The Complexity of Time

November 29, 2017

In my search for clock inspiration, I veered a bit off the polymer path, but then again, I kept running into pieces that I thought were polymer but were not. Of course, pieces like this splendid celestial clock by Natalya Polekh could be created in a very similar fashion with polymer. Large textured sheets and fun with alcohol inks and mica powders could produce similarly stunning results so I took a  closer look.

Natalya looks to be a well-known mixed media artist in Eastern Europe and Russia and when I say mixed, I mean all kinds of things. Her primary materials look to be various types of acrylic paint, dimensional and pearling paints, 3D gel, embossing paste, and glass and metal accents of different types. She works in texture, mosaics and layered media that is applied in such a way that knowing the materials is rather superfluous. She creates a beautiful complexity of texture and motif with shine and shimmer applied in abundance but always in a tasteful and often intriguing manner.

She does much more than clocks although she has done quite few of them. Take a look at her shop for more clock and textural ideas as well as very well priced tutorials on how she creates this work.  Her VK.com page has more images.

 

Quality of Line

November 24, 2017

I thought I’d continue to keep it simple this week and still talk a little about line, the theme of the latest issue of The Polymer Arts that came out last weekend.

This simple pendant by Yuliya Zharova uses two elements to tell a story—line and dots. The form of the people here is nothing more thank tall lines with a variation in thick and thin. The dots on the top of this line make up the heads, and the small dots and large gold one somehow become stars and a moon. It’s quite amazing how much can be shown with so little detail. But lines, in particular, can do that. It is a nice reminder of how little we really have to put down to get our viewers to see what we have to convey.

It is also a nice reminder that line has characteristics and qualities of its own. They do not always have to be even. The way the line is formed can convey imagery, as we see here, or emotion. The articles on design and the technique tutorials on using lines and dots and soutache to create emotion and texture will help fill in more on those ideas when you get to reading our latest issue.

Yuliya’s compositions are almost all some variation online and dots and are all lovely in their understated design. See more of her work in her Etsy shop, Wild Onion Art.

 

Tenderly Organic

July 21, 2017

We are going through the final stages of emptying the family home this weekend and I must rush off to get working on that but wanted to leave you with one more organic and unusual piece to contemplate.

I suppose you can’t really say that this composition is so unusual. The side focal thing in necklaces is nothing new but can you tell that the flowers in leaves are neither real nor made of anything like polymer? These are actually created from leather which is certainly part of why it has such a soft look to it, one that might be hard–although not impossible–for polymer to recreate.

The leather work is so realistic, however, and the palette restricted to a very realistic leaf green and pale peach makes for a beautiful and tender look. I was thinking this even before I saw that  Viola of the Viola Wizard shop on Live Master named it “Tender Age.” Just seems very fitting for the stroll down memory lane that will sure to be a large part of my weekend.

So off to join the family. But you can enjoy more of Viola’s work in her Live Master shop.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Give yourself permission to make something personally meaningful, something that you put time and effort into that has nothing to do with making a sale, creating the perfect gift, or impressing others. Make it knowing no one else will see it and the only person you are trying to impress is yourself.  See where your personal passion takes you.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.

    The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front   Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog

_________________________________________

Fiber Arts Inspiration–Rough Soutache

April 14, 2014

I have meet a lot of polymer artists who had, and usually  still have, a love affair with fiber and fabrics. I think it must be the similar breadth of possibility in color and textures found in fiber arts that attract polymer artists to it as well. So, it’s no surprise that many polymer artists look to fiber arts as inspiration for their work. There seems to be quite a bit showing up online lately so this week we’ll focus on fiber and fabric based inspirations.

Driven by what she learned in a tutorial by Alenyà Vitûgovoj,  Tanya Mayorova used her ragged edge technique to add more texture to a faux soutache process. At first glance, I was certain this piece was actually fiber art as the ragged edge gives the soutache the look of handspun thread. The choice to use a textured edge instead of the extruded polymer snakes in the tutorial was genius. The effect of the ragged edge along with the deep forest palette and the light sheen of Czech glass pearls makes for an enchanting pendant.

9a221b1f683a41941fafd7e2d3f84599

Tanya is quite the texture maven, inspired by a wide variety of other craft arts and their textural approach. Browse through her Live Journal pages and her Live Master shop which is just brimming with her lovely polymer creations.

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Millefiori eggs   14P1 cover Fnl

Skillfully Decorative Folds

April 2, 2014

We featured some of  Zuzana Liptáková‘s earrings constructed from folded polymer shapes last year. She keeps improving her designs with little extra touches. The little leaves, dot accents and color combination here, add to the overall design and give a dancing effect to her creations. She makes flowers with flat shapes by stacking them in detail patterns.

7124186363_26d5125e99_o

Take a look at her website and her Flickr pages for more views of her work.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Tiny Folded Boxes

April 1, 2014

If you’ve read your latest issue of The Polymer Arts, then the article on packaging might come to mind when you see today’s piece. The necklace is like a series of tiny boxes, folded from polymer rather than paper, as seen in the article’s opening image.

