An Original Image All the Way
September 18, 2015
Inspirational Art
You know what I’d love to see more of in image transfers? Your own 2D imagery displayed and framed in a beautiful polymer setting. How wonderful to see your own doodles, zentangles, photographs, collages, digital art or even just your do-over of some other images. I just love to see people’s individual expression in every aspect of what they create. It really tells you something intimate and revealing about the individual behind the work. Yes, the choice of images bought, borrowed with permission or used under Creative Commons copyright and the like does say something about the artist too, but there is nothing like original imagery. It’s like the difference between reading a typed letter and one that is handwritten. There is simply so much more of that person in what you see before you.
So of all the ways to use image transfer, this approach is by far my favorite. This pendant here by Lauren Abrams uses the image of a painting she herself did. I find it fascinating that she chose this dark and empty chair to use as a focal piece in a pendant that, in contrast, is so celebratory and bright in its choice of colors and form. It actually changes the way you would see the painting, going from lonely and quiet to hopeful or reminiscent of joyful days gone by. And, Lauren really shows us just how much fun and creativity can go into creating the framework for our image transfers. In any case, all the choices made here were made by Lauren and no one else. That makes for a very interesting piece.
Even if you don’t draw or paint, you can add your own imagery. From photographs of people or textures to colored pencil on a simple line drawing to collage work done digitally or by hand and photographed, you have a way to show people what you see through your own eyes. Isn’t that so very cool? So next time you consider doing an image transfer, maybe you can use imagery of your own or alter someone else’s that you have the right to reproduce. We really do want to see what you have to express!
I couldn’t find any recent websites or work for Lauren, but you can visit her Flickr page for a few more pieces like this plus just some wonderfully well finished and whimsical pieces Lauren created a few years back.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Image Transfer as Pure Surface Design
September 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
Here is another thought about the use of image transfer. Instead of making the image transfer the focal point of a piece, why not integrate it into the design so that it reflects, and is reflected in, the other elements that surround it. Using image transfers with the attitude that it is simply another form of surface design to be cut, formed, or otherwise manipulated may open up a much wider variety of possibilities in the way you might use them.
This whimsically formed bracelet by Connie Castle is such a wonderful example of this. You don’t think about this being an image transfer at first, if at all. The lines in the transfers are mirrored in the lines of the wire work around it, and the curved and free form shapes those lines create extend to the way each panel is shaped. It all works together so well that you could easily just sit back and admire the piece without a thought as to how it was created. Okay, well, many of us would eventually ask ourselves how the images were made, but that question is secondary to simply enjoying the look of it. And don’t you love the interruption of the panel set with that open work focal bead section? It’s like a bridge in a song after several stanzas, giving us a moment to pause as well as being a way to add dramatic contrast in the composition of the piece.
Connie doesn’t stop with simply working to integrate her transfers into her designs, she also enhances the images transfers with paint which is a great way to take paler images or black and white laser prints and create your own color palette to make them so much more your own thing.
This is one of Connie’s two favorite methods for creating her art jewelry. She also works heavily in calico fabrics, which may give us a good hint as to why she followed this particular approach. You can find her work and more ideas for expanding on the possibilities of image transfers gracing the pages of her Etsy shop.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Altered Image Transfers
September 14, 2015
Inspirational Art
Over the last year or so, there seems to be some resurgence in image transfer techniques, which is why we did the image transfer tutorial in the 2015 fall issue. It’s also something I had been playing with quite a bit, but not in the direct way we often see it–in perfect replication on a square or other geometric form and hung as a pendant. There is nothing at all wrong with this form, but with all the ways the transfer could be done, there seems like something was missing when the image has not been altered, added to, manipulated or colored in some fashion. The chance to add one’s own bit of expression and highlight why they liked the image is absent. Unless the image is the artist’s own creation, the image transfer–borrowed from some creative commons license imagery or bought from a digital image repository or other supplier–is just highlighting work that belongs to someone else.
