Outside Inspiration: The Art of the Doodle
January 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
So yesterday I brought you a wire artist who got into carving rubber stamps. Did the carving idea pique your interest? I think the hardest part of carving a stamp is not going to be the carving itself but deciding on a pattern to carve. How do you come up with stamp design ideas? Well, besides copying someone else’s patterns or designs — which would negate the point of creating your own original stamps — you can find your own personal patterns by doing something you probably did a lot as a kid or as a bored teenager in class. You can doodle.
Doodling is not as pointless and aimless as it might seem. It is really a translation of what is going on in your subconscious or, or it’s an expression of your mind’s reaction to what you see and hear around you. If you are doodling without a preconceived idea of what you are drawing, especially while otherwise occupied (such as being on hold during a phone call or listening to a lecture), the doodling can create a very personal design and set of patterns pulled from subconscious thoughts.
A recent doodling-related development is the Zentangle which uses repeated patterns and lines to lend your doodling direction. The original Zentagle method includes a series of rules, such as drawing only in 3.5 inch squares, only drawing in pen so you can’t erase and only drawing abstract designs. So it’s not quite doodling, but it can result in similarly personal designs. A lot of people have expanded on the Zentangle idea, throwing many rules out the window and developing cool abstract art like the Zentangle doodle you see here, by illustrator Angel Van Dam. Her doodles are a bit more organized and purposeful than your standard notepad doodle but aren’t standard Zentangling either. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how you approach it –doodle loose and randomly, mark off the 3.5 inch square to Zentangle in, or use a contractor to draw concentric circles, as Angel did for this illustration, and fill it in as you like.
And why should you want to doodle? Because it can offer so much for your polymer play! Use doodles or Zentangles to create the patterns for your carved rubber stamps. Doodle with colored pencils, and use it as an image transfer onto clay. Use the patterns, imagery or colors to inspire or directly design a polymer piece from.
Doodling is also thought to help you problem-solve so, if you hit a creative block, stop and listen to some music, a book on tape or podcast, and then just doodle away! The solution to your creative work can then bubble to the surface, or you may find a whole new idea there in front of you. No matter what, it is no waste of time. The other thing about doodling that has been discovered through clinical studies is that it reduces stress and can make you more aware and mindful. So doodle for your well-being as well as for your art!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
A Collection of Toggles
January 25, 2014
Inspirational Art
Have you been having fun guessing the materials this week and thinking of ways to create these beautiful pieces in polymer? Well, here is a whole array of pieces to take a guess at. We are all on our own here as the Live Journal post doesn’t list what is what or how these pieces were created. This whole post is an interesting collection of inspiration for a polymer contest that revolved around art accessories embellished with the use of texture stamps.
According to the Russian translation describing these pieces, they are made from ceramics, polymer, and/or metals. To read more about the competition and artwork submitted, take a look at the translated website. Enjoy!
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.
Variations in Faux Metal
December 12, 2013
Inspirational Art
Wendy Orlowski, the new proprietor of the online polymer clay supply shop Shades of Clay, has been an innovative artist in the polymer community for some time. Her CaBezel molds have been very popular with many clayers. I have quite a few myself. They’re easy quick solutions to creating a well-fitting cabachon and bezel, but that is not what we are here to talk about today. (Although if you’ve needed to add to your wish list for potential gift givers, CaBezels and the many other unique items sold at Shades of Clay might fill out your list well! They’re great stocking stuffers!)
In the necklace pictured here, Wendy created medallions with her “straight and narrow” texture stamps. She then cuts apart the different lines of texture, applies Guilder’s paste to the surface of the textured clay, and staggers the lines of texture around a centerpiece or CaBezel form. For a little more excitement, she adds a few colored highlights. The result is faux metal with the richness of texture and depth of color one sees in real antiqued metal jewelry.
There is a video tutorial illustrating how to make this faux metal technique with polymer clay on the Shades of Clay website as well if you’d like more details on this. And, of course, you have to browse the Shades of Clay offerings for new toys and supplies while you there!
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.
Stocking up on Texture
January 8, 2013
Tips and Tricks
There’s nothing quite so energizing in the studio as new materials or tools. But after the holidays, sometimes the budget is a little slim. Don’t let that stop you, though.
You can always make a new set of texture stamps or plates from scrap clay. Simple, easy to do, and inexpensive, you can pull texture from anything around you or ‘doodle’ on a sheet of clay. Here is a sheet by Cynthia Gordillo that employs the doodling approach with wonderful results. This kind of design might take a little time, but what wonderful texture sheets you’d end up with.
Cynthia documented her texture sheet creation on her blog here so you can see the tools she used to make these marks. But you needn’t stop there. You can do a couple other things with these sheets besides creating the initial texture.
You can get two plates for your efforts by making a negative of it–prep your new baked texture sheet with your favorite release (I am big on ArmorAll for this kind of thing) and press a thick sheet of clay carefully and thoroughly onto it. Pull it off and bake and you have sheet #2. You can also take that same negative sheet of clay and cut circles, squares, or odd shapes to include the most intriguing parts of the design so you have smaller stamps to work with. To eliminate some of the roundedness of the texture’s raised surface, you can sand the positive or negative sheet on a full piece of sandpaper laid flat on a table. If you sand with coarse sandpaper you’ll have a contrasting matte or slightly textured surface.
