The Party is in Full Swing. Come join us!

 

What party is this? The latest project from little ol’ me, Sage. The Sage Arts podcast is more than up and running… I have 25 episodes up as of this posting, ready on your favorite podcast player (New to Podcasts? Click here to find out how easy it is to enjoy them!) and a new one coming out every week.

 

What’s This Podcast All About?

This podcast is all about feeding and exciting your muse. By enlightening or reminding you about important and maybe unconsidered aspects of creating and living as an artist, I hope to help you find more joy and satisfaction in what you do, sharing ways to create with authenticity and fearlessness, while supporting your uniquely defined version of success.

Now what the heck does that all mean? Well, let’s look at what this is and what this is not…

 

It IS…

… a way to consistently feed your muse

… all about you. Myself, my guests, and my guest co-hosts speak to the issues, curiousity, and hurdles that you as a creative deal with on a regular basis.

… focused on creating a more fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful artistic journey.

… a conversation that goes both ways with lots of opportunities for you to be heard.

 

It is NOT…

… all about polymer clay or any one medium, as it’s important stuff for all artistic folks.

… focused on “how-to” or the latest tools and materials.

… just interviewing successful artists and talking at you. Rather it is like a coffee house chat or other friendly gather and I include you, the listener, in every way I can.

 

I created this podcast to supercharge your creativity, motivation, and artistic style through novelty, story, conversation, and community. Everyone has how-tos and ways to increase your sales – valiant and necessary stuff, of course! But what does your muse need? What does your work and your love of your art need to thrive? That’s where I want to help.

I aim to give artists ways to further hone their unique voice, increase their joy and productivity, and create a version of artistic success that is meaningful, satisfying, and anything but ordinary.

 

Come Join the Conversation

If you have something to share, would like to be a guest (for a chatty interview), or be a guest co-host (you and I banter on a particular subject) drop me an email me via my contact page on the show website: https://thesagearts.com/contact/ or send a voice mail (use the red button on that same site, bottom right corner of any page.)

And join me on social media!

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesageartspodcast/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheSageArtsPodcast

And don’t forget to click “FOLLOW” or that little arrow on your favorite Podcast player so you get notices of new episodes. New Episodes come out weekly on Friday evenings, barring natural disasters or other bits of interference, of course.  I hope you’ll join me there, on The Sage Arts podcast!

There are new artists and creatives joining every day with tons of great things to say…

 

“Just what I needed!” 

“I just binged-listened … and I can’t wait for more!” 

“There is so much validity in your presentation…” 

“Looking forward to all the thinking and creating that they prompt.” 

 

 

Taste test on my RSS website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thesagearts/

Or on the podcast home website: https://thesagearts.com/

Or start with this episode:

Persistence of Ideas (And 50% OFF+ Damage Sale!)

First, my apologies for being absent the last few weekends. I kept thinking I’d be able to post something, but my days have been exhausting.

The roller coaster of the last month, not to mention the last year and a half, has really brought into perspective the concept of self-care. Balancing responsibilities with care for yourself as well as for others can be a tricky thing but, it’s not unlike art—if the composition can’t achieve some sort of balance, not much else is going to work.

So, I’ve been hashing out some ideas that will allow me to keep chatting with you as well as do what I need to do for my family and with my creative projects. I am hoping that will all be settled this coming week and we can have a little chat about that next weekend.

 

Persistent Ideas

In the meantime, let me share a thought by a fellow polymer artist, Adam Thomas Rees. He posted this intriguing piece, seen above, on Facebook last month, saying:

This was my first hybrid sculpture mixing metal and clay. I’d had this idea floating around in my head for about 10 years before I finally went for it. If you have an idea you’ve been sitting on, it might be time to go for it!

I have to agree. The first of the two novels I’m working on was also started a decade ago, maybe more. It can take some time to get around to it but, if an idea sticks with you, I think it’s a sign that you should really try it out!

What have you always thought about doing but haven’t tried yet? It can be very invigorating to take on something brand new and challenging.


Annual Damage Sale!

Grab Imperfect Publications for as little as $3.98 or Perfects & Supplies for 30% off

So, it’s that time! I’m cleaning out the mailing room and collecting all the publications with a dinged corner or a little shelf wear and am putting all these perfectly readable publications up for purchase at 50%-60% OFF the list price.

  • Print Magazines: 3.98 each
  • Print books: $5-$12 each.

Half of the imperfect issues will sell out day one if tradition holds so don’t wait!
This only happens once every year or so and once they are sold, the great deals are — whoosh –outta here!

Go here to grab up these steals before they’re gone.

Need Something Else?

Get new PRINT items and design tools for 30% off! So, if you can’t round out your collection of TMA publications with an imperfect copy, you can do so with an amazing deal on a shiny new one!

PROMO CODE FOR 30% OFF : damsale21

Promo code works for any PRINT publications or Design Tools NOT already on sale on the whole of the website. 

 

30% off sale end June 30, 2021. Not good with other discounts, coupons, or on shipping. Damage sale ends when stock is gone, which can be pretty darn quick so don’t wait!

The Shadow Side

May 16, 2021

To all my fabulous readers: I apologize for not having a post last week and for the lack of much of one this week as well. I am overwhelmed and exhausted as the first half of this month has been a rough one.

Still struggling with the loss of our brother-in-law and childhood friend to cancer last year, we found out last week that my baby sister is now also faced with a cancer diagnosis although the doctors are fairly positive about her prognosis. On top of this, my mother’s situation is deteriorating more rapidly although she is hanging on and literally every other member of my immediate family is dealing with some trauma or fresh tragedy aside from the bad news we’ve gotten. I spent the last two weeks in Colorado and Kansas just trying to be there for everybody. I’m back in California now but then, today, my cat, who we also found out had a large tumor just a couple weeks ago, passed away today. I wasn’t ready for that. We thought she had months, not weeks.

So, today’s image is a lesson in contrast. I’ve actually posted and blogged about this image before because I love the quote so much. The quote speaks to the same concept as yin and yang, that balance is found in the interconnectedness of opposites, that all light needs dark and dark needs light in order to be understood and appreciated.

In design that’s the concept of contrast. Dark colors make light colors seem lighter and vice versa. Rough textures emphasize the evenness of smooth textures and vice versa. The more contrast you have, the more the opposite characteristics of your colors, textures, shapes, forms, etc. stand out.

As you might have surmised, this photo is of the cat I lost today, the incomparable Cleo. She was not even a week old when we rescued each other—she was to be sent to a pound to be destroyed and I was being destroyed by depression. I was just trying to do the right thing for the innocent creature, but didn’t realize how she would change my view of my own life through the act of helping her and receiving so much love in return.

Being allergic to cats, I had planned to find her a home when she was well and old enough, but she crept into my heart. She was the friendliest and most empathetic cat I’ve known, but she also didn’t put up with any crap and ruled the dogs. And, honestly, the humans too. In like fashion, she decided not to put up with this tumor crap and left us on her own terms.

So, of course, I’m sad—heartbroken to be truthful. But it was such a wonder and privilege to have that little creature in my life that I am as grateful as I am sorrowful. And, maybe, it’s not until we feel the absence of those souls that touch us that we fully understand and appreciate the importance of their presence. That’s the contrast we find in life and death and in so much of our own lives, a contrast which we can express in our own art.

 

I would like to say that I will be able to continue with my posts as usual as of next week but I am honestly not sure how the rest of this month is going to go. If nothing else happens and my sister’s doctors continue to bring us hopeful news, I think I should be able to continue writing posts each weekend, but if I miss one, know that I will be back and am thinking of you.


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

 

The Source of Beauty

May 2, 2021

What kind of things do you do when you have had a really bad day or week or month? Sometimes we can be helped just by looking for the beauty in the world. That has been my solace this week.

It’s just been a rough week for me and my family and I’ve heard a few too many stories from friends who are having a hard time as well. It’s almost like 2020 hasn’t ended quite yet. So, when I sat down to work on this blog, all I wanted to do was find something to feed my spirit. As a result, I decided to look through images of artwork I’ve collected and find pieces that I find particularly beautiful.

The necklace here, by Kaelin Cordis, is the piece I decided to post as a representation of my idea of beauty. No, it’s not polymer but, as you know if you been with me a while, I don’t think, as a polymer artist, we should just look at polymer. There is so much inspirational artwork in all types of mediums that can spark ideas for us as well as help us understand and appreciate different types of beauty.

I don’t know that anyone’s been able to identify why some people find one thing beautiful and others find the same thing dull but I find it very interesting that each of us can be mesmerized by a beauty that only some of us see. For instance, although I think most people will be able to see beauty in this piece, I am certain that a lot of you would’ve chosen pieces to epitomize beauty that are much different than this. So, what is it in the pieces that we choose that defines our idea of beauty?

To me, the beauty in this piece is in the movement created through the use of lines and edges. I am also drawn to simplicity and although this isn’t a super simple piece, it is not complex, certainly not in terms of color. Accented only by the blue stone, the particularly white silver reins in the energy from the movement with its absence of color, conveying a calm and grace that I find entrancing.

When I think about the artwork that I have always been drawn to, the principle of movement in the form of curvilinear lines and shapes is almost always present. I think there is also a dominance of limited color palettes. Although it was not difficult for me to come up with that conclusion, I’m not sure I really recognized the root of my aesthetics before writing this just now. It’s interesting what we can learn about ourselves when asked just the right questions.

So, do you know what primarily defines beauty for you? If that’s not something you have defined for yourself, consider looking around and see if you can find the elements, principles, or compositions that you are most drawn to. Not only will it give you the opportunity to exercise your design knowledge, but you may find that spending time with beauty will refresh your mind and spirit as well.


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

A Second Collective Look

April 25, 2021 ,

This week, I need to beg your forgiveness as I am recycling a post from a couple years ago. There’s been a small avalanche of family emergencies — nothing life-threatening — and I need to head out to Colorado and Kansas for a couple of weeks. I’ve been unable to put something together for the blog with all the distractions, but I’ve been thinking about this idea of collections again. It seems a lot of us were doing it a bit of exploring last year, which tends to result in lots of unused bits and pieces. So, this might be a useful reminder of things you can do with those bits and bobs.

