Shimmer and Swirl
December 21, 2018
Inspirational Art
This bit of drama in silver is not, of course, polymer, but just look at the textures and possibilities!
The drama comes from the swirling motion initiated by the ammonite shell but this artist team, Sergey Toritsyn and Svetlana Larina, selling under the shop Art-Dreams on Livemaster, have ramped up the energy with a variety of textures and lines that move off the central body of the work. The bezeled stones help to put the brakes on this just enough to keep it in the barely contained state but that just adds to the beauty and satisfying feeling of the movement in the piece. The shimmer of the ammonite interior also helps to anchor our eyes towards the center so that our eyes wander from the sparkle and shimmer to the swirling wire to the stones and back to center again.
The piece is a great example of well-composed movement in jewelry as well as being an intriguing piece to just visually investigate. From the lined-up granulation in the center to the bits of color under the wires near the base of where most of them start (enamel, I think), there is just a ton of detail to take in and admire.
This is the most complex piece of theirs that I found but they have plenty of other work to admire on their Livemaster page here.
Outside Inspiration: Wild Colorful Metal
April 11, 2014
Inspirational Art
Rings can truly be made from any material but rings from metal are really the standard due to their durability. Some might say the downside is that we end up with rings primarily created in the limited palette of metallic colors. Granted the accent color of stones can add some amazing hues not to mention the sparkle that draws the eye. So when I found this artist who works in coloring metal, I was entranced.
Jose Marín works in titanium, gold and stones but he uses the heat reactive characteristics of titanium to create jewel tone colors, expanding the metals inherent palette. The colors, form and decorative accents in this ring would be a rather natural approach if this was polymer. This ring leads me into some extensive research on anodized metals–there’s so much gorgeous work out there and such a rich, potential source for polymer inspirations.
Jose’s inspiration comes from the natural world: “My goal is to make jewellery that, as you look at it, can convey intangible aspects of nature: smell, joy, nostalgia, sensuality …” Don’t miss seeing his other incredible jewelry including some of the breathtaking necklaces and jeweled rings you can find on his 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.
A Little Chaos
December 7, 2013
Inspirational Art
For our last bit of scattered art, I did want to look at the whole of a design arranged in a scattered and random looking manner. Necklaces lend themselves well to this kind of design being there is a fair amount of space in which to “scatter” the components.
Russian artist Oksana Aleksandrovna Vedernikova working under under the name silverpepper23 on Flickr, looks to have a penchant for a little chaos. This necklace is a great example of not having to engineer your pieces with symmetrical arrangements.
Chaos isn’t really the right word for most of Oksana’s work. Maybe intricate and definitely busy–but not in the overdone manner–would better describe this jewelry artist’s work. She is heavy into wire wrapping and stones as well as polymer and goes back and forth as well as mixing her materials. But regardless, it is really quite bold just how close she gets to chaos without going over the edge.
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.
Through a Stone Clearly
April 27, 2013
Inspirational Art
In this last post on translucent and polymer I thought I ought to touch upon one of the oldest ways to use translucent polymer… creating faux semi-precious stones.
I don’t know if there is any semi-precious stone we can’t emulate in polymer. There are so many options and with some of the new materials we now have–different types of inks, foils, and clays that weren’t available or known in polymer’s early days–it’s a wonder that there is not more faux stone experimenting going on. Not that there isn’t any. It may just be that I wish there was more. So you can just imagine how intrigued I was when I came across Ekaterina Gamayunova’s experiments with a number of semi-precious stones. You can see some of the wonderful results she got in this composite necklace.
The allure of semi-precious stones comes from the the variation of color, texture and the way light plays through their layers of transparency. To emulate that effect we need similar layers of transparency which we get with translucent clays and liquid polymer. But we don’t need to just copy nature. We have available the boundlessness of our imagination which gives us the ability to make “stones” that nature cannot. Why not pink or red jade? Agate with square or hexagonal ‘rings’ or purple malachite? We can do what nature cannot. It’s like a nature and artist collaboration. How cool is that?
If you want to explore (or re-explore) faux semi-precious stones, you might want start by reading Ekaterina’s post on her LiveJournal page. She includes process images of her agate technique along with explanations of how she attempted to achieve different effects for different types of stone so you too can try making some of your own. Might be just the ticket for some stress-free play time in the studio this weekend.
