Stepping Outside the Box
October 21, 2014
Inspirational Art
A major theme of the weekend in Racine was the idea of stepping out of pre-set boxes. There were a whole range of ‘boxes’ being discussed including our own personal boxes we put ourselves in as artists. Because of those conversations, I wanted to bring up the piece by Jeffery Lloyd Dever that was exhibited in the Racine Museum of Art’s (in)Organic exhibition running through February 1st, 2015. This was already shown on Polymer Clay Daily last Friday, but since I had the luck to be part of a conversation with Jeff about this piece, I thought it was worth showing again and sharing some of his thoughts.
This piece really pushes beyond Jeff’s usual presentation in that it is all black. Completely absent are the glowing gradations of color, the fine lines and the back filled spots that he is so well known for. While standing around after a full day of discussion already, the conversation turned to flaws, and Jeff stated that no one seemed to see the flaws in his work because of all the varied detail. He felt that distracted viewers from the imperfect line or the errant fingerprint. This naturally brought up this all black piece of his since those elements were there to distract. Was it harder to create and finish this new work because there were no visual distractions? He said no, that the limitation of the palette was really quite freeing.
What he wanted to know in turn was whether the work was still recognizably his. We gave him a resounding “Yes.” He seemed surprised. He had worked outside his own still fairly roomy box by abandoning his colors and his details and even working with new forms, and yet, we still could see him in it. Why is that?
My thought on that question is simply this: When an artist is working with their own authentic voice, when they’ve gone through long periods of exploration and discovery, the knowledge and experience they’ve gained over time flows out into their work. I see Jeff’s signature in the cleanness of the shapes, the fluidity of their connection, the sparseness of elements so that they each have space enough to be seen individually and, of course, the organic source he constantly returns to in the forms and compositions he chooses. It may have felt quite different for him, but for us, it is still uniquely Dever.
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Delights from Racine
October 20, 2014
Inspirational Art
I just got back from Racine late last night and have a ton of thoughts and work to share with you. I still have to go through all the photos and notes. I will say it was an invigorating weekend, as all these kind of artist gatherings are that are focused on the ideas behind the creation of art and the support of the medium in particular.
We did stop to goof off and enjoy each other’s company. However, more often, by twos or threes or by the half dozen, we’d find ourselves putting our heads together, trying to work through the various issues we face in polymer art and as craft artists in a world where the higher value and preciousness of art is primarily attributed to either two-dimensional work or work done in precious materials.
But, before we jump off the deep end this week, how about just a new delightful piece by our community’s representative of delightful and fun art, Christi Friesen. She confided that this necklace was whipped together right before the show, as we all want something new to display for these events. When asked what she called the necklace, she stalled a moment by looking out the glass doors of the guest house we stayed at on the Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread grounds to contemplate the fiery colors of the fall landscape. She then pronounced the piece as Bead Wad No. 7. I give her a look, and she said, “There isn’t a 1-6, so you know.” Yes, Christi, that was suspected.
I’ll distill more fun moments and photos to enjoy throughout the week. In the meantime, have a wonderful Monday and enjoy another photo of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house, Wingspread, for which the location is named.
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Oldie but Goodie
October 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
I wish I could start sharing all the wonderful things we’ve already started talking about and sharing at the Polymer 2.0 conference in Racine, but I think we really need to wait until it’s over to pull out the juiciest tidbits. So, while I am off taking photos and notes for future blogs and articles, why don’t you try this unusual, but older, technique that involves creating long ribbons of polymer.
The tutorial was originally created by Nora Jean Stone for Polymer Clay Polyzine some 13 years ago, but it’s still a relevant technique today that I really think could use some more exploration. The depth and patterning results of this approach could be dramatically altered by changing up the layers and the way the ribbon is folded, as well as choosing solid or mica clays or a combination of them. Have you ever tried it? If you haven’t, wouldn’t you like to?
Go get yourself some time in the studio with this or any of the other neat tips and tutorials dug up for you this week. See what surprises you have in store for yourself!
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Outside Inspiration: Back to the Idea of Clay
October 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
This is really not a tutorial but more of an inspiration, hopefully, to look outside our community’s offerings for things we can learn. There are many other craft forms that have tutorials that will teach you skills applicable to polymer.
Papercrafts, scrapbooking, beading, and, of course, ceramics have a lot of learning opportunities. I’m using this week of cool tutorials and tips to just look at something that represents the most basic approach to working the surface of an elastic material–sculptural texture. We have so many color options and additions we can add to our clay that perhaps we skip over this very basic approach when such work could be the very thing to add the energy or impact you are after.