Do you have a bin or box of pieces and parts of your handiwork yet unfinished but which you are too in love with toss? If you regularly create, I can’t imagine that you don’t. But what exactly do we do with these pieces? Do we hold on to them, hoping that they will be just the thing needed someday or do we toss them?

It can be quite the dilemma, one that even Marie Kondo can’t easily help with because, hey, these do spark joy for us! We see value in them, in that they represent our creativity and what we can accomplish. But do such little jewels of our work belong in a bin where we don’t get to admire them?

I’ve been thinking about this question for a while and came up with a few solutions of my own. If you have a copy of Polymer Journeys 2019, you can see, in the very last entry, my contribution, which is a display case of small exploratory items for which I had no particular use in mind when created them. I created them without thinking, “This is going to be a pendant,” or “This is going to be a set of earrings,” or “This is going to decorate a vessel.” I just made them to see what the material would do, most of which I liked, and they all represented a little exploratory learning experience.

I had already been tying bits onto ribbons and hanging them off the edge of my studio corkboard as little festive decorations. That doesn’t work for pieces that only had one viewing angle though as they would twist around on the ribbons, so I was still in search of other options.

Then I was out talking to the butterflies in my backyard (Yeah, I talk to the creatures in my yard,) and remembering how I used to catch and collect them in shadow boxes as a kid. It just randomly struck me that my little creative bits were like butterflies. They are lovelies I caught in a moment of exploratory creativity and in that small frame of time, they became a kind of unexpected friend, going through that creative time with me. I didn’t want to toss my little friends, even though I had no end-use for them. You don’t do that to friends! You hold on to them and support each other, right?

Does that sound silly? Maybe it is, but it was revealing to me to realize that I kept certain pieces not because they were so beautiful or well done, but because I felt connected to them. So, why not collect them and put them out like a collection of butterflies or a collage of photos? What you see here is what I started making. My husband and I would find shadow boxes at garage sales and thrift stores for cheap, and I’d arrange my bits in them like compositional jigsaw puzzles. I’ve made half a dozen of these so far.

By the way, I use a hot melt glue gun to tack the pieces onto a bit of mat board cut to fit the box. The nice thing about the hot melt glue is that if you do every want to take a piece out of the collection, you warm the back of the mat board with heat gun or hair dryer for a couple seconds and pop them right off. So, your “friends” can come out and play in another piece or a new collection if you like!

As I shared in the previous version of this blog in 2019, people have also used old collectibles display boxes to show off small sculptural pieces or heavy pieces of fabric to pin or hook jewelry pieces as a means of display as well. Look around at how you are other people put together collectibles for ideas about how you might display your polymer bits.

So, do I have your little wheels turning? These should give you ideas not just for what to do with your extra bits, but many of these could be a jumping-off point for creating your own unique show displays and photo setups.

Do you have a cool and unique way to display your extra bits or jewelry? Send me links to images if you do. Put it in the comments below, or if you’re reading this by email, click the header for this post to get to it online to leave a comment.

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

Hard Won Joy

April 18, 2021 ,

Libby Mills’ Mod Flowers are her latest challenges. Take a look at her Instagram page and all that she’s been doing over the last couple of years, including process and studio pics.

How adverse are you to hard work and challenges?

Recognizing your ability to face the challenges and incredible effort that goes into creating original artwork can be a necessary, if somewhat painful, bit of self-assessment. Most of us find ourselves on one or the other extremes—either we give up too soon, not doing the work or finding shortcuts that don’t help us grow, or we don’t give up even when the process becomes pointless or detrimental.

Are you one or the other, or are you somewhere in the middle? Or does it depend on the type of work or challenge?

The Easy Way

Trying to find an easy way around hard work and difficult challenges is probably a bit more common. If we’re all being honest, there’s few of us who have never used a tutorial or ideas from artwork we’ve seen to develop our own pieces. That’s okay. I’m not saying that it’s bad or wrong—taking inspiration from other people’s design is one way we learn. However, if you don’t get past that stage, you are missing out on some of the most joyful work you’ll ever experience.

Using other people’s instructions or ideas allows you to create something without putting your creative self or your ego at too much risk. However, it’s taking chances and doing the hard work that makes the successes so exceptionally sweet. By going out on a limb and creating purely from your own inspiration can result in one of the most joyful feelings I think a human being can have. Seriously. There is nothing like hard earned success in your creative work to put you on Cloud 9.

Now why do we feel that way about our own artwork? Well, for one, the work is born of our ideas, experiences, and loves. But more so, it’s because of the struggles we went through either to learn the skills that allowed us to make the art and/or the hard work and time we put into its creation. When it’s done, your talent, your spirit, and your perseverance become a concrete thing that you can revel in and share.

In one of my writer’s group, a friend of mine asked why every story has to have conflict. The answer is that story IS conflict. Can you imagine watching a movie where the hero of the story had everything happen just the way they wanted it to? If Harry Potter just flicked his wand and make Voldemort go away, or Hamlet didn’t care that his father was killed, why would we watch those shows? Do you gossip about the good things that happen to people or the difficulties people are having?

Now, think about how satisfying it is when Harry vanquishes his nemesis and Hamlet finally avenges his father. Those moments are so immensely satisfying to us because of what we went through with the characters to get there. And that is true of anything we want to attain as well. The more conflict and struggle we face, the more satisfying it is when we accomplish or gain what we are after.

There’s actually science behind this. Researchers have studied everything from job positions to winning the lottery and they have found that when people are simply given something without having to work for it, not only does any elation from the acquisition die quickly but people are far less fulfilled and, sometimes, even become depressed. However, when people struggle to get promoted or have wealth because of years of hard work, they are not only happier, but they are also more motivated to keep at it than those that were simply given those things.

So, when you’re in the studio, don’t be frustrated or shy away from challenges. When you find them, think, “This is my chance to achieve something wonderful and fulfilling.” If you presently lean on the ideas of others, challenge yourself to create from your own designs as much as possible if not completely. Take risks. Push yourself just past the point of being comfortable. Do the hard work and see if you don’t find it more than worthwhile.

 

The Other End of the Spectrum

Now, if you’re one of those that doesn’t give up when you should, or you don’t give yourself the time off when you should, learn to take more breaks both physically and from the work you’re struggling with. It often helps to put a difficult piece away for a little while. Pull it out a few days or a few weeks later and you can see whether it is still worth working on. If it is, you’ll probably see a solution you didn’t see before.

Just don’t be afraid to set aside a piece that is going nowhere. Don’t feel you have to try finishing something because you put a lot of time into it. None of your time spent is wasted. Everything you do helps you learn and hone your skills.

Me, I’m of this sort. A dog with a bone, as they say. I look at every challenge as a battle to be won, and I don’t know the meaning of surrender. It’s rather ridiculous sometimes. I also don’t stop working when I should either, which is why I keep hurting myself.

 

Scaling Back on the Blog for a Bit

For those of you that were not with me for the Great Elbow Drama of 2019, I developed an advanced form of tendinitis in my right arm and can no longer type with it for any length of time. Well, now I have an overused left arm after too much research for my novel and too much gardening. *Sigh*

So, this post, and probably the next few, will be primarily chatting rather than deep dives into design concepts as I’m limited to using my speech to text software while my arm (hopefully) heals. Searching for a selection of great art images to go with what I’m writing about requires too much mousing I’m afraid. I hope you’ll stick with me though. I’ll aim for a mix of “Life As an Artist” articles like this one and design refresh posts that need only one image for the time being.

In the meantime, for those of you who can, get to the studio, give yourselves some reasonable challenges, and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

The Right Size

April 11, 2021

Big bold earrings in polymer and brass by Pavel of Handmade by Tarja on Etsy.

Does the question of how big to make a piece just flummox you? When we were doing the giveaways last month, many commentors asked about size, particularly about how to determine what size to work in, It’s a great question. So, let’s go over the decision-making process for size.

If you’ve been a reader for a while, then you know this statement is inevitable: Choosing size should be based on fulfilling your intention. Sort of. Although I usually push you to consider intention in terms of your expression or creative goals, there are other factors that also play a role in this decision.

Yes, every design decision should reflect your creative intention, but size is also a consideration of construction, wearability, feasibility, and the end user’s preferences. So, I’d like to propose two general approaches to determine size—put your creativity first or put your market first. You choose what works for you.

 

Putting Your Creativity First

So, are you one of those that makes jewelry for giants? That’s great. There is nothing wrong with big jewelry. In fact, if you pick up any art jewelry book, you’ll notice that much of the jewelry is so huge it would be quite uncomfortable to wear for any length of time. So why is it still considered jewelry?

Big, uncomfortable art jewelry is created with the artist’s expression and ideas being dominant not the comfort of the wearer. These pieces coexist with the human form to relay a particular message. Without a body to adorn, the work would diminish in meaning or impact. So, the artist was either not concerned with its wearability or was purposely making it uncomfortable to drive home a point. That valid. And intentional. They put their creative concepts first.

Mariyana Avramova created this huge necklace to move with the whole body, not just the neck.

What you have to say, and your process, is as important, if not more important, than the end result. I know we tend to think our studio time is about creating finished work, but is it really? Can the joy of creating be equal to, if not greater than, the value of the finished piece? If so, then your consideration for size comes down to what you need to express or create what you want.

I think if you continuously make large pieces, then that must be where your creativity wants to take you. Sure, it could be because bigger pieces can be easier to work with and you have more space to embellish and play with surface design, but what’s wrong with that? Just check that your design choices make sense with that size and your intention for the piece.

It’s true that big jewelry is not for everybody, but if that’s what you want to make, and you intend to sell it, then you need only to find the market that wants that kind of work. Look at how big those earrings are in the opening image. All her earrings are that big or bigger, and she’s sold thousands of them. She found her market and so can you.

If you make decor that is too small or too large to be functional, so what? Do you make wall pieces that are far smaller than most people would hang on a wall? I bet somebody out there would. You can also make multiples and sell them as collections to be hung together. The bottom line is, if your muse takes you there, I think you should keep exploring it.

I know we are often inclined to create work based on what the majority of people seem to prefer, but remember, you aren’t the majority of people. The majority already have a lot of choices anyway. Make what gets your heart singing.

