Nature Undermines Manmade
August 13, 2014
Inspirational Art
I was hoping to find a piece as crowded with random repeated elements as we’ve had the last two days, but without the obvious organic element to see how that affects the design. However, that has been rather hard to find. Once the repetition is applied in random order, any man-made, machined or polished characteristics of the elements start to lose their innate sense of precision and inanimate nature. It would seem that the randomness itself speaks to us of nature. Then I found this piece by Katy Schmitt that is shiny, polished and bright, but the crowded design actually has some order to it. Yet, it still has a subtle, but definite organic nature to it. Why is that?
Well, there are a couple glaring things here. One, the overlapping application is reminiscent of natural things like scales and pine cones. And the colors and circling design of the canes are basically peacock feather eyes. Nature, of course, has it’s own orderly design that we also gravitate to. Repeated, crowded and yet, orderly; however, not perfect as in machined, but perfectly natural.
Orderly and natural combined elements dominant Katy’s work. Enjoy more of her work on her Flickr photostream and her own 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.
Masses of Flowers
August 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
In all of the comments and emails that I received regarding yesterday’s post, it seems as if we find nature’s masses of similar items most alluring.
Flowers are, of course, an obvious example. Nature packs them in bunches on bushes, in small explosions of colors in meadows and amassed across the canopy of trees in the spring.
So, I went looking for a polymer example, and there are plenty of them, but I particularly like this bracelet due to the likeness of the flowers in shape and size, with just a little change in color. I think this is more nature’s type of design versus the lovely, but very varied designs of the more ornate floral pieces we have seen so much of the last few years.
This was created by a Russian artist who lists her name as Valeria-Maslova in her Livemaster shop. She has a lot of lovely items in her shop, which include more masses of flowers, circles and colonies of shapes that will intrigue you. I am off to keep working on polishing up the next issue, and as you all suggest, I will head off in search of more of these designs to share with you.
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.
Bright in Fall
August 5, 2014
Inspirational Art
There is a bright side to fall colors, at least according to the fashion industry. Deep, dark and rich is not for everyone, even when it’s in season, so designers and fashion magazines put together lighter and brighter palettes as well. Pantone released their Fall color forecast several months ago, but I am not as yet seeing many in our community who are following Pantone’s rather vibrant colors. I had to reach back a way to find this lovely piece by Ronna Sarvas Weltman that displays many of the upcoming forecasted colors; the magenta, reds, lavender and yellows.
There is definitely a feel of fall to this necklace. Although, I don’t think Ronna was thinking of the season when she created it. She was thinking about the various design considerations that would make it a necklace different from all the others.
In her words, “This necklace has a bunch of similar disks at the back portion. Looks a bit boring in a photo, as if I stopped being creative and just put a bunch of disks in to finish it up. But, when it is worn, it works beautifully. I knew designing it that it would look better on than off and maybe wouldn’t even be all that advantageous vis-a-vis marketing. Just thought I’d bring it up as another element in the design process. What a piece looks like on a table surface can be entirely different from the way it behaves around a neck.”
Excellent point. Ideally, necklaces would all be photographed while being worn in order to show how they fall and lay. This would also display which portions of the design are visible and whether they stand out as designed.
Because of Ronna’s organic and often antiqued look, much of her art jewelry would fit in wonderfully all throughout the fall season. For more ideas and other color palettes to ponder, take a look at Ronna’s work on her Facebook page and her 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.
I was hoping to find a piece as crowded with random repeated elements as we’ve had the last two days, but without the obvious organic element to see how that affects the design. However, that has been rather hard to find. Once the repetition is applied in random order, any man-made, machined or polished characteristics of the elements start to lose their innate sense of precision and inanimate nature. It would seem that the randomness itself speaks to us of nature. Then I found this piece by Katy Schmitt that is shiny, polished and bright, but the crowded design actually has some order to it. Yet, it still has a subtle, but definite organic nature to it. Why is that?
Well, there are a couple glaring things here. One, the overlapping application is reminiscent of natural things like scales and pine cones. And the colors and circling design of the canes are basically peacock feather eyes. Nature, of course, has it’s own orderly design that we also gravitate to. Repeated, crowded and yet, orderly; however, not perfect as in machined, but perfectly natural.
Orderly and natural combined elements dominant Katy’s work. Enjoy more of her work on her Flickr photostream and her own 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.
In all of the comments and emails that I received regarding yesterday’s post, it seems as if we find nature’s masses of similar items most alluring.
Flowers are, of course, an obvious example. Nature packs them in bunches on bushes, in small explosions of colors in meadows and amassed across the canopy of trees in the spring.
So, I went looking for a polymer example, and there are plenty of them, but I particularly like this bracelet due to the likeness of the flowers in shape and size, with just a little change in color. I think this is more nature’s type of design versus the lovely, but very varied designs of the more ornate floral pieces we have seen so much of the last few years.
This was created by a Russian artist who lists her name as Valeria-Maslova in her Livemaster shop. She has a lot of lovely items in her shop, which include more masses of flowers, circles and colonies of shapes that will intrigue you. I am off to keep working on polishing up the next issue, and as you all suggest, I will head off in search of more of these designs to share with you.
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 is a bright side to fall colors, at least according to the fashion industry. Deep, dark and rich is not for everyone, even when it’s in season, so designers and fashion magazines put together lighter and brighter palettes as well. Pantone released their Fall color forecast several months ago, but I am not as yet seeing many in our community who are following Pantone’s rather vibrant colors. I had to reach back a way to find this lovely piece by Ronna Sarvas Weltman that displays many of the upcoming forecasted colors; the magenta, reds, lavender and yellows.
There is definitely a feel of fall to this necklace. Although, I don’t think Ronna was thinking of the season when she created it. She was thinking about the various design considerations that would make it a necklace different from all the others.
In her words, “This necklace has a bunch of similar disks at the back portion. Looks a bit boring in a photo, as if I stopped being creative and just put a bunch of disks in to finish it up. But, when it is worn, it works beautifully. I knew designing it that it would look better on than off and maybe wouldn’t even be all that advantageous vis-a-vis marketing. Just thought I’d bring it up as another element in the design process. What a piece looks like on a table surface can be entirely different from the way it behaves around a neck.”
Excellent point. Ideally, necklaces would all be photographed while being worn in order to show how they fall and lay. This would also display which portions of the design are visible and whether they stand out as designed.
Because of Ronna’s organic and often antiqued look, much of her art jewelry would fit in wonderfully all throughout the fall season. For more ideas and other color palettes to ponder, take a look at Ronna’s work on her Facebook page and her 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.
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