Color Islands
September 26, 2018
Inspirational Art
In the latest issue of The Polymer Arts, we spent some time with Eva Haskova through an interview by Lindly Haunani. It’s a lovely article full of thought-provoking statements on Eva’s use of color. Lindly also shares an approach for tinting translucents with opaque polymer clays in the “Color Expiration” section that always follows this “Color Spotlight” article.
We couldn’t fit this lovely tile by Eva into the layout but I wanted to share with it you for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you read the posts last week about the use of squiggles, then you are certain to already recognize the way her folded polymer creates a vibrant energy and liveliness. The flow of these neutral colored folds around the islands of saturated color really make those spots pop. Those circles of color also give the eye a place to rest amid the rush and flow that makes up the majority of the surface texture. It’s a mass squiggle approach to texture reined in with bright color and simple forms.
I also thought I would take the opportunity to talk about forms that allow us to work on concept and exploration of technique without having to worry about things like construction and wearability. Although tiles are not always an easy sell because the functionality of a single tile is not as apparent as a piece of jewelry—not many people are out looking for a single tile to decorate their home with, although they may be inspired by a title such as this. But as an artist, this little canvas is perfect for letting yourself work on a technique, composition, or juxtaposition of elements without the other concerns that a functional object such as a necklace or vase would require.
This tile could also be a lovely brooch, don’t you think? The work done on a tile can, usually, be scaled down into a brooch or pendant. These jewelry forms can also work as exploratory canvases for your ideas and they result in an easily recognizable piece of functional adornment that should be easy to sell.
So do take a good look at Eva’s article and if you want to look at more of her work, go to her website or her Flickr photostream.
Outside Inspiration: Tile Elements
September 19, 2014
Inspirational Art
I just love what Ginger found for us today as an outside inspiration. A scene created with tiles, a kind of bas relief where the elements create the imagery and depth from how they are layered and arranged. This is not so very different from some of the polymer scenes we’ve seen this week. The primary difference is that the imagery is created with large swaths of color and texture to create a piecework landscape scene but one that is cohesive and pulls you in.
The wall hanging was created by Chris Sumka, a tile artist. This is the piece’s description:
“The old Palmer place”, 2014, 21″X42″, 237 hours, composed entirely of 12″X12″ r/c porcelain, ceramic and slate floor tile, mounted on r/c 3/4 inch plywood, green, eco friendly art. Large amounts of white grout were left behind to add to the snow effect.”
Now he actually cuts each of these shapes to fit the image from some pretty hard material. If you’ve ever worked with tile, then you know how hard this is and just how tricky it can be to make the right cut and not actually break the tile. I’ve done more than my share of tiling. I’m impressed. We can–and a number of people do–create polymer imagery in a similar fashion. With some pretty darn simple cutting work compared to this!
You can see further detail of this piece on Chris’ Facebook page here and more of his fascinating work including photos of pieces in progress on his Facebook timeline as well.
Our guest blogger partner, Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by purchasing a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
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.
The Allure of The Landscape
November 11, 2013
Inspirational Art
This week I wanted to talk about landscapes. Not so much the category of visual art that denotes representation of broad outdoor scenes, but more the use of the landscape orientation–designs that run along the horizontal with individual or separate components that are visually a single, continuous image.
To start the week off (and because I have a very long and hectic day ahead getting the files done for the next issue), I have here an older piece of mine that’s still one of my favorites, using kind of a tile choker design. The wing spread of the dragon-like image and the suggested distant scenery goes all the way around the necklace. I made this back in my more purist polymer days, so everything except the small glass beads is polymer, including the wire-like lines around the faux enamel and a piece of my elabradorite in the center.
Chokers with tile beads make creating a continuous scene fairly easy, since there isn’t too much in the way of complicated planning to get the pieces to sit properly. I’ve made a lot of these types of necklaces, changing up the size and shapes of the tiles as well as making long enough for a necklace instead of a choker, but I think keeping the basic design simple as I did here made this one of the more successful ones when it comes to the visual “landscape” created.
Alright, back to getting the Winter 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts whipped into printable shape. Enjoy your Monday. And for our USA readers, if you have the chance on this Veteran’s Day, consider giving one or a handful of our service men and women, past and present, a warm hug and thank you for doing what they’ve done for us all. And since I’m not likely to get out of the house with all this work … a warm thank you and e-hug from me to all the service people reading. You are very much appreciated.
Tendrils for Days
October 12, 2013
Inspirational Art
It would be hard to bring up a week of squiggly, wild lines and not post something from Chris Kapono. Being a lover and creator of tendril adorned work myself, I was just tranfixed by Chris’s Flickr page when I first found it some five years ago. She goes heavy on the dots and spots as well, but it’s the movement of the lines she creates that add that really dynamic element to her work. Here is a rather tame example of her wild lines, but I thought it would be a nice change for this week since she has several kinds of wandering lines in this diptych tile piece.
The random wandering of her lines is consistent with the random scattering of elements across the tiles. She does have some lovely directional tendrils the begin or end with curls for some consistency between them. The large hill like wave of a line unites the two tiles and and gives the pieces a grounding focus. The rough band of white at the bottom is an erratic yet fluffy feeling line that pushes us to think of clouds, and that maybe we are floating above them where the starry night sky and winds have gone wild.
