Words Going Round

May 23, 2017

Okay, let’s get serious this week. First, a bit of business for readers anxiously awaiting the new issue of The Polymer Arts. The richly packed Color themed Summer edition has had its release date confirmed! Look for digital copies to land in your mailbox on May 30th with print editions all being on the way out from the printer by that day as well.

While we wait for that exciting issue to make its way to us, I thought we’d turn our attention to a few of our more prolific artists whose work is jamming up my lists and Pinterest boards, waiting to be featured.

Nikolina Otrzan has been doing some remarkably sophisticated work with very simple shapes and surface treatments lately. Like these tubes. Tubes with dots. And on the rustic side. Simple but eye-catching in solid, matte colors, these are all about ’round’, with round tubes and round dots and nothing else to distract on the earrings.

On the necklace, there is a distraction in the form of words. Words will always be distracting. Our eyes go straight to them to try and glean their meaning. They are a focal point without having to sit on one point. I love that these are on a round surface so that there is no beginning or end to the imprinted text. There is also no one word or meaning that can be gleaned at a glance so the words are not calling out some obvious message. The necklace also, still stays in the ’round’ theme but there is a more varied energy in the texture of the text, so that it has a more intricate and energized feel to it.

Nikolina’s shop on Etsy is full of inexpensive yet in-depth tutorials on her piece and techniques. If you are looking for something different to play around with this coming week, her tutorials would be a great place to start. For more visual inspiration, take a look at her work on Flickr.

 

_________________________________________

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

_________________________________________

Leaves Dropping

November 25, 2016

b00d89c9ae2c0faa047cd0a2298469ebTo wrap up this week, we’ll look at a last echo of Fall with a little Asian flair.

This delicate imagery was created by Galina Milusenko of Ust’-Ilimsk, Russia. A simple palette of grays  are brought up to a dramatic level with the brightness of scattered red leaves. The leaves that come off the end of the pendant create a beautiful flow into the space beyond the primary canvas. I love when a piece does this, breaking the boundaries of the canvas so it becomes part of the space outside it. It just gives a piece  an extra bit of life.

I’m going to keep this short today. Its been a very busy week and there are a few things left to wrap up the Winter issue. The Winter 2016 issue, themed On the Surface, will be released December 4th. It’s a beautiful issue to finish out a great year. You can pre-order your copy or get a subscription on our website today.

If you want to see more of Galina’s work, take a look at her VK posts.

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

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

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog   never knead -july-2015c-125   The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Crisp and Clean

October 12, 2016

sigaliot-crisp-and-clean-beadSome days you just want simple and bright, something uncomplicated to make you smile. I found this one bead on this foggy Wednesday morning and it gave me an immediate visual pick me up with the beautiful colors and skillfully created and applied canes.

The cane and bead artisan here is Israel’s Sagit Levi. She specializes in bright, clean, well-defined and delightful colors and graphical lines in her beads as well as creating charming illustrative wall art. She also is very attentive to her finishes, completing edges and surfaces so smoothly that her resin and glaze sealants come out flawless, letting those yummy colors shine through.

Need a bit more color pick-me-up yourself? Just jump over to Sagit’s website, Flickr photostream or Etsy site and get yourself an eye full!

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Let color rule your day. Focus on creating a few new color palettes. Start with one color that you really like then stack all kinds of colors next to it and create a new palette that surprises and delights you. If you can’t do that in the studio, you can play with this somewhat new free online color palette finder from Adobe, Color CC,  or try the polymer specific ColorMixr app on your phone.

_________________________________________

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

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  never knead -july-2015c-125   2Wards Blog Sept 2016

The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Halloween Bookmarks

October 30, 2013

Today and tomorrow, we’ll be sharing the cute and creepy-ish in honor of the more lighthearted side of Halloween. Today we’re skipping the design lessons and such for just a bit of fun.

