An Open Pod

October 19, 2013

Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have  a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?

In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.

70025402

The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.

 

Outside Inspiration: Polymer Lends Color to Kauri Wood

October 18, 2013

Today’s featured artwork isn’t completely an outside inspiration since polymer is involved, but the primary material certainly is. I found these pods on the Daily Art Muse blog. They are a collaboration between Kauri woodturning artist Alby Hall and polymer pen artist Toni Ransfield.

hall_edenseed1and2

 

The collaborative work itself is quite beautiful, but in researching for this post I became rather fascinated by the wood itself, its history and the long, arduous process of preparing it. This is no ordinary wood. Kauri trees are among the oldest and biggest tress in the world. The wood Alby uses is actually Ancient Kauri, a wood recovered from swamps in his native New Zealand where the trees had fallen some 45,000 years before. Ancient Kauri is the oldest workable wood in the world and is also considered one of the most difficult to work with, primarily due to the drying and finishing that is required. It is a very soft wood with a tight grain but no sap, since that was dissolved in the swamp waters ages ago. This makes for some very different working characteristics. If you are as fascinated as I am by unusual materials and the processes required to gain and work with them, you’d enjoy reading about this wood on the Ancient Kauri website.

Alby himself doesn’t seem to have a website, but do take a moment to look at his other pod forms on the DAM blog (a blog I very highly recommend you follow if you don’t already). And then stop on over to Toni’s website to see more of Toni’s beautifully caned and finished pieces.

Odd Pods

October 17, 2013

Okay … we’ll take one more look at the many form possibilities of pods. A pod doesn’t have to directly translate to something out in nature. It can be more about the idea of a pod, something carrying or transporting, and the shape may be more about the promise of what’s inside than about the form itself.

Wiwat Kamolpornwijit works quite a bit with modified pod forms and forms that reveal what might be within. This pod necklace is a sample of the pod as a concept rather than literal interpretation.

4d1006ae92b33587eb0d7beec5e3df3d

 

The inside of a pod could look like anything, especially when it’s an exotic pod of your own creation. This mystery allows you to create whatever your imagination might come up with, the way Wiwat has done here. His vision is of some beautiful visual textures with a few seeds peeking out from between the slices, arrayed to define the volume of the pod. These are not like any pods I’ve ever seen, but that is the very beauty of them.

Folded Pods

October 16, 2013

Barbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.

2538279901_143c216e95_z

It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.

 

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The Many Shapes of Pods

October 14, 2013

I have been seeing a lot of pods over the last week or two. Maybe it’s because it’s the Fall season up here in the northern hemisphere, when many plants have matured or given up their flowers to put forth their essential, seed bearing components. When I think of pods, the first things that come to mind are round but elongated forms, maybe larger on one end with the other coming to a point. But that is an extremely narrow image of a pod. In truth, pods come in quite a large variety of shapes.

When speaking of the pods grown in nature, pods can be round or flat, long or squat, smooth or rough, and as small as a pea or so large it takes two hands to hold one. The only defining factor with pods is that they hold something, encasing a collection of possibilities in their many seeds or whatever else might be hidden away within.

That’s why I thought we’d start the week of with an interesting piece that might be described a study of pod varieties. Lori Phillips, who looks to work exclusively in ceramics now, took a detour into polymer a few years back to create this piece.

3641491465_afb1909e24_z

Most of these beads look like they could have been inspired by real versions in nature, although I’m guessing from looking at the free form work elsewhere on Lori’s Flickr page that these all came from her own imagination; but either way, they seem to show a fascination with natural forms.

Why do we see so many pod shapes in polymer? Well, the truth is, we like to to play with all kinds of shapes; it’s just that I get the feeling that we may have a particularly strong affinity for pods. Why do you think that might be? We’ll explore that question while we admire the many pretty variations of the pod form in polymer this week.

An Open Pod

October 19, 2013
Posted in

Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have  a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?