I think the reason the unaltered image is so prevalent is because, for one, the images chosen usually look beautiful on their own, but more importantly, there aren’t a lot of examples out there showing what else can be done with them. My explorations in this are, for the most part, not ready for prime time, but there are others out there using image transfer as a means of self-expression or an expression of their aesthetics that I thought might help get the ball rolling for some of you.
This piece is actually a half-dozen years old, but Irene MacKinnon took the image transfers just a couple of steps beyond the simple image pendant by creating a collage of images. Whether she was able to do multiple transfers on the same sheet of clay, used a stack of liquid polymer transfer skins or created the collection of images on the computer so it printed out ready to transfer as one image, I can’t say. The thing we do know is that this composition of images has something to say and to draw us in, making us look past the technique to what the whole piece has to convey.
Irene’s recent work plays more with the form upon which her transfers are used, but there are still quite a few examples where the technique is taken step further than we often see it. Check out her album of photo transfers and see how the altered images pop out of the collection and hold your attention far quicker and longer than the basic pieces she also has there to share.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Outside Inspiration: The Art of the Doodle
January 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
So yesterday I brought you a wire artist who got into carving rubber stamps. Did the carving idea pique your interest? I think the hardest part of carving a stamp is not going to be the carving itself but deciding on a pattern to carve. How do you come up with stamp design ideas? Well, besides copying someone else’s patterns or designs — which would negate the point of creating your own original stamps — you can find your own personal patterns by doing something you probably did a lot as a kid or as a bored teenager in class. You can doodle.
Doodling is not as pointless and aimless as it might seem. It is really a translation of what is going on in your subconscious or, or it’s an expression of your mind’s reaction to what you see and hear around you. If you are doodling without a preconceived idea of what you are drawing, especially while otherwise occupied (such as being on hold during a phone call or listening to a lecture), the doodling can create a very personal design and set of patterns pulled from subconscious thoughts.
A recent doodling-related development is the Zentangle which uses repeated patterns and lines to lend your doodling direction. The original Zentagle method includes a series of rules, such as drawing only in 3.5 inch squares, only drawing in pen so you can’t erase and only drawing abstract designs. So it’s not quite doodling, but it can result in similarly personal designs. A lot of people have expanded on the Zentangle idea, throwing many rules out the window and developing cool abstract art like the Zentangle doodle you see here, by illustrator Angel Van Dam. Her doodles are a bit more organized and purposeful than your standard notepad doodle but aren’t standard Zentangling either. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how you approach it –doodle loose and randomly, mark off the 3.5 inch square to Zentangle in, or use a contractor to draw concentric circles, as Angel did for this illustration, and fill it in as you like.
And why should you want to doodle? Because it can offer so much for your polymer play! Use doodles or Zentangles to create the patterns for your carved rubber stamps. Doodle with colored pencils, and use it as an image transfer onto clay. Use the patterns, imagery or colors to inspire or directly design a polymer piece from.
Doodling is also thought to help you problem-solve so, if you hit a creative block, stop and listen to some music, a book on tape or podcast, and then just doodle away! The solution to your creative work can then bubble to the surface, or you may find a whole new idea there in front of you. No matter what, it is no waste of time. The other thing about doodling that has been discovered through clinical studies is that it reduces stress and can make you more aware and mindful. So doodle for your well-being as well as for your art!
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.
Color Randomness Extruded
February 9, 2014
Technique tutorials
I know this artist, Anna Kokareva (aka Annie Bimur), intended this to be a mini-tutorial for open beads but this would, rather obviously, be a great way to make interesting frames for polymer cabochons, image transfers and resin (backing the open frame with polymer before pouring the resin). I know I am harkening back to last week’s theme but put the last two weeks together and you get wonderfully random colored frames!
This type of frame would be relatively easy to make with an extruder. Select the colors of clays, extrude the strips, press into molds or form by hand, and layer as desired to make your frames. It would be fun to experiment with this process and see what you can come up with.