Here we have some easy to make items you can whip together if you have need of a few little gifts for the crew at the office  or party favors for your masquerade bash. This black cat bookmark tutorial is by Finland’s Nelli Kivinen. Cute, functional, and in the spirit of the season.

384652_4424837821881_1571320631_n

You could do basically the same thing (keeping a space at the bottom to slip a card into) with ghost shapes, skulls, witch hats, or anything else you would like to fit the season. You gotta love little gifts that can be given to anyone of almost any age, are gender neutral, and fun to make to boot.

I might make a few suggestions to make things easier and quicker for creating these. One, don’t remove the cardboard from the cat legs when you bake them. In fact, use the exact same card material you will use for the bookmark itself so it fits well and the two sides of the cat legs don’t by chance droop and cure together in the oven. Second, smooth the clay as much as you can before baking so that you won’t have to sand or finish the finished pieces. If you use an acrylic block or other flat, smooth item to roll the cat’s body and head before bending the body shape and pinching out the ears, you should have few if any fingerprints to deal with. Just a few thoughts from a clayer who is all about making it easy!

The Modest and Versatile Dot

August 19, 2013

This week I was thinking of doing something simple and essential while I wrap up the release of the Fall issue, and I thought dots fit the ticket nicely. Dots are such a basic element, and so common in surface design; but when used well, they make pieces anything but common. So let’s examine dots!

Dots–those small, circular, solid-colored surface accents or indentations–are used as focal points, for random surface decoration, to develop perceived line and movement, and, especially with a three-dimensional material like ours, to create intricate and rich textures.  Here is a sampling of the way dots are used by just one jewelry artist in this display of necklaces by Israel’s Elinor Yamin, who quite favors polka dots, beads as dots, directional lines of dots, and dots as focal points for her primarily floral work.

5903591021_852f016893

 

So as we head into our dotty week, think on how you use dots, and we’ll stretch the idea of just how dots can be used to make rich, sophisticated polymer art.

Evoking with Color

August 7, 2013

Our connection to nature is so strong that a set of colors alone can represent the natural and a sense of being outdoors.

Elsie Smith does a  nice job of keeping her colors simple, while still evoking a strong association with nature. The colors we identify with trees, earth, wood, and sunshine come through in the soft, brushstroke-like lines of this subtly designed pendant.

8553038389_f9e6b12ae6

 

The combination of colors is what brings this sense of nature to us. But if the stripes were graphic and well-defined, or if the pendant was a square rather than a soft leaf shape, or if we had a glitzy, faceted gem instead of a water-drop-like cabochon, we’d probably lose that association almost completely. It’s a rare element in art (or in nature) that is not in some way dependent on other characteristics to carry the intention through. So although the right color palette may be key to portraying a sense of organic and natural, don’t forget that every choice you make in your artistic creations has the potential to change the message. Every choice is part of the whole.

 

blog Banner Ad 230x125

Caning in Belarus

August 1, 2013

Here’s an example of something that probably would have founds its way into our themed week on caning if I had been able to search with the right keywords in the right language and alphabet. Anastasyia Arynovich from Belarus creates absolutely beautiful canes and applies them in such a way that you forget about the cane; all you think at first is that she’s created something amazing.

The straight-forward, centered, and symmetrical design of these monochromatic earrings is simply gorgeous. Creating work that is this simple and eye-catching is no small feat. I have tremendous respect for perfectly executed design that uses the most basic concepts. Work like this requires just the right balance, just the right level of intricacies, and some serious skill and patience in construction and finishing.

8621599216_6369be1291

The monochromatic kaleidoscope cane in these earrings is just a single example of the excellent work Anastasyia does. There are many more examples on her Flickr page, so many I couldn’t help but share one more! It’s just red, gray, and white, but isn’t this beautiful?

8404125543_aaa373da12

Go check out her Flickr photostream to see what she does with this cane, along with more of her well-executed work.

