Shifting Styles
January 1, 2015
Inspirational Art
This suggestion is not going to be for everyone but for those of you who haven’t found a personal style or feel the one they have been working with has become stale. This might be the year to try to define or change up your style. Understanding what your style is and what about it is recognizable to others can be a bit tricky, but you can help yourself to see your voice (its essence, at least) by taking a class, following a tutorial or trying something you’ve never done before and seeing if there aren’t certain elements you just can’t help working with or find yourself constantly drawn to. If you can define those elements, try working with them in various ways, and then follow what you find most interesting. If you feel the need to change up your style, don’t just try and do something completely different, but use what you find most essential in your present style, and use it with new techniques, color palettes, forms or other mediums.
Here is a polymer artist whose work I find wholly recognizable, even though much what she posts online is very different. There is a sweetness and a calm, simplistic approach to her sculptural forms and imagery that is combined in such a way as to be very unique to her. I am partial to Afsaneh Tajvidi‘s snails. I don’t have any particular affinity to snails myself, but the perky stance and cute little faces make these little guys rather irresistible. Take a look through her Flickr albums and see if you can identify what makes her work so cohesive in its style.
These cute pieces may not be in themselves inspirational if you work in edgy or organic shapes, for instance, but trying to define Tajvidi’s style can help you find yours. You can do this with your favorite artist’s work as well, whether they work in polymer or other materials. It’s discovering what is uniquely individual in a body of work that will make it easier to see it in your own.
On that note, a very, very happy New Year and all the best to you and yours as you embark on another wonderful year of creativity and discovery.
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.
DIY Alcohol Ink
November 24, 2013
Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
So after a week of talking about alcohol inks, have you found yourself diving in and trying a few ideas you saw? And now, are there any alcohol ink colors you wish you had, but haven’t been able to find or don’t want to buy a pack of 3 or 9 just to get them? Do you find them expensive or hard to find? Well, we do have an option–making our own!
The things you need to make your own alcohol inks are a permanent dye color source and rubbing alcohol. There are two primary color sources available to pretty much everyone–home fabric dyes such as Rit, or permanent markers like Sharpies. I haven’t tried either, but I have heard that the ones made with Sharpies are very, well, pungent. That chemical marker smell will fill the air. Not sure that’s a good thing, but if you have lot of permanent markers you don’t really use, it would be a way to give them a purpose. However, from the research I’ve done, it seems that the Sharpie colors are more vibrant than those made with the fabric dyes when using them on polymer clay. Which was a little surprising. Not surprising is that the colors are more vibrant on paper than on polymer. But as I haven’t tried it (yet!) myself, I can only offer the online instructions I found that seemed most useful and let you decide.
This video uses the permanent marker method:
Here is a page on creating alcohol inks with markers if you aren’t into watching videos.
As for alcohol inks with fabric dyes, here is the best of them that I found. It’s a short video by Cindy Lietz of Polymer Clay Tutor, so it’s definitely geared towards polymer clay use.
You may also find some instruction about making alcohol ink with food coloring or Kool-aid, but keep in mind that the color needs to adhere to polymer. Most food dyes cling to proteins but will not stain–certainly not in any permanent fashion–synthetic materials like plastics. So you need permanent dyes that will become permanent on synthetics and non-porous surfaces.
So as far as I know, permanent markers and fabric dyes are your best bet for easy to find alcohol colorants. And they’re cheap. That is always a plus!
Amazing Cane
November 19, 2012
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
There are many amazing, detailed canes out there by some incredibly talented artists. But there are some that just amaze and stay with you. When I saw this caned butterfly by Jane Zhao it was simply hard to believe it was a cane.
The details are really quite incredible … well thought out and executed. The best part is, I found this on CraftArtEdu … as a class. So if you’re intrigued, you can check out the class which promises many a tip and trick for great canes, here on CraftArtEdu.
This suggestion is not going to be for everyone but for those of you who haven’t found a personal style or feel the one they have been working with has become stale. This might be the year to try to define or change up your style. Understanding what your style is and what about it is recognizable to others can be a bit tricky, but you can help yourself to see your voice (its essence, at least) by taking a class, following a tutorial or trying something you’ve never done before and seeing if there aren’t certain elements you just can’t help working with or find yourself constantly drawn to. If you can define those elements, try working with them in various ways, and then follow what you find most interesting. If you feel the need to change up your style, don’t just try and do something completely different, but use what you find most essential in your present style, and use it with new techniques, color palettes, forms or other mediums.
Here is a polymer artist whose work I find wholly recognizable, even though much what she posts online is very different. There is a sweetness and a calm, simplistic approach to her sculptural forms and imagery that is combined in such a way as to be very unique to her. I am partial to Afsaneh Tajvidi‘s snails. I don’t have any particular affinity to snails myself, but the perky stance and cute little faces make these little guys rather irresistible. Take a look through her Flickr albums and see if you can identify what makes her work so cohesive in its style.
These cute pieces may not be in themselves inspirational if you work in edgy or organic shapes, for instance, but trying to define Tajvidi’s style can help you find yours. You can do this with your favorite artist’s work as well, whether they work in polymer or other materials. It’s discovering what is uniquely individual in a body of work that will make it easier to see it in your own.
On that note, a very, very happy New Year and all the best to you and yours as you embark on another wonderful year of creativity and discovery.
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.
So after a week of talking about alcohol inks, have you found yourself diving in and trying a few ideas you saw? And now, are there any alcohol ink colors you wish you had, but haven’t been able to find or don’t want to buy a pack of 3 or 9 just to get them? Do you find them expensive or hard to find? Well, we do have an option–making our own!
The things you need to make your own alcohol inks are a permanent dye color source and rubbing alcohol. There are two primary color sources available to pretty much everyone–home fabric dyes such as Rit, or permanent markers like Sharpies. I haven’t tried either, but I have heard that the ones made with Sharpies are very, well, pungent. That chemical marker smell will fill the air. Not sure that’s a good thing, but if you have lot of permanent markers you don’t really use, it would be a way to give them a purpose. However, from the research I’ve done, it seems that the Sharpie colors are more vibrant than those made with the fabric dyes when using them on polymer clay. Which was a little surprising. Not surprising is that the colors are more vibrant on paper than on polymer. But as I haven’t tried it (yet!) myself, I can only offer the online instructions I found that seemed most useful and let you decide.
This video uses the permanent marker method:
Here is a page on creating alcohol inks with markers if you aren’t into watching videos.
As for alcohol inks with fabric dyes, here is the best of them that I found. It’s a short video by Cindy Lietz of Polymer Clay Tutor, so it’s definitely geared towards polymer clay use.
You may also find some instruction about making alcohol ink with food coloring or Kool-aid, but keep in mind that the color needs to adhere to polymer. Most food dyes cling to proteins but will not stain–certainly not in any permanent fashion–synthetic materials like plastics. So you need permanent dyes that will become permanent on synthetics and non-porous surfaces.
So as far as I know, permanent markers and fabric dyes are your best bet for easy to find alcohol colorants. And they’re cheap. That is always a plus!
Read MoreThere are many amazing, detailed canes out there by some incredibly talented artists. But there are some that just amaze and stay with you. When I saw this caned butterfly by Jane Zhao it was simply hard to believe it was a cane.
The details are really quite incredible … well thought out and executed. The best part is, I found this on CraftArtEdu … as a class. So if you’re intrigued, you can check out the class which promises many a tip and trick for great canes, here on CraftArtEdu.
Read More