Fear and Loathing in the Studio

November 10, 2019

 

Do you ever find yourself steering clear of the studio for fear of failure or frustration in your projects? Do you ever just throw down your tools in the middle of a project and think to yourself, “I suck!”? This is not uncommon but is also highly detrimental to your ability to both create and to get the fulfillment and other benefits from your creative pursuits. I know its hard when you’re anxious to do something well, to recreate the work you see in your head, and what happens on the studio table is something else entirely. Ugh. It is so disappointing. But the important thing to do when that happens, is to keep going.

My husband and I just started working together on an online class series in figure drawing. As a storyboard artist and director, my husband has to work with the movement of bodies all the time so he is always looking for ways to improve his skills but I found this particular artist, Mike Mattesi, had some very interesting insights plus the fact that I’m so rusty at figure drawing and it’s something we get to do together, which is important as we are both so busy all the time.

We’ve only gone through a couple of the lessons so far, but we’ve found there is both fear and loathing in our drawing sessions, on both our parts. I am frustrated at being so rusty when this kind of thing is where I shined in art school and so I loathe my diminished ability. My husband fears that he doesn’t actually have enough skill to do draw the human figure in the way he would like even though he’s made a living from his drawing skills for over twenty years. I tell you this just to show you that it doesn’t really matter what point you are at in your artistic endeavors, – there is always trepidation and frustration, especially if you are brave enough to be learning something new.

In one of the course videos, Mattesi makes an interesting statement that goes something like, “You can’t be fearful and learn at the same time.” How true! You can’t improve your skill if you’re afraid of doing something wrong or are afraid of the inevitable failings and frustration. You will not learn and you will not grow if you let fear steer you.

Have you ever known a child to be afraid to try something new? Sure, there are some children that are fearful of trying new things at some point in their young lives but, for the most part, children will just dive in. There is no ego and there is no expectation. They are just explorers in a new (to them) world and they take it on with such wonder and zest. It’s only because we have learned to evaluate and judge ourselves that we feel the strain of judgment from others upon us and allow these carefree explorations of our childhood to be replaced by highly critical little devils on our shoulders. Wouldn’t you like to do without that little devil? Some artists do. Look around and see if you can identify those who approach their work with fearless, childlike abandon and maybe seeing what others are doing well I you to let go.

The Artist as Fearless Child

I think Wendy Wallin Malinow has always put exploration and her childlike curiosity first, creating some of the most fantastical, disparate, and, yes, sometimes, disturbing work. I love the abandon of her creativity that runs rampant through her pieces. It was hard to pick out just one piece as an example of Wendy’s playfulness so here is a sampling of her playing around with embroidery and polymer, both in the confines of the traditional (albeit very small) embroidery hoop and “in the round” on sculptural pieces.

 

It’s more a suspicion than anything that Claire Maunsell approaches her work in a fearless childlike manner. Her work is highly textural and includes a variety of surface treatments that aren’t widely different from one another, but her work is very organic looking, coming across as being formed in the process rather than planned. This is, of course, is the way most children create. Claire does return time and again to pods but just look at the selection here opening this post. There is no repeatable process that can be discerned. I think she must simply sit down and work away and see what comes of it. Of course, just playing with materials will hone your skills until you can re-create the textures, colors, and other techniques you come up with in an unerring and controlled manner.

 

Knowing Melanie West a bit, I’d say her change in direction of late has much to do with wanting to recapture or expand her fearless child as well as fire up her motivation. Over the past couple of years Melanie has been exploring fiber arts. Although she has combined felting with polymer in the past, more recently she’s been combining various fiber techniques, such as felting with silk painting as seen here. Take a look at her gallery of fiber work. It’s interesting to see how her polymer work has informed her fiber art as well.

 

I think childlike fearlessness must be at the core of what Debo Groover and Tina Torrance create in their fantastical wall art. There is so much energy, color, story, and sense of joy in their compositions. I’m sure the intensity of the type of work it takes to create one of these can be very arduous, but they never lose that spark. You can see what I’m referring to in these pieces that hang on the wall of LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

Working fearlessly is not just about letting your child play but is also about challenging yourself. I know Donna Greenberg struggled with the piece you see here. It is, in part, a self-portrait, literally, with a drawing of herself in the background layer. If I recall correctly, I think it was primarily Donna’s concern about what she wanted a self-portrait to really be about that she struggled with. It doesn’t really matter whether the challenge is conceptual or skill driven though, as long as we keep challenging ourselves so we will continue to grow and to learn.

 

The Fearless You

So, I’d like to propose that, this week, you tell your inner critic to take a vacation. Create without concern for whether the work is good or bad. Don’t post your new work online either, not right away, so you are less likely to be thinking about what others will say about it if you put it out there. Just explore and learn fearlessly as a child again.

 

Too Tired to Be Loathing

For me, this week has been too busy for any real loathing to creep in but childlike fearless creativity has also been in check. As always, I wish I’d gotten more done but it was a week of family and friends in need, mostly in need of my ear, so I spent a lot time on the phone instead of working out business plans but I did you get some progress on production for this coming year. I didn’t get much farther on finding books for the new shop but I do think those of you who threw me a few suggestions and for all the well wishes I continue to get from you wonderful people. I would love to continue getting suggestions since I am a one-woman band over here for the time being.

It’s been a rough week physically too. I swear I’m laying off the arm, I even draw left-handed for the little online class we sneak in every few nights, but apparently, I can do something that seems quite benign and set myself back. I do loathe how long it takes to heal when one gets older! But we are trying some new things. My blood sugar has been more regular though so yay for that! I still need to see more consistent normal numbers but I’m getting there!

Still working on that kitchen backsplash, a little at a time. This may be the real reason I have fear in creating on my mind! I keep making little test boards to check my technique and designs but took a while to actually get to installing it. I finally came up with something that we are both happy with and that I can do, more or less, one-armed (I won’t use the tile saw one armed!) Here’s a peek at the final test board the backsplash is being based off of.

And, no, it doesn’t show any polymer, not yet. I don’t know if you can see the round object in the center set of glass shards. It’s a magnet. I decided I want to make multiple polymer pieces for the backsplash that we can trade out as the mood strikes but I needed to have a backsplash that was fully sealed. So, magnets in the wall followed by magnets or metal in the polymer pieces I create for the backsplash will give us that freedom. My husband really likes to spontaneously redecorate so I wanted to give him something he could change on a whim. Just gotta get the darn thing done.

Ok, off to relax with family and recharge. Go forth and fearlessly create this week and maybe this will be the start of really keeping fear and loathing at bay in the studio!

