniques use for frame setting surface treated polymer sheets. Get your issue or a subscription if you don’t have it already. Single issues are only $7.95 in print, $5.95 digital, and that’s for eight detailed tutorials plus other fantastic articles. Can’t even buy one tutorial for that!
For a polymer bezel similar to traditional metalsmithing bezels, take a look at Tina Holden’s tutorial on her blog here. She shares her basic bezel and then some ways to embellish that are very easy to do but give the bezels a very rich look.
For a dainty frame bezel frame with filigree, there is this classic filigree tutorial here. If you stop after the first rim is placed on and cured, you have a bezel frame for cabochons or cut polymer sheets. But the filigree stuff is fun if you have the patience for it. The text’s English may sound a little wonky because it will be translated but it’s worth trying nonetheless.
If you want, or need, to create bezels quickly, you might want to look into purchasing Cabezel molds from Shades of Clay. These molds allow you to create a frame and a perfectly fitting cabochon for it in seconds. Once you have the basic frame molded you can expand on the setting in the area beyond the bezel frame or embellish the bezel itself so although it’s a mold, it has a lot of room for customization. Shades of Clay is a great resource for all kinds of unique polymer related supplies as well. (Keep in mind, this is a Canadian retailer, so the pricing is in Canadian dollars although Wendy does ship via USPS. To estimate what it will be in US dollars, deduct about 25%.)
Got Bezels?
Do you have any great bezels of your own? Or are you aware of any other great tutorials for polymer bezels? Leave links and comments in the comment section below. If you get the this by email click here to leave a comment. Myself and many a reader here would love to see more.
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Conceptual art can be about anything that isn’t literal or tangible. Abstract art seeks to represent an idea or emotion or, like in this fantastical teapot here, both.
On Pinterest, somewhere along the way, someone made a note saying this is about Israel, and I feel pretty confident that is right although I can’t find a source for that comment. But Yudit Yitzhaki, the creator of this amazing bit of decorative art, lives in Israel, and this is not the first time we’ve seen such a vibrant representation of the country. Last year we had a post about wall art by Joan Israel that also depicted a fondness for this part of the world, with similarly bright colors and busy scenery. I do love that it’s on a teapot, of all things. Teapots conjure up thoughts of comfort and warmth and a quiet afternoon taking in the scenes outside our window. So it’s perfect that Yudit’s fond imagery is on something many of us associate with that kind of emotion.
Yudit’s work is full of joy and a sense of fondness for color, energy and positive imagery. She doesn’t do only conceptual art but also functional pieces of jewelry. You do see in her work a focus on capturing an atmosphere or emotion, rather than just a purely decorative drive. Take a look for yourself on her Flickr photostream.
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