This same Russian artist has a cute polymer picture frame and a framed lid to a box on her live journal website.
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.
You know what I’d love to see more of in image transfers? Your own 2D imagery displayed and framed in a beautiful polymer setting. How wonderful to see your own doodles, zentangles, photographs, collages, digital art or even just your do-over of some other images. I just love to see people’s individual expression in every aspect of what they create. It really tells you something intimate and revealing about the individual behind the work. Yes, the choice of images bought, borrowed with permission or used under Creative Commons copyright and the like does say something about the artist too, but there is nothing like original imagery. It’s like the difference between reading a typed letter and one that is handwritten. There is simply so much more of that person in what you see before you.
So of all the ways to use image transfer, this approach is by far my favorite. This pendant here by Lauren Abrams uses the image of a painting she herself did. I find it fascinating that she chose this dark and empty chair to use as a focal piece in a pendant that, in contrast, is so celebratory and bright in its choice of colors and form. It actually changes the way you would see the painting, going from lonely and quiet to hopeful or reminiscent of joyful days gone by. And, Lauren really shows us just how much fun and creativity can go into creating the framework for our image transfers. In any case, all the choices made here were made by Lauren and no one else. That makes for a very interesting piece.
Even if you don’t draw or paint, you can add your own imagery. From photographs of people or textures to colored pencil on a simple line drawing to collage work done digitally or by hand and photographed, you have a way to show people what you see through your own eyes. Isn’t that so very cool? So next time you consider doing an image transfer, maybe you can use imagery of your own or alter someone else’s that you have the right to reproduce. We really do want to see what you have to express!
I couldn’t find any recent websites or work for Lauren, but you can visit her Flickr page for a few more pieces like this plus just some wonderfully well finished and whimsical pieces Lauren created a few years back.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Here is another thought about the use of image transfer. Instead of making the image transfer the focal point of a piece, why not integrate it into the design so that it reflects, and is reflected in, the other elements that surround it. Using image transfers with the attitude that it is simply another form of surface design to be cut, formed, or otherwise manipulated may open up a much wider variety of possibilities in the way you might use them.
This whimsically formed bracelet by Connie Castle is such a wonderful example of this. You don’t think about this being an image transfer at first, if at all. The lines in the transfers are mirrored in the lines of the wire work around it, and the curved and free form shapes those lines create extend to the way each panel is shaped. It all works together so well that you could easily just sit back and admire the piece without a thought as to how it was created. Okay, well, many of us would eventually ask ourselves how the images were made, but that question is secondary to simply enjoying the look of it. And don’t you love the interruption of the panel set with that open work focal bead section? It’s like a bridge in a song after several stanzas, giving us a moment to pause as well as being a way to add dramatic contrast in the composition of the piece.
Connie doesn’t stop with simply working to integrate her transfers into her designs, she also enhances the images transfers with paint which is a great way to take paler images or black and white laser prints and create your own color palette to make them so much more your own thing.
This is one of Connie’s two favorite methods for creating her art jewelry. She also works heavily in calico fabrics, which may give us a good hint as to why she followed this particular approach. You can find her work and more ideas for expanding on the possibilities of image transfers gracing the pages of her Etsy shop.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Read More
Over the last year or so, there seems to be some resurgence in image transfer techniques, which is why we did the image transfer tutorial in the 2015 fall issue. It’s also something I had been playing with quite a bit, but not in the direct way we often see it–in perfect replication on a square or other geometric form and hung as a pendant. There is nothing at all wrong with this form, but with all the ways the transfer could be done, there seems like something was missing when the image has not been altered, added to, manipulated or colored in some fashion. The chance to add one’s own bit of expression and highlight why they liked the image is absent. Unless the image is the artist’s own creation, the image transfer–borrowed from some creative commons license imagery or bought from a digital image repository or other supplier–is just highlighting work that belongs to someone else.