In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.

70025402

The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.

 

Read More

Outside Inspiration: Polymer Lends Color to Kauri Wood

October 18, 2013
Posted in

Today’s featured artwork isn’t completely an outside inspiration since polymer is involved, but the primary material certainly is. I found these pods on the Daily Art Muse blog. They are a collaboration between Kauri woodturning artist Alby Hall and polymer pen artist Toni Ransfield.

hall_edenseed1and2

 

The collaborative work itself is quite beautiful, but in researching for this post I became rather fascinated by the wood itself, its history and the long, arduous process of preparing it. This is no ordinary wood. Kauri trees are among the oldest and biggest tress in the world. The wood Alby uses is actually Ancient Kauri, a wood recovered from swamps in his native New Zealand where the trees had fallen some 45,000 years before. Ancient Kauri is the oldest workable wood in the world and is also considered one of the most difficult to work with, primarily due to the drying and finishing that is required. It is a very soft wood with a tight grain but no sap, since that was dissolved in the swamp waters ages ago. This makes for some very different working characteristics. If you are as fascinated as I am by unusual materials and the processes required to gain and work with them, you’d enjoy reading about this wood on the Ancient Kauri website.

Alby himself doesn’t seem to have a website, but do take a moment to look at his other pod forms on the DAM blog (a blog I very highly recommend you follow if you don’t already). And then stop on over to Toni’s website to see more of Toni’s beautifully caned and finished pieces.

Read More

Odd Pods

October 17, 2013
Posted in

Okay … we’ll take one more look at the many form possibilities of pods. A pod doesn’t have to directly translate to something out in nature. It can be more about the idea of a pod, something carrying or transporting, and the shape may be more about the promise of what’s inside than about the form itself.

Wiwat Kamolpornwijit works quite a bit with modified pod forms and forms that reveal what might be within. This pod necklace is a sample of the pod as a concept rather than literal interpretation.

4d1006ae92b33587eb0d7beec5e3df3d

 

The inside of a pod could look like anything, especially when it’s an exotic pod of your own creation. This mystery allows you to create whatever your imagination might come up with, the way Wiwat has done here. His vision is of some beautiful visual textures with a few seeds peeking out from between the slices, arrayed to define the volume of the pod. These are not like any pods I’ve ever seen, but that is the very beauty of them.

Read More

Folded Pods

October 16, 2013
Posted in

Barbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.

2538279901_143c216e95_z

It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.

 

blog Banner Ad 230x125

Read More

The Many Shapes of Pods

October 14, 2013
Posted in

I have been seeing a lot of pods over the last week or two. Maybe it’s because it’s the Fall season up here in the northern hemisphere, when many plants have matured or given up their flowers to put forth their essential, seed bearing components. When I think of pods, the first things that come to mind are round but elongated forms, maybe larger on one end with the other coming to a point. But that is an extremely narrow image of a pod. In truth, pods come in quite a large variety of shapes.

When speaking of the pods grown in nature, pods can be round or flat, long or squat, smooth or rough, and as small as a pea or so large it takes two hands to hold one. The only defining factor with pods is that they hold something, encasing a collection of possibilities in their many seeds or whatever else might be hidden away within.

That’s why I thought we’d start the week of with an interesting piece that might be described a study of pod varieties. Lori Phillips, who looks to work exclusively in ceramics now, took a detour into polymer a few years back to create this piece.

3641491465_afb1909e24_z

Most of these beads look like they could have been inspired by real versions in nature, although I’m guessing from looking at the free form work elsewhere on Lori’s Flickr page that these all came from her own imagination; but either way, they seem to show a fascination with natural forms.

Why do we see so many pod shapes in polymer? Well, the truth is, we like to to play with all kinds of shapes; it’s just that I get the feeling that we may have a particularly strong affinity for pods. Why do you think that might be? We’ll explore that question while we admire the many pretty variations of the pod form in polymer this week.

Read More
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