Hand tools on clay have been a staple method of creating in clay craft throughout its history. Really intricate decoration with hand tools can take some time and patience, but it can result in amazing textures and designs. This work in progress and the cups below are decorated primarily with carefully placed impressions added over and over in a pleasingly fluid design by ceramicist Gary Jackson. There’s nothing more here than clay and a hand tool. So simple and beautiful. Does it make you want to go back to basics and just play with the clay for its sculptural qualities alone? I bet this kind of work is extremely meditative and zen-like. I could really use some of that.
But, no sleep for the wicked or, as I say these days, the overworked. I am off to Racine, Wisconsin today for the Polymer 2.0 conference. I will get you one last fun, surprising tutorial tomorrow then next week, I hope to have enough photos to share the thoughts and the art that I’ll be immersed in this weekend.
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A Non-Caner’s Cane
October 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
Is it just me or are the patterns in these beads particularly mesmerizing? I am not much of a caner, as I have professed before, but there are times when I wish I was more accomplished at it. When I saw these beads on Pinterest not long ago I thought the cane was a pretty cool one that had a lot of potential for visual textures, back sides, borders, etc. Then I clicked through to the link and saw how easy it was. Even I could do that!
Petra Nemravka, the force behind the Czech Republic’s shop and website Nemravka.cz created a very nicely photographed and easy to follow tutorial for this cane including rainbow variations. If you can make a jelly roll cane, you can create this little beauty which could be great for caners and non-caners alike.
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Polymer Resistance
October 15, 2014
Inspirational Art
If you’re a fellow art and/or craft junkie who has tried every other medium that has come your way, there’s a very good chance you have worked with resists. They are most commonly found in watercolor and in textile dying, but any art form that includes paints, dyes, stains or any other liquid that might be used to change the color or appearance of a surface, there are almost always resist techniques.
Polymer is no different, although such techniques are a little less common. I have seen stencils, colored pencil and crayons as resists on polymer a number of times, and once, I recall seeing the use of brushed on masking fluid that is commonly used as a resist on watercolors. Rebecca Watkins discovered a slightly newer version of these options–a masking fluid pen. And she does it in layers!
The control the pen affords makes for some beautiful possibilities as you can see here. Instead of just one layer of resist designs as is commonly seen, Rebecca lays down several layers of alcohol ink, changing the resist design in between to create this complex effect. She shares her news beads, where to get yourself one of these pens, and her technique on her blog. How very clever and generous of her!
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Digging out Inclusions
October 14, 2014
Inspirational Art
In my house, anything can be art materials. And I mean anything. We keep trying to come up with more ways to use the hair we brush off our furry kids, but dog and cat hair is troublesome and far too plentiful as inclusions. But seriously, if we have a lot of anything we’d otherwise throw away, my roommate or I have tried making something with it. Dryer lint is rather plentiful here (and full of pet hair too) and has long had its place in my studio. Yes, it sounds odd, but it’s really a fantastic material. I’ve been using dryer lint for years as an addition for strength and bulk in paper, resin and concrete castings. I don’t know why I didn’t think about mixing it with polymer, but someone else did!
Vanessa Brady was looking for something to help create a faux stone look when she came upon the dryer lint idea. And it does work beautifully. You can see here how it gives the faux rock a subtle rough look. I would love to see this faux rock technique in bolder colors and translucents. I may be giving this a try myself in the next couple days just to see. It look quick and easy enough for a whole slew of experimentation. The complete tutorial is on Vanessa’s blog along with other polymer and non-polymer crafty tidbits.
Additional note: On its own, lint is a rather flammable substance so use it with care. Keep it away from open flames and heating elements. Mix it well in the polymer clay before curing.
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Little Flower Details
October 13, 2014
Inspirational Art
I just got back from nearly 3 weeks in California taking care of family matters and have 4 days before I am off again to the Racine Art Museum polymer symposium, so I will be looking towards the fine examples and ingenuous ideas of others this week to keep you inspired in case my words fail me. I have noticed a number of very clever tutorials and tips roaming about the online waves. Most are, after you see them, very obvious little tricks and ideas, but it’s so often only obvious after you see it!
Take this flower petal texturing method. I have seen many examples of lines in canes to create the visual look, but the actual tactile look of lines running across petals is far less common. Here is a very simple way to get those tactile lines into the petals: just scratch a series of lines into a soft but sturdy material and press your petals into the texture. I think texture was created on foam of some sort, but you could, of course, use polymer and bake it. It adds a wonderfully realistic quality to the petals. Here is the full visual tutorial.