 

blog Banner Ad 230x125

Words Going Round

May 23, 2017
Posted in

Okay, let’s get serious this week. First, a bit of business for readers anxiously awaiting the new issue of The Polymer Arts. The richly packed Color themed Summer edition has had its release date confirmed! Look for digital copies to land in your mailbox on May 30th with print editions all being on the way out from the printer by that day as well.

While we wait for that exciting issue to make its way to us, I thought we’d turn our attention to a few of our more prolific artists whose work is jamming up my lists and Pinterest boards, waiting to be featured.

Nikolina Otrzan has been doing some remarkably sophisticated work with very simple shapes and surface treatments lately. Like these tubes. Tubes with dots. And on the rustic side. Simple but eye-catching in solid, matte colors, these are all about ’round’, with round tubes and round dots and nothing else to distract on the earrings.

On the necklace, there is a distraction in the form of words. Words will always be distracting. Our eyes go straight to them to try and glean their meaning. They are a focal point without having to sit on one point. I love that these are on a round surface so that there is no beginning or end to the imprinted text. There is also no one word or meaning that can be gleaned at a glance so the words are not calling out some obvious message. The necklace also, still stays in the ’round’ theme but there is a more varied energy in the texture of the text, so that it has a more intricate and energized feel to it.

Nikolina’s shop on Etsy is full of inexpensive yet in-depth tutorials on her piece and techniques. If you are looking for something different to play around with this coming week, her tutorials would be a great place to start. For more visual inspiration, take a look at her work on Flickr.

 

_________________________________________

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

Leaves Dropping

November 25, 2016
Posted in

b00d89c9ae2c0faa047cd0a2298469ebTo wrap up this week, we’ll look at a last echo of Fall with a little Asian flair.

This delicate imagery was created by Galina Milusenko of Ust’-Ilimsk, Russia. A simple palette of grays  are brought up to a dramatic level with the brightness of scattered red leaves. The leaves that come off the end of the pendant create a beautiful flow into the space beyond the primary canvas. I love when a piece does this, breaking the boundaries of the canvas so it becomes part of the space outside it. It just gives a piece  an extra bit of life.

I’m going to keep this short today. Its been a very busy week and there are a few things left to wrap up the Winter issue. The Winter 2016 issue, themed On the Surface, will be released December 4th. It’s a beautiful issue to finish out a great year. You can pre-order your copy or get a subscription on our website today.

If you want to see more of Galina’s work, take a look at her VK posts.

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

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

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog   never knead -july-2015c-125   The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Read More

Crisp and Clean

October 12, 2016
Posted in

sigaliot-crisp-and-clean-beadSome days you just want simple and bright, something uncomplicated to make you smile. I found this one bead on this foggy Wednesday morning and it gave me an immediate visual pick me up with the beautiful colors and skillfully created and applied canes.

The cane and bead artisan here is Israel’s Sagit Levi. She specializes in bright, clean, well-defined and delightful colors and graphical lines in her beads as well as creating charming illustrative wall art. She also is very attentive to her finishes, completing edges and surfaces so smoothly that her resin and glaze sealants come out flawless, letting those yummy colors shine through.

Need a bit more color pick-me-up yourself? Just jump over to Sagit’s website, Flickr photostream or Etsy site and get yourself an eye full!

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Let color rule your day. Focus on creating a few new color palettes. Start with one color that you really like then stack all kinds of colors next to it and create a new palette that surprises and delights you. If you can’t do that in the studio, you can play with this somewhat new free online color palette finder from Adobe, Color CC,  or try the polymer specific ColorMixr app on your phone.

_________________________________________

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

Shades of Clay Sept 15 Blog  never knead -july-2015c-125   2Wards Blog Sept 2016

The Great Create Sept 15 blog   businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front

_________________________________________

Read More

Halloween Bookmarks

October 30, 2013
Posted in

Today and tomorrow, we’ll be sharing the cute and creepy-ish in honor of the more lighthearted side of Halloween. Today we’re skipping the design lessons and such for just a bit of fun.

