Spring as a Work in Progress
March 26, 2018
Inspirational Art
Spring has sprung, and we are seeing all kinds of colorful, foliage-focused artwork as well. Bonnie Bishoff just completed this wall piece called Murmuration. We see leaves moving like water in a series of flowing, organized lines. Behind it, the more conventional colors of water swirl and rush in opposing directions to further energize the composition.
This is just another example of Bonnie’s penchant for movement. It’s why she made the cover of our movement-themed issue in the summer of 2016. Get a copy to check out her gallery page and short biography as well as to take in all the articles about adding movement to one’s designs if this is of interest to you.
I look forward to seeing what she will do with the framing and hanging of this piece. But for right now we’re just privileged to get this sneak peak. You can follow Bonnie on Instagram and the work she does with her partner, J.M. Syron, on their website.
Spring in Surprising Places
March 23, 2016
Inspirational Art
Onto more thoughts of Spring. We had a perfect Spring day yesterday but today we are in the middle of a blizzard, so I went off to find something cheerful and found some fun sculptures, wall art, and jewelry by Melissa Terlizzi. Her creatures are beautifully sculpted, but it’s the situations she puts them in that really made me smile. This here is not the most unusual place to find a tree frog but it would kind of startle you to find one on your indoor plants. She also has frog peeking out of terrariums, mice in the pantry, and beetles in books. There is a bright playfulness in the faces of her creatures and in the way she sets up the shots. Many of her compositions, like this one here, are predominantly constructed from polymer clay components, but many others use natural settings and common household items to bring out the story.
Take a break from your common or gray day and peruse her Flickr pages for some Spring cheer.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create or adapt a piece of yours to live in an unusual place. Hang charms in the kitchen cupboards, replace blind pulls with beautiful focal beads, put a cute sculpted creature in the medicine cabinet (who doesn’t need a bit of cheer when opening the medicine cabinet?), glue tiles to the inside of the mailbox door, etc. Look for the most unusual and surprising place that will delight your family and visitors.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
___________________________________________
Return of Spring
March 21, 2016
Inspirational Art
First, my apologies, to those of you who get this by email or RSS feed, for the erratic delivery last week. We had some odd technical issues, which we did finally resolve. We’ll be moving the email and RSS to a more stable service this week, so if there are any other oddities please forgive us and know that it is all in order to get you your thrice-weekly dose of art and design chatter as promised.
So yes, a few new things are on the horizon and it would seem that three of those things will be showing their new faces this week. One will be the new blog delivery service, so you’ll see that here. I will wait until Wednesday to reveal more. Onto art now!
We are not the only ones with new stuff to share this first week of Spring. I was so thrilled to see these beauties from Daniela D’Uva, who I have long admired for her dynamic wire and polymer work. She took a break from it for a couple of years so I have missed seeing her bright and swirly pieces, then these popped up on Flickr this weekend. She’s built polymer swirls around beads of glass as a base to show off layers of the translucent canes she’s been creating. It’s a perfect homage to the new season up here in the northern hemisphere and a pretty sight for a Monday, don’t you think?
If you don’t recall Daniela’s prior pieces, a vast collection of her work, old and new, can be found on Flickr and on her Facebook page.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Let the season direct your muse! What is it about the change of season that you notice most or most enjoy? Keep in mind, this does not have to be nature inspired. It could be firing up the grill for the first time this year or the return of Peeps to market shelves. It could be that urge to clean out the studio or get that shorter hair cut. Focus on the feeling these thoughts give you and see if you can translate it into color and form for a simple homage of your own.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
___________________________________________
Greens for Spring
January 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
The one thing I find missing in this year’s Pantone palette is a real green. There’s a pale blue-green they are calling Hemlock but when I think of Spring I think of naturally derived greens–fresh new grass, the first leaves on a tree, and sprouting plants pushing up through the earth. So I thought I’d look for something that added that back into this palette.