 

Shades of Calm

November 3, 2019

Do you prefer to make pieces that are high-energy or calm and still, or something in between? I ask because a lot of my recent posts, especially in September, talked about high energy approaches to designing your art work. However, I don’t want anyone to start thinking their work has to be high energy. It can be as high or low as you want it to be. It all comes down to your intention.

The level of energy in a piece is integral to directing our emotional reaction to it. So if you want something fun and exciting, sure, use high energy approaches like lots of saturated and contrasting colors and  visual or kinetic movement, but if you want to create something that reflects your introspective morning walks in the woods or those quiet moments watching the sun go down from your porch, you would be better off with muted colors and calm, horizontal lines and shape orientations. The quieter look can still have a strong and awe inspiring impact on the viewer but the emotional reaction will be of the more tranquil variety. There is a place in everyone’s life for both excitement and tranquility. So, instill the kind of energy you want to convey to the viewer or wearer of your work.

A lot of times creating a calm energy entails the use of simplicity because the more complex the work, the more likely it is to be infused with layers of energy. But here’s the thing… even calm looking pieces have discernible levels of energy. It’s not about having no energy, it’s about the quality and level of it. Honestly, it would be hard to have a good design that didn’t have some energy. It just doesn’t have to be a lot.

I did find that it is really, really hard to keyword search for designs that are more tranquil. Tranquility and similar terms just don’t seem to be what people think to put in their descriptions. I’m not sure why. I did come to realize that the work that I gather and set aside for future blogs tends to be high-energy as that’s what I’m drawn to, as are most polymer crafters. So, the search for designs with a more minimal level of energy has been a bit of a challenging and intriguing experience for me. Let’s go see what I found on the quieter side of design and see how much they speak to you.

 

Cool, Calm and Collected

When first I went searching for pieces I thought represented this idea of tranquil energy, Genevieve Williamson’s artistic jewelry came immediately to mind. Her work is definitely an example of undeniably evident energy that nonetheless conveys a comforting tranquility and calm, like early mornings on a clear fall day or lazy late afternoons when you have nothing pressing to do.

However, her work tends to have some small deviation from the balance and symmetry that she employs to help relay this calmness. They are little things, like the uneven nature of the colorants on the left side earrings you see opening this post. On the gorgeous set on the right, the scratch lines are very similar between the two earrings until you get to the bottom of the larger triangle of the right-hand one and suddenly all the lines go horizontal. Things are just off a touch, just a little out of place or unexpected. There is an honesty approachability to her brand of intentional imperfection which adds to the relaxed feeling and calm emotional response so much of her work tends to elicit.

 

Key to good design, when trying to create with a minimal level of energy, usually involves employing cool and/or muted colors, symmetry, and an even balance. In France’s Sophie Pollion’s set here, we see all three of those go-to calming design elements but with one deviation, where the perfect circle is broken as a section threatens to break away. This creates a point of interest and just enough energy to keep such a combination of characteristics from being too static or rather dull. It is not unlike what Williamson does above, but it is more obvious.

 

That is not to say that design with perfect balance and symmetry is boring. Such pieces can be absolutely transcendent if done well. Look at this set of earrings. The design seems so simple – completely symmetrical and perfectly balanced without any deviation in the symmetry between the earrings. And yet, they have a gorgeous sophistication and beauty. Why is that?

The reason this works without being boring is because there is a tremendous amount of subtle contrast. The jewelry designer, Maike Barteldres, connects the softness of a solid round object and a thin delicate circle with a rigid straight line. She also pairs the perfection of shiny, hard-edged, man-made metal components with the matte, organic form of a pebble. And, of course, there is the stark contrast in value with the near whiteness of silver against the near blackness of the stone. So, the energy is minimal, but the allure of these artful juxtapositions is not.

 

For all that balance and symmetry does for creating calm and tranquility in a piece, I think the most dramatic and impressive low energy design choice is to simply provide a tremendous amount of “white space”. The term “white space” does not necessarily mean that the space is white but rather that it not complicated with texture, line, focal points, etc. Such work really needs to keep the focus on form and the finish, as evidenced, I think, in this wood turned vessel by Carlyn Lindsay.

 

I was really hoping to find a polymer piece that exemplified the heavy use of white space to convey calm energy but we sure are a group that loves our texture, line, abundance of color, and pattern. I would say that most people come to polymer because of the variety of surface design as well as sculptural possibilities so, yeah, pieces with lots of white space are not going to be easy to find. Who would like to change that? Can you create a piece, using your favorite techniques and forms, but create areas of calm where you would normally puts a lot of pattern or texture? Or, if you already do that quite a bit, maybe challenge yourself to see just how much white space or other element of calm you can use in your work with while still creating a satisfying piece.

The whole idea of calmness in your work may not suit what you prefer to do or want to express but, like anything else in design, you can make an intentional choice about the amount of energy you want to have in any one piece. It’s just something to think about.

 

A Bid for My Own Serenity and Sanity

Okay, as mentioned last week I have a lot of things I’m working on, albeit slowly between being a one-armed bandit and being short-staffed as my assistant has not been able to return to work. So, I am rather on my own right now, but I have moved forward with a few things.

Expanding the Tenth Muse Book Store

One of my primary goals for Tenth Muse Arts is to support our working artists in any way I can. It occurred to me a while back that there are a lot of artists who publish their own books but struggle to sell them to a wider audience because they are the sole promoters. I want to change that. So, I’m looking to expand the publications we sell on the website to include books by artists who are independently publishing as well as procuring some classic but hard to get titles I believe every ardent polymer crafter should not be without.

I’ve already started to get some stock in but have to get it organized and posted to the shop. I also have a long way to go in getting all the books from independent artist-authors. So, if you are an artist-author with a book that you think we should carry, please contact me. If you have any suggestions for independently published polymer related books that you would like us to carry, please do let me know by using the contact link at the top of the blog page or, if you get this by email, simply respond to the email.

As soon as I have this first round of stock ready in the online shop, I will have a celebratory opening sale. So, keep an eye on the newsletter (if you aren’t signed up, go to our home page here and scroll down to the newsletter sign-up form) as that will be the first point of notification for the sale but, of course, I’ll also let you know on the following Sunday right here.

If I’m lucky, I’ll get that done in about a week. Just send out good vibes that we will no longer be threatened by fires or have to deal with the precautionary power outages our crazy fire season has necessitated this past week here in California. We’ve stayed safe here so far but flash backs of last year seeing a wall of fire at the end of our street has made our high fire danger days a bit distracting.

The Question of Production

One of the other reasons for expanding the bookstores is to diversify the business since it is pretty certain now that I will not be able to produce books and magazines so much on my own anymore. The bottom line is that my arm has not healed all that much over these last three months and my last consultation was not overly encouraging. It is more than possible that I have some permanent damage in my arm and I need to plan future projects accordingly. I can still work but gone are the days of marathon layout sessions and long nights of photo prep. Don’t you hate it when your body tells you to slow or stop working? What a wimp.

