The Ethereal Moth
January 10, 2017
Inspirational Art
I don’t know what it is, but moths seem to be popping up all over the place in the polymer-sphere. They are pretty amazing too. This one was hard to miss. The translucent wings and choice of colors that are smoothly graduated in beautifully executed detail make this moth feel quite ethereal. Even the fluff and strands on the head are finely wrought clay with careful attention paid to the progression of grays. It’s a wonderful piece but unfortunately, I don’t have the artist to credit. It showed up on Pinterest with a link to a polymer group page on www.vk.com but with over 11,000 members, I have no idea whose it could be.
I can’t tell you how many pieces I pass up for features in the blog because there is no artist listed and initial searching leaves me no clues. Which means we are all without further knowledge of these artists. You can help change this.
If you like something so well that you save it, be sure there is a link to the source of the image’s information, not just the website’s homepage. You can ensure you are doing this by grabbing the web address of the post, article, or particular page you found the image on in the notes of the image on the social media site you save it to. If the address is just the website home page, you can usually click through on the post’s title or the “more …” link at the bottom of it to find the particular page with the artist’s information in whatever form the posting person has it.
Let’s give credit where credit it due. Not to mention giving us a chance to find out whose work we are admiring. As usual, if anyone knows who created this, chime in. I know I would like to see what other wonderful things they are creating!
UPDATE: We got our answer as to who the artist was–Darya Telegina of Balambeshka on www.vk.com. Thank you to Sherrie Brittig, Conny Brockstedt, and Natalya Aleksandrova for figuring it out and sending the links!
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Outside Inspiration: Through the Trees
November 18, 2016
Inspirational Art
I’m going to end this week with something that is translucent although maybe not the way you are thinking, a piece that shies away from the fall colors, moving into Winter, as so many of us are, at least in terms of upcoming plans if not weather.
I share this work with you upon one condition (okay, maybe it’s not a condition, but it is a very strong urging) … that you visit the links I have for you for this artist. Michelle McKinney is one of those artists whose work you need to see in its many variation to really understand the scope and beauty of her vision. She works in what she calls ” hand cut translucen
That fact that she calls her material translucent and we see it as delicate makes for a fairly dramatic contrast with our understanding that this is metal. There is further contrast between concept and material in that images are almost all organic and yet what they are made of is industrial. More impressive though, is the undeniable beauty in her subject matter, the usually simple images that are a bit torn and twisted. I think it garners empathy for the idea of something so delicate being in such a state. It’s rather hard to put one’s finger on exactly what it is that is so striking about these but it is there without question.
You need to look at her collection of work for yourself and see if the pieces speak to you in a similar fashion. Please treat yourself to the beauty of her pieces on her Facebook page which looks to hold the largest collection of images like these trees here. But also stop over at her website to see the black and white prints she is creating with these sculptural pieces, developing a collection she calls Ghost Editions. They are eerily beautiful and not to be missed.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Design or create something whose imagery is one thing but the texture, color or embellishment would say something else. Work in conceptual and visual contrast. Don’t think too hard about it or too long. Start with a few ideas and see where the muse takes you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Translucent Play, in 3 parts. Pt.3
November 16, 2016
Inspirational Art
Here is one more day of autumnal translucent beauties. Eva Haskova actually created these last April but they seem an appropriate homage to our quickly fading Fall season.
These bracelets are fairly simple in concept but so intriguing with their gradation of luminous colors and the short open tubes that allow a glimpse of the soft white of their translucent base. The color selection, similar to the piece by Jan Montarsi we saw last week, wisely includes a touch of cool color among all the rich warm hues to balance the intensity of the palette.
Holes and spaces seem to be dominating Eva’s explorations lately. You can see the evidence of this on her Facebook page as well as admire her other work on her Flickr photostream or her website.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create something in either a completely cool palette or a wholly warm palette. Once you have most of the design planned or executed, try inserting colors of the other temperature. How does that change the feeling of the piece when you add just a little of the opposing color temperature? How about if you add a lot? Play with the contrast until you have something that speaks to you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Translucent Play, in 3 parts. Pt.2
November 14, 2016
Inspirational Art
Ok … back to our regularly scheduled program here. Here is a touch more on translucents this week since I started last Monday with a piece that was stated to be “in 3 parts” but got sidetracked the rest of the week. It’s rather hard to not complete the promised trio so here you are.