This necklace by Kseniya Dolgopolova includes a few shades like Pantone’s Hemlock as well as rich natural greens.
I would have questioned putting these colors because although somewhat analaguous, the hemlock is a pastel while leaf green is muted but with more saturation. However, with this limited palette, it does work decently and the difference adds some significant contrast to a green based palette.
Take a moment or two and wander through the charming imagination of Kseniya’s work in her Etsy 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.
Tiny Glitzy Spring
June 8, 2013
Inspirational Art
So, yes, the other day I encouraged the idea of simplifying your color scheme and focusing on the shape of your floral work. Not because simple is better, but because it is an option you might want to consider to express the ideas or beauty you want to convey. Sometimes, you want anything but simple.
There are certainly times when complex and glitzy is exactly what is called for. Peelirohini makes some very showy pieces using polymer embroidery, filigree pieces, and beads with lots of rich colors and contrast.
This is really quite the opposite approach from the beautiful work we saw on Thursday, but it’s equally gorgeous. I would say, for me, the subdued earrings with minimal color are more my style, but there are a few people I would love to see wearing these colorful earrings here. Whether to make a piece subdued or a bit over-the-top comes down to what you want to say, the impression you want to make, or maybe even the person, outfit, or room you would like to pair it with.
Sometimes, what you make just comes down to who you are. As artists, we are always putting a little of ourselves out there, so work that represents us tends to be fulfilling. There is no right or wrong way to approach the work. except maybe closing yourself off from considering a direction you don’t usually take. It’s like pushing yourself to go take dancing lessons when you don’t think you can dance. You won’t know if it’s something you enjoy until you try it. So I say, try a little bit of everything. Go subtle. Go wild. Art is an adventure.
Outside Inspiration: Alternatives to Wall Decals
June 7, 2013
Inspirational Art
This week’s outside inspiration is not really about the “art work,” as what I’m bringing up is mass produced, but it has so much potential for the polymer artist looking to stretch beyond their jewelry or standard decor.
The thing is, these wall decal decorations are kind of a neat idea. but are truly not all that exciting. Its not just the two-dimensionality of them; the color choices and graphics are not at all what they could be, either. However, just think of how gorgeous a wall of polymer flowers would look?
Between the three-dimensional interest it would add, better and bolder color combinations, and the potential surface effects you can add … wow … what a wall that would be! Granted, these won’t be removable/repositionable stickers, but Fun-Tak (mounting putty) or small tacks (or embedded tacks?) should be enough to hold polymer flowers up and allow for rearranging with little or not damage to the wall. Anyone else besides me having ideas running rampant in their head?
The Many Shapes of Petals
June 5, 2013
Tips and Tricks
Components of springtime art work often include the pretty petal. There are, of course, many variations in petals, which might make one conclude that many a cane must be made to build a decent collection of possibilities. But this is not necessarily so. This display of both traditional and not so traditional petal forms and patterning is a sample set by Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg. This image was put together for a class in which Lynne put students through what she called “petal mania”.
Her photo note on Facebook says the canes are “reduced, shaped, torqued, and recombined to make a seemingly endless array of elements that can be used to make all sorts of wearable art. Hearts and spirals, complex petals, wisteria and lotus blossoms are all found along the petal path.” Apparently in the class, students also exchanged canes so they could continue working on variations. Just imagine what you could do with just a handful of canes in your own studio!
I couldn’t find word of any upcoming classes Lynne is conducting for this; but if you push yourself, maybe using some of the ideas above, I bet you could come up with a dozen new petal ideas of your own. So go shape and torque away!
Bold and Brilliant Floral
June 4, 2013
Inspirational Art
Working in floral is a license to go all out with color. Springtime flowers are bright, vivid things, competing against all the other bright and vivid colors of the season. You can take a lesson from their boldness: if you are going to get colorful, don’t hold back on just how bold or striking your color combinations are.