So yesterday I brought you a wire artist who got into carving rubber stamps. Did the carving idea pique your interest? I think the hardest part of carving a stamp is not going to be the carving itself but deciding on a pattern to carve. How do you come up with stamp design ideas? Well, besides copying someone else’s patterns or designs — which would negate the point of creating your own original stamps — you can find your own personal patterns by doing something you probably did a lot as a kid or as a bored teenager in class. You can doodle.
Doodling is not as pointless and aimless as it might seem. It is really a translation of what is going on in your subconscious or, or it’s an expression of your mind’s reaction to what you see and hear around you. If you are doodling without a preconceived idea of what you are drawing, especially while otherwise occupied (such as being on hold during a phone call or listening to a lecture), the doodling can create a very personal design and set of patterns pulled from subconscious thoughts.
A recent doodling-related development is the Zentangle which uses repeated patterns and lines to lend your doodling direction. The original Zentagle method includes a series of rules, such as drawing only in 3.5 inch squares, only drawing in pen so you can’t erase and only drawing abstract designs. So it’s not quite doodling, but it can result in similarly personal designs. A lot of people have expanded on the Zentangle idea, throwing many rules out the window and developing cool abstract art like the Zentangle doodle you see here, by illustrator Angel Van Dam. Her doodles are a bit more organized and purposeful than your standard notepad doodle but aren’t standard Zentangling either. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how you approach it –doodle loose and randomly, mark off the 3.5 inch square to Zentangle in, or use a contractor to draw concentric circles, as Angel did for this illustration, and fill it in as you like.
And why should you want to doodle? Because it can offer so much for your polymer play! Use doodles or Zentangles to create the patterns for your carved rubber stamps. Doodle with colored pencils, and use it as an image transfer onto clay. Use the patterns, imagery or colors to inspire or directly design a polymer piece from.
Doodling is also thought to help you problem-solve so, if you hit a creative block, stop and listen to some music, a book on tape or podcast, and then just doodle away! The solution to your creative work can then bubble to the surface, or you may find a whole new idea there in front of you. No matter what, it is no waste of time. The other thing about doodling that has been discovered through clinical studies is that it reduces stress and can make you more aware and mindful. So doodle for your well-being as well as for your art!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Have you been having fun guessing the materials this week and thinking of ways to create these beautiful pieces in polymer? Well, here is a whole array of pieces to take a guess at. We are all on our own here as the Live Journal post doesn’t list what is what or how these pieces were created. This whole post is an interesting collection of inspiration for a polymer contest that revolved around art accessories embellished with the use of texture stamps.
According to the Russian translation describing these pieces, they are made from ceramics, polymer, and/or metals. To read more about the competition and artwork submitted, take a look at the translated website. Enjoy!
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.
Wendy Orlowski, the new proprietor of the online polymer clay supply shop Shades of Clay, has been an innovative artist in the polymer community for some time. Her CaBezel molds have been very popular with many clayers. I have quite a few myself. They’re easy quick solutions to creating a well-fitting cabachon and bezel, but that is not what we are here to talk about today. (Although if you’ve needed to add to your wish list for potential gift givers, CaBezels and the many other unique items sold at Shades of Clay might fill out your list well! They’re great stocking stuffers!)
In the necklace pictured here, Wendy created medallions with her “straight and narrow” texture stamps. She then cuts apart the different lines of texture, applies Guilder’s paste to the surface of the textured clay, and staggers the lines of texture around a centerpiece or CaBezel form. For a little more excitement, she adds a few colored highlights. The result is faux metal with the richness of texture and depth of color one sees in real antiqued metal jewelry.
There is a video tutorial illustrating how to make this faux metal technique with polymer clay on the Shades of Clay website as well if you’d like more details on this. And, of course, you have to browse the Shades of Clay offerings for new toys and supplies while you there!
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.
There’s nothing quite so energizing in the studio as new materials or tools. But after the holidays, sometimes the budget is a little slim. Don’t let that stop you, though.
You can always make a new set of texture stamps or plates from scrap clay. Simple, easy to do, and inexpensive, you can pull texture from anything around you or ‘doodle’ on a sheet of clay. Here is a sheet by Cynthia Gordillo that employs the doodling approach with wonderful results. This kind of design might take a little time, but what wonderful texture sheets you’d end up with.
Cynthia documented her texture sheet creation on her blog here so you can see the tools she used to make these marks. But you needn’t stop there. You can do a couple other things with these sheets besides creating the initial texture.
You can get two plates for your efforts by making a negative of it–prep your new baked texture sheet with your favorite release (I am big on ArmorAll for this kind of thing) and press a thick sheet of clay carefully and thoroughly onto it. Pull it off and bake and you have sheet #2. You can also take that same negative sheet of clay and cut circles, squares, or odd shapes to include the most intriguing parts of the design so you have smaller stamps to work with. To eliminate some of the roundedness of the texture’s raised surface, you can sand the positive or negative sheet on a full piece of sandpaper laid flat on a table. If you sand with coarse sandpaper you’ll have a contrasting matte or slightly textured surface.
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