Outside Inspiration: A Twist in Glass
June 21, 2013
Inspirational Art
Of course, movement in art can be achieved in any material if worked correctly. Because glass lends itself so nicely to beads, options for creating visual or actual movement in glass artwork is not that different from some of the more common options for polymer.
Joyce Roessler is master glass artist whose work is heavily entrenched in the concept of movement. Dangles, swirls, twists, flowing lines, gradation of color and multiple joints in her pieces create very active visuals in her work. Her Grey Glass Twist Necklace uses several of these approaches to create a piece that seems almost alive.
The twists, varying thickness as they move around each other, create much of the sense of movement; but the lines within them serve to accentuate the turning points, giving the tighter turns a sense of speed. Just look at the calm turn of the lines in the backside beads, then look at the point in the curled beads in front, where the glass curves back or comes forward–can you sense that difference in ‘speed’ visually? Pretty cool, isn’t it?
I would love to see someone wearing this, too. There are multiple joints that, due to the unevenness of the beads, would certainly shift the balance of the beads and the composition of them as the wearer moves. A very active piece indeed.
If you are intrigued by the possibilities of adding movement to your own work, you have to take a moment to look through Joyce’s gallery on her website. Her jewelry and sculpture are gorgeous and a definite source of inspiration for creating movement in art.
Polymer in Flight
June 20, 2013
Inspirational Art
I have to confess that the movement idea for this week wasn’t something I came up with on my own. Denise Graham, who works in polymer “clay paintings” and has been very sweet to share work beyond what she has contributed for the Wall Art articles you’ve seen in the present Summer 2013 issue (and will see more of in the upcoming Fall 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine), sent me this intriguing piece you see here. The idea of flight and its emulation in the breezy hanging strands that outline flight’s most iconic creature was what triggered the idea for this week.
The floating dove piece is large — 6′ x 5 1/2 ‘! It’s rare to see something in polymer that big, but why not? Polymer makes wonderful components from which you can create larger work. And with its light weight, it makes a great material for kinetic sculpture that is dependent upon changes in airflow, like this piece.
Denise has been thinking outside the box in polymer ever since she moved from watercolor to this new and amazing medium. She presently has several classes on CraftArtEdu teaching her clay painting techniques. Although these are not classes on kinetic sculpture, they teach you another option for using polymer in a painterly way. From still life to water to clouds & starry skies, Denise’s classes may open up a whole new world for you — and that can be quite ‘moving’!
Kinetic Fun
June 19, 2013
Inspirational Art
Yesterday we touched on ways to add visual movement to your work; but visual is only way one to add the excitement of movement to artwork. Kinetic design involves creating work that actually moves due to the way it is used or where it is displayed.
Jewelry lends itself to kinetic design quite easily since it is displayed on a person and we do expect people to move about, providing the motion that engages that part of the design. If you are familiar with Alice Stroppel’s fun and whimsical work, you probably do not find it surprising that she has played with kinetic design. Here is a necklace the uses both visual movement (in the lines of the canes) as well as actual movement. Part of the whimsy here is in how the dangling beads will dance back and forth and the whole set can move on the main cord as the wearer moves about.
Dangles are a pretty common method of adding movement to jewelry. Allowing the whole focal set here to move quite freely along the neck cord will just add to the sense of liveliness and fun in this piece. Such additions to the design aren’t hard to implement as you can see by Alice’s basic engineering here. If you have a piece that you want to add a little liveliness or whimsy to, something as simple as dangling beads can do that quite easily for you.
Mesmerizing Movement
June 18, 2013
Inspirational Art
Visual movement usually consists of some kind of directional lines. These lines don’t have to be straight. They don’t have to all be the same. They don’t even have to be repeated. But what they do need is to be emphasized in some manner that makes the viewer focus in on them.
Swirls as well as lines that meet at a point are very strong components for creating visual movement because they highlight a single point of focus where the swirl ends or the lines meet. In other words, the line draws your view, making your gaze ‘move’ across the piece to those single points. And your eyes will keep wanting to do that. This is where the sense of movement comes from. You can see both these in Keila Hernandez‘s beautiful Plum Blossom necklace.