So, although I was told to take up to 6 months and it’s only been 3 months of rest, I can’t keep our magazines subscribers hanging much longer so after much number crunching and creative problem-solving, I’ve decided on a plan but have a few more details to work out before I can share more about the production of The Polymer Studio magazine. You, my subscribers, are always on my mind though. Know that.

 

With calm and serenity on my mind for the rest of the weekend, I’m going to take a little time off and do some fiction writing. Since I can talk to my computer, I’ve been doing a lot more of that kind of thing these days as I haven’t even editing or layout to fill my creative needs. You’d think I would have worked in some polymer time, and I had hoped to, but I’ve been a little worried on how working with hand tools would affect the arm plus, to be honest, the studio still hasn’t recovered from the invasion of the family during the remodel. So maybe I’ll do a little cleaning up around here too while the husband is home to assist and remove that excuse. All this talk about calm and serene energy is really got me thinking about some new designs.

I am also pondering trying Patreon for a little side income (although for my poetry and prose writing, not my art). I kind of thought it would be a neat way to try the platform and see how well it works (which I can then share with all of you) and keep me motivated (aka accountable!) to continue my creative writing. Have you been curious about Patreon or would you be interested to see what kind of creative nonsense I write? Leave a comment in this post’s comment section or write using the contact page, or just hit reply if you get this by email.

Ok, off with me and with you. I hope my chatter has gotten your own creative juices flowing. Maybe you’ll consider a change up in the energy level of your work just to see what fresh ideas it might bring you this coming week.

 

Beauty in the Dark

October 27, 2019

When you think of Halloween themed art, do you think fun and goofy or maybe dark and gothic? Do you ever think of it as beautiful? Of course, we all know that there is beauty in all kinds of art but holiday and seasonal pieces tend to be more lighthearted and lean towards fulfilling the need for family fun and entertainment or tasteful but not overly obtrusive décor.  Halloween, however, is not about being unobtrusive, and although we see a lot of fun and silly things, there is always the underlying theme and the reason for the season … the observance of our connection to the dead.

Halloween, and the root of the name, comes from the Christian observance of the eve of All Saints (aka Hallows, as in hallowed people) Day which occurs on the 1st of November. In Scotland, the word for “the eve of” something is ‘even’, commonly contracted to e’en. And so the name, Halloween, is a mash up of Hallow and e’en.

Although Halloween is the day before a Christian day of observance, it was actually built upon a pagan observance, Samhain, representing the last day of they pagan calendar because, being a calendar focused on the seasonal and agricultural cycles, it was approximately the last day of harvesting, and the bounty of the year’s harvest would be celebrated. Being this was the time of year that folks turned to face the coming Winter, there was a lot of superstition surrounding the day and many came to believe it was the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest and so it made sense to consider one’s loved ones who had passed on at this time. I bring this all up to show that the origins of Halloween was one of celebration and love for family and friends lost and not born of a fear of evil or the devil as some might assume.

Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. For one, I like that we take a day to address and symbolically stand up to our innate fear of death and darkness. Death is a part of our cycle of life and without it, how well would we appreciate the days we have? We are physiologically wired to avoid and dread death, of course, otherwise we’d not likely have survived very long as a species. (As it is, we have dummies taking ridiculous risks for selfies and adrenaline junkies just taunting the grim reaper. What we be doing if we had no fear of our demise?) But it awaits us all so why not face its existence and embrace that it makes our every moment more precious? Sorry I got a bit heavy there! Moving on …

Another reason I like Halloween is that people get so dang creative. From home decorating to lawn displays to costumes to self-adornment, this feels like the holiday that most everybody has tried their hand at creating something of their own. Craft stores, fabric stores and thrift stores are mobbed and people get excited about making their ideas a reality. I love that energy.

Another huge reason for my love of this holiday is that we see a lot more of the dark side of beauty circulating through art, fashion, and décor. There is beauty in all facets of this world of ours and the dark side is no exception. So, in the spirit of this season, let me show you some of the beauty being created on the darker side.

 

The Dark and Lovely Arts

When you opened this post, did you cringe or think “ew” at the sight of the skull adorned journal cover, or did you react with appreciation and a desire to take a closer look? Skulls are creepy, I’ll give you that, but it’s mostly because of what they represent. You can find similar lines and forms in plants and geological formations and those we think are amazing because they don’t remind us of our final days. I think you have to do something a bit different with a skull to get people to look beyond the symbolism so they can gain appreciation for what it actually is—the formation of bone that is the base for the human faces we know and love.

Poland’s Alexandra ClayMaiden chose a difficult, but much more interesting angle, than the standard skull, to create her bas relief sculpture on the journal cover that opens this post. The three-quarter view allows Alexandra to create flowing lines and elegant forms not usually associated with skulls as well as more of a sense of movement with it being tilted. Straight on or profile skulls look both still and, well, dead. There is a liveliness here that makes these rose adorned bones take on a marvelous splendor.

As morose as the death’s-head hawkmoth appears, the beauty of the colors and, in particular, the textures, especially in this piece by Julia Galisina, are easy to see if you ignore the skull pattern. If it weren’t for the symbolism, the look of this work would be simply a gritty beauty all about the innate color sense of mother nature as interpreted by Julia. But with the skull on the back of these moths, and one exaggerated by the artist here, this moth carries a symbol of our dreaded end, which may be hard to get past. I think the lovely detail and colors do, however pull us past that symbolism to focus on the beauty of this work. I am grateful when an artist can show us that something is more than what it symbolizes.

 

And of course the Raven, with it’s black plumage and scavenging ways has long been a bird people have been wary of but this time of year, it gets to share a spotlight. Edgar Allen Poe didn’t help their image, being referred to so prominently in his famous poem. Melissa Terlizzi, however, does them proud with this beautifully textured, sculptural rendition complete with a ruffled and unkempt look one often sees in wild ravens. Although head feathers are not usually so ruffled, I really like the artistic choice to make them more dimensional and heavily textured, bringing your eye to its head and onto the eye of the raven in the process.

 

Ok, this next artist’s work completely creeps me out but I also can’t stop looking at it. Skink Chen creates some of the most beautifully disturbing sculptures, mixing human forms with and insect and reptilian components into create highly unusual creatures that would be easily fit in any otherworldly nightmare. However, the graceful lines and delicacy in the details makes them things of beauty. They just feel like they are going to be dangerous.

