A Little Faux Lampwork

Wow … thank you all for chiming in with your comments and emails on what to do with the rest of the week. It’s really very cool to hear from you all. Perhaps we’ll pose options (and giveaways!) for upcoming weeks on a regular basis. You can tell me what is of the most interest … I get very energized writing because of your feedback rather than the ideas that pop into my head, out of the ether. And who doesn’t like a chance to get free stuff! Sounds like a win-win to me!

So, faux came in heavy right off but a call to see more about variation started coming up from behind as the evening went on. The end result is … we are going to start with faux this week then look at how to work out variations next week.

Since Iris and Hilla brought to our attention another art form emulated in polymer, why don’t we stick with other craft arts that we can create in polymer? Try to keep in mind as we look at these techniques that the objective is not to find other arts to emualte but to see new directions that polymer can be pushed in your studio. For instance, I thought we’d start with an artist who’s faux lampwork has fascinated me since I stumbled on it a few years back. I love experimenting with liquid polymer and I was fascinated by how high Sharon Solly makes her glass like dots and how well controlled they are.

dotted-3

 

Sharon may have an bit of an advantage over the rest of us as she actually does lampwork. I am really curious as to how similar the work is. I know I experimented for a while trying to get the dot not to spread. My solution was to either add just a smidge at a time, hitting it with a heat gun between dabs or preheating the base clay so the dot of liquid polymer would start to solidify immediately. The pre-heat worked well on flat items as I could lay the base clay on a hot plate/mug warmer and work on that but the round beads  … I just couldn’t get the same effect that Sharon is getting. But if you can work on building up liquid polymer like this, you could add a bit of the faux lampwork look to many things you couldn’t add glass to in the first place. There are tremendous possibilities for decorative dotting!

If you are in the least bit interested, do look through Sharon’s Flicker pages. This one image is a bare tip of the iceberg … she has a broad body of work showing her on-going experimentation with this process. Actually, Sharon looks to be a major faux experimentator with a large variety of stones and dichroic-like pieces done in polymer.

So go explore some faux! Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the Cosmic Ceramic giveway as well. See you then!

Sage

4 Comments

  1. Sharon Solly on May 15, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    WOW! Now this made my day ! Thank you so much for showing my work and sharing links to my site.

    I came up with this technique because I wanted to glass lampwork so badly but could not afford to get started in it. I have been doing real glass work now for about 2 years. ( that is why I have not done more of the clay work beads lately).

    Since you wondered about the difference between the two : Glass work is faster and easier ! 🙂

    Takes a lot of patience and practice to be able to make these beads. I really enjoyed the process though and am still very pleased with the finished beads.

    If you have any specific questions I would be glad to answer them.

    Again, thank you so much. Have a clayful day!

    Sharon Solly



  2. kim on May 16, 2013 at 7:43 am

    That is AMAZING! As a very beginner with polymer clay I’m blown away 🙂



  3. Georgeanna Franks on May 20, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    You should do a tute because these are the nicest beads I’ve seen.



  4. Tamera Davis on May 23, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    Please do a tutorial! These are fantastic!!!



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