More of Chris’ wild lines and tendrils can be viewed on her Etsy site, Deviant Art, and, as mentioned, Flickr.
In the latest issue of The Polymer Arts, we spent some time with Eva Haskova through an interview by Lindly Haunani. It’s a lovely article full of thought-provoking statements on Eva’s use of color. Lindly also shares an approach for tinting translucents with opaque polymer clays in the “Color Expiration” section that always follows this “Color Spotlight” article.
We couldn’t fit this lovely tile by Eva into the layout but I wanted to share with it you for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you read the posts last week about the use of squiggles, then you are certain to already recognize the way her folded polymer creates a vibrant energy and liveliness. The flow of these neutral colored folds around the islands of saturated color really make those spots pop. Those circles of color also give the eye a place to rest amid the rush and flow that makes up the majority of the surface texture. It’s a mass squiggle approach to texture reined in with bright color and simple forms.
I also thought I would take the opportunity to talk about forms that allow us to work on concept and exploration of technique without having to worry about things like construction and wearability. Although tiles are not always an easy sell because the functionality of a single tile is not as apparent as a piece of jewelry—not many people are out looking for a single tile to decorate their home with, although they may be inspired by a title such as this. But as an artist, this little canvas is perfect for letting yourself work on a technique, composition, or juxtaposition of elements without the other concerns that a functional object such as a necklace or vase would require.
This tile could also be a lovely brooch, don’t you think? The work done on a tile can, usually, be scaled down into a brooch or pendant. These jewelry forms can also work as exploratory canvases for your ideas and they result in an easily recognizable piece of functional adornment that should be easy to sell.
So do take a good look at Eva’s article and if you want to look at more of her work, go to her website or her Flickr photostream.
Read More
I just love what Ginger found for us today as an outside inspiration. A scene created with tiles, a kind of bas relief where the elements create the imagery and depth from how they are layered and arranged. This is not so very different from some of the polymer scenes we’ve seen this week. The primary difference is that the imagery is created with large swaths of color and texture to create a piecework landscape scene but one that is cohesive and pulls you in.
The wall hanging was created by Chris Sumka, a tile artist. This is the piece’s description:
“The old Palmer place”, 2014, 21″X42″, 237 hours, composed entirely of 12″X12″ r/c porcelain, ceramic and slate floor tile, mounted on r/c 3/4 inch plywood, green, eco friendly art. Large amounts of white grout were left behind to add to the snow effect.”
Now he actually cuts each of these shapes to fit the image from some pretty hard material. If you’ve ever worked with tile, then you know how hard this is and just how tricky it can be to make the right cut and not actually break the tile. I’ve done more than my share of tiling. I’m impressed. We can–and a number of people do–create polymer imagery in a similar fashion. With some pretty darn simple cutting work compared to this!
You can see further detail of this piece on Chris’ Facebook page here and more of his fascinating work including photos of pieces in progress on his Facebook timeline as well.
Our guest blogger partner, Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by purchasing a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
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.
This week I wanted to talk about landscapes. Not so much the category of visual art that denotes representation of broad outdoor scenes, but more the use of the landscape orientation–designs that run along the horizontal with individual or separate components that are visually a single, continuous image.
To start the week off (and because I have a very long and hectic day ahead getting the files done for the next issue), I have here an older piece of mine that’s still one of my favorites, using kind of a tile choker design. The wing spread of the dragon-like image and the suggested distant scenery goes all the way around the necklace. I made this back in my more purist polymer days, so everything except the small glass beads is polymer, including the wire-like lines around the faux enamel and a piece of my elabradorite in the center.
Chokers with tile beads make creating a continuous scene fairly easy, since there isn’t too much in the way of complicated planning to get the pieces to sit properly. I’ve made a lot of these types of necklaces, changing up the size and shapes of the tiles as well as making long enough for a necklace instead of a choker, but I think keeping the basic design simple as I did here made this one of the more successful ones when it comes to the visual “landscape” created.
Alright, back to getting the Winter 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts whipped into printable shape. Enjoy your Monday. And for our USA readers, if you have the chance on this Veteran’s Day, consider giving one or a handful of our service men and women, past and present, a warm hug and thank you for doing what they’ve done for us all. And since I’m not likely to get out of the house with all this work … a warm thank you and e-hug from me to all the service people reading. You are very much appreciated.
Read MoreIt would be hard to bring up a week of squiggly, wild lines and not post something from Chris Kapono. Being a lover and creator of tendril adorned work myself, I was just tranfixed by Chris’s Flickr page when I first found it some five years ago. She goes heavy on the dots and spots as well, but it’s the movement of the lines she creates that add that really dynamic element to her work. Here is a rather tame example of her wild lines, but I thought it would be a nice change for this week since she has several kinds of wandering lines in this diptych tile piece.
The random wandering of her lines is consistent with the random scattering of elements across the tiles. She does have some lovely directional tendrils the begin or end with curls for some consistency between them. The large hill like wave of a line unites the two tiles and and gives the pieces a grounding focus. The rough band of white at the bottom is an erratic yet fluffy feeling line that pushes us to think of clouds, and that maybe we are floating above them where the starry night sky and winds have gone wild.
More of Chris’ wild lines and tendrils can be viewed on her Etsy site, Deviant Art, and, as mentioned, Flickr.
Read More