 

Isn’t it interesting that something most people will find utterly creepy, like tentacles, especially those wrapped around your neck, can end up looking like an elegant kind of lace, simply by changing the colors to pure white? This necklace, as best as I have been able to gather, is actually part of a wedding jewelry line. Chelsea Komschlies just thought it would be popular since beach themes are so prevalent in weddings these days. I was thinking HP Lovecraft and other fantasy fans would jump on something like this for their fan based weddings, which are also popular these days. But mostly I picked this for you just to consider what one single design change–color in this case–can do to take something from purely creepy to disturbingly beautiful. Or just beautiful, for those who have a keen appreciation for sophisticated cephalopods.

 

Ok, so, we’re not going to get through this holiday with out at least one good laugh. Mr. Barghest takes creepy to hilarious heights with these pieces (I think they’re magnets). There is a lot of funny and even cute Halloween themed work out there but having a refined style like this brings the imagery alive. The uneven placement of teeth, the slight cross of the eyes and the antiqued texture carries the goofiness in designs that are well balanced and skillfully sculpted.

 

Preparing for the Hallows

So I am just back from traveling for nearly 4 weeks, which was weird because I was originally only going to be gone just over 2 weeks. It was supposed to attend 2 weddings and do some visiting with family and friends with a couple days dropping in on the house I rent out to friends there in Colorado to make a couple small repairs. But, you know … best laid plans don’t hold. The house needed a lot more than a faucet replaced plus things got slowed down when my assistant became ill so I was doing a lot more business work than expected, hence the delay in returning home. But I am here now, still without an assistant (seems to be the year of taking breaks to attend to one’s health, which is a good, if difficult thing) but getting back into the rhythm of things. I still have that darn backsplash to finish so that is on tap this week. Plus I should have a real update on the magazine and some cool news on new projects we have decided to get going on in the very near future. Still ironing a few things out so give me a couple more weeks and thank you so so much for your incredible patience with me!

While I was in Colorado, I got to hang with a couple of my favorite polymer people. Here is Christi Friesen, Debbie Crothers, and I creating our own little red hat society in one of our runs through a Denver thrift store.

The next day we saw Christi off to Tennessee then Debbie and I wandered around an area in northwest Denver dubbed RiNo (River North) and saw all this incredible stuff and more!

Oh, the beauty and laughs you can find just getting out and about!

Well, I hope you all have time to enjoy and admire a little beauty on the dark side and more than a few laughs this Halloween week. I’m off to enjoy some overdue California family time carving pumpkins and watching old holiday appropriate movies with some of the nephews before heading out to check out the creatively, and sometimes insanely, decorated haunted homes of a few of our like-minded friends. I wish you all treats and no tricks this week and tons of creative time!

A Bit on Art and Craft

October 20, 2019

My apologies that there was not a blog this Sunday morning. A confluence of unfortunate circumstances got in the way. Working while traveling is a bit of gamble but at the end of this trip, I have found that I am short an assistant for the time being and I have had some unexpected family issues to attend to among a lot of little bits of craziness. But … I head back tomorrow! Phew! Looking forward to getting back to a normal-ish schedule and get back to working on some new projects that I will share with you shortly.

In the meantime, since so many of you seem to love the little historical bits I bring up on occasion, here is a great Ted Talk about how and why our society differentiates art from craft and why painting and sculpture are thought of as fine art while jewelry and quilts and the like are called craft. Its rather interesting and, really, kind of silly. Let’s see what you think.

Sunday Serendipity

October 13, 2019

Are you, like me, one of those folks that just wants everybody to share your joy in creating art and especially your favorite medium? I think my family is pretty tired of hearing about the many wonders of polymer although no one objects to the handmade Christmas gifts. I have, however, gotten one niece and one step-grandchild into it so all my talk has had, at least in part, a desired effect! I just want everyone to experience that same kind of joy that I find in creating with a fascinating medium like polymer.

During this break I’ve been taking from production, I’ve been thinking really hard about how I can best share this joy as well as consider what this community needs and how we can help spread the word about polymer and the benefits of having a creative outlet in general. It wouldn’t really matter to me whether people work in polymer or some other medium, as long as they have the chance to discover how creativity, in whatever form it takes, can enrich their lives. But, since I am so integrated into this community and would like to see it stay vibrant, I’ve been pondering ways to increase our reach and bring in some new blood or at least get other artists interested in using polymer in addition to their primary medium.

To that end, I have been researching and talking to various non-polymer specific outlets to see how we might be able to increase polymer’s exposure. My first successful foray this round was with the Craft Industry Alliance with an article I wrote on the possibilities of polymer clay, their first on the medium, published on their website early this week. You can see it at the link here.

I’m excited about this because polymer has such a potential to add truly unique and inexpensive additions and accents to so many other types of art forms. And you just know that some of those people will be complete converts before all is said and done. I was a sporadic fiber and found objects artist before polymer was put into my hand. Actually, come to think of it, that happened in the very room I’m sitting in right now in Aurora, Colorado, almost exactly 13 years ago. My polymer centric path was nothing I could have envisioned back then, but then, oftentimes, the best things we end up with in our life were not planned.

That’s why I like to encourage serendipity as often as possible. Magazines are a serendipitous source of information in that, although you know you have an interest in the subject, you don’t know what you’re going to get out of that publication until you open it up and flip through. The opening image of this post is of a bracelet by Jill Palumbo who, some 8 years ago, opened The Polymer Arts Winter 2011–Education issue and found my article on a wax impression texturing technique,  shown here with the wax and polymer clay impression made from it.  She fell in love with it. The bracelet shown above is from 2018 using the same basic technique although she has taken it much farther than I have and has made it her signature technique. And that happened by just opening a magazine with no expectations.

Same goes with this blog. You don’t know what I’m going to talk about each week but I hope, on a somewhat regular basis, you find something that gets you thinking and helps nudge you onto a path where you find more and more joy and fulfillment in what you do and create.