In Keila’s flowers, the points of focus are in the middle where the lines of the caning bring us. These centered focal points give us reassuring positions of stability, but the swirls on the outside keep pulling the eye back out and actually create repeated points of tension where the paired swirls meet. It makes the flowers feel very lively.
Repetition is another way to increase the visual effect of lines suggesting movement. One flower would still give a sense of movement because of the lines used, but seeing this effect repeated across the necklace compounds it. Do you get a sense the flowers are almost swirling themselves?
If you are interested in the effect of line on the sense of movement, be sure to read last year’s Fall issue articles on Rhythm and Repetition.
A Giveaway and Introduction to Movement This Week
June 17, 2013
Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
This week I want to focus on the idea of movement in your artwork. Movement can be either a kinetic design (having parts that move as an integral part of the design), or a visual sense of movement. But before we move onto that, I’ve got a new little feature for you all.
Nearly every day I get an email, a card in the mail, pingbacks/notices or a comment on the blog with tips, ideas, thank yous for the blog and the magazine, as well as people who are just out promoting The Polymer Arts projects of their own accord. It’s hard to convey just how heart-warming and encouraging these notes and notices are to me, knowing that readers are taking time out of their busy lives to direct me to new information, help promote what we do here or just to let me know that TPA is making a difference. So I have this idea. Although I won’t be able to acknowledge everyone, I’d like to take time on at least one blog a week to bring these helpful and enthusiastic readers to your attention. It would be my way of saying thanks as well as helping show all you readers just how supportive this community can be. I hope seeing this will encourage you all to to reach out and add to that support or take advantage of it when you need help and encouragement.
This week, I want to give away four back issues (winner chooses any four in print, or digital if preferred) to one of our enthusiastic readers. I’ll draw a name from the folks who help spread the word about our latest issue, Summer 2013’s Mixing it Up, and the flipbook sampler that is now up on the website. This little flipbook has sample pages from the latest issue for those who haven’t decided to get their own copy yet. If you have a guild member site, a Facebook page, Twitter account, Pinterest board, or blog that you know polymer people watch, I’d be ever so grateful if you’d share this fun little teaser. There are several other flipbook sampler issues available on the same page on The Polymer Arts website. Just post this share-able link, www.thepolymerarts.com/SampleIssues.html, and/or right click and “save image” using the image below.
To get in on the drawing for the four back issues, email me or post a comment to this blog post with a link to where you posted the information. You’ll be helping encourage other aspiring polymer artists, as well as giving yourself a chance to gain any issues you might be missing in your collection. On Sunday, I’ll share some of these links and reveal the winning reader for the giveaway!
Be sure to check in tomorrow; we will investigate movement in polymer art for the rest of the week. We have some really beautiful and unusual pieces to share and hopefully inspire you with!
Speaking to Your Audience
June 16, 2013
Ponderings
Today, a brief quote from Degas emphasizing that art is communication. Consider what it is that people will see in your work. Yes, it is important that you like what you do; but if you plan to put it out there either to sell or display, you need to consider what it is that it ‘says’ to the buyer and viewer. You have the chance to be heard. Make the most of it.
Mixing Beauty
June 15, 2013
Inspirational Art
The only thing we really didn’t hit this week while talking about sculpture is how it can be such a wonderful type of work for mixing media. Sure, adding props, embellishments, and clothing is pretty common with polymer figure sculpture, but it doesn’t have to end there. How about mixing two-dimensional art with three-dimensional objects?
Renata Jansen creates these ethereal figures that come across as both alive and yet painterly. In fact, she calls her work “3D paintings in clay”. In her piece “Ava” you see here, it is rather hard to tell where the sculpture ends and the painting (which is both on her body and on the background piece) begins.
The way the two mediums meld together is just beautiful. There’s not much more to say about it other than this just being another example of how well polymer can work with other mediums.
You can see multiple views of this piece and others on Renata’s website.
Outside Inspiration: Embellishing the Figure
June 14, 2013
Inspirational Art
If you are looking for inspiration for your own sculptures or to expand what you are doing with other forms, do look outside polymer into the other malleable materials that allow for such wondrous pieces as this full size head and torso by Linda Ganstrom. This is actually made from paper clay cast in a body mold; the decorations are mold-made forms and paints.