Here is a most magnificent brooch using translucents to create a visual illusion that will trip you out almost as much as the post-election mayhem. It looks absolutely three-dimensional but also, compounded by the organic placement and directional lean of the cane’s illusion, you could swear these open pod forms are alive. This piece so wonderfully illustrates the illusory possibilities of translucent clays.
The brooch comes from the genius of Melanie West who has been playing around with familiar themes and applications but with some fantastically unexpected results. I know this will get some of your imaginations just reeling but for even more fun and mind bending beauties, take a look at Melanie’s website and her latest creations posted recently on her Facebook page.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Use directional line to create a very intentional sense of movement. Create texture or line up motifs or forms to show strong direction in whatever interests you. If you like orderly, create orderly designs but try it in different orientations to see how it feels. If you want more organic or chaotic movement, be more random. If you want soothing, try flowing line.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Translucent Play, in 3 parts. Pt.1
November 7, 2016
Inspirational Art
After finding the beautiful textured glass for Friday’s post, I noticed that my folder of art work to consider for blogs was full of translucent pieces, and almost all of them in the same basic color palette and all of them are fairly recent shares on Facebook. It could be because of the season but I don’t know how relevant that becomes when you set them side by side. So I thought I’d basically do that, presenting three pieces that are similar in color and using translucent clay but we’ll look at how it is used to create different moods.
This first one is a set of earrings by Jan Montarsi. The autumnal palette is there but the primarily vertical composition of the set, both in the direction of the swathes of color and the stacked squares lean towards a strong, organized atmosphere. Until you get to the visual and tactile texture. That reminds me of an energetic kid in a sandbox digging hole after hole. The circular shapes are jauntily wonky with colors blurring into each other, all with a very natural and organic feel. It says “I keep on the path but like to dance a bit on the way.” Well, that’s my read.
Jan created these in a class taught by Marie Segal at the annual Kentucky/Tennessee guild retreat this last month. He used his own ‘organic’ extruded cane technique as well. I guess he expected the colors to come out more muted because in the comments he made this observation:
“The amazing thing is the colors of these translucent clays were diluted by at least half with regular translucent clay and then placed on a translucent background and the color is still vibrant.” It’s good to know just how rich those packaged translucent colors can be.
Jan is our Americas Regional President for the International Polymer Clay Association as well as being an active clayer and contributor to a variety of information and educational outlets including The Polymer Arts magazine. His work can be found on Facebook and on Flickr.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Pick a set of colors and then pick forms that seem quite disparate from the color palette you picked. Light and bright colors combined with severely geometric shapes or dark, rich colors with light hearted squiggles. What does the contrast in shape do to the mood of the colors and vice versa? What can you add in terms of texture, line, or motifs that will further illustrate the mood you see within that juxtaposition of disparate elements?
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Way Beyond Translucent Canes
October 7, 2016
Inspirational Art
It’s been a while since I shared something you could actually sit in the studio and try so although this isn’t exactly within the theme of the week, it’s related enough and could be a really cool and fun thing to try this weekend if you are looking for something new and have a bit of translucent clay on hand.
They are related to translucent canes because they are translucent and the technique came from pushing caning. As the artist Agnes Dettai says on the Flickr post for this technique, “I have to thank Christine Dumont again; the idea for these came from the work on reinventing caning that we did for the course ‘Becoming a better artist.'”
It’s great to see how pushing yourself in a completely different direction, way beyond what you think something is or should be, can result in something so radically different. The shells are little gems all by themselves but there is much more than can be done with this. She uses Play-Doh to create a temporary base to wrap the translucent clay around but as she notes, the clay leaves a bit of stain from the color of the Play-Doh. Although this may not have been intended initially, it gives a lovely, vibrant and still very translucent color to the polymer. A great incidental discovery within a successful exploration.
You can see what else Agnes does with her playdoh hollows and what exploration she has done with this idea on her Flickr photostream and can find detailed notes on the technique on this blog post of hers. Get the complete steps for these shells by clicking the photo to get to the Flickr photo they are on and then go the next image left for the finishing steps.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Try out Agnes’ technique with translucent clay or just try using water-soluble clay (Play-Doh) as a form for hollow or open forms. Where can you take this idea?