Inviting Serendipity

To that end, while I am here in Colorado, embroiled in the fun and frenetic event that is my baby sister’s wedding while visiting with family and friends including the coincidentally present Debbie Crothers and Christi Friesen, all on the one weekend, (and thus my time for research and pulling and prepping photos and all that has been severely limited) I am going to suggest that you consider pushing your creative boundaries a little this coming week by going out and finding serendipitous inspiration around you. Here are a few suggestions on how to do that:

  • Play with the medium that you’ve never worked with before. Take a stroll through a local craft store (because that’s always a fun thing anyways) and pick up something unfamiliar that catches your eye and see what you can do with it.
  • Go to your local bookstore or newsstand and find a book or magazine on a craft or art form you haven’t worked in and flip through it. If something really catches your eye, buy it and try it.
  • If you don’t have time to try a new thing, at least try to photo hunt. Photo hunting requires nothing but looking around for things that you find interesting and taking pictures of them with your phone camera. Aim to take at least three photos a day (although more would be better!) and then when you are next in the studio take a look at the pictures and see if you can integrate textures, forms, lines, colors, or whatever caught your eye, into a practice piece or even into your present work.
  • Write about your work. This doesn’t have to be poetic or sound like a museum catalog, just write about how it makes you feel or the concepts behind where your ideas come from. Working visually often means working instinctively and so you may not be identifying what you are doing with your artwork. By writing about it, you can really define and illuminate your approach and why you’re doing it which can give you more focus and success as you move from one project to the next. If you find this helpful, spend 5-10 minutes every day before you sit down to your studio table writing down your thoughts about your artwork as well as what you want to accomplish that day.
  • Collaborate! What other artists do you know and admire? Sit down to tea or coffee or have a Skype call with them and see if you can’t come up with something that you both get jazzed about. The conversation should be enlightening and invigorating even if a collaborative project is not the result.

Serendipity … It’s Up to You Now

So, again, my apologies that this post is a bit spare on images but hopefully these suggestions fill your mind with ideas. You can start right now. Turnaround and take a picture of something near you or walk outside and find something to photograph. Call up an artist friend for that cup of coffee and talk of collaboration or head on over to the craft store to find a new and invigorating publication. These are small things, but they could end up changing your entire life. A random discussion with a friend is what brought me to polymer. What moment or event brought you to polymer? There may be another great discovery for you out there—just open the door to your own bit of serendipity.

Today I’m off to spend time with family and friends and then show off my previously adopted state to Debbie Crothers. I will take lots of pictures! Maybe serendipity will drop something amazing into my lap while I’m at it!

 

 

Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019

Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

Beauty in the Dark

October 31, 2018

Happy Halloween, my fellow revelers! This holiday, which has its roots in both the fear of death but also the remembrance of loved ones who have gone on before us, gives us an opportunity to face that inherently scary part of this cycle of life with celebration and even laughter. This day has long been one of remembrance and reflection for me, along with the celebrations, having read, as a teen, about the many cultural traditions that celebrate our passing as a natural part of life giving our time here purpose and preciousness. The way these traditions embrace the full cycle of life just made so much sense to me.

So today (and the next couple of days that encompass the Christian All Souls Day, Gaelic Samhain, Mexican Day of the Dead, and many other related celebratory traditions) we get to recognize the role that death and the dead have in our lives and do so with merriment and even beauty. To aid in the view of the beautiful side of these traditions, I’d like to introduce you to this incredible series of sculptures by the artist Krisztianna, inspired by the four seasons and the cycle of nature.

This piece is Autumn, of course, which is a time of final harvesting and of blooming and changing colors as nature prepares for winter. Krisztianna captures the richness of the season with a nod to the Day of the Dead and its celebratory themes in a riot of color and texture. Polymer is but one of the materials used in her sculptures. This is a serious mix of media. With resin cast elements, resin clay detailing, wood, acrylic paint, stainless steel wire, and foam, as well as synthetic and dried flowers, it’s a celebration of artistic materials as well as the season and this day.

You can see more of her fabulous wall pieces on her website, in her shop and on Instagram.

Have a happy and safe holiday!

Piecing It All Together

August 20, 2018

Happy Monday to you all. Business first… preorders for the fall issue of The Polymer Arts is available online now. We don’t have a precise publication date but looks like mid-September. I’ll let you know here on the blog, in our newsletter, and on the website when we know. Again, thank you for your patience with me while I work on healing my overworked joints.

Okay, one more piece of wall art, this time by the inventive Angela Barenholtz. I know it seems like we’ve been talking about wall art for a couple weeks but this will probably be the last for a bit. I picked this one for a couple reasons having little to do with wall art.

For one, it’s a really fun piece with its variety in color, visual texture, and even the long shapes that make up this “polymer quilt.” Creating with a large variety of primary elements makes for energy-infused and eye-catching work. But, the trick is that everything still needs to work together and have some kind of relationship. In this case, the relationship is in the consistency of the type of pieces inserted into this quilt—long and evenly cut strips of visual texture arranged in a square composition. With this much consistency, you can go nuts with the variety of color, texture, and pattern.

Each one of these could actually sit on its own—like it could be a pendant or brooch if small enough, or even a pair of earrings. Giving yourself a canvas of a certain size and shape releases you from having to be overly concerned about the bounds of individual elements and construction of the work, particularly if you’re creating jewelry, and you get to play with what you place on that canvas. I imagine a lot of you might find that attractive, being we are so in love with our surface treatments, canes, and textures. How many times have you fallen in love with just the sheet of clay you were working on before it became anything? Creating a simple surface to work with can allow you to present those fantastic results in a fun and easy manner.

Angela is all about surface design and variety. You can see that by looking at her Flickr photostream. She also generously shares her techniques in her published tutorials which you can find on Etsy.

 

Journals: Organic Matter

January 21, 2017

gabriellepollacc organic matter journalJournal covers are very much like blank canvases, which means you can do anything you desire on them. Your medium is probably the only thing that will constrict you, but then you aren’t restricted to one medium, are you? Polymer is amazing and will always be my go to material but I wouldn’t ignore other wonderful options, especially since so many other mediums work so well with polymer.

Here is a journal cover that has no polymer on it but most of the materials used are quite familiar to polymer clayers and could be combined with it to create looks inspired by this texture rich cover. Gabrielle Pollacco uses an insanely wide array of paints, inks, powders, sprays, stencils, stamps and a few other things to create this cover. Sometimes, too many materials is like too many ingredients in a recipe … going overboard can really muck things up. But Gabrielle brings it all together here by limiting her palette and sticking with a weathered look as her thematic motif.

She seriously looks like she is having way too much fun in this video tutorial that she recorded of her full process for creating this cover. I now have a new list of products to find and try so if you watch this, you have been warned that it may result in a bit of frenetic online shopping! Also … the music she uses may get stuck in your head and have you bopping about the rest of the day. It’s not a bad thing. Just wanted to give you a head’s up so you are ready to defend yourself with the mute button if bopping is not appropriate at the time.

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Create a journal cover for your goals and plans book. Try some new materials to really make it interesting. If you’ve not covered a journal or sketchbook before and find covering a pristine new book on your first try to be a bit too much pressure, create on a separate sheet of clay that can be glued to the journal later or, if you like it as is, can be a bit of inspiration to frame. A sheet of raw clay, cured between two tiles to keep it perfectly flat can be a great ‘canvas’ to work on.

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Contrast – Vive la Difference

January 17, 2021
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So, I tried writing about contrast and variations for this week but it got REALLY long. So I’ve split them up. You will want to read this post first in order to get the most out of next week’s so don’t skip this one. It’s not too long.