 

Creating for Your Market

Now, if you create primarily to sell work and put food on the table (or to buy more materials even), you may want to consider size in terms of the wearability or usability of your pieces for the sake of your sales before, or in addition to, what your muse wants you to make.

If you make wall pieces, sculpture, or decor, your consideration of size will probably revolve around pricing since you won’t have the issue of comfort that adornment has.

For instance, if you’re inclined to make enormous pieces, you will probably need to price them higher because of material and time involved. Will your market pay those prices or can you find a market that will? If not, what can you make that still expresses your creativity but can be priced at a more acceptable level?

Whatever you do, don’t price yourself low just so you can sell it. Value yourself and your work! You can always put an expensive piece on sale if you really need to sell it. Remember, you can always discount your prices, but it is very difficult to raise them.

If you have the option, it’s often best to make smaller, reasonably priced pieces and large, impressive pieces. This way, you can draw people into your booth, online shop, or website with the large, impressive pieces while giving those with smaller budgets something of yours they can afford.

Now, I’m not saying that the size of jewelry and its pricing doesn’t have a similar consideration at times. With jewelry, it’s often as much the complexity of the work as the size that affects people’s perception of its value and how much they are willing to pay. However, a range of sizes as well as price points is a very sensible approach unless, of course, very large a very small pieces are what your signature style is about.

 

Overcoming Limitations

We all do it. We make our pieces based on the size dictated by our tools or materials. In some cases, it can’t be helped. There are limitations we have to work with because of physics, finances, or our studio situation. But what you do want to avoid is making size decisions based solely on what you have on hand when you could have other options.

Really, in art or any type of creativity, you should decide what you want first and then find what you need to make it happen. This is true of everything from material to tools to size.

Even if you’re not sure what you’re going to make when you sit down, you can at least determine some generalizations about whether it’s going to be a necklace or wall piece or sculpture, right?

You could also determine what you want to do with the piece when you’re done. Is it for you, a friend, family, or are you going to sell it?

Carol Simmons made these tiny bowls for a swap. They had to be a specific size, so her choice of canes and the size of the slices was dictated by the size of the bowls.

If it’s for you or friends or family, what size do you or they prefer? If you’re going to sell it, and you want to take the market approach to deciding size, what does your market want or what do you need to fill in your gaps in inventory?

If you are going to let your creativity determine size, how big do you need it in order to express what you want?

Making these decisions before you start exploring can give you some direction, right? Even though you don’t know what you’re making or maybe even what techniques you want to use, size can give you a broad jumping off point.

For instance, if you want to create a small piece with hand tooled texture, delicate pin tools would work wonderfully. But if you’re making something big, you can confidently pull out a selection of bigger ball stylus tools.

If you’re thinking you would like to go bigger than any cutters you have on hand would allow, put those cutters away and hand cut your work.

If you would like to make a wall piece bigger than your 10” X 12” toaster oven space, then figure out what it will take. Use your kitchen oven with your work securely enclosed so you contain any fumes. Or buy a bigger countertop oven or a cheap used electric stove and put it on the porch or in the garage. You can also create your piece in sections and put them together after they’re cured.

You know the old adage—If there’s a will, there’s a way.

If there’s a certain size piece you want to make but polymer doesn’t seem feasible because of the amount of polymer needed or strength issues, use another material. I know, sometimes that doesn’t seem possible because of the additional skills, tools, or material costs, but consider what is possible before simply giving into the limitations of what you have and are familiar with.

 

So, was that the talk on size you thought you might get? I know, we could have talked about how your choices communicate different emotions or we might have discussed standard sizes for pendants or bracelets or bathroom wall pieces. But the fact is, there aren’t really standards in art, are there? We make what we need based on our muse or market. The important thing is to stop and consider the options and make a determination based on those considerations.

So, make jewelry for giants if you want or bowls too small for anything but a mouse’s meal. As long as it makes sense for you, your muse, and your market, then it’s the right size.

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

Diving into Exploration

Flickr’s Dragonfly555 shows off impressions samples.

Do you feel like you have to make a finished piece or be working on a particular design when you sit down at your studio table? Sure, it feels good, and it’s very exciting to have a finished piece to show and share, but learning a craft is as much about exploration as is about creating finished work.

So, if you’re not giving yourself that exploratory time, let me give you some reasons to highly consider it. And if you do a bit of exploring already, maybe I can offer up some new ideas about ways to use and organize your exploratory bits that you might not have tried.

 

The Exploratory Reasoning

When you’re fairly new to a material, technique, form, or construction method, it is to your advantage to spend time just playing with it. This is especially true, I think, of texture, mark making, color mixing, new techniques, and new materials including new brands of a familiar material. Trying to make finished work before you are familiar with the technique or material can get frustrating, if not downright depressing. You can gain more success in the long run if you develop a better understanding of what it is that you’re working and hone your skills a bit before gambling your time, materials, and hopes on finished work.

It certainly can be tempting to just pick up something and see what you can make with it right out the gate. With a lot of home craft materials, polymer clay in particular, you can create a decent completed piece within a day of picking it up. However, the ease of these materials is a bit of a deception. They may be easy to get started with, but mastering them, even just a little, takes time and effort. Give yourself a gift of that time to get to know what you’re working with without the pressure of trying to finish something presentable.

 

Samples to Reference

Mica powders with sample chips

Probably the best way to explore new materials and techniques is to make small samples, ones you can keep and reference as you make decisions for future finished pieces. If the color of the sample is not relevant, you can just use scrap clay. If you use clay straight out of the package, you may also have an option to transform the samples into finished work. Let’s go over all these options.

(Although I’m going to talk specifically about polymer clay, if you work primarily in another material, consider an equivalent process. Consider how you can cut out or form small samples that can be saved as references. See if this clay focused process inspires you.)

For some orderly exploration, sheet your clay and then hand cut or punch cut the sheets into whatever shapes tickle your fancy. Then you can just go crazy with whatever you’re exploring. Use as many of these pieces as you like for each process you’re exploring. Keep the ones you are pleased with, etching with a needle tool or, after curing, writing on the back with permanent marker, what you made them with. Keep cured pieces in a baggie or punch holes in them before curing so you can string them on wire or chain, making them easy to flip through.

If you are playing with textures, mark making, or any kind of tooling on polymer clay, I would suggest sheeting three different thicknesses—the thickest setting, a medium setting, and the thinnest setting on your pasta machine. Then try out each of your experiments at least once on each of the three different thicknesses. Anything that impresses or otherwise moves around the clay will be affected differently by the clay thickness, sometimes subtly but sometimes quite dramatically.

Cure the samples you like, being sure to inscribe or write a note on the back indicating what thickness the clay sheet was along with what made the impression or marks.

If you’re color mixing, sheet the finished color, then punch out a decent sized shape, one that has enough room for you to write down your proportions for that color mix. For example, if you mix a deep rich purple by combining 6 parts cobalt, 3 parts magenta, and one part black, inscribe on the back:

6X blue

3X magenta

1X black

Also include a big initial for the brand of clay (P for Premo, F for Fimo, K for Kato, etc) since colors by the same name in one brand are usually nothing like those colors in another brand.

You can also note proportions visually by punching out a circle of clay, smaller than your mixed sample, from each of the colors you used in the mix. Cut out portions, like pie slices, from each color in proportion to how much was used in the mix to re-create a single circle showing how much of each color was used in the mix. Don’t forget to inscribe your initial for the brand of clay. See the image here for an approximate example of the purple mix above.

Adhere this combination pie to the mixed color shape, punch a hole in the sample, cure, and string on a chain or wire.

(If you are confused about how to figure out the parts aspect of the color mixing, just use a small cutter to punch your unmixed colors out of sheets of the same thickness. Each piece is a part. Use these punched bits of clay to make your mix, keeping track of how many pieces/parts you use to create the color you’re making.)

If you’re playing with a surface colorant, try it on both white clay and black clay or on clay colors you use quite often. It’s a rare colorant that doesn’t allow the clay base underneath to the show through, so trying it on black and white will give you an idea of how the colorant will appear on lighter versus darker colors, not just black and white.

I punch small-ish circles out of white and black sheets of clay, then I cut them in half and put a white half with a black half. I apply the colorant to these splits chips. After curing, I glue them to the colorant’s product container so my reference sample is right on the product. You can see here how well this works for those little mica powder containers, above. I keep them in a drawer with the samples facing up so I can quickly find the color I want.

The best part about all these samples is that while you’re designing a finished piece, you can pull them out and compare them side-by-side to see what works well together. You can also hold them up to a partially finished piece to see what you might want to add. Personally, I can’t imagine working without all my exploratory samples.

 

Turning Discovery into Works of Art

Just a few pendants and beads I made with extra texture samples by reforming and/or adding pin lace layers of clay. You can learn the pin lace technique in the February VAB here. The VAB PDFs are 40% right now too.

Now, for those of you who are anxious to produce something with your time at the studio table, you can take any samples you’re not going to save for reference and create with them. You can add additional layers, reshape, or attach embellishment to your extra samples to easily create pendants, earrings, or brooches. You can also use them for collages or mosaics.

Keep cured samples, even if you’re not going to use them for reference, for further experiments where you want to play with cured clay techniques or to test new glues or sealants. This way, not only is your time not wasted, neither are any of the materials you’re playing with.

 

Give Yourself Permission to Explore

Whatever your inclination, the big take-away here is that in-depth exploration can, and probably should, be a regular part of your creative process. Give yourself the permission and time to do this throughout your creative journey or career, not just when you’re starting out.

Keep in mind, not only does this kind of exploratory time hone your skills, your familiarity and confidence with the processes and techniques grow stronger and faster than they would if you tried to learn just through making finished work. This is because you are willing to take more chances with these scrap samples. They just don’t have the same stakes, right?

And, you know, taking chances with this exploratory sample work should eventually translate into taking bigger risks with your finished pieces. I think, when we take the big risks, that’s when we make the biggest leaps and create the most amazing work. Well, sometimes we make absolute disasters as well, but it’s all part of the process. You’re certainly less likely to have a disaster if you do a lot of exploration first.

Christi Friesen shares unusual and creative mark making in the March Virtual Art Box

So, if you have not let yourself just explore and play with the materials you work with, maybe, this week, you can either set some time aside or make all of your studio time exploration time. Making many of your mistakes in the exploratory phase and not always on completed pieces will make your creative time more efficient, less stressful, and more enjoyable.