Winne Poh’s necklace was originally featured on Polymer Clay Daily a couple years back but it is such a great example of what can be done with folded polymer that I just couldn’t help but share it again. Even the technical aspect of the stringing of the beads is taken care of by the openness of the folded over polymer. It’s quite clever.

cSU0ohLFYo0

Winnie is another one of our polymer clay explorers. She lives in Russia where she plays with a wide variety of forms and approaches to polymer. She has a rather fun blog featuring all kinds of creative projects, not just her own. Take a little break today and explore her creativity and views on her blog.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Organic Grace

March 18, 2014

This combination of organic plant and stone texture comes across as rather luscious and graceful. This creative bracelet by Russian artist, Evgeny Alexandrov, is an ode to the vivacity of natural elements. This bracelet design mirrors the feel of the rocks and the velvety moss that covers them. The succulent looking plants are fashioned with smooth surfaces, while the rock and the moss offer an enticing contrast to the tactile nature of the surfaces.

4591968418-ukrasheniya-braslet-zhivoj-kamen-n1217

Evgeny’s work is full of luscious organic forms and the tactile textures. You can admire more of her work in her online shop.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Color Randomness Extruded

February 9, 2014

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!

5581588418_91e220ce76

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Let Them Fall Where They May

February 7, 2014

Olga Permjakova‘s work is all about randomness, a collection of colors and shapes … This Russian artist gives the bib necklace a contemporary modern edge with her use of geometric shapes and textured colors. Notice how the randomness of all of the shapes build on one another and the individual shapes give the necklace a happy, playful attitude. They are wired together as a piece that makes an exciting necklace or it could even be a piece of wall art. The power of the design allows it to stand alone on its own.

dad5131552-ukrasheniya-ozhidanie-2-n0143

Olga shares, “I like to create extraordinary jewelry and individual things for special women.” She does not like to repeat any of her work; each custom piece is unique and the only one like it in the world. She likes to design and make jewelry using polymer, natural pearls, stones, pressed paper, leather, fur, wool, Swarovski components, wood, fabric, Japanese seed beads, glass, and other mixed media for her creations. Visit her website to see more of her work and to be inspired by this artist!

 

Thank you for supporting The Polymer Arts projects! Your purchases support the magazine, this blog and our upcoming “Best of” and “Workshop” books. To get even more out of our projects, subscribeget our newsletter (see form on the left side of our home page), and follow us on Facebook.  

Cover 13-P4 web   PCW blue string art cane   WhimsicalBead051512

The Complexity of Time

November 29, 2017
Posted in

In my search for clock inspiration, I veered a bit off the polymer path, but then again, I kept running into pieces that I thought were polymer but were not. Of course, pieces like this splendid celestial clock by Natalya Polekh could be created in a very similar fashion with polymer. Large textured sheets and fun with alcohol inks and mica powders could produce similarly stunning results so I took a  closer look.

Natalya looks to be a well-known mixed media artist in Eastern Europe and Russia and when I say mixed, I mean all kinds of things. Her primary materials look to be various types of acrylic paint, dimensional and pearling paints, 3D gel, embossing paste, and glass and metal accents of different types. She works in texture, mosaics and layered media that is applied in such a way that knowing the materials is rather superfluous. She creates a beautiful complexity of texture and motif with shine and shimmer applied in abundance but always in a tasteful and often intriguing manner.

She does much more than clocks although she has done quite few of them. Take a look at her shop for more clock and textural ideas as well as very well priced tutorials on how she creates this work.  Her VK.com page has more images.

 

Read More

Quality of Line

November 24, 2017
Posted in

I thought I’d continue to keep it simple this week and still talk a little about line, the theme of the latest issue of The Polymer Arts that came out last weekend.

This simple pendant by Yuliya Zharova uses two elements to tell a story—line and dots. The form of the people here is nothing more thank tall lines with a variation in thick and thin. The dots on the top of this line make up the heads, and the small dots and large gold one somehow become stars and a moon. It’s quite amazing how much can be shown with so little detail. But lines, in particular, can do that. It is a nice reminder of how little we really have to put down to get our viewers to see what we have to convey.

It is also a nice reminder that line has characteristics and qualities of its own. They do not always have to be even. The way the line is formed can convey imagery, as we see here, or emotion. The articles on design and the technique tutorials on using lines and dots and soutache to create emotion and texture will help fill in more on those ideas when you get to reading our latest issue.

Yuliya’s compositions are almost all some variation online and dots and are all lovely in their understated design. See more of her work in her Etsy shop, Wild Onion Art.

 

Read More

Tenderly Organic

July 21, 2017
Posted in

We are going through the final stages of emptying the family home this weekend and I must rush off to get working on that but wanted to leave you with one more organic and unusual piece to contemplate.

I suppose you can’t really say that this composition is so unusual. The side focal thing in necklaces is nothing new but can you tell that the flowers in leaves are neither real nor made of anything like polymer? These are actually created from leather which is certainly part of why it has such a soft look to it, one that might be hard–although not impossible–for polymer to recreate.