So, how often do you think about contrast in your designs? Although all the principles of design appear, to some degree, in all work, contrast is, whether you realize it or not, integral in the choices you make for all design elements that you have more than one of—marks, lines, colors, shape, form, and texture. It also works between applications of design principles like rhythm, balance, proportion and movement.

How does that work? Well, since contrast is the difference between two or more features, every time you choose to use multiple lines, colors, textures, types of rhythm, etc., you are going to determine the degree to which each iteration will be different from the others or not. And that choice can say so much since contrast contributes to the visual interest, mood, and energy of a piece as well as being employed for emphasis and other compositional considerations.

Contrast and Compare

Contrast is really more about comparison among things we see as related. Those comparisons help define the elements themselves.

For instance, a nice cerulean blue looks rather light when in the company of a royal purple but next to a pale peach it doesn’t seem light at all and yet, in both cases, there is a contrast in hue and value. The commonality is that they are both color elements while their differences are the characteristics you choose.

See this in action in Anarina Anar’s earrings (above). She uses an orange that looks light paired with black but it appears as the darkest of the colors, aside from the spots of black, when paired with the light cyan and white.

This works with any element. With shape, for example, a particular circle may seem small when near another circle that is much bigger, creating a contrast in size. However, that one circle’s smallness disappears if the other circle is of a similar size. It also eliminates the contrast.

These relationships make contrast relative which means you, ideally, chose your contrasting elements based on how they appear in combination with other elements of the same type. In other words, you can have contrast between different types of line or different types of color but you don’t identify contrast between a line and a color. They are already different, right? The contrast needs to be something that can be adjusted to make the contrasting elements more alike or less alike.

 

Speaking with Contrast

Working with contrast means you compare specific elements and change them out or adjust their differences to create the degree of contrast that you want. In this way, contrast can help you define the purpose or meaning of the elements in your work by how they relate to each other.

Take a piece that is all circles and squares and black and white. You have high contrast in shapes and in value. Rather high energy, right? That seems to work with the graphic nature of the overall theme. How about a piece that is all earth tones and hand cut leaf shapes? There may not be a lot of contrast in color or shape but that can convey harmony which does seem to support the concept of nature that it is likely rooted in.

Let’s look at an example of Arden Bardol’s work. The brooch you see here is a study in all types of contrast. The most obvious is its three-way value contrast with all that black, gray, and white. However, there is even more contrast with the “marks” of sliced cane, dots, and white rectangles.

In the marks, there is a shape difference between the circles and rectangles, a size and proportion difference between the large circles and small dots, and a difference in rhythm between the random placement of the black bordered white marks, the alternating placement of the gold dots, and the orderliness of those running up and down the lines of the left side.

This works for the predominant theme in all Arden’s work—” that life is a series of events which are sometimes magical, sometimes challenging. These events affect who we are. When they are viewed together as a whole, they create a unique and wonderful ‘coat of many colors.’” She also describes her work as “rich in complexity and simple in form” which the use of contrast greatly supports.

 

Put Contrast to Work

Now, how have you been using contrast and how might you employ it to speak for you in the future?

When trying to determine how to use contrast in your work, consider how much energy, tension, and drama your intention needs and then look to your elements of design for options to increase or decrease contrast. Adjust the characteristic of your different marks, lines, shapes, forms, color, and texture to create that level of contrast.

Angela Gerhard went for high contrast in her sgraffito enamel pendant here. Light versus dark, messy versus orderly, the vertical columns of seed beads against all those horizontal elements, and, even, color versus no color with that one wide swath of orange-red in the midst of all that black and white. That’s a lot of potential energy.

Even so, there is a restraint, a stillness in the piece. How did that happen? Well, the horizontals are dominant and they typically convey calm due to the stillness they represent (a principle of movement; in this case, minimal movement) so all the contrast in the elements helps infuse the pendant with energy that would not otherwise be there. That in itself is a contrast. You have high energy in contrast against low energy in movement, the comparison being between the choices of energy levels rather than the principles used to create it. It’s very intriguing.

So, like everything else, contrast is part of a mix of decisions that all have to play well together. I do find contrast a great place to start though since it can help you make decisions in so many other areas. Once you work with contrast as a guiding decision for other choices, you will probably start seeing more ways that contrast speaks for you, whether through the implied energy, the way high contrast can bring emphasis to a particular section or set of elements, or even metaphorically.

Questioning your use of contrast is also a great way to examine work you aren’t pleased with. Maybe you’re not happy with the shapes because they are too much alike or things feel chaotic because there is just too much of a difference between the types of lines you are using. Try adjusting the contrast between those elements and see if that doesn’t bring the work to a much better place.

 


 

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A Call for Unity (in Design)

January 10, 2021
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Telling someone that a piece of artwork needs to look unified seems terribly obvious. However, a lack of unity is often the “I can’t quite put my finger on it” aspect of a piece that could use some improvement. But what exactly is unity when it comes to design?

Unity is the principle of attaining cohesion throughout the whole of a piece. Key to creating unity is establishing similarities which are really about finding points of commonality between the elements. In fact, as I discuss this, I’ll often use the term commonality instead of similarity because it’s that common connection that you’re really after.

(Above) Christine Dumont, creates commonality among her elements through an even, symmetrical design, restricted to only straight lines and right angles, and choosing equally bright colors on top and bottom. 

Unity in Review

We actually talked about the core of these concepts back in September as we wrapped up the discussion of color. Do remember these analogies about how we want to find the similarity and connection between things?

Our minds are always analyzing our world, weighing and judging all kinds of things our senses take in, but the mind works particularly hard to find connections between things, trying to divine a relationship between objects or concepts we encounter. When we can’t find the relationship or common connection between things that seem to belong together, it feels uncomfortable. Like, if you see two people sitting on a park bench in close proximity to each other, you assume they know each other. But if one is dressed in a business suit and the other is all punked out in black clothes and sports a mohawk, you may find it weird. The close proximity makes you think there should be a connection between them but their appearance makes a connection difficult to ascertain.

That particular paragraph pointed out the fact that proximity is not enough to make things look like they belong together. So just because you have a number of elements within the same frame or on the same form does not mean they’re going to look like they belong together. They have to have something in common.

That something might be visual such as a color, shape, texture, or pattern but it also might be conceptual. For instance, they could all may be related to a particular style, place, well-known story, or other subject matter. That comes up in the next recollected paragraph referring back to the two men on the park bench:

Now, if those same two people both had French bulldogs sitting at their feet you might assume that they are part of a French bulldog lover’s club. Or, if they have similar documents in hand then you might think that they are a businessman and a client going over paperwork. Once you find a connection, then the relationship makes sense even if the contrast between the two is odd. That contrast simply makes for an interesting combination but it’s not a wholly comfortable one until the viewer is able to divine a possible reason for them to be sitting together. We simply want things to make sense.