Are there other items you tend to texture with hand tools that you could create a basic texture form to press or stamp with instead? It’d be worth a try if you think of something.
All I know about the creator of this tutorial is that he or she is going by Lufy, or did, on Livemaster.ru, but the Livemaster link for Lufy is not working, and this tutorial is spread all over on various sites without credit. Maybe we can correct that? Does anyone know who the craft artist is? Let me know if you d,o and I’ll dig up more about this clever clayer.
Note added on Oct 14th: Thanks Natalja for solving the mystery! It is not Lufy, but -Luly and the artist’s name is Julia Kotselova. Here is the link to her Livemaster shop.
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Exercises in Gray
October 11, 2014
Inspirational Art
After all this talk of gray, I thought it was about time to challenge you with some further ideas about color values so you can see for yourself what understanding value can do for your work.
First of all, take any photo of one of your pieces and put it into a photo manipulation software program, changing the color mode to “Grayscale”. You can usually do this with your camera as well by changing the mode to “Black & White” or “B&W” as you take the photo. Then look at what you have. If you were after a lot of contrast in your piece, you should definitely see a range of darks and lights that easily define the forms, lines, textures and color changes you have in the piece. If you were after a quieter contrast, you should see little variation in the darkness or lightness of the grays.
Here is a beautiful mokume gane pendant by Harriet Smith. The original shot on the left is vibrant and bright, but does have a calm feel too it. And you can see just why that is when you turn it gray. Even with the fiery colors and the many overlapping lines, the energy of the pendant is kept in check by the minimal variation in value. Of course, this piece is quite different without it’s brilliant colors, but the exercise shows why the energy is not quite so high.
You can examine any of your pieces in this manner and will likely find yourself surprised quite often at the actual value range your pieces have. Being aware of value will help you make better decisions about your color choices going forward. And if you want to learn more about value with some polymer centric exercises, take a look at this great little article written by Maggie Maggio, co-author of Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, which also has a lot of value-related information and exercises to keep your color knowledge growing.
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‘Pumpkin head’ is one of the most often heard pet names around the house. And, I mean for the pets. I have no idea why I started calling my dog and cat ‘pumpkin head’, and I never really visualized what the phrase meant. But, now I have!
This all too cute and beautifully painted pumpkin headed creature comes straight from the imagination of sculptor, illustrator and toy designer, Chris Ryniak. The paint work on this is really detailed, and the expression is fantastic. Don’t you just want to cuddle and comfort those poor little guys beside him. What faces!
Although, I couldn’t find a reference to the materials used in this particular set, resin and epoxy painted with acrylics are the most commonly listed material in other similar items I found by Chris. He has a lot of similar work he shares on his website and Flickr pages. All of it is incredibly adorable. If you are up for some ohs and ahs, click through and enjoy!
So a very spirited Halloween, Day of the Dead, Samhain, All Saints Eve, or whatever it is you do celebrate today. Enjoy it and stay safe!
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I love that polymer illustration is coming more and more to the forefront. There are some amazing illustrators out there. In our last issue of The Polymer Arts we featured Tammy Durham’s playful work and in the upcoming winter issue we have the honor of being able to include an article by Joseph Barbaccia, the creator of the amazing illustration you see here. The article reveals the steps in his process, as well as how he came to this new calling after a full and successful prior career in graphic design and years of traditional sculpting.
This image is a beautiful and striking mix of the dark and the light, the two sides, as I mentioned on Monday, that are needed for either side to be appreciated, and in this case, create the heavy contrast that is the basis of the dramatic atmosphere here. The beautiful range of additional color beyond black and white have added to the drama. Look closely at the lovely saturated teals and magentas in the raven and the various shades of blue that make up the rich and glowing night sky. Even the moon gives into off-whites and various yellow and green relations to gray.
The rough, and yet wispy, edge created by just leaving the tapered tendrils of clay displays an unusual and effective treatment of the boundary for the image. It really brings out the dimensional quality of the work that may not be as apparent seeing it just as a photograph. To learn more about Joesph’s work, take a look at his website and, of course, be sure you are subscribed or pre-order the winter issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, due out November 28th.
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With the popularity of vampires still high these days, I would be remiss in letting a week of beautiful dark things go by without presenting at least one of the well-loved creatures. And this one is not hard to appreciate. She’s actually a “Darkling” as envisioned by sculptor Barbara Key.