 

Texture Hungry?

If you’re one of those who is looking for more ideas and direction on texture, don’t forget we have an entire issue of The Polymer Arts on texture, the Fall 2017 issue. Also check out the mark making focused edition of the Virtual Art Box from March of last year. All Virtual Art Box content that was previously members only is 40% off right now.

 

 

The Last of the March Giveaways

Our month of giveaways has ended, but all your wonderful comments have given me so many ideas for upcoming posts. I thank all of you who commented so very sincerely!

I have one last giveaway winner to announce. Valerie Hall is receiving the last batch of my giveaway Polyform clay. I was very excited about this. Valerie is a very active and giving soul who has been trying to teaching through the great clay shortage of 2020 in any way she can. So it’s fantastic to aid her with this clay package. Congrats Valerie!

This was so much fun. I will try to do this here and there as I receive samples or find opportunities to gather stuff for you. So stick around for more free stuff in the not-too-distant future!


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

Metaphor and Simile

March 28, 2021

Christine Damm fits together leftovers from old veneers to create her “Distant Worlds” earring components. Just for fun, what kind of soup would make a suitable metaphor for these? I was thinking Italian Wedding soup!

How often do you use metaphors and similes when you are trying to explain something? I read somewhere that we use metaphor about five or six times a minute. I’m not sure about the accuracy of that number but we do use metaphor in small ways all day long and similes are often our go to option for things that we are having a hard time explaining. Why do we use these so much? Because metaphors and similes help us simplify complicated or hard to grasp ideas. They also help us see old things in a fresh way or make daunting things less intimidating.

Can you think of some things in your life that you would like to simplify, see in a new way, or find less intimidating? I think we all do and our creative time often has many complications and blind spots as the rest of her life. So let’s talk about metaphor and simile in terms of how can help you resolve questions in design.

To ensure the terminology doesn’t get confusing, let’s quickly define these devices.

Metaphor: assigning a word or phrase to something for which it is not literally applicable. For instance, “my studio table is a disaster area,” or “think outside the box.” Certainly, the studio table is not being cordoned off and applying for federal emergency relief, and I do hope you aren’t in a box to start with.

Simile: comparing two unlike things to make an interesting or exaggerated point, usually using the word like or as to make the connection. For example, “my studio looks like a war zone” or “I was as sick as a dog.”

 

Find Your Answers in Metaphors

The idea of metaphors and similes as a device for helping in design came up when I was reading the comments made last week for the giveaway in which I asked what design element people were struggling with. A lot of people are struggling with color which was expected since that is one of the harder elements to master but there was also a lot of concern about size and, most surprisingly, confusion surrounding the use of texture. Of course, this got me thinking about how I can help you better utilize or master these elements. The first things I came up with were metaphors.

So, let me give you a little design lesson on texture, since that’s the one that surprised me the most, with a metaphor.

In terms of techniques, textures are not hard to create, especially if you’re working with something as forgiving as polymer clay. The question seems to be where to use it, how much to use, and how to choose textures for your work. Thinking about this, I came up with a broad metaphor—cooking.

So, think about what you would have to do to throw together a pot of homemade soup. (Even if cooking is not your thing, it’s not so much about whether you can relate as whether you can imagine the equivalences the metaphors draw between art and cooking.) When you start a soup, you make a lot of your big choices up front, such as what kind of base—broth, tomato, or creamy—and then what’s going to go into it, particularly the protein and vegetables.

Your artwork isn’t that different. Your base choice starts with your intention—what you want to make or what you want to express—then you choose the materials you use and some key design elements such as colors marks, lines, surface design, and embellishments.

At the end of the soup recipe is where you usually find the spice. Texture, to me, is the spice. Although I tend to have an idea about what textures I might want in a piece just as I tend to know what kind of spices I think I’ll want in the soup, my process tends to bring in the texture towards the end of the decision-making. Note that I say it comes at the end of decision-making not at the end of the making of a piece since often times materials need to be textured before they are cut or attached.

Now, why would I save my decisions about texture until the end? Well, with soup, spice is what creates a lot of the discernible flavor and can really bring all the ingredients together. So, if we think of texture as spice, use it where this visual or tactile spice will heighten the “flavor” of the piece or, if you have kind of disparate sections, if they all have a similar texture then it becomes more cohesive.

The metaphor even works for the amount of spice or texture you use. Use a lot if you want the spice to be the primary experience the viewer has or keep it subtle or light so that it complements the other elements or helps them shine. Choose textures that work with the other elements just as you would choose spices that go with the proteins, vegetables, and soup base.

Kathleen Krucoff spices up her dangle earrings with a very light rough surface on the silver and a touch of gritty gold texture to bring our eye up from the focal point gems.

For instance, you’re probably not going to throw a bunch of pungent nutmeg and turmeric into a delicate chicken and wonton soup. That kind of simple soup needs some flavor from spice and herbs, but you would be better off with some bright lemon or ginger, maybe a sprinkling of cilantro or shallots. Likewise, if your artwork is pale and delicate, you might not want a deep and dense texture, but something shallow and subtle.

There is one point at which the soup metaphor kind of fails. You don’t actually have to have spice In soup but in artwork, every surface has texture even if the texture is smooth. Still, you can think of smooth textures as equivalent to a soup that doesn’t depend on spice for its flavor. That does mean that all the other ingredients/elements need to carry the design. If you go heavy on the texture, keep in mind that is it will probably overpower, visually, many of the other elements. You know, like cayenne pepper does in a pot of Texas chili!

Okay, so, This metaphor soup for texture will work for some and not for others. For some of you, the idea of texture being spice may have lit a big light bulb over your head and you just left me to run off to your studio table to try some things out. Fabulous! Of course, then there’s a bunch of you who have gotten this far but are scratching your head thinking, “I don’t get it.” That’s okay. Maybe you can find a different metaphor, or you might find similes easier to visualize. There’s Bound to be something that can give the concepts you’re struggling with the structure and simplicity you need.

I’m going to work up some ways to talk more about texture, size, and color over the next few weeks since those seem to be the primary concerns for so many of you. But in the meantime, look to other things you do for potential metaphors that might help you with your approach to various aspects of design, especially things you find easy to do or have a lot of experience with such as gardening, party planning, interior decorating, writing, or putting together the perfect ensemble for a special night out (if any of us can remember what that was like.) Ask yourself, what do I start with, what do I add next, what are the little decisions I have to make to get it to be perfect?

There is a good chance you can find a somewhat equivalent process to plan your designs if you think on it. At the very least, searching for metaphors and similes might bring up some options for a new approach to your work that you would not have seen had you not looked for a metaphor.

 

An Easy Search

If you need more detailed information on various aspects of design right now, go to the blog and use the search box there to find the posts in which we discuss those elements.

Also, did you know that you can search for articles and artists published in any of the Tenth Muse magazines by going to this table of contents page? There is a link at the top of all the magazine sales pages too.

The page allows you to search through the titles of every magazine article published through Tenth Muse, most of which include the subject matter in the title. The listings also include artist’s names and the author of each article. To search the page, use your “find” keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F in Windows or Command-F for Mac) to bring up a search box that will help you find specific subjects, artists, or authors. Use the simplest version of keywords, (like mokume instead of mokume gane, or transfer instead of transfers) to have the most success in your search.

If you have a collection of The Polymer Arts or Polymer Studio magazines, bookmark the table of contents page so you can find out which issues have the technique, artists, or subject matter you’re looking for.

 

Last Week’s Giveaway

Last week the giveaway box went to Kathleen von Balson. She actually posted about trying to be more subtle in her use of contrast. I just love when the blogs get someone going in the studio and I get to hear about it!

Congrats Kathleen!

(You know, you are always welcome to post comments below or send me an email about what you got out of a blog post, especially if you have suggestions or questions. It helps me determine what to share with you here.)

 

This Week’s Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who took part in last week’s giveaway through comments on the post. I do hope it gave you a moment to think and refocus on design elements you’re struggling with. I think it was really revealing for other readers as well– there were quite a lot of replies to the various comments. So, let’s do this one more time.

The Goodies:

  • This week I have a selection of Sculpey clays in 2 new Soufflé colors, 3 new Premo colors, and 2 big 8 oz. blocks of clay stash basics—Sculpey III in Pearl and Silver. That’s 26 ounces of fresh clay along with a three-piece set of Sculpey silkscreens.
  • Or if outside the US, I have a $30 Tenth Muse certificate, since it would be such a gamble to ship clay outside the US.

How to Win:

  • Put a note in the blog comments* (below), this time letting me know what else besides design elements you’re struggling with in your artwork or creative time. (Yes, I’m using you to give me ideas about what to write about my coming months. I think that will work well for all of us!) It can be one word or a whole explanation.
  • Note: It may take some time for the comment to appear if you’ve not commented before since, due to annoying spamming, I have to approve it .
  • Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will NOT be based on your answers. I do hope you’ll give it some thought anyway. The answers could be helpful to you as well as interesting for the rest of us.
  • And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
  • Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 31st at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
  • I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

Approaching Subtle

March 21, 2021
Posted in

 

When asked about your thoughts on contrast in your work, do you think about your range of contrast or whether your work has high contrast? How about when asked about color saturation or texture?

When talking about concepts that are representative of a range of possibilities in design—contrast, saturation, size, texture, etc.—we often think of those terms as representing one end of the range of possibilities, or maybe more precisely put, what we think is the better outcome. By doing so, though, we may be cutting ourselves off from other wonderful possibilities.

Let’s look at contrast as our example. I think most people assume that with contrast, the broader or bigger the differences the better. It’s true that higher contrast creates more visual energy, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. As always, it goes back to your intention. If you want a piece to be calm or dreamy, high contrast and high energy is not going to relay that very well. Sometimes, subtlety is what’s called for.

Look at the bezeled polymer cabochons in the opening image by Phyllis Cahill. The highest contrast we have here is with those white spots against the pale colors. The evenness of the bezels edge does contrast against the irregular lines in the polymer but that’s also fairly subtle. The cool feel of the color palette borders on warmth as the greens turned yellow but that barely registers. Still, there is some energy in these, in part from the subtle contrast but mostly in the way the element of line shows movement where the watercolor she uses spreads from one section to another. Overall though, Phyllis used elements in simple and subtle ways and it works wonderfully.