What strikes me most about this piece is the use of motifs to decorate and add to the human form so that the torso and head act as a base for the symbolic imagery, as well as making a direct connection to the human experience. And I like that the human form is directly ‘decorated’, something more often relegated to the stand or props that might accompany it. Why not use the canvas of the body’s form to further express your ideas? Yes, sculpting the form can be and often is very expressive all on its own, but if you have a little more to add, additional forms, drawings, textures, and the like are not off limits. It’s art. Few things are off limits.
Emotive Expressions
June 13, 2013
Inspirational Art
There is one element particular to sculpture that isn’t directly translatable to other work, unless you are going to add some form of sculpture to your jewelry or decor: the creation of emotion through facial expressions.
With non-representational art (which constitutes the majority of wearable and functional art) we can use colors, forms, patterns, textures, and motifs to help us express emotion, but a viewer’s life experiences and associations will determine if they draw that same emotion from the work. However, joy, pain, confusion, sadness, apathy, and other human reactions can be rendered in sculpture through faces. Human facial expressions are, more or less, universally understood, giving the sculptural artist who recreates the human form or brings to life personified creatures or objects quite the advantage in terms of relaying emotion–which in turn can relay atmosphere or may even help tell an entire story.
Joyce Cloutman has some of the most wonderful expressions on her polymer dolls and figures. Mirth and contentment seem to be dominant on her whimsical people and creatures, consistent with the fun sense of humor she obviously has. I mean, these little guys are call Snail Males. They’re just adorable.
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If you have never tried sculpting faces, oh what fun awaits you–because of course, you have to try it! I’ve found it’s usually best to just play around and try not to aim for realism when you start out. Exaggerated lips, cheeks, head shape, eyes, and noses can really help you loosen up preconceptions about the shape, size, and orientation of features on a face.
To start your face play, you can work off someone else’s work that is already exaggerated like Joyce’s sculptures (you can see more on her Flickr page). You can also look through some of the many online tutorials, such as this one by Sarajane Helm, or this one on Amanda Day’s doll making site. This kind of play can also hone your skills at sculpting in general as you learn to push and manipulate the clay in ways you might not do when building functional or wearable art. And yes, I will be glad to be the blamable source if you fall in love with sculpting faces.
Thanks to Tommie Montgomery for suggesting we check out Joyce’s fun work today!
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And just how do we do that?
By making the world people know appear new, maybe even unfamiliar, or by allowing people to discover and perceive things they didn’t know existed. The business of art is to open the world a little wider and, with any luck, have others see themselves and just where and what they are in this vast world of ours.
This doesn’t have to be monumental. Sometimes this goal is just making someone smile on a bad day or feel beautiful when they are feeling dull. But it can also be so revealing as to change their lives. We aren’t so in control of that outcome, but we are in control of how we present the world to others, and that is what makes it art. If it is the right time and place, the art will make them see what they didn’t see before.
Most things that are hidden are behind, under, or otherwise obscured by other matter. In polymer craft, what is hidden is usually under more polymer; but what if it’s not buried, but just hard to see, blending in with its surroundings?
This may seem a little off theme, but sometimes what we have done with our clay is barely noticable because its subtlety is hard to see. If you texturize the surface of your clay and the pattern is not standing out the way you would like, there are ways to “reveal” the pattern that can add color and contrast along with additional interest and complexity. (Yes, I know I’m stretching the “reveal” theme, but this is fun stuff so I’m sure you’ll forgive me!)
The most common way to make your pattern stand out is to brush paint into the recesses and wipe away the excess paint from the raised surface. But there are so many variations on that basic brush and wipe technique. Different colors, different types of paint, powders instead of paint, colored liquid polymer … basically, if it can be applied to the surface and then wiped off, it can be used to highlight the pattern on the surface of the clay.
In a limited demonstration of what is commonly known as “antiquing”, Jan Geisen played with different paints, colors and other products on these sample tiles a few years back to demonstrate how a little variation can result in markedly different outcomes.