The leather work is so realistic, however, and the palette restricted to a very realistic leaf green and pale peach makes for a beautiful and tender look. I was thinking this even before I saw that  Viola of the Viola Wizard shop on Live Master named it “Tender Age.” Just seems very fitting for the stroll down memory lane that will sure to be a large part of my weekend.

So off to join the family. But you can enjoy more of Viola’s work in her Live Master shop.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Give yourself permission to make something personally meaningful, something that you put time and effort into that has nothing to do with making a sale, creating the perfect gift, or impressing others. Make it knowing no one else will see it and the only person you are trying to impress is yourself.  See where your personal passion takes you.

_________________________________________

Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.

    The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front   Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog

_________________________________________

Read More

Fiber Arts Inspiration–Rough Soutache

April 14, 2014
Posted in

I have meet a lot of polymer artists who had, and usually  still have, a love affair with fiber and fabrics. I think it must be the similar breadth of possibility in color and textures found in fiber arts that attract polymer artists to it as well. So, it’s no surprise that many polymer artists look to fiber arts as inspiration for their work. There seems to be quite a bit showing up online lately so this week we’ll focus on fiber and fabric based inspirations.

Driven by what she learned in a tutorial by Alenyà Vitûgovoj,  Tanya Mayorova used her ragged edge technique to add more texture to a faux soutache process. At first glance, I was certain this piece was actually fiber art as the ragged edge gives the soutache the look of handspun thread. The choice to use a textured edge instead of the extruded polymer snakes in the tutorial was genius. The effect of the ragged edge along with the deep forest palette and the light sheen of Czech glass pearls makes for an enchanting pendant.

9a221b1f683a41941fafd7e2d3f84599

Tanya is quite the texture maven, inspired by a wide variety of other craft arts and their textural approach. Browse through her Live Journal pages and her Live Master shop which is just brimming with her lovely polymer creations.

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Millefiori eggs   14P1 cover Fnl

Read More

Skillfully Decorative Folds

April 2, 2014
Posted in

We featured some of  Zuzana Liptáková‘s earrings constructed from folded polymer shapes last year. She keeps improving her designs with little extra touches. The little leaves, dot accents and color combination here, add to the overall design and give a dancing effect to her creations. She makes flowers with flat shapes by stacking them in detail patterns.

7124186363_26d5125e99_o

Take a look at her website and her Flickr pages for more views of her work.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Read More

Tiny Folded Boxes

April 1, 2014
Posted in

If you’ve read your latest issue of The Polymer Arts, then the article on packaging might come to mind when you see today’s piece. The necklace is like a series of tiny boxes, folded from polymer rather than paper, as seen in the article’s opening image.

Winne Poh’s necklace was originally featured on Polymer Clay Daily a couple years back but it is such a great example of what can be done with folded polymer that I just couldn’t help but share it again. Even the technical aspect of the stringing of the beads is taken care of by the openness of the folded over polymer. It’s quite clever.

cSU0ohLFYo0

Winnie is another one of our polymer clay explorers. She lives in Russia where she plays with a wide variety of forms and approaches to polymer. She has a rather fun blog featuring all kinds of creative projects, not just her own. Take a little break today and explore her creativity and views on her blog.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Read More

Organic Grace

March 18, 2014
Posted in

This combination of organic plant and stone texture comes across as rather luscious and graceful. This creative bracelet by Russian artist, Evgeny Alexandrov, is an ode to the vivacity of natural elements. This bracelet design mirrors the feel of the rocks and the velvety moss that covers them. The succulent looking plants are fashioned with smooth surfaces, while the rock and the moss offer an enticing contrast to the tactile nature of the surfaces.

4591968418-ukrasheniya-braslet-zhivoj-kamen-n1217

Evgeny’s work is full of luscious organic forms and the tactile textures. You can admire more of her work in her online shop.

 

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Read More

Color Randomness Extruded

February 9, 2014
Posted in

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!

5581588418_91e220ce76

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.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Read More

Let Them Fall Where They May

February 7, 2014
Posted in

Olga Permjakova‘s work is all about randomness, a collection of colors and shapes … This Russian artist gives the bib necklace a contemporary modern edge with her use of geometric shapes and textured colors. Notice how the randomness of all of the shapes build on one another and the individual shapes give the necklace a happy, playful attitude. They are wired together as a piece that makes an exciting necklace or it could even be a piece of wall art. The power of the design allows it to stand alone on its own.

dad5131552-ukrasheniya-ozhidanie-2-n0143

Olga shares, “I like to create extraordinary jewelry and individual things for special women.” She does not like to repeat any of her work; each custom piece is unique and the only one like it in the world. She likes to design and make jewelry using polymer, natural pearls, stones, pressed paper, leather, fur, wool, Swarovski components, wood, fabric, Japanese seed beads, glass, and other mixed media for her creations. Visit her website to see more of her work and to be inspired by this artist!

 

Thank you for supporting The Polymer Arts projects! Your purchases support the magazine, this blog and our upcoming “Best of” and “Workshop” books. To get even more out of our projects, subscribeget our newsletter (see form on the left side of our home page), and follow us on Facebook.  

Cover 13-P4 web   PCW blue string art cane   WhimsicalBead051512

Read More
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