Darkling is actually not a noun in any standard dictionary I could find, but the concept of a darkling is described broadly as just a creature of the night in listings and records of our pop culture nomenclature. So, an artist’s rendition is really wide open for interpretation. And Barbara does run with it–a vampiric fairy with a thing for leather and lingerie and what looks like a either a rough day on the job, or she just finished a good tear-jeaker of a movie. But truly, for a creature of the dark, she is rather darling.
Barbara is always good for a few unexpected details on her art dolls as well as an elegant beauty even in her darkest creations. To enjoy similar seasonally appropriate darlings, spend a little time visiting Barbara’s website.
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I love spiders. Not very girly of me, I know, but I just find them to be some of the most fascinating creatures on earth. They are beautiful and graceful fellow crafters who just happen to be so absolutely terrifying at times. Poor, misunderstood things.
Regardless of the terrifying moments, spiders really can be fantastic inspiration, not just from the patterns they weave, but their own inherent elegance–the long, slim legs, the way they delicately hang and negotiate their webs, the graceful way they reach out and weave their silk. Well, that last may remind you too much of dinner time in the web, but nonetheless, the spider’s structure and movements are beautiful.
I imagine this is what drew Céline Charuau to create work like the piece you see here. She calls this Fleur Araignée or Flower Spider in English. And with that title, she has drawn a simple equation between what is considered one of nature’s most beautiful creations with one of its most frightening. If you think about it, there are also deadly flowers and harmless, but gorgeously colored, arachnids. For being such completely different types of organisms, they actually have a lot in common.
The drawing of equations between seemingly unrelated things is nothing new in Céline’s work. Man-made with organic, mineral with animal, hard with soft, and lots of other unexpected combinations in her images and titles like Embroidered Eggs and Canned Chromosomes. I honestly am not sure if I enjoy the titles of her work or her craftsmanship more. See what I mean by taking a leisurely jaunt through her Flickr photostream with more insight to be found on her blog, Gris Bleu.
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This week counts down to that one very dark and ominous day (or fun and frolicsome, depending on your approach) sometimes known as the All Saint’s Eve, Day of the Dead, Samhain, Allantide among other things, but most commonly known as Halloween. It’s that day when, in many Christian-based religions as well as pagan and European folklore, we either have a chance to speak to loved ones passed on and/or we must hide from the demons and other creatures that have the opportunity to walk the earth the one night when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest. That makes the holiday seem rather dreary, but truly, it’s more of a celebration of the lives that have lived. Death and the things of the dark exist in contrast to the vibrancy of life and the light. Without the dark, how would we appreciate the light? And even the dark things can be quite beautiful.
So this week, let’s look at the beauty of dark things. I promise it will not be all spooky and ghoulish. But, okay, we’re going to start off kind of on that end. If you are familiar with the movie Aliens then you would likely then recognize the imagery of Swiss sculptor, painter and set designer, H.R. Giger who designed the alien and extraterrestrial environments for that movie, in the work of Aniko Kolesnikova that you see here. This journal cover is a display piece that Aniko uses to show off her hand tooled polymer sculpture techniques. The melding of Aniko’s skills and the Giger imagery makes for gorgeous lines and intriguing textures as well as being an combined example from two different artists of how beautiful the dark renditions of the imagination can be.
Most of Aniko’s work is not that dark, she just embraces this as part of all that is beautiful in this world. Or that’s how I see her work. I mean, her moniker is “Mandarin Duck” (I don’t know why … ) and commonly refers to her blog readers as “honey bunnies”, so she’s definitely not all about the dark side. See more of her varied work on her website and more journals on this Pinterest board.
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This is Sean Mitchell. He’s 12 years old, home-schooled, and the youngest person to ever take a college-level polymer clay course.
Wait … is Sean the real news or is it the fact that this past year, the first college-level credit course in polymer art was actually accepted and implemented at an accredited American institution? Well, they are both news in their own way, aren’t they? Both Sean and the class are bright lights for the future of polymer art.
The class, “Art 200: Polymer Clay” was taught at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin by Diane Levesque who was also the curator for the exhibit at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College, A Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer. Diane presented her overview and thoughts on the course at the Polymer 2.0 Symposium along with inviting a number of students who took the class to attend the presentation and symposium that day. Sean was one of them.
At 12 years old, Sean isn’t quite of college age and is not one of those kids skyrocketed into a university education at an early age, although I have to say, after hearing his participation in our discussions and talking with him myself, I think he could have been. He’s exceedingly bright, curious and well-spoken. It was fortunate that special circumstances and the need for a creative option in his home school curriculum landed Sean the opportunity to take this class in which he excelled. He brought this sculpture to share with us. That piece alone was pretty impressive.