Subtlety doesn’t come just in the form of general design elements either. Being subtle is also a choice when using imagery. Creating literal and clear translations of imagery can be beautiful but it leaves less room for the viewer to insert their own thoughts, interpretations, and experiences. Blurring lines, merging shapes and leaving out details allows us to fill in the rest with our own recollections.

I’ve always admired Lorraine Vogel’s work for this reason. She works a lot with floral and leafy imagery but you rarely get the whole flower or the whole leaf. What you do get is elegantly minimalized, inviting you to stay and fill in the rest with your own imagery.

So keep your range of options in mind. When thinking contrast, consider how much energy you want the contrast to add to a piece. When considering color saturation, keep pastels and neutrals in mind. When choosing textures, of course you have many types but even a particular type can be lightly textured if that will better fulfill the intention. And when contemplating imagery, ask yourself how detailed it needs to be.

In other words, it’s not, “Do I have enough contrast, saturation, detail…?” The question is, “How much do I need or want?

The thing is, I’m sure we all know we have these ranges of choice, but do we contemplate the full range when we are working? Sometimes we just need a reminder to look at all our options and, maybe, challenge ourselves to work outside our norm.

Last Week’s Giveaway

Okay, we have another winner to announce from last week’s giveaway!

This last week’s randomly chosen winner was Nicky Moxey! She’s in the UK so I’m sending her a gift certificate. We’ll just have to have another giveaway next month to give that clay away.

I have to point out a fabulous comment Nicky made regarding the work she’s been doing on contrast in colors and thin layers of clay … “I’m making a lot of happy mistakes,” she wrote. That is the attitude! We learn more from our mistakes than our successes and often come upon some of our greatest discoveries when we “slip up”. I just love to hear comments like that!

Congrats Nicky!

This Week’s Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who took part in last week’s giveaway through comments on the post. So, once again, let’s do this!

The Goodies:

  • This week I have a multi-pack set of Premo and Souffle plus a set of pearling tools (I LOVE these pearling tools!) and a two sheet texture set with 7 textures. This is worth $49 and you can’t get these multi-packs much of anywhere right now. So here’s your chance!
  • If outside the US, I have a $35 Tenth Muse certificate, since it would be such a gamble to ship clay outside the US.

How to Win:

  • Put a comment in the blog comments* (below), telling me what design element you think you need to pay more attention to– marks, lines, color, shapes, form, size, or texture? You can leave a one word comment or an explanation of what you want to work on with that particular element. Remember, not only are you getting a chance to win some goodies, you’re taking the time to stop and consider how to improve your own work.
  • Note: It can take some time for a comment to appear if you’ve not commented before since, due to annoying spamming, I may have to approve it .
  • Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will NOT be based on your answers.
  • And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
  • Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 24th at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
  • I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!

I’ll put together yet another pack of goodies for a giveaway in next weekend’s post, so stay tuned here!

 

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

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Contrast of Self

March 14, 2021
Posted in ,

Would you call yourself a selfish person? I doubt very many of us would think that way about ourselves. Yet, as artists, we often find ourselves “stealing” time away from others or other things to do what we love, reveling in it when we have it. Is that selfish? I mean, it is more about us than anyone else, isn’t it?

Yes, it is about us, and that is as it should be. In the requested comments for last week’s giveaway (scroll down to see the winner and this week’s giveaway), participants mentioned some version of the “me time” aspect of getting to sit down and create more than anything else. I mean, I know we create because it is something we enjoy, regardless of what anyone else thinks, but I just love that so many people acknowledged and celebrated it. We should!

I strongly believe that everyone should have something of their own, something they can turn to in order to express themselves or at least put something out into the world that would not have existed without their desire to create it. The art we create gives us purpose, exercises a uniquely human part of our brains, and helps us to love ourselves. Not to mention that we deserve the joy we get from it!

But, by definition, that is selfish—doing something because it’s what we want. I wish our society would get over the idea that doing something for ourselves is bad. I think not doing things for yourself is self-negligence. Why is that not a commonly understood thing?

This also highlights the bigger, contradictory world that we inhabit. We live in such strange societies where selflessness and humility are expected or requested, and yet we are also pushed to strive for excellence in what we do. How do we reach excellence without focusing on ourselves? And then there is this silliness where we are not supposed to acknowledge when the work we do is good or that we’re proud of it. If we do, others may think we’re being arrogant or grandiose.

So, do we strive to be great and then pretend that we’re mediocre? We talk about contrast being good in art, but this is so not the right kind of contrast!

I’ve long found the dichotomy of these contradictory but societally prescribed behaviors beyond aggravating as well as having the potential to be debilitating. I think that is why it made me so happy to see so many people acknowledging their creative hours as me-time, self-care, and a time of wonderfully selfish joy. Keep it up, I say!

Now, let’s talk about the good kind of contrast in art.

 

Design Refresh

Let’s look at the beautiful brooch by Lyne Tilt that opened this post. What do you notice first about this? There’s a lot going on in this little space, isn’t there? What are the three things that jump out at you as far as design elements?

I’m going to say color, shape, and texture. Did you come up with the same three? There is also a lot going on with marks and size. So, any combination of those would be spot on.

How about design principles? What do you think is the number one principal used in this design? Sure, we could refer to scale and proportion considering all the different sizes of the layers, or we could talk about focal point or even just key in on the centered composition. But the one thing this has in spades is contrast.

Obviously, there is color contrast in all the major color characteristics—she has a vibrant trio of warm colors contrasting the cool of the blue and cyan; color values range from the dark blue and deep red to the moderate orange to the light yellow and pale polished silver; and, if you check your CMY color wheels, you’ll see that the color of the bottom layer is a blue-cyan whose complementary AND split complementaries are the yellow, orange, and red that you see in the upper layers.

But doesn’t a color palette have to have at least one common characteristic between all the colors? Well, ideally, yes, and this does. Here it’s saturation. These are not muted colors. The orange may be slightly tinted (has some white in it) but not enough to feel it’s gone off base from the saturated characteristic that ties them all together.

Now, look at the contrast in the textures. The top and bottom layers might have the same texture, but the rest are vastly different. There are even different materials—metal and clay. But they work together pretty well, don’t they? Why?

The textures work together in part because they are all drastically different—the wide variety is part of the charm of this piece. But, like color, they need something to tie them together.

Did you notice that the textures are applied to the entire layer from one edge to another? Thier differences are connected because the application on each layer is the same. That does seem to be enough to allow them to exist in the same piece and not have it feel completely chaotic.

The shapes, on the other hand, are not completely different but they are not the same either, right? They are all some version of a hand cut circle, but some of them are definitely more oval. I think pulling back on the amount of contrast between the shapes also helps to rein in the potential chaos all this dramatic contrast and color and texture could fall into. The centered composition also adds a bit of calm to the piece.

Let’s take this week to consider the design principle of contrast. Would your pieces benefit from more contrast, or do you need to rein some of that in? Remember, it all depends on your intention. There are no wrong levels of contrast, at least not in art.

 

Last Week’s Giveaway

Drum roll please…

This last week’s randomly chosen winner is Eloise B! I’ve spoken to her and her clay is already on the way. Congrats Eloise!

 

This Week’s Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s giveaway through comments on the post. As mentioned above, it really made me happy to see all the fantastic, positive and self-caring observations. I also hope it gave you a moment to focus on and appreciate what you love so much about creating.

So, let’s do this again.

The Goodies:

  • This week I have a selection of Sculpey clays in 2 new Soufflé colors, 3 new Premo colors, and 2 big 8 oz. blocks of clay stash basics—Sculpey III in Pearl and Silver. That’s 26 ounces of fresh clay along with a three-piece set of Sculpey silkscreens.
  • Or if outside the US, I have a $25 Tenth Muse certificate, since it would be such a gamble to ship clay outside the US.

How to Win:

  • Put a comment in the blog comments* (below), telling me what type of contrast you enjoy creating most in your own work, or the type of contrast you wish you used more of. And, yes, if you want to share pictures, you can do so by including a link. Just don’t put more than one link in or it may spam filter the comment.
  • Note: It can take some time for the comment to appear if you’ve not commented before since, due to annoying spamming, I have to approve it .
  • Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will NOT be based on your answers. I do hope you’ll give it some thought anyway. The answers could be helpful to you as well as interesting for the rest of us.
  • And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
  • Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 17th at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
  • I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!

I’ll put together yet another pack of goodies for a giveaway in next weekend’s post, so stay tuned here!

 

 


 

You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…


 

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Focus on the Journey (And March Giveaways!)

March 7, 2021
Posted in

Joseph Barbaccia created his “foXstitch” piece as a proof of concept, which, if you’re not familiar with the term, means that he’s experimenting and there is no particular expectation of a completed piece. Now, who would think his process a waste of time, even though it’ may not become a finished piece? He says he’s not happy with the execution, but that just means that he can see ways to improve it. And he could only see that through what he learned in this process. And, yes, all those “stitches” are bits of polymer clay.

Do you know who said this:

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

Well, first of all, a lot of creative people! But specifically, this is a line in the book Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was particularly good at appreciating the little things, especially the value of our true and unique experiences.

If you spend all day in the studio and don’t complete a single decent piece, or a successful part of a piece, do you feel like you wasted the day? I think we can all be disappointed when we don’t accomplish as much as we hoped to, but it’s never wasted time.

Every minute you spend at your studio table, no matter how long you’ve been working with the material, is a valuable experience, right? We are learning something new all the time, even if we don’t see it. We are honing our skills, solidifying our understanding, trying out new ideas, and finding out what doesn’t work, which can be more important than finding out what does work.

But the most valuable thing, I think, is the fact that we are sitting down for some quality time with ourselves and our thoughts, taking up the enormous challenge to make something from nothing, and forging ahead on a creative journey that will teach us things and give us memories that no one else and nothing else can provide. How common can such an experience be? Not that common, truly. We are some lucky ducks to have the creative time that we do.