Even though this is often called antiquing, I wouldn’t call it that. Such a term limits its potential. What if you wanted to add a bright red or a metallic blue to your impressed design? That wouldn’t look so antique, but it could look very impressive. Do whatever you like to reveal your design and bring its beauty to the forefront.
For most of us, there are patterns, colors, and textures enough throughout nature to keep us inspired for several lifetimes. But, within the forms we see in the natural world is a whole other realm of possible inspiration hidden within it.
Take flowers, for instance. They are beautiful and obviously quite inspirational as we find them presented out in nature. But there is more hidden within a flower. This image by microphotographer Ray Nelson is actually the base, or ovary, of a flower. Yes, its been enhanced using stain and special lighting, but the pattern and texture is all Mother Nature.
Mother Nature’s work can be stunning even when unenhanced. Here is the cross section of a bell flower ovary with beautiful soft colors and kaleidoscope patterning.
Isn’t it just fantastic that we can step outside our door and find hidden beauty in so many things? When you’re feeling uninspired, a walk outside is highly recommended for clearing the mind and recharging your batteries. And while you’re out there, you can look at cross sections of various plants, rocks or other natural work for new colors, patterns, and textures to help you fire up your creativity.
So why is it that we are fascinated by things revealed, seeing things we know or suspect were once hidden?
This nearly universal allure has to do with discovery. Like digging up a buried treasure, seeing a colorful new bird in the backyard or pulling out old photos from a box you found in the attic, discovering things we didn’t know existed gives us a thrill and feeds our inherent curiosity about what we don’t know or see.
When working in polymer, the excitement of finding something that was hidden is commonly the experience of the artist and not usually the viewer of the art. But I think the viewer will often unconsciously register that special quality, that extra depth the material had to have in order for the artist to come up with such intriguing designs or imagery.
That is why it may not matter at all if the design presented actually comes from revealing the depths of the material or not. Having the sense that something may once have been buried should still give us that little thrill, even if it wasn’t. I’m pretty sure Cate van Alphen embedded the colorful swirls that show in the concave spaces on the surface of this pendant; but it might appear at first glance (or to someone unfamiliar with the material) that carving out the indentations revealed the swirls within the lentil bead.
So, even when you aren’t creating visual texture or imagery by slicing across or into your polymer, you can make a piece appear to have an exposed interior which can flip that switch in a potential buyer, intriguing them with the thought that you revealed the secret core of the clay, the hidden treasure and things otherwise unseen.
Much of our layering and exposing of those layers in polymer happens on a flat surface which can then be applied to any number of forms. But take that usual work surface and put it in the round, and a you can get quite beautiful results that way too.
For you scrap clay technique connoisseurs, we have another one here for you! These beads were made by Belinda (Birnco on Flickr). There were created from extruded canes (which are a great way to use up scrap), coiled around a base core of raw clay with bits sliced off the coiled surface using a wavy blade.
I know these beads are a little dark but I do like the variety shown using this exposed coil approach. Belinda has a number of examples of these on her Flickr page, so you can jump over there and see the brighter varieties and other variations on this.
You can of course use tube, ovals, lentils or any other shape and then go at it with a straight or wavy blade to see what might be revealed. The thing is, the small round form allows for revealing layers in bits and pieces without the reshaping of the layers the way you do in mokume to get variation on what is exposed. I just thought some of you out there might like to explore a little revealing in the round. It has intriguing possibilities.
When I think about how polymer revealing works, the mokume gane approach is what first comes to mind. I remember layering clay and metal leaf for the first time, punching and squishing and hoping whatever was going on in the middle of my beat up block of clay would result in something useful. Then there was that first slice. That disappointing one when you realize it might take a few slice to see what is really going on. Then I hit it … that first really gorgeous slice with rings and waves of translucent clay revealing the dull shine of buried silver foil. It was like finding a hidden treasure. Oh, who are we kidding … it was a hidden treasure! It was like doing magic or mining or gold panning. It was so cool to see those patterns emerge out of this ugly mushed-up block of clay. I was hooked.