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Translucent Clouds
May 29, 2015
Inspirational Art
First of all, I just realized this will be the last post of May. Really? This month is over? Wow … that went quick. Due to all the bedlam here, we’ve been just barely keeping up with the 3 blogs a week, and we have at least another week or so of chaos to get through. So, between that and all the notes from people who are liking the 3 days a week (“We have so much to read every day as it is …”), for now, we are going to keep this pace. Once we have the summer issue wrapped up next week, I’ll put together a survey (and some fun stuff to give away!) and give everyone who wants to offer their opinion, a chance to weigh in on the blog schedule.
In the meantime, my search for recent translucent clay work that uses the clay’s very particular characteristics in a new or surprising way was not as fruitful as I might have hoped. Have we gotten a bit tired of it? There are plenty of people using it to produce a wide variety of faux effects and mixing it with regular clays for better color and luminosity, but purely translucent for the sake of playing with its diaphanous quality seems to be the purview of just a handful of folks. However, in my search I ran across the pieces you see here. The first example I saw was the earrings you see in the upper left. I thought they were polymer, but then I got to the artist’s page and realized it had to be acrylic.
The artist is Jahyun Rita Baek, and this work is not new either, but something created when Rita was in art school in the United Kingdom. The series is called Cloud, which I believe is referring to the concept of light in both the illuminating quality and the perceived weight that are at play here. The work is beautifully simplistic and mesmerizing. Similar approaches with translucent polymer would be just as amazing, don’t you think?
So, this is the bit of inspiration I wanted to share with you today. Simple forms in floating and swirling designs could be created so easily with polymer. About the only thing this would take is knowing how to hold back and working clean–by which I mean clean clay and clean lines. If I could even get into my studio right now, I would go play for an hour just to relieve some stress. But parts of my office are in the way! So back to that.
Jump over to Rita’s website for more of her unusual work, not just in acrylic, but all kinds of materials from plastic to precious. And enjoy a beautiful spring weekend with a bit of creativity mixed in!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: Shadows of Enamel
November 7, 2014
Inspirational Art
I don’t know if it’s fair to say that enamel work can give the illusion of depth because usually you are looking into some depth. Enamel work is commonly layered, so you are seeing light reflected back through various colors and treatments applied in the process of laying down and firing powdered glass. But, if the artist works it right, there appears to be a lot more depth than there actually is.
The illusion in enameling can be created with illustrative techniques such as painting (yes, enamel work is often referred to as painting) in deeper colors along the edges of objects and lines. I find Ruth Ball’s work in this approach just mesmerizing. This piece is a small dish all of 10cm wide used for serving spices or condiments. The decorative cloisonne (a type of enameling using thin strips of metal or wire in the design) has many lines and objects to apply a touch of shadow to, making the longer lines seem like deep walls and the reed like dashes appear to float above it all.
I thought this piece would be of interest to those of you who play with translucent clay and alcohol inks. I’m thinking getting painterly with the inks on translucents could result in some very interesting looks, especially if layered. Because layering really thin sheets of translucent clay is not that different than layering enamel, is it? I wish all this blogging didn’t bring up so many amazing ideas. I don’t have time to try all these things, but I hope some of you do!
A break in the day to take time to wander around Ruth’s website would be time well spent. Take a look at her jewelry and see if you aren’t reminded of one of the work of one of our bigger polymer artists. Interesting isn’t it?
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.
Colored Pencil Transfers and More
July 3, 2013
Inspirational Art, Tips and Tricks
Were you intrigued yesterday by the possibilities of using colored pencil? Grab yourself a big box of Prismacolor pencils (or a comparable brand) and start doodling shapes and swirls, flowers and faces, tendrils and textures … anything you can think of. And yes, you can do this even if you don’t have a lot of drawing experience, and you’ll probably do it quite well. When you are playing with colored pencils, you are working primarily with the color (which you already do with polymer, right?) and can let the idea that you must sketch something particular fall away. Just let go and see what you have. Then pick a section of what you’ve drawn, cut it out and transfer it onto polymer. Quick and easy visual texture! From that you can cut, stamp, layer, embed, etc just like you would any other surface treated polymer sheet.
Another way to transfer you colored pencil masterpieces is to float liquid polymer clay (LPC) on the paper, bake or use a heat gun to cure it and then remove the paper from the cured LPC by peeling and using water to remove any that remains. The neat thing about using the LPC is that the image will have translucency wherever the pencil is light or absent. This can be applied to other surface-treated polymer clay sheets for intriguing layering of colors and textures.
Julia Sober used the LPC transfer of a colored pencil drawing laid over silver leaf to create this beautiful box.