This necklace from 2 Good Claymates (Carolyn and Dave Good) has an fairly limited palette, but the saturation and contrast of the color are quite striking, don’t you think?
This is just one example of being bold without having to overdose the viewer with color. Being bright and bold is not about how many colors you use, but how they work together. Think contrast when you are after brilliant color–the darker blue against the bright of the turquoise and the lighter yellow is where this color combination in this piece gets its punch. If you have accents or backgrounds to go along with your bold components, consider toning down those colors so they don’t compete too much. You can see how that works in this necklace, with the leaves here created in more muted greens. They allow the bright flowers to really pop.
I can’t imagine a piece like this not grabbing some serious attention at the next garden party, even amidst nature’s own work!
Jumping into Florals
June 3, 2013
Inspirational Art
I know its technically been Spring for a couple months in the northern hemisphere, but its really just now that the blooms are showing and the lushness of Spring is making its appearance, at least outside my door. Between all the beauty outside and working on the next issue of The Polymer Arts — which is being created under the theme “Organics” — my mind is focused on the outdoors; so I thought we’d indulge in the beauty of flora.
I wanted to move away a bit from jewelry this week, but if we’re focusing on flowers, that might be a bit difficult since floral adornment is so prevalent and popular. But how about something that’s not quite jewelry, along with great ideas for some possible new products?
The season for weddings is upon us up here, so that’s another reason to think floral; it’s a rare wedding that doesn’t feature a few — or a ton — of flowers. This bouquet with matching wine glass charms is all polymer. The idea of going floral without the fragility of fresh blooms is the subject of an interesting idea blog for weddings I came across. Tatiana Belikov from Lipetsk, Russia is the creator of the realistic looking bouquet and accessories in the post.
There is also mention of making matching hair adornments for the bride (and bridesmaids!,) and accent pieces for candles, napkin rings, etc. Such polymer decorations at a wedding could be an easy sell; they can be gifts for the guests (and those bridesmaids!) that will last so they can be treasured and used again in the same capacity. And just think, with polymer florals … the bride would always have that bouquet, one that can decorate a table or shelf for many, many years, and be another gorgeous memory to keep and remember that special day by. Beautiful idea.
Spring has sprung, and we are seeing all kinds of colorful, foliage-focused artwork as well. Bonnie Bishoff just completed this wall piece called Murmuration. We see leaves moving like water in a series of flowing, organized lines. Behind it, the more conventional colors of water swirl and rush in opposing directions to further energize the composition.
This is just another example of Bonnie’s penchant for movement. It’s why she made the cover of our movement-themed issue in the summer of 2016. Get a copy to check out her gallery page and short biography as well as to take in all the articles about adding movement to one’s designs if this is of interest to you.
I look forward to seeing what she will do with the framing and hanging of this piece. But for right now we’re just privileged to get this sneak peak. You can follow Bonnie on Instagram and the work she does with her partner, J.M. Syron, on their website.
Read MoreOnto more thoughts of Spring. We had a perfect Spring day yesterday but today we are in the middle of a blizzard, so I went off to find something cheerful and found some fun sculptures, wall art, and jewelry by Melissa Terlizzi. Her creatures are beautifully sculpted, but it’s the situations she puts them in that really made me smile. This here is not the most unusual place to find a tree frog but it would kind of startle you to find one on your indoor plants. She also has frog peeking out of terrariums, mice in the pantry, and beetles in books. There is a bright playfulness in the faces of her creatures and in the way she sets up the shots. Many of her compositions, like this one here, are predominantly constructed from polymer clay components, but many others use natural settings and common household items to bring out the story.