I think the reason the unaltered image is so prevalent is because, for one, the images chosen usually look beautiful on their own, but more importantly, there aren’t a lot of examples out there showing what else can be done with them. My explorations in this are, for the most part, not ready for prime time, but there are others out there using image transfer as a means of self-expression or an expression of their aesthetics that I thought might help get the ball rolling for some of you.
This piece is actually a half-dozen years old, but Irene MacKinnon took the image transfers just a couple of steps beyond the simple image pendant by creating a collage of images. Whether she was able to do multiple transfers on the same sheet of clay, used a stack of liquid polymer transfer skins or created the collection of images on the computer so it printed out ready to transfer as one image, I can’t say. The thing we do know is that this composition of images has something to say and to draw us in, making us look past the technique to what the whole piece has to convey.
Irene’s recent work plays more with the form upon which her transfers are used, but there are still quite a few examples where the technique is taken step further than we often see it. Check out her album of photo transfers and see how the altered images pop out of the collection and hold your attention far quicker and longer than the basic pieces she also has there to share.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
So yesterday I brought you a wire artist who got into carving rubber stamps. Did the carving idea pique your interest? I think the hardest part of carving a stamp is not going to be the carving itself but deciding on a pattern to carve. How do you come up with stamp design ideas? Well, besides copying someone else’s patterns or designs — which would negate the point of creating your own original stamps — you can find your own personal patterns by doing something you probably did a lot as a kid or as a bored teenager in class. You can doodle.
Doodling is not as pointless and aimless as it might seem. It is really a translation of what is going on in your subconscious or, or it’s an expression of your mind’s reaction to what you see and hear around you. If you are doodling without a preconceived idea of what you are drawing, especially while otherwise occupied (such as being on hold during a phone call or listening to a lecture), the doodling can create a very personal design and set of patterns pulled from subconscious thoughts.
A recent doodling-related development is the Zentangle which uses repeated patterns and lines to lend your doodling direction. The original Zentagle method includes a series of rules, such as drawing only in 3.5 inch squares, only drawing in pen so you can’t erase and only drawing abstract designs. So it’s not quite doodling, but it can result in similarly personal designs. A lot of people have expanded on the Zentangle idea, throwing many rules out the window and developing cool abstract art like the Zentangle doodle you see here, by illustrator Angel Van Dam. Her doodles are a bit more organized and purposeful than your standard notepad doodle but aren’t standard Zentangling either. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how you approach it –doodle loose and randomly, mark off the 3.5 inch square to Zentangle in, or use a contractor to draw concentric circles, as Angel did for this illustration, and fill it in as you like.
And why should you want to doodle? Because it can offer so much for your polymer play! Use doodles or Zentangles to create the patterns for your carved rubber stamps. Doodle with colored pencils, and use it as an image transfer onto clay. Use the patterns, imagery or colors to inspire or directly design a polymer piece from.
Doodling is also thought to help you problem-solve so, if you hit a creative block, stop and listen to some music, a book on tape or podcast, and then just doodle away! The solution to your creative work can then bubble to the surface, or you may find a whole new idea there in front of you. No matter what, it is no waste of time. The other thing about doodling that has been discovered through clinical studies is that it reduces stress and can make you more aware and mindful. So doodle for your well-being as well as for your art!
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 know this artist, Anna Kokareva (aka Annie Bimur), intended this to be a mini-tutorial for open beads but this would, rather obviously, be a great way to make interesting frames for polymer cabochons, image transfers and resin (backing the open frame with polymer before pouring the resin). I know I am harkening back to last week’s theme but put the last two weeks together and you get wonderfully random colored frames!
This type of frame would be relatively easy to make with an extruder. Select the colors of clays, extrude the strips, press into molds or form by hand, and layer as desired to make your frames. It would be fun to experiment with this process and see what you can come up with.
This same Russian artist has a cute polymer picture frame and a framed lid to a box on her live journal website.
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.