The silver leaf does give the colors extra luminescence often associated with enamel work, which is probably why she called her application faux enamel. But other applications such as a pearl clay backing for light colored sketches or black for bright, densely colored drawings could be quite impressive as well. Once you have the LPC transfers done, you can hold them up to all kinds of backgrounds and see what kind of effect you have. Bring out your inner child with the colored pencils, and just play.
I don’t know what it is, but moths seem to be popping up all over the place in the polymer-sphere. They are pretty amazing too. This one was hard to miss. The translucent wings and choice of colors that are smoothly graduated in beautifully executed detail make this moth feel quite ethereal. Even the fluff and strands on the head are finely wrought clay with careful attention paid to the progression of grays. It’s a wonderful piece but unfortunately, I don’t have the artist to credit. It showed up on Pinterest with a link to a polymer group page on www.vk.com but with over 11,000 members, I have no idea whose it could be.
I can’t tell you how many pieces I pass up for features in the blog because there is no artist listed and initial searching leaves me no clues. Which means we are all without further knowledge of these artists. You can help change this.
If you like something so well that you save it, be sure there is a link to the source of the image’s information, not just the website’s homepage. You can ensure you are doing this by grabbing the web address of the post, article, or particular page you found the image on in the notes of the image on the social media site you save it to. If the address is just the website home page, you can usually click through on the post’s title or the “more …” link at the bottom of it to find the particular page with the artist’s information in whatever form the posting person has it.
Let’s give credit where credit it due. Not to mention giving us a chance to find out whose work we are admiring. As usual, if anyone knows who created this, chime in. I know I would like to see what other wonderful things they are creating!
UPDATE: We got our answer as to who the artist was–Darya Telegina of Balambeshka on www.vk.com. Thank you to Sherrie Brittig, Conny Brockstedt, and Natalya Aleksandrova for figuring it out and sending the links!
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreI’m going to end this week with something that is translucent although maybe not the way you are thinking, a piece that shies away from the fall colors, moving into Winter, as so many of us are, at least in terms of upcoming plans if not weather.
I share this work with you upon one condition (okay, maybe it’s not a condition, but it is a very strong urging) … that you visit the links I have for you for this artist. Michelle McKinney is one of those artists whose work you need to see in its many variation to really understand the scope and beauty of her vision. She works in what she calls ” hand cut translucen
That fact that she calls her material translucent and we see it as delicate makes for a fairly dramatic contrast with our understanding that this is metal. There is further contrast between concept and material in that images are almost all organic and yet what they are made of is industrial. More impressive though, is the undeniable beauty in her subject matter, the usually simple images that are a bit torn and twisted. I think it garners empathy for the idea of something so delicate being in such a state. It’s rather hard to put one’s finger on exactly what it is that is so striking about these but it is there without question.
You need to look at her collection of work for yourself and see if the pieces speak to you in a similar fashion. Please treat yourself to the beauty of her pieces on her Facebook page which looks to hold the largest collection of images like these trees here. But also stop over at her website to see the black and white prints she is creating with these sculptural pieces, developing a collection she calls Ghost Editions. They are eerily beautiful and not to be missed.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Design or create something whose imagery is one thing but the texture, color or embellishment would say something else. Work in conceptual and visual contrast. Don’t think too hard about it or too long. Start with a few ideas and see where the muse takes you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreHere is one more day of autumnal translucent beauties. Eva Haskova actually created these last April but they seem an appropriate homage to our quickly fading Fall season.
These bracelets are fairly simple in concept but so intriguing with their gradation of luminous colors and the short open tubes that allow a glimpse of the soft white of their translucent base. The color selection, similar to the piece by Jan Montarsi we saw last week, wisely includes a touch of cool color among all the rich warm hues to balance the intensity of the palette.
Holes and spaces seem to be dominating Eva’s explorations lately. You can see the evidence of this on her Facebook page as well as admire her other work on her Flickr photostream or her website.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create something in either a completely cool palette or a wholly warm palette. Once you have most of the design planned or executed, try inserting colors of the other temperature. How does that change the feeling of the piece when you add just a little of the opposing color temperature? How about if you add a lot? Play with the contrast until you have something that speaks to you.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreOk … back to our regularly scheduled program here. Here is a touch more on translucents this week since I started last Monday with a piece that was stated to be “in 3 parts” but got sidetracked the rest of the week. It’s rather hard to not complete the promised trio so here you are.