Here we have some easy to make items you can whip together if you have need of a few little gifts for the crew at the office  or party favors for your masquerade bash. This black cat bookmark tutorial is by Finland’s Nelli Kivinen. Cute, functional, and in the spirit of the season.

384652_4424837821881_1571320631_n

You could do basically the same thing (keeping a space at the bottom to slip a card into) with ghost shapes, skulls, witch hats, or anything else you would like to fit the season. You gotta love little gifts that can be given to anyone of almost any age, are gender neutral, and fun to make to boot.

I might make a few suggestions to make things easier and quicker for creating these. One, don’t remove the cardboard from the cat legs when you bake them. In fact, use the exact same card material you will use for the bookmark itself so it fits well and the two sides of the cat legs don’t by chance droop and cure together in the oven. Second, smooth the clay as much as you can before baking so that you won’t have to sand or finish the finished pieces. If you use an acrylic block or other flat, smooth item to roll the cat’s body and head before bending the body shape and pinching out the ears, you should have few if any fingerprints to deal with. Just a few thoughts from a clayer who is all about making it easy!

Read More

The Modest and Versatile Dot

August 19, 2013
Posted in

This week I was thinking of doing something simple and essential while I wrap up the release of the Fall issue, and I thought dots fit the ticket nicely. Dots are such a basic element, and so common in surface design; but when used well, they make pieces anything but common. So let’s examine dots!

Dots–those small, circular, solid-colored surface accents or indentations–are used as focal points, for random surface decoration, to develop perceived line and movement, and, especially with a three-dimensional material like ours, to create intricate and rich textures.  Here is a sampling of the way dots are used by just one jewelry artist in this display of necklaces by Israel’s Elinor Yamin, who quite favors polka dots, beads as dots, directional lines of dots, and dots as focal points for her primarily floral work.

5903591021_852f016893

 

So as we head into our dotty week, think on how you use dots, and we’ll stretch the idea of just how dots can be used to make rich, sophisticated polymer art.

Read More

Evoking with Color

August 7, 2013
Posted in

Our connection to nature is so strong that a set of colors alone can represent the natural and a sense of being outdoors.

Elsie Smith does a  nice job of keeping her colors simple, while still evoking a strong association with nature. The colors we identify with trees, earth, wood, and sunshine come through in the soft, brushstroke-like lines of this subtly designed pendant.

8553038389_f9e6b12ae6

 

The combination of colors is what brings this sense of nature to us. But if the stripes were graphic and well-defined, or if the pendant was a square rather than a soft leaf shape, or if we had a glitzy, faceted gem instead of a water-drop-like cabochon, we’d probably lose that association almost completely. It’s a rare element in art (or in nature) that is not in some way dependent on other characteristics to carry the intention through. So although the right color palette may be key to portraying a sense of organic and natural, don’t forget that every choice you make in your artistic creations has the potential to change the message. Every choice is part of the whole.

 

blog Banner Ad 230x125

Read More

Caning in Belarus

August 1, 2013
Posted in

Here’s an example of something that probably would have founds its way into our themed week on caning if I had been able to search with the right keywords in the right language and alphabet. Anastasyia Arynovich from Belarus creates absolutely beautiful canes and applies them in such a way that you forget about the cane; all you think at first is that she’s created something amazing.

The straight-forward, centered, and symmetrical design of these monochromatic earrings is simply gorgeous. Creating work that is this simple and eye-catching is no small feat. I have tremendous respect for perfectly executed design that uses the most basic concepts. Work like this requires just the right balance, just the right level of intricacies, and some serious skill and patience in construction and finishing.

8621599216_6369be1291

The monochromatic kaleidoscope cane in these earrings is just a single example of the excellent work Anastasyia does. There are many more examples on her Flickr page, so many I couldn’t help but share one more! It’s just red, gray, and white, but isn’t this beautiful?

8404125543_aaa373da12

Go check out her Flickr photostream to see what she does with this cane, along with more of her well-executed work.

 

blog Banner Ad 230x125

Read More
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