So, I had to ask him … “Do you see yourself continuing to work in polymer?” His answer was yes, but he did confess that he was actually interested in going into industrial engineering. So, we may lose him to another creative area, but nonetheless, Sean as well as his fellow students, were very enthusiastic about their experience with the medium, which brought up the question, “How can we introduce polymer as an art form to more of the younger generations?”
Well, we can start with the kids in our own life. I’ve had quite the year of introducing the many facets of polymer clay to the young people in my family and beyond. I now have at least one niece that seems to be inextricably addicted to it, and she introduced it to her friends as well. Word of mouth works well in spreading the love of creating as well as in business! And, of course, if we can continue to push for college-level courses and maybe even introduce it into high schools and after-school programs, polymer can continue to expand its range and the world’s view of it as art, not just hobby craft. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
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Before I write up a blog, I search what I’ve posted over the years to insure I’m not showing the same artists over and over, and that it’s been a while since I’ve posted their work. It’s a way of spreading the love around, so to speak. I don’t usually have to worry about that with posts from artists working in other mediums, but I was afraid I’d already shared the stunning work of Amy Gross and maybe shouldn’t be sharing it again. But, to my surprise, I never have! I don’t know how that happened. However, since her work was in the Racine Museum of Art’s (in)Organic exhibition I saw this past weekend, I can now correct that.
Amy is so one of my very favorite artists in the realm of mixed media art. The richness of the textures and colors are what draw you in, but it’s the imagery, both realistic and implied, that holds you there. At least it does me. It helps that I have an interest in both the growth and decay that is the cycle of nature. Amy’s work filters what she sees in this cycle through her own personal experiences as she notes in her artist statement on her website:
“My embroidered and beaded fiber pieces are my attempt to merge the natural observable world with my own inner life: I’m trying to remake nature sieved through my own experiences. I’ve always been attracted and frightened by things that are in their fullest bloom but on the verge of spoiling. There’s such beauty and sadness to them, heightened by the undeniable inevitability of their ending.”
I was so immensely thrilled to see her work in person for the first time at Racine Art Museum–I had read her work would be in the exhibit–that I was having a hard time containing myself. But, jumping up and down or squealing with glee is not museum-appropriate conduct. So, I am happy I have a chance to to do so here. The first image is one I was given permission to take at the museum. I really wanted to capture the colors in that top leaf in contrast with the darker colors below. The second photo is from her website and gives you more details of the lower half. See even more shots of this and other pieces of Amy’s in her website gallery pages.
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One of the most impressive works we saw over the weekend in Racine was at the second exhibition we visited. Laura Tabakman’s On the Trail was a large installation piece set up at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College as part of the exhibition, A Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer.
The installation is a wonderful little field of these colorful pods and balls standing on the tops of thin wire that swayed slightly as you passed and interspersed with bright handmade tassels, some in the pods, some fallen to the boards below them. It’s a bright, yet quiet and peaceful, piece that draws you in to look closer at all the variation in detail between the polymer elements.
Aside from being drawn in by the beauty of the piece, as polymer artists we gravitated to it as an unusual type of work that few of us have had experience in creating. There were a lot of questions about the planning and building of it, as well as the shipping and installing of the work. I guess Laura was queried enough to post the process on her Facebook page here. You have to read and see what she did to her living room for the sake of her art! She is a dedicated lady!
See more of Laura’s installation and smaller works on her website as well as on her Facebook pages.
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Unlike Dever’s work as we saw yesterday, Maggie Maggio exhibited work that is a continuation of her exploration of structure in polymer. Her wrap bangles and neck pieces are growing ever more bold, as well as bigger.
Here is the piece that just mesmerized me. As Maggie explains it, “Grow III represents the interweaving of the animal and plant world by blurring the lines between snake and vine.” She adds, “I will need a larger oven as the pieces grow and grow!” This is a bit of reflection on the success of her exploration as well as the size of her pieces. To understand just how big this issue is, take a close look at the necklace modeled on the exhibition card you see on the far right of this photo. (You can click on the photo for a larger version.)
Maggie had several pieces in the Racine Museum of Art’s (in)Organic exhibition, (there until February 1st, 2015. Get out to see it if you can. It is amazing.) including a piece that evolved into something quite different as she created it. Read her post about her process of exploration and one of those welcome accidents that led to a satisfying, but unexpected piece on Maggie’s website.
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