Sure, having a successfully finished piece is such a high, but what comes after that? The journey’s over. Okay, that’s not quite true. The process of creating any piece is a short trip on a much bigger journey. But what is more valuable—the finished piece or the skills and knowledge acquired that will allow you to make that again, and probably even better?

Now, where is all this philosophical nattering coming from?

Well, this week, I had lots of starts and stops with my time at the polymer table and with my writing. Not only am I trying to get taxes done—that can really kill one’s creative vigor—but I’m on a new nutritional regimen which is making me a little foggy in the head. So, I’ve been a little frustrated. However, I realized that every night I go to bed, I think about what I did do that day, and, honestly, it’s just all too exciting to know there’s newly created bits on the studio table and new pages in my writing project. All in all, if I got to create something, it was a really good day.

So, if you can go to sleep at night with a little more knowledge and a bit more experience than you had when you woke up, that’s been a successful day. I know we can be anxious to finish things or can be disappointed by how little we produce, but unless our efforts need to put food on the table, let’s see if we can’t step back and not just appreciate but really learn to value our creative time for simply being our own precious, unique experience.

I mean, really, would you trade that time for anything?

 

Yay Giveaways!

So, I’m keeping this short since I’ve had a bit of a rough week but, as promised, I’m going to do some giveaways!

I have enough goodies here to give something away every weekend this month, so here’s what we’ll do this week:

Giveaway:

  • Polyform’s Sculpey III clays in 7 new 2oz glitter colors, an 8oz Opal block, and a pack of their new jewelry templates.
  • Or if outside the US, I have a $25 Tenth Muse certificate, not wanting to chance shipping clay outside the US.

How to Win:

  • Put a comment in the blog comments* (below), telling us all what you appreciate most about your creative time. It can be one word or a story. I am just supercurious to hear what you love most about your studio table time. *It can take some time for the comment to appear since, due to annoying spamming, I have to approve it if you’ve not commented before.
  • Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will not be based on your answers. And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
  • Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 10th at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
  • I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!

Then … next weekend, I’ll put together another pack of goodies to giveaway so keep an eye on these posts!

 


 

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When It’s Done

February 28, 2021
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Is this fantastical coral sculpture by Lisa Stevens complete? When I first saw it, I felt like the orange fans needed to encircle it more. Then, after looking it over, liking it regardless of that initial thought, it struck me that it is as complete as it needs to be. It’s representative of coral, which is never complete in the real world. It is an organic structure that is constantly building itself and so having this open side gives that room for that potential growth, conceptually speaking, of course. And it scores well in design elements and principles!

 

When do you know a piece is finished? It certainly can’t be that magical moment when it comes out just as you hoped, just as you saw it in your mind. When does that ever happen? And it’s not like there’s some established design tenet or measurement we can take that tells us, yes, this is done, this is perfect, there is nothing else you could do to make this better. Because, chances are, we will forever look at it and see the bit we aren’t happy with, contemplate what we could have done better, and see it as lesser than what we thought it should be.

(Not that we aren’t sometimes over the moon with what we create. They are rather like children to us, aren’t they? So, we don’t always mind the flaws, the incongruities, the less-than-perfect execution. Sometimes we love them for it. Luckily, most of our viewers and admirers don’t see the imperfections at all.)

The fact is, no piece of art is ever completely done because no piece of art is perfect. Yet, we usually equate completion with perfection. Well, we also equate completion with deadlines, throwing up our hands and saying, This is all I can do. It will have to be good enough.

But, barring those deadline driven ideas of completion, how DO you know when your work is done? Well, you can ask yourself a few questions:

  • Is the design of working? (Use your Elements and Principles of Design lists to check off on each of the elements and concepts if you are uncertain.)
  • Is the composition balanced with a path for the eye to follow, a path that is supportive of the piece’s intention?

And, most importantly…

  • Is it expressing, showing, or representing what I set out to share in this piece?

If you can answer those three questions in a positive manner, it may be time to put down the tools, the paintbrush, the colorants, or whatever else you are about to accost your piece with, and step away. At least for a time.

If you wonder if it’s done but are uncertain, it likely is done or is close. So, this would be another occasion where it would be best if you set it aside, out of sight, so you can move onto the next thing and give yourself some distance from it. If you step away from it for at least a week, that would be best. Longer would be ideal, but even overnight would be better than continuing to hack away at it. That time away should allow you to see it with fresh eyes so you can better identify anything that’s missing, needs to be changed, or needs to be taken away.

If you’re on a deadline and have no time to gain that distance from it, take it to a mirror, turn it upside down (if you can), and analyze it from this new view.

More coral sculptures from Lisa Stevens to contemplate. These are porcelain and/or paper clay but I thought they could be quite inspiring for some of you polymer clayers as well.

The danger we are trying to avoid here, of course, is overworking it. Sometimes you are just too close to the piece after working on it for hours and days, or maybe even weeks, and either you can’t see what it needs or think something is a problem when it’s not. So, pull away when you start to think it might be done, or close enough that it would benefit from a fresh look after some time away. It is better to stop too early than work a piece to an irreversible point. Just repeat after me… stop early, not late.

I know that advice is not some kind of magic spell that will allow you to always know when to stop. But, remember, this is art, not a math problem. There is no final version of a piece where it will be all it can be. I think artwork is just like us—it becomes what it needs to be, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. It’s just a question of whether the improvement is needed.

Make sense? Great. Now, let’s go finish some work!

 

Clay Time!

I’m speaking of myself as well on that call to go finish some work. I’m going to run off and actually work at my studio table. I’ve been designing some deceptively simple necklaces and earrings, even though I had intended on starting some wall pieces. You just can’t tell the creative mind where to go or what to do, can you?

But also, Polyform has a ton of new clay colors they just sent me, so I’m playing with a few. There are quite a number I’m not likely to use for my work, so I’m going to pack up a few boxes this week to raffle off next weekend. Do come back and join me for that.

And if you are having a hard time finding some basic clay colors, I checked on Polyform’s site yesterday and they seem to have a lot in stock so check them out if you are running low on your favorite colors.

In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful, cozy, safe, and creative week.

 


 

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Complex and Simple

February 21, 2021
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Alev Gozonar makes simplicity seem complex. With little more than lines, color contrast, and oval cane slices, she creates an energetic and tension filled canvas. The complexity comes from the quantity of the elements and the high contrast of color. Additional elements would feel overdone, busy, and probably chaotic. This sits on the edge of chaos but comfortably, giving us time to catch the half faces peeking out on every third or so cane slice. Do you recognize the focal point? It doesn’t yell “Look at me” but we land there anyway because of the sharp angle and the density of the canes in that one spot. It’s a simple focal that keeps the eye moving instead of hovering on it.

What kind of work you prefer to do? Intricate and multilayered pieces with lots going on or simple, understated pieces? Or something in between?

Although our personal preferences dictate, in large part, how busy or complex our pieces are, the concepts we are exploring should also have quite a bearing on our approach. However, what often happens is that we do whatever gets our initial thoughts down without too much wrestling with the design. More often than not, this results in pieces that are busier than they need to be.

Now, I know it sounds strange that a more complex piece would be considered the easier way to go, but the truth is, simple is difficult to do well. This dovetails into last week’s post about looking at your work in terms of what you can take out, not just what you can add to it. This time I am raising the question of how complex your piece needs to be and what should determine that.

Whether you work free-form or make intricately planned sketches, I’m sure you could save yourself a lot of frustration later on by asking yourself if the ideas, concepts, emotions, or experiences that you are bringing to the piece would be best relayed by simplicity or complexity or something in between. The work just needs a moment of your time to consider it.

Now, if you don’t know what you’re going to make when you sit down to create, you can save those questions until you recognize where you are going with your work. There is always some point at which the direction of your piece becomes apparent. It’s at that time that you would most benefit from such questions.

Let me further amend what I said above about choosing complexity. I do think we tend to go for more complexity when we think something is not working (or we aren’t sure what we are trying to do), but I also think we commonly stay within a range, a kind of comfort zone of complexity. Very few people are into the intensity and work required for really large complex pieces like Heather Campbell’s or can unearth the sophistication of simplicity that is the genius of Genevieve Williamson. Most of you probably float somewhere in between. However, especially if you’ve been creating for a while, you will have a relative range that includes your version of simple and complex creations.

Black and white and shades of gray, scratches and smooth sections, layers that move and layers that stay put all on shapes that ride between the organic and the geometric… Genevieve Williamson creates mood, energy, and grace with a dichotomy of simple elements.

So, when you are pondering the complexity or simplicity of the piece you are working on, don’t think in terms of what other people do. Look at your body of work and consider what your range is. If it’s a pretty slim range, some stretching of those creative muscles could bring about some grand discoveries.

If you’ve been a bit sluggish on the creative front, maybe now is the time to try something that runs in a more simple or complex vein than usual. Challenge yourself to go as super simple as you can or take it up a notch and layer on the complexity but with purpose. What ideas, concepts, or experiences of yours would be easier to bring out in your work if you push it one way or the other?

Does that get your creative wheels turning? If pondering this doesn’t immediately bring up some ideas, just observe the work you come across over the next week or so. Ask yourself what the simplicity or complexity of the work conveys or supports in the piece you’re are contemplating. You might come up with some surprise answers, maybe even a new view of the piece, as well as a new perspective in the studio.

 


 

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Necessary Things + 25% off Site Wide

February 14, 2021
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You know how you reading a book and there’s this one line that pops out at you just can’t stop thinking about it? I have been doing a ton of reading lately by some very smart people so I actually have quite a few of these lines bopping around in my brain but there was one in particular that hit me a few days ago because I think it can apply to art as well.

Diana Athill, a renown British editor and writer said, “Only by having no ­inessential words can every essential word be made to count.”

Replace “words” with “visual elements” and I think you have a splendid way to look at and analyze your own work.

There is a common phrase that people use when looking at artwork they don’t care for, especially when the artist is present, that may end up misleading us. They say, “It feels like it’s missing something.” This can generally be translated into, “It doesn’t feel quite right but I’m not sure what’s wrong with it.”

But is it always the case that something is actually missing? I wonder if that phrase causes us to look for things to add to a piece rather than looking to see if there’s anything that it would be better without.

Simply put, more is not always better. So, I’m wondering, if we look at our pieces and ask ourselves, “What is essential?” as well as “Is anything missing?” then perhaps it will be much easier to find those changes we need to make the work what we envisioned.