Here is a most magnificent brooch using translucents to create a visual illusion that will trip you out almost as much as the post-election mayhem. It looks absolutely three-dimensional but also, compounded by the organic placement and directional lean of the cane’s illusion, you could swear these open pod forms are alive. This piece so wonderfully illustrates the illusory possibilities of translucent clays.
The brooch comes from the genius of Melanie West who has been playing around with familiar themes and applications but with some fantastically unexpected results. I know this will get some of your imaginations just reeling but for even more fun and mind bending beauties, take a look at Melanie’s website and her latest creations posted recently on her Facebook page.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Use directional line to create a very intentional sense of movement. Create texture or line up motifs or forms to show strong direction in whatever interests you. If you like orderly, create orderly designs but try it in different orientations to see how it feels. If you want more organic or chaotic movement, be more random. If you want soothing, try flowing line.
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreAfter finding the beautiful textured glass for Friday’s post, I noticed that my folder of art work to consider for blogs was full of translucent pieces, and almost all of them in the same basic color palette and all of them are fairly recent shares on Facebook. It could be because of the season but I don’t know how relevant that becomes when you set them side by side. So I thought I’d basically do that, presenting three pieces that are similar in color and using translucent clay but we’ll look at how it is used to create different moods.
This first one is a set of earrings by Jan Montarsi. The autumnal palette is there but the primarily vertical composition of the set, both in the direction of the swathes of color and the stacked squares lean towards a strong, organized atmosphere. Until you get to the visual and tactile texture. That reminds me of an energetic kid in a sandbox digging hole after hole. The circular shapes are jauntily wonky with colors blurring into each other, all with a very natural and organic feel. It says “I keep on the path but like to dance a bit on the way.” Well, that’s my read.
Jan created these in a class taught by Marie Segal at the annual Kentucky/Tennessee guild retreat this last month. He used his own ‘organic’ extruded cane technique as well. I guess he expected the colors to come out more muted because in the comments he made this observation:
“The amazing thing is the colors of these translucent clays were diluted by at least half with regular translucent clay and then placed on a translucent background and the color is still vibrant.” It’s good to know just how rich those packaged translucent colors can be.
Jan is our Americas Regional President for the International Polymer Clay Association as well as being an active clayer and contributor to a variety of information and educational outlets including The Polymer Arts magazine. His work can be found on Facebook and on Flickr.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Pick a set of colors and then pick forms that seem quite disparate from the color palette you picked. Light and bright colors combined with severely geometric shapes or dark, rich colors with light hearted squiggles. What does the contrast in shape do to the mood of the colors and vice versa? What can you add in terms of texture, line, or motifs that will further illustrate the mood you see within that juxtaposition of disparate elements?
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreIt’s been a while since I shared something you could actually sit in the studio and try so although this isn’t exactly within the theme of the week, it’s related enough and could be a really cool and fun thing to try this weekend if you are looking for something new and have a bit of translucent clay on hand.
They are related to translucent canes because they are translucent and the technique came from pushing caning. As the artist Agnes Dettai says on the Flickr post for this technique, “I have to thank Christine Dumont again; the idea for these came from the work on reinventing caning that we did for the course ‘Becoming a better artist.'”
It’s great to see how pushing yourself in a completely different direction, way beyond what you think something is or should be, can result in something so radically different. The shells are little gems all by themselves but there is much more than can be done with this. She uses Play-Doh to create a temporary base to wrap the translucent clay around but as she notes, the clay leaves a bit of stain from the color of the Play-Doh. Although this may not have been intended initially, it gives a lovely, vibrant and still very translucent color to the polymer. A great incidental discovery within a successful exploration.
You can see what else Agnes does with her playdoh hollows and what exploration she has done with this idea on her Flickr photostream and can find detailed notes on the technique on this blog post of hers. Get the complete steps for these shells by clicking the photo to get to the Flickr photo they are on and then go the next image left for the finishing steps.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Try out Agnes’ technique with translucent clay or just try using water-soluble clay (Play-Doh) as a form for hollow or open forms. Where can you take this idea?
_________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
_________________________________________
Read MoreFirst of all, I just realized this will be the last post of May. Really? This month is over? Wow … that went quick. Due to all the bedlam here, we’ve been just barely keeping up with the 3 blogs a week, and we have at least another week or so of chaos to get through. So, between that and all the notes from people who are liking the 3 days a week (“We have so much to read every day as it is …”), for now, we are going to keep this pace. Once we have the summer issue wrapped up next week, I’ll put together a survey (and some fun stuff to give away!) and give everyone who wants to offer their opinion, a chance to weigh in on the blog schedule.