This bit of drama in silver is not, of course, polymer, but just look at the textures and possibilities!
The drama comes from the swirling motion initiated by the ammonite shell but this artist team, Sergey Toritsyn and Svetlana Larina, selling under the shop Art-Dreams on Livemaster, have ramped up the energy with a variety of textures and lines that move off the central body of the work. The bezeled stones help to put the brakes on this just enough to keep it in the barely contained state but that just adds to the beauty and satisfying feeling of the movement in the piece. The shimmer of the ammonite interior also helps to anchor our eyes towards the center so that our eyes wander from the sparkle and shimmer to the swirling wire to the stones and back to center again.
The piece is a great example of well-composed movement in jewelry as well as being an intriguing piece to just visually investigate. From the lined-up granulation in the center to the bits of color under the wires near the base of where most of them start (enamel, I think), there is just a ton of detail to take in and admire.
This is the most complex piece of theirs that I found but they have plenty of other work to admire on their Livemaster page here.
Read MoreRings can truly be made from any material but rings from metal are really the standard due to their durability. Some might say the downside is that we end up with rings primarily created in the limited palette of metallic colors. Granted the accent color of stones can add some amazing hues not to mention the sparkle that draws the eye. So when I found this artist who works in coloring metal, I was entranced.
Jose Marín works in titanium, gold and stones but he uses the heat reactive characteristics of titanium to create jewel tone colors, expanding the metals inherent palette. The colors, form and decorative accents in this ring would be a rather natural approach if this was polymer. This ring leads me into some extensive research on anodized metals–there’s so much gorgeous work out there and such a rich, potential source for polymer inspirations.
Jose’s inspiration comes from the natural world: “My goal is to make jewellery that, as you look at it, can convey intangible aspects of nature: smell, joy, nostalgia, sensuality …” Don’t miss seeing his other incredible jewelry including some of the breathtaking necklaces and jeweled rings you can find on his 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.
For our last bit of scattered art, I did want to look at the whole of a design arranged in a scattered and random looking manner. Necklaces lend themselves well to this kind of design being there is a fair amount of space in which to “scatter” the components.
Russian artist Oksana Aleksandrovna Vedernikova working under under the name silverpepper23 on Flickr, looks to have a penchant for a little chaos. This necklace is a great example of not having to engineer your pieces with symmetrical arrangements.
Chaos isn’t really the right word for most of Oksana’s work. Maybe intricate and definitely busy–but not in the overdone manner–would better describe this jewelry artist’s work. She is heavy into wire wrapping and stones as well as polymer and goes back and forth as well as mixing her materials. But regardless, it is really quite bold just how close she gets to chaos without going over the edge.
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.
In this last post on translucent and polymer I thought I ought to touch upon one of the oldest ways to use translucent polymer… creating faux semi-precious stones.
I don’t know if there is any semi-precious stone we can’t emulate in polymer. There are so many options and with some of the new materials we now have–different types of inks, foils, and clays that weren’t available or known in polymer’s early days–it’s a wonder that there is not more faux stone experimenting going on. Not that there isn’t any. It may just be that I wish there was more. So you can just imagine how intrigued I was when I came across Ekaterina Gamayunova’s experiments with a number of semi-precious stones. You can see some of the wonderful results she got in this composite necklace.
The allure of semi-precious stones comes from the the variation of color, texture and the way light plays through their layers of transparency. To emulate that effect we need similar layers of transparency which we get with translucent clays and liquid polymer. But we don’t need to just copy nature. We have available the boundlessness of our imagination which gives us the ability to make “stones” that nature cannot. Why not pink or red jade? Agate with square or hexagonal ‘rings’ or purple malachite? We can do what nature cannot. It’s like a nature and artist collaboration. How cool is that?
If you want to explore (or re-explore) faux semi-precious stones, you might want start by reading Ekaterina’s post on her LiveJournal page. She includes process images of her agate technique along with explanations of how she attempted to achieve different effects for different types of stone so you too can try making some of your own. Might be just the ticket for some stress-free play time in the studio this weekend.
Read More