In fact, maybe it should be asking three questions:

  • What is essential?
  • Is anything missing?
  • Does anything need to be changed?

 

Essential Changes

To demonstrate this idea, I pulled out one of my favorite pieces that, nonetheless, I’ve always felt could have been better. That’s what you see opening this post. With the magic of Photoshop, I made some possible changes.

 

 

Photomanipulation is a quick way of testing out design ideas. If you’re not that well versed with the Photoshop tools or don’t have this kind of software, you can do similar things by printing out images of your work and then going at it with pens and colored pencils. Although, just remaking the piece is an excellent option as well.

When I ask myself what is essential and does anything need to be changed, I find myself looking at the denser layers of textured clay. The piece absolutely needs those layers – they are what makes the piece – but maybe I didn’t need so much.

One of my tests to see if a piece works is to see how my eye flows through the work. For me, the diagonal line of gems takes the eyes down to the left and drops you off into the bottom of the piece. In the original, the eye lands on the big chunk of textured clay on the left but there’s nothing much to direct me from there. Maybe I do make my way down to the bottom points but then there isn’t a whole lot to bring the eye back up either.

So, I need to look for opportunities to draw the eye further around the piece. I played around with a few ideas and found that removing sections from the textured clay created what I needed.

I took a chunk out of the interior side of the layer that took up the lower left section to make a smooth slope so that it was more like a wave or the way water might flow into such a space. I also opened up space at the top and to the right of the gems to break up that upper layer of texture.

So now I think the eye will go down the gems and those wavy lines into the lower left texture which, with a new angle, slides the eye down to smoothly follow to the endpoint and backup the right side.

I think that will create enough momentum to take the eye back up where, after pushing the gems closer to the middle to make room on the right-hand side, the eye can go investigate the missing sections on the outside right edge and towards the top.

I then shaped the top space to spill them out to the left with that little bit of texture pointing inward which should bring the eye back to the gems.

So, with those changes, the eye moves around the whole piece, I think, much more smoothly and successfully. And not because I added anything, but because I took things out. There was just too much of a good thing in the denseness of that yummy texture.

 

Practicing Essentials

Now, it’s your turn. I bet we could all use a little practice asking ourselves what is essential. Just look at one of your pieces and go through every little bit on it, asking, “What part does this element play? Does it fulfill a design need as well as feeding my theme/intention?”

If something is questionable, either take it out or imagine taking it out and see if the piece still works or if its absence makes space for new and stronger ideas. More space is often a very good thing!

 


Sending some LOVE this Valentine’s!

25% off Site wide!

I’ve a little Valentine’s sale going on this week. I don’t want you all to think that being engrossed in my own projects doesn’t means I don’t think about and miss doing more for you! I appreciate you all soooo much!

So, here’s 25% all non-sale items in your cart for this week. Print, digital, or design supplies … as long as it’s not already on sale, you’ll get 25% off whatever is in your cart.

Use code: SAGELUV 

 

This discount can’t be used with other coupons and won’t discount shipping but it is good through February 21st, 2021.

 


 

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Of Hierarchy and Uncertainty

February 7, 2021
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Have you started to see hierarchy in creative work everywhere since reading last week’s post? Consciously recognizing the hierarchy in artwork not only reveals the path our eye tends to follow around the work but can also tell you a lot about the artist’s intention and themes.

Maybe I’m a weirdo but I really enjoy searching out the hierarchy and the path the eye makes through a piece of artwork. Sometimes, though, the work seems so simple that one might assume there is not much of a path, if any, or that there really isn’t any hierarchy. But there always is.

Let’s do a deep dive on what initially appears to be a fairly simple composition. I’ve got a few surprise thoughts for you on this!

 

The Eye and the Hierarchy

I found this gem of a piece here a couple weeks ago on Lyn Tremblay’s Facebook page. It doesn’t appear overly complex at first glance, so where is the hierarchy? We probably all can see that the emphasis is on what looks like stitches between the predominantly yellow portion and the striated blue section. But does anything really take our eye around the canvas?

Of course, the answer is yes, there is a lot going on that brings our eye around the entire piece. Let’s map the probably path.

Before you read on, take a look at the piece and make note of where your eyes goes first and how it travels around the work. Then we can see if the likely path I found is similar to yours!

Did you find your path? Ok, great. Let’s do this!

I don’t think that there is any question that we are all likely to go first to the line of stitches and the edges they pull together but, I think, we don’t linger there for so very long. The brilliance of the yellow likely draws us towards the far end where we kind of float around like we are in a warm, comfy pool of sunshine.

However, the yellow’s disintegration into that murky gray-green is probably going to pull us away soon enough because that area has more contrast and there’s movement created by that color change as well as by the lines of yellow we follow back and forth as it tries to break through the gray-green.

The momentum of moving from one side of the yellow section to the other can be used to pull us off into the blue section whose striated lines push our view to the edge where we halt, ready to turn back but instead we may discover the grouping of impressed dots in the one corner, a surprising addition that slows our return so that we can land rather softly back at the stitches.

 

Of Interpretation and Uncertainty

Now, if you are to consider the hierarchy in terms of what you think the artist might find most important, I think you have to agree that it pretty much follows where the eye wants to go. Having found the path through the canvas and confirming what we believe her intended hierarchy would be, what do you think her intention was for the piece?

Something being held together must be central since the stitches are where the primary emphasis is. And there must be more significance in the yellow than the blue. Do remember what emotions and associations yellow brings up? It generally brings up thoughts of warmth, playfulness, and happiness when juxtaposed with primarily positive elements. (It can be associated with depression, stress, and cowardice is surrounded by dreary or negative elements though.)

So, is she trying to stitch a happiness that might disintegrate to the calm represented by the blue or to the openness of blue skies? She titles it Dream Weaver so could the line be where the edge of her dreams of happiness met the real world? Is that what she meant?

Guess what? It doesn’t matter overmuch what her own specific intention was. The fact is, the piece feels complete and cohesive which is likely due to a consistent adherence to her intention, and If the whole of the design is good enough to draw you in and to have you wondering or making your own conclusions, the artist has done a splendid job.

The composition and sparse elements seen here are enough to create metaphors in our minds, leaving us to fill in the blanks about what it might mean based on our own life and outlook. That’s the kind of thing that makes great design and wonderful art!

 

Uncertain Orientation

Here’s a bonus little lesson and a different view of the piece found on the same post. I found it really interesting that Lyn posted this piece in both a portrait and landscape orientation. The piece can be read rather differently depending on which way the piece is sitting.

The vertical orientation makes it look like the undeniable presentation of a wish or, not so coincidentally, a dream. On its side, and with the stitches to the right (remember the Rule of Right!), it feels more like a journey or a process as we have a gradual change going from left to right.

It may seem like a piece of art that is presented as not needing to be shown in a particular orientation suffers from a lack of commitment to the artist’s intention. It is the case sometimes but not always. I think in Lyn’s piece, it works both ways since the same basic idea of trying to connect the strange world of dreams with the reality of life, or whatever metaphor you might have found there, is still present although one way shows a strength of position while the other feels open to change.

And I think it works particularly well with the concept of dreams since they are subject to such wide interpretation. So why not allow the owner of the piece to hang it in the orientation they prefer because it best represents their interpretation of it? Kind of cool really.

That doesn’t mean you don’t need to create your work with an orientation in mind. Most of the time you probably should. But, in some cases, if it’s abstract enough, follows at least one of the compositional rules, (we have the Rule of Thirds working here) and it makes sense for the piece, leaving the orientation open to the owners preference can really work.

 

What Next?

Phew! That was a deep dive, wasn’t it? Were you able to follow my interpretation? I’d like to do this kind of thing fairly regularly, focusing on a different design lesson each time so you have a chance to really dig into the concepts along with me. But if it’s just a lot to wade through on a Sunday morning with the cobwebs not quite cleared out of your brain yet, let me know.

You can reply to this email, if that’s how you get this, or go to the contact page here. I am always thrilled to hear what you think whether it’s a commendation, criticism, or suggestion. Absolutely love getting all of them. It really helps me steer what I create for you.

 

During the next couple weeks, I think I might steer us away from design and talk about other things that can really help take your artwork up a notch. I’ve been in a lot of conversations and have been reading a lot about novel length fiction writing and I keep finding equivalences to the way one can approach art and so that’s where my mind is and I think some of the ideas might be pretty exciting for you.

So, join me again next Sunday for an easy read and some, hopefully, brilliant ideas. And the meantime, have a wonderful, safe, and warm (or cool if you’re down under!) week!

 


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Emphasis and Hierarchy – A Dynamic Duo

January 31, 2021
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So, here we are, finally, at the last lesson in the design series I started last February. Although it has taken a year to go through everything, I thought was important for polymer and mixed media creatives to know about design, it will still take some time to master this stuff. So, don’t worry if you feel like you haven’t been able to soak it all in. Just stick with me and, over the coming months, we’ll have a grand old time reviewing and renewing that information so that, by a nearly effortless process of knowledge osmosis, you will continue to learn until it becomes second nature.

Our last lesson is about a pair of concepts that, like the contrast and variety concepts we talked about the previous couple of weeks, you actually already know. Well, you certainly should find them familiar if you’ve been keeping up with the lessons this past year.

They are the principles of Emphasis and Hierarchy. Both lean heavily on the Elements of Design and the other Principles of Design in order to work and have actually been part of our conversation on and off this whole year. So, the goal this week is to just bring them into focus so you have a clear understanding of how they work and why you use them. But first, let’s see what you recall.

What would you say emphasis is about? Well, if you said it’s about the thing that stands out, that is noticed first, or that could be thought of as the focal point in a piece, then yeah, you got this!

What do you look at first in the Laurie Mika piece above? It’s probably the face although you may register the red heart first. We normally just can’t help but examine a face before all else but the bright red among the relative neutrality of the metallics really puts up a fight for center stage. 

If I ask you about hierarchy, and you start thinking about kings and queens or the political order of government, well, those are different subjects but it’s the same basic concept whether we’re talking about art or aristocracies. So, you have some basic knowledge about the concept of hierarchy as well.

You see, you’ve come to this lesson quite well prepared!