Take a break from your common or gray day and peruse her Flickr pages for some Spring cheer.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create or adapt a piece of yours to live in an unusual place. Hang charms in the kitchen cupboards, replace blind pulls with beautiful focal beads, put a cute sculpted creature in the medicine cabinet (who doesn’t need a bit of cheer when opening the medicine cabinet?), glue tiles to the inside of the mailbox door, etc. Look for the most unusual and surprising place that will delight your family and visitors.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
___________________________________________
Read MoreFirst, my apologies, to those of you who get this by email or RSS feed, for the erratic delivery last week. We had some odd technical issues, which we did finally resolve. We’ll be moving the email and RSS to a more stable service this week, so if there are any other oddities please forgive us and know that it is all in order to get you your thrice-weekly dose of art and design chatter as promised.
So yes, a few new things are on the horizon and it would seem that three of those things will be showing their new faces this week. One will be the new blog delivery service, so you’ll see that here. I will wait until Wednesday to reveal more. Onto art now!
We are not the only ones with new stuff to share this first week of Spring. I was so thrilled to see these beauties from Daniela D’Uva, who I have long admired for her dynamic wire and polymer work. She took a break from it for a couple of years so I have missed seeing her bright and swirly pieces, then these popped up on Flickr this weekend. She’s built polymer swirls around beads of glass as a base to show off layers of the translucent canes she’s been creating. It’s a perfect homage to the new season up here in the northern hemisphere and a pretty sight for a Monday, don’t you think?
If you don’t recall Daniela’s prior pieces, a vast collection of her work, old and new, can be found on Flickr and on her Facebook page.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Let the season direct your muse! What is it about the change of season that you notice most or most enjoy? Keep in mind, this does not have to be nature inspired. It could be firing up the grill for the first time this year or the return of Peeps to market shelves. It could be that urge to clean out the studio or get that shorter hair cut. Focus on the feeling these thoughts give you and see if you can translate it into color and form for a simple homage of your own.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
___________________________________________
Read MoreThe one thing I find missing in this year’s Pantone palette is a real green. There’s a pale blue-green they are calling Hemlock but when I think of Spring I think of naturally derived greens–fresh new grass, the first leaves on a tree, and sprouting plants pushing up through the earth. So I thought I’d look for something that added that back into this palette.
This necklace by Kseniya Dolgopolova includes a few shades like Pantone’s Hemlock as well as rich natural greens.
I would have questioned putting these colors because although somewhat analaguous, the hemlock is a pastel while leaf green is muted but with more saturation. However, with this limited palette, it does work decently and the difference adds some significant contrast to a green based palette.
Take a moment or two and wander through the charming imagination of Kseniya’s work in her Etsy 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.
So, yes, the other day I encouraged the idea of simplifying your color scheme and focusing on the shape of your floral work. Not because simple is better, but because it is an option you might want to consider to express the ideas or beauty you want to convey. Sometimes, you want anything but simple.
There are certainly times when complex and glitzy is exactly what is called for. Peelirohini makes some very showy pieces using polymer embroidery, filigree pieces, and beads with lots of rich colors and contrast.
This is really quite the opposite approach from the beautiful work we saw on Thursday, but it’s equally gorgeous. I would say, for me, the subdued earrings with minimal color are more my style, but there are a few people I would love to see wearing these colorful earrings here. Whether to make a piece subdued or a bit over-the-top comes down to what you want to say, the impression you want to make, or maybe even the person, outfit, or room you would like to pair it with.
Sometimes, what you make just comes down to who you are. As artists, we are always putting a little of ourselves out there, so work that represents us tends to be fulfilling. There is no right or wrong way to approach the work. except maybe closing yourself off from considering a direction you don’t usually take. It’s like pushing yourself to go take dancing lessons when you don’t think you can dance. You won’t know if it’s something you enjoy until you try it. So I say, try a little bit of everything. Go subtle. Go wild. Art is an adventure.
Read More
This week’s outside inspiration is not really about the “art work,” as what I’m bringing up is mass produced, but it has so much potential for the polymer artist looking to stretch beyond their jewelry or standard decor.