So, unity and similarity work together to help the viewer make sense of what they see. The most direct and often easiest ways to create similarities is to choose visual elements or characteristics of visual elements that support your intention and are used throughout the piece. For instance, lines that are predominantly curved, even if curved in different ways, would create commonality between those lines. Or if most of the elements were blocky or thick there would be commonality between that characteristic of your element’s forms.

But here’s the catch. You want commonality but you don’t want everything to be the same.

 

Similar but Not Boring

The concepts of unity and similarity are often discussed in tandem with variety and contrast. You really need to have both similarity and contrast to create unity and variety, and you need unity and variety to create a piece that is both cohesive and interesting. If you don’t, the work is likely to seem uncomfortable or boring or both.

That’s all I’m going to say about contrast and variety until the next lesson. It’s kind of a big subject. But keep in mind, you really can’t have a unifying piece without some variety so the objective is not to make everything look alike but to ensure the viewer can make connections between everything they see.

Seen here on the right, Carol Blackburn’s Odd Couple vessels employ visual unity in strong geometric shapes, well-defined lines, and consistently saturated colors. For all those points of commonality, this is anything but boring due to the high contrast in color, direction of elements, and variety of pattern.

 

 

Using Concepts to Create Unity

Are you starting to get the idea that unity is a tad more complicated than it might at first sound like? This is why using style, story, or other particular subject matters as the guiding or underlying concept for a piece (as long as it is related to or is the subject of your intention) is often a better way to go. These sources for your intentional choices are going to be inherently more complex and will always include points of similarity and contrast simply because they are rooted in the broadness of our ideas or experiences.

Style concepts you can use to guide your choices could be anything from a historically recognized aesthetic period such as Art Deco or Colonial, a modern trend such as minimalism or BoHo, or a subculture like goth or steampunk. It could even be a style of your own that you have developed after unearthing your own well-developed artistic voice.

Beatriz Cominatto created pieces inspired by the native work of the Marajoara people who lived on Brazil’s Marajo Island. An avid researcher and history lover, Beatriz studied archaeological finds from the island extensively before starting the series. The story of these people and their aesthetic inform all her design choices here, resulting in cohesive and intriguing piece.

 

The bottom line is you want all your elements to be seen as connected. That will create the unity and therefore the cohesiveness that makes a work feel masterfully complete. Whether you connect that through visual elements or connect your choices to particular concepts or subject matters, the important thing is that your viewer can see or sense why all of your chosen elements belong together.

 

 

My New Year Begins

After a particularly distracting week (for all of us, I know!) I am finally digging into the preparations for the “year of me” that I am planning, creatively speaking. I’m clearing space in the garage for some messier work involving glass and stone but I’m not so good at just quickly making space. I figure if I am reorganizing, I’m going to do it right. So I think I will be lost in there for whatever time I can manage for while yet. We never had the opportunity to really organize the space after he moved in four years ago so I’m using it as both a bit of downtime (yes, I know, only I would consider cleaning out a garage as downtime) and a literal and symbolic way to start this new chapter of my life off right.

I’m not sure when I will have work to show since my projects are rather ambitious and will take some time, but my fiction writing has work has already begun. I still have more research for the book to do but unlike the artwork, I’m impatient to get to the writing so I’m allowing myself time to work on short stories related to the novel’s characters. I cannot tell you how incredible it is to be working on creative projects that are not related to anything I’m trying to sell. Sure, I’ll try to sell the book the future but, for now, I am so enjoying getting lost in the writing.

I’m also working on an author website and I updated my artist website enough to allow cross promotion between the two. Luckily, my web guy is completely free right now to work on those for me and I get to pay him in trade, writing content for his clients so everything is just falling into place.

When websites, new writing, or new art is ready for prime time, I’ll let you all know.

I hope the start of your year and whatever you have planned is getting happily launched. I know we’re not out of the woods yet with the struggles we have had since early last year but I think we are starting to dig ourselves out. As long as 2020 doesn’t drag its trials and tribulations into 2021 too far. Last week wasn’t a great start but sometimes you have to go down to go up. Just hoping we don’t sink down much farther!

Please everyone stay safe, warm, healthy, kind, and positive!

 


 

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Hot or Not

August 16, 2020
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Does this colorful necklace by Camille Young have a predominantly warm or cool color palette? Or neither? Read on and then determine it for yourself. I’ll confirm the answer shortly.

How goes your color mixing adventures? My adventures have been less about color and more about traversing the landscape of grief my sister is dealing with as well as the landscape of Colorado and I tried to return home this past week. Plans to leave the Denver area through the usual I-70 corridor went up in smoke as fires shut down my usual path through the Rockies. This forced me to take a southerly and slightly longer route which turned out to be, strangely enough, just what I needed. I went through some gorgeous country I’d not visited in a while and it was an absolute boon to the soul. I stopped and savored and took it all in.

I’m hoping your color mixing adventures have been similar in that you may have ended up going in directions you didn’t plan but found some wonderful new colors to work with. Since we oftentimes return to the same preferred palettes, favorite pre-mixed colors, or comfortable combinations over and over again, the discovery of new colors and new combinations often has to be purposefully sought after. However, color mixing explorations can often result in the discovery of enticing new colors which can also push you to try new combinations. But the question then becomes, how do you determine what colors go with your new found color finds?

You may think I’m leading into a discussion about color palettes and, originally, that’s what I was going to do but as I wrote this article, I realized that, in the chaos of this last month, I neglected to write the article about one last set of terms you’ll need before we can jump full on into creating intentional color palettes. It’s a simple concept that can really inform contrast and the relationships in your color palettes and can be a great place to start when choosing color combinations. It’s the concept of color temperatures.

 

Warm or Cool

So, just what is color temperature? Well, colors actually appear either cool or warm to us, so much so that being in a room painted in a cool color will literally feel much cooler than one painted in a warm color even if they are the exact same temperature.

Warm colors are those that represent fire, heat, sunshine, and other hot and warm things. So, of course, red, orange, and yellow are warm but so are magenta and yellow-green. They just happen to be on the edge of the warm range. The warm colors are also all on one half of the color wheel, right? So that’s the one half of the color wheel that feels warm to us.

Cool colors are those that we associate with ice, water, shade, and other cool and refreshing things. These would include violet, blue, cyan, and green. And, as you will note, those are all on the other side of the color wheel, the cool half.

Now, why is temperature in color important? Well, warm colors and cool colors not only have us react to the associated temperature but they also act different visually. Warm colors advance while cool hues recede. Warm colors also have a lot more energy visually than cool colors which is one of the reasons they pop out at us so readily.