Since then I’ve experimented with the layer and slice approach to working with polymer in dozen of ways. It never gets old. The reveal is always so very exciting because the process is partly done blind, so you can’t be certain just what will pop up when you start slicing–which is why this piece on the right here was so eye-catching. The organically occurring composition of a mokume gane slice is layered over a very controlled stripe pattern in such a way as to suggest the mokume layer is revealing the striped layer … chaos giving way to order, chance revealing the control beneath. What a great metaphoric composition.
If you didn’t immediately recognize the artist, these pendants are the work of Julie Picarello, who is rather a master of mokume and other ‘revealing’ polymer techniques. Her book, Patterns in Polymer, includes quite a few of her approaches to revealing the depth that polymer clay can go. She also has a very rich gallery of work on Flickr you may want to meander through for further revelations.
Polymer is a very different craft material for a number of reasons. Of course, the biggest advantage to polymer is undoubtedly its versatility. I mean, it has versatility within its versatile possibilities. What other material allows you to create forms embedded with interior imagery? Of course you will assume that I am talking about caning, which I am — sort of. Caning is just one way of working with polymer that can’t be done as easily or with such versatility with other craft materials. It’s our ability to layer and build with polymer from the inside of a form out, to reshape and manipulate it not just on the surface but within the interior of the forms we work with that gives us so many possibilities.
This layering and building allows for hidden imagery and visual texture that we can fully control. How cool is that? I though this week, we’d look at the various ways polymer can be used to bury and then reveal our visions planted within them.
This bracelet by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre is what got me thinking about this particular aspect of polymer.
This piece is caning of a sort … at least in the initial build with the polymer. But instead of caning used to create a surface design, the cane is formed into cones with an outside layer developed to be a primary element and the cane cross-section showing as a revealed interior. This use of a cane celebrates its three-dimensionality. It’s not that we don’t realize that the images we make from canes come from a roll that the image follows all the way through its length; but the end product of a cane is usually as a two-dimensional surface design. The depth of the imagery is not a consideration when used this way.
Seeing the design in a cross section makes one consider how deep the design must go. It made me think just how much actual depth polymer often has and how really cool it is that we can use this to create visual textures and patterns, both planned and unexpected, for the work we make. So this week, we’ll just have fun checking out the different ways our fellow clayers reveal this particularly versatile aspect of polymer art.
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In other words, do it rather than just think or talk about it, whatever it is. Perhaps you’ve been thinking of trying a new technique or form, sprucing up your Etsy site, starting a website or blog,or going to a workshop to hone your skills and boost your enthusiasm. Whatever it is, if you keep telling yourself you’re going to do it and haven’t, its time to stop and just do it. Do it now! Get on it, or schedule it out or buy what you need to get started. It will feel so good to take action.
Action was taken this past Monday when I asked for your help to spread the word about the magazine. I really appreciate all your enthusiasm and all of you for taking the time to post about the latest issue. Now to choose the winner of the giveaway:
So, to choose a winner for this giveaway, I use dice. Comments and emails are assigned a number from 11 on up according to when they came in and I roll two dice to get two digits for the winning number. This time … snake eyes! (An 11!) That means our very first comment and enthusiastic emissary of the digital flipbook, Sherrie Jo of Beary Tiny Treasures wins four print copies of her choice of The Polymer Arts. Congrats!
We’ll do more giveaways soon. They are certainly fun and I love getting your comments. Just keep reading and keep claying!
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Although I didn’t emphasize this, yesterday’s glass artist was big on form as a means of expression, and the sense of movement she conveys is rather dependent on the forms she chooses. I find this to be true with polymer artist Jana Roberts Benzon as well. She creates a sense of flowing, staccato, or ebbing visual movement by building forms that change through the space they occupy in undulating or precise steps
Jana is well known for her laser cut technique, which can create an enthralling texture as well as a visually active form. Her pendant, Zorro, shows how the laser cut texture is used to create change across the surface of the piece, giving it a lot of energy. The technique also allows her to create a very active form, building the zig-zag through the shifting of slices already needed to create the texture.
It doesn’t hurt that there is also a progressive change in the dominance of colors from the top to the bottom. Any kind of gradual change will relay movement because that is what movement is perceived as: a series of related changes.
Enjoy more of Jana’s moving work on both her website and her Flickr pages.
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