The thing is, these wall decal decorations are kind of a neat idea. but are truly not all that exciting. Its not just the two-dimensionality of them; the color choices and graphics are not at all what they could be, either. However, just think of how gorgeous a wall of polymer flowers would look?
Between the three-dimensional interest it would add, better and bolder color combinations, and the potential surface effects you can add … wow … what a wall that would be! Granted, these won’t be removable/repositionable stickers, but Fun-Tak (mounting putty) or small tacks (or embedded tacks?) should be enough to hold polymer flowers up and allow for rearranging with little or not damage to the wall. Anyone else besides me having ideas running rampant in their head?
Read MoreComponents of springtime art work often include the pretty petal. There are, of course, many variations in petals, which might make one conclude that many a cane must be made to build a decent collection of possibilities. But this is not necessarily so. This display of both traditional and not so traditional petal forms and patterning is a sample set by Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg. This image was put together for a class in which Lynne put students through what she called “petal mania”.
Her photo note on Facebook says the canes are “reduced, shaped, torqued, and recombined to make a seemingly endless array of elements that can be used to make all sorts of wearable art. Hearts and spirals, complex petals, wisteria and lotus blossoms are all found along the petal path.” Apparently in the class, students also exchanged canes so they could continue working on variations. Just imagine what you could do with just a handful of canes in your own studio!
I couldn’t find word of any upcoming classes Lynne is conducting for this; but if you push yourself, maybe using some of the ideas above, I bet you could come up with a dozen new petal ideas of your own. So go shape and torque away!
Read MoreWorking in floral is a license to go all out with color. Springtime flowers are bright, vivid things, competing against all the other bright and vivid colors of the season. You can take a lesson from their boldness: if you are going to get colorful, don’t hold back on just how bold or striking your color combinations are.
This necklace from 2 Good Claymates (Carolyn and Dave Good) has an fairly limited palette, but the saturation and contrast of the color are quite striking, don’t you think?
This is just one example of being bold without having to overdose the viewer with color. Being bright and bold is not about how many colors you use, but how they work together. Think contrast when you are after brilliant color–the darker blue against the bright of the turquoise and the lighter yellow is where this color combination in this piece gets its punch. If you have accents or backgrounds to go along with your bold components, consider toning down those colors so they don’t compete too much. You can see how that works in this necklace, with the leaves here created in more muted greens. They allow the bright flowers to really pop.
I can’t imagine a piece like this not grabbing some serious attention at the next garden party, even amidst nature’s own work!
Read MoreI know its technically been Spring for a couple months in the northern hemisphere, but its really just now that the blooms are showing and the lushness of Spring is making its appearance, at least outside my door. Between all the beauty outside and working on the next issue of The Polymer Arts — which is being created under the theme “Organics” — my mind is focused on the outdoors; so I thought we’d indulge in the beauty of flora.
I wanted to move away a bit from jewelry this week, but if we’re focusing on flowers, that might be a bit difficult since floral adornment is so prevalent and popular. But how about something that’s not quite jewelry, along with great ideas for some possible new products?
The season for weddings is upon us up here, so that’s another reason to think floral; it’s a rare wedding that doesn’t feature a few — or a ton — of flowers. This bouquet with matching wine glass charms is all polymer. The idea of going floral without the fragility of fresh blooms is the subject of an interesting idea blog for weddings I came across. Tatiana Belikov from Lipetsk, Russia is the creator of the realistic looking bouquet and accessories in the post.
There is also mention of making matching hair adornments for the bride (and bridesmaids!,) and accent pieces for candles, napkin rings, etc. Such polymer decorations at a wedding could be an easy sell; they can be gifts for the guests (and those bridesmaids!) that will last so they can be treasured and used again in the same capacity. And just think, with polymer florals … the bride would always have that bouquet, one that can decorate a table or shelf for many, many years, and be another gorgeous memory to keep and remember that special day by. Beautiful idea.
Read More