In the meantime, my search for recent translucent clay work that uses the clay’s very particular characteristics in a new or surprising way was not as fruitful as I might have hoped. Have we gotten a bit tired of it? There are plenty of people using it to produce a wide variety of faux effects and mixing it with regular clays for better color and luminosity, but purely translucent for the sake of playing with its diaphanous quality seems to be the purview of just a handful of folks. However, in my search I ran across the pieces you see here. The first example I saw was the earrings you see in the upper left. I thought they were polymer, but then I got to the artist’s page and realized it had to be acrylic.
The artist is Jahyun Rita Baek, and this work is not new either, but something created when Rita was in art school in the United Kingdom. The series is called Cloud, which I believe is referring to the concept of light in both the illuminating quality and the perceived weight that are at play here. The work is beautifully simplistic and mesmerizing. Similar approaches with translucent polymer would be just as amazing, don’t you think?
So, this is the bit of inspiration I wanted to share with you today. Simple forms in floating and swirling designs could be created so easily with polymer. About the only thing this would take is knowing how to hold back and working clean–by which I mean clean clay and clean lines. If I could even get into my studio right now, I would go play for an hour just to relieve some stress. But parts of my office are in the way! So back to that.
Jump over to Rita’s website for more of her unusual work, not just in acrylic, but all kinds of materials from plastic to precious. And enjoy a beautiful spring weekend with a bit of creativity mixed in!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say that enamel work can give the illusion of depth because usually you are looking into some depth. Enamel work is commonly layered, so you are seeing light reflected back through various colors and treatments applied in the process of laying down and firing powdered glass. But, if the artist works it right, there appears to be a lot more depth than there actually is.
The illusion in enameling can be created with illustrative techniques such as painting (yes, enamel work is often referred to as painting) in deeper colors along the edges of objects and lines. I find Ruth Ball’s work in this approach just mesmerizing. This piece is a small dish all of 10cm wide used for serving spices or condiments. The decorative cloisonne (a type of enameling using thin strips of metal or wire in the design) has many lines and objects to apply a touch of shadow to, making the longer lines seem like deep walls and the reed like dashes appear to float above it all.
I thought this piece would be of interest to those of you who play with translucent clay and alcohol inks. I’m thinking getting painterly with the inks on translucents could result in some very interesting looks, especially if layered. Because layering really thin sheets of translucent clay is not that different than layering enamel, is it? I wish all this blogging didn’t bring up so many amazing ideas. I don’t have time to try all these things, but I hope some of you do!
A break in the day to take time to wander around Ruth’s website would be time well spent. Take a look at her jewelry and see if you aren’t reminded of one of the work of one of our bigger polymer artists. Interesting isn’t it?
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.
Were you intrigued yesterday by the possibilities of using colored pencil? Grab yourself a big box of Prismacolor pencils (or a comparable brand) and start doodling shapes and swirls, flowers and faces, tendrils and textures … anything you can think of. And yes, you can do this even if you don’t have a lot of drawing experience, and you’ll probably do it quite well. When you are playing with colored pencils, you are working primarily with the color (which you already do with polymer, right?) and can let the idea that you must sketch something particular fall away. Just let go and see what you have. Then pick a section of what you’ve drawn, cut it out and transfer it onto polymer. Quick and easy visual texture! From that you can cut, stamp, layer, embed, etc just like you would any other surface treated polymer sheet.
Another way to transfer you colored pencil masterpieces is to float liquid polymer clay (LPC) on the paper, bake or use a heat gun to cure it and then remove the paper from the cured LPC by peeling and using water to remove any that remains. The neat thing about using the LPC is that the image will have translucency wherever the pencil is light or absent. This can be applied to other surface-treated polymer clay sheets for intriguing layering of colors and textures.
Julia Sober used the LPC transfer of a colored pencil drawing laid over silver leaf to create this beautiful box.
The silver leaf does give the colors extra luminescence often associated with enamel work, which is probably why she called her application faux enamel. But other applications such as a pearl clay backing for light colored sketches or black for bright, densely colored drawings could be quite impressive as well. Once you have the LPC transfers done, you can hold them up to all kinds of backgrounds and see what kind of effect you have. Bring out your inner child with the colored pencils, and just play.