 

Of Power and Priorities

The role of emphasis and hierarchy are quite different even though they work hand-in-hand. Understanding these differences will help you create useful and engaging hierarchies while helping you to position your emphasis accordingly.

Let’s talk about what emphasis is and isn’t first. Emphasis, in its most important artistic role, is about drawing the viewer to a primary subject or the primary section of your piece, often referred to as the focal point. The focal point is usually imbued with the core or starting point of the subject matter, is a key representative of the concepts being explored, or epitomizes your aesthetic in a concise or introductory fashion. Everything else in the design will commonly work in support of that important element or section or will build off of it. The focal point is also generally the top element in the hierarchy.

The primary emphasis does not need to be dramatic or obvious. Carol Beal’s painted polymer pendants don’t have a focal “point” but more of a focal area in each of these pendants. Those areas are the ones that have the highest energy. In both cases it is about a quarter to one-third of the way down where the gold flecks are collected because the gold contrasts with the other colors and the finish of the paint but also because they appear to be layered on top, bringing them visually forward.

But emphasis is about more than just the focal point. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we just call it the focal point? Emphasis is comparative and relative.

You’ll see that in a hierarchy among secondary focal points or other sections. We often decide to give these parts variety or contrast and, in the process, some parts in a piece will stand out more than others. Our interpretation that some parts are more important than others is a comparative process as we determine their importance in relation to each other. So, the use of the principles of variety and contrast can play double duty by emphasizing or deemphasizing parts, something that you have full control over and can adjust as needed.

And once you start making certain elements appear more emphasized than others, you have created a hierarchy.

So, obviously, hierarchy defines where all the elements in the design fall in its visual pecking order. Unlike aristocracies, however, elements won’t be plotting to kill each other off to become the focal point. (But, gosh, wouldn’t that be a funny show?) But why is developing a hierarchy important?

Well, if you recall from my posts on composition, and especially if you were part of one of the clubs and got my step-by-step method for creating a path for the eye of the viewer, you may recall the concept of “leading the eye”. Those lessons were really about hierarchy as developing different points of interest starting with the main focus and defining additional sections with less and less importance is the definition of hierarchy. It’s tied into the viewers visual path through the piece because the viewer’s gaze will generally move around the composition from what is most important to what is least important, barring any strong directional lines that lead the eye around instead.

Although leading the eye is one of the primary reasons for creating hierarchy, you can do a number of other things with it as well including telling a story, developing a message, or giving the viewer an experience through the exploration and discovery you lead them on.

What do you think Laurie Mika was doing in the opening piece? Our eye goes from heart and face down the skeleton to the words below then up the columns of flowers and back down again. Notice how the flowers are just shapes, de-emphasizing them so they don’t fight with the detailed center elements. 

 

Putting It into Practice

So, if you understand how emphasis works then you can develop hierarchies and if you understand the purpose of hierarchies then you can make intentional decisions about your elements that support these hierarchies.

For instance, let’s say you’ve developed a focal point on a pendant and it’s a red circle sitting at the central position of the Golden ratio. That is an extremely strong color and position so it shouldn’t be hard to create less emphasized secondary parts. But you still have to make the decisions about what those additional parts are and which of those will see more important than the others.

So, let’s say you have three other elements or sections you want to include. What color do you make them? You probably want to avoid red so as not to draw attention away from your focal point. Look to your other principles such as contrast or the characteristics of color that would support your intention to choose the colors for these other sections.

Let’s say you make the other elements various versions of cyan to contrast with the red. Because color has such impact, you won’t be able to create relative emphasis and your hierarchy if you don’t differentiate them with texture, size, proportion, etc.

So maybe you make one of them quite large and triangular and another quite small and circular. Give the large triangle an interesting rough texture and make the small circle smooth. The rough texture will have more energy, not to mention that the triangle is bigger, and therefore it will be noticed sooner than the small circle giving it a higher position in this hierarchy. In fact, the small smooth circle will be noticed last if registered at all because it has so little energy.

But what about that third section or element? If you make it of a medium-size, triangular or square so it is angular (angularity has more energy and feels more forceful than circles), with little to no texture, it will have subdued energy compared to the large triangle but will have a lot more going on than the small smooth circle. That way it should be the third thing noticed in the design.

Now, arrange these items so the viewers eye travels around the canvas in a manner that fulfills your intention. You’ll may to harken back to the lesson on line to really drive home how the arrangement can affect the feeling the viewer has about your work.

If you arrange this hierarchy in a straight line, from focal point to least emphasized element, it is going to feel very strong and fast. If it flows in a circle around the composition that will give it a much slower pace and one that is comfortable and inviting, as curvilinear lines generally are. If you arrange them so the viewer has to bounce back and forth across the canvas of the composition to look at the elements in their hierarchical order, it’s going to feel like a zigzag with more frenetic energy than the other options I just mentioned.

Are you starting to see how all this stuff works together?

 

Looking for Emphasis

I want to leave you with those ideas for now but I challenge you to start looking at the artwork of others and asking yourself where the emphasis is and what hierarchy has been established. See if you can recognize how it affects the way you view the piece and what you get out of it. Then, start doing looking at your own work the same way.

We will be looking more at hierarchy and emphasis in the coming weeks and then I will start circling back around to review the design lessons of the past year. In fact, although I did say I was probably going to do the blog every other week, I miss you all too much already and I’ve decided that I’m going to continue to write something for you weekly so we can continue to spend a little bit of our Sundays together. Some of the posts might be short but I should be able to get something out every week without it interfering with my personal projects. Sound good?

So, until next week, have a wonderful creative start to your February.


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A Variety Show

January 24, 2021
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Last weekend I talked about contrast, a concept closely related to variety, which is the subject for this week. Understanding the difference between the two can avoid a lot of confusion so I’ll be referring to contrast a bit today as well. If you didn’t see the last post, give it a quick read here.

Now, what is variation?

Variation is the range or assortment of differences throughout a design. Now, didn’t contrast also speak to differences? Yes, but those differences were between similar types of elements while variation is the degree of difference between all of the elements, principles, and placement choices in your work. It is like contrast in that variation is also used to create interest or energy or to otherwise support your intention, however, while contrast is often the key to adjusting the level of variation, you can have a fair bit of variation with little or no contrast.

To put it succinctly, contrast is the difference between two or more related elements while variety is about the relationship between all the elements in a piece. So, let’s talk about those relationships and how they are used in design.

 

Picturing Variation

First of all, keep in mind that you can create variation with elements or principles or pretty much any visual or conceptual part of your work.

Take the gorgeous pendant that opened this post. Liz Sabol has variation in color, line, balance, repetition, rhythm and even types of composition. In fact, even though we can identify a use of the Rule of Thirds, a Golden Spiral, and use of the Focus to the Right principle, it’s the barely-there nod to centered composition, created by an implied line from the midpoint focused, and yet asymmetrical, balance of the bail to the centered tip at the bottom of the pendant, that is holding all the chaos at bay. This piece is an absolute celebration of variation.

Alternately, if you use a lot of the same elements or employ principles in the same way throughout a piece, then there would be little variation. You can see that in this simple but still striking little pendant by an undisclosed creative on VK.com. (If you know who made this, do let me know and I’ll update the post.) Here there is regular rhythm, an absolutely centered composition, and every shape is circular. The only variation is created by contrast in the value difference between the black and white and the textural difference between the smooth outer elements and the rough interior disc.

Now, looking at the two pendants, I’m sure you can see that there is a huge difference between the energy and feel of them, largely because of the level of variation.

 

It’s a Matter of Degrees

So, as you see, a piece can be interesting with little to no variation or contrast. These concepts add points and degrees of interest. It’s your intention that should determine what role they will play in your work.

Just think, if you want a piece to feel solemn and quiet, avoiding high contrast and keeping your variation quite subtle may be what you need. That calm could be very awe-inspiring in its subtlety. Alternately, you can have a piece with the points of contrast and variation ranging from subtle to obvious.

You see an example of moderation in contrast and variation in Amy Genser’s Eventide pictured here. Yes, the piece feels quite busy and has a lot of energy but the contrast and variation are not that dramatic. There’s a lot of texture but it’s all rough and predominantly created from the rolled-up paper elements. The rolled paper elements are all ovoid in shape but with variation in regard to the roundness and width. They also range in size and are very in color although, like the rest of the canvas, they are predominantly blue and cyan, keeping to the cool side of the color wheel. The canvas does open up into a brief mix of reds and yellows in the middle and the color values do range from a dark blue to white. But the variation is applied in a gradual and moderated way. Most of the energy comes from the texture, the repetition, and the sense of movement.

So, we see here that the degree of variation doesn’t have to be high to create energy or interest as other elements and principles can do that quite well. However, I do think in this case that the level of variation included boosts the energy of the texture and repetition. It’s a team effort.

So, unlike some other concepts, there is no way to really list the different types or degrees of contrast and variation and what they might mean for your particular piece. As you’ve seen, this is in large part due to how much these concepts depend on, and play off of, the other choices made in the design.

 

This is only a quick introduction to the subjects of contrast and variation but I’ll continue talking about them in many of my future posts. If you think about it, I’ve actually been talking about these ideas throughout the year as the differences in your choices for the various elements and principles is quite wrapped up in your decisions on how you’ll employ contrast and variation.

Some of your choices for contrast and variation will be made automatically if you make characteristic choices for your elements before specifically thinking about contrast or variation, like choosing just daisies for a flower necklace or choosing green and red as your color palette because it’s for Christmas. Repeated daisies will dictate rather low levels of variation because of the sameness of the primary motif so you’d have to work with contrast in things like value and size to take it up a notch. And Christmas colors are high contrast so it would be difficult to make the work also feel calm or serene starting from that color palette.

However, you might find it more advantageous to make choices about the degree of contrast and variation that would best suit the work and then make that happen through the characteristics you choose for your elements. In fact, knowing the degree of contrast and variation you want can help you make more confident and intentional choices for your elements, various principles, and composition. That’s how influential the concept of contrast and variation is in art.

 

Perhaps this talk of contrast and variety will get you jazzed to try out some variations on variety your own self. So, while the sun is shining and the muse is calling, do try to have a wonderful, safe, and creative week!

 


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