Take a look at this pendant by Dan Cormier. What pops out at you first? Red, right? It doesn’t take much since red is so high energy and it visually advances. (Dan will be releasing a self-study online course for the techniques used in this pendant next month. Sign up on his website to get in on it here.)

You might have noticed that red in particular is often used in the form of a dot, slash, or other very small accent of color to draw the eye and create contrast. The warm temperature, the color’s high energy, and the way that color comes visually forward allows for it to be used in a very small amount while still drawing a tremendous amount of attention. In addition, you might also note that these red accents are usually a dark red and rarely a pale red because darker colors also advance so being red as well as a deep rich version makes for quite the attention getter.

On the other hand, blues are quite commonly used in large swaths and as backgrounds due to how much they recede, our association with the vastness of the blue sky, and blue’s relatively low and calming energy can then be contrasted with higher energy in the foreground or in images or marks an artist would like to advance visually.

Warm and cool color categories also have an emotive and psychological tendency in the same way individual colors do. Predominantly warm color palettes will be associated with heightened emotions and energy while cool color palettes will feel relatively relaxed, calm, or refreshing.

Although cool colors have a calmer energy, they are not without vitality. Violet and green combinations, such as the one seen here in this piece by Cecilia Button (Mabcrea), are well-loved and don’t lack energy due to the contrast between them—they are on the far ends of the cool color half of the color wheel. So instead of cool and calm, this color combination is more cool and refreshing with added energy from the lines and texture. It’s also a split complimentary combination if you recall what that is from the Color relationship post.

Although cool colors have a calmer energy, they are not without vitality. Violet and green combinations, such as the one seen here in this piece by Cecilia Button (Mabcrea), are well-loved and don’t lack energy due to the contrast between them—they are on the far ends of the cool color half of the color wheel. So instead of cool and calm, this color combination is more cool and refreshing with added energy from the lines and texture. It’s also a split complimentary combination if you recall what that is from the Color relationship post.

Look around you at the color schemes in various decorated objects, photos, artwork, etc. Try to identify the dominant temperature of the color schemes, if there is one. There are times that the color scheme is neither predominantly cool nor warm. There are other times where they are simply hard to identify due to the range of color, like in the opening piece. That is predominantly warm, by the way. The cool colors are not as abundant and work more as calming accents in a piece that is busy and bright and could use a few visual “brakes”.

Another area that can be hard to read the color temperature of is with metallics. If something is predominately gold or copper, is that warm or cool? If you think in terms of their key hue, you’d recognize that those are warm colored metals since the underlying hues are yellow and orange. How about silver? Most people would say that silver has a cool color temperature but, in reality, silver is a gray and, gray can go either way.

 

Temperature Bias?

Which brings us to the brief discussion of color temperature in terms of color bias. I think I mentioned, in the July 12th post on color bias, that some people have learned color bias using the terms of cool and warm. In other words, a red could be a cool red or a warm red but that simply means that that the red leans towards magenta (moving closer to the cool side of the color wheel) or towards orange (leaning and staying within the warm side of the color wheel.) I think the use of the cool/warm terms for color bias causes too much useless mental gymnastics (telling yourself things like “the red leans towards orange, orange is a warm color, therefore the red is a warm red”) when we can simply identify which color it leans towards, giving us the precise information we need to both color mix and color match.

However, the terms are useful when talking about grays. Since gray represents an absence of saturation and the complete absence of saturation theoretically means the complete absence of hue, you wouldn’t think that a gray would have a color bias. But in the real world, most grays do have a color bias (as do most whites actually) but it’s much harder to identify a specific hue with so much color information missing. So, it’s a lot simpler, and just as informative, to say a gray is warm or cool. Put a gray next to your color wheel and see if the undertone of that gray matches more of the warm colors or more of the cool colors. If the gray has a blue, violet, or even green undertone, it’s a cool gray. If it seems to have a bit of red or orange, anything leaning towards brown, then it is a warm gray.

And yes, it is important to know if it gray is warm or cool, just as it is with any other color, because that can help you match up a color palette by intentionally picking similarities or contrasting differences between colors and grays based on their color characteristics. I don’t suggest you bother with temperature for whites because, to be honest, most whites in artist’s materials are a pretty good pure white or become warm (yellowing) plus they are heavily influenced by reflected color coming from surrounding surfaces so they can appear warm in one setting and cool in another. If you are picking wall paint, however, warm versus cool whites can really change the feel of a room. But that’s a whole other can of worms (or paint!)

So, now, I hope you will start looking at color combinations in terms of the warm/cool relationship. This is a really easy way to start thinking about color relationships which is the basis of creating color palettes and you are just looking at one aspect for now. The whole process of developing color palettes will rely on all the information that you read up to this point so I’m going easy on you this week!

If you’re feeling a little out of the loop because you haven’t caught up in all the posts, or if you feel like you are starting to forget some of the terminology we talked about early on, take this next week to catch up or refresh your understanding of color terminology because when we get into palettes next week, it’s going to be all about identifying characteristics by the terminology I’ve been giving you. I know it doesn’t sound particularly sexy or exciting, using terminology to determine color, but once you get the hang of it, you will be amazed at how easy it will be for you to successfully combine colors in beautiful ways that also support your intentions.

Here’s a quick review of terminology you will want to be sure to know as we move forward into developing color palettes:

  • Hue–the name of the pure, key color under which we categorize all colors like it. This breaks up the full spectrum of color into a manageable set of names we can use to describe colors. If you think of colors in terms of 3 primaries, 3 secondaries, and their 6 tertiary hues, you will have 12 hues to categorize under.
  • Value—how light or dark a color is.
  • Saturation—how pure and bright a color is.
  • Shade—the addition of black that darkens a color.
  • Tint—the addition of white that lightens a color.
  • Tone—the addition of a complementary color or gray that neutralizes or tones down a color.
  • Color bias—the primary or secondary color on the color wheel that a pigment color leans towards if not an absolute hue.
  • Temperature—the sense of warmth or coolness in a color or color combination.
  • Complementary — colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.
  • Analogous — colors that are next to or near each other on the color wheel.
  • Split Complementary — colors that are one step over on the color wheel from a color’s direct complement.

 

Does that all sound familiar? If not, re-read the posts for June, July, and August as a refresher if you have the time. Otherwise, I would suggest spending this week playing with color mixing some more and identifying colors that are warm versus cool as well as warm and cool color palettes, especially in decorative objects, patterned fabrics, intentionally designed rooms, etc. And, of course, create! Color is only one part of designing and creating, albeit a really wonderful part! But more important than learning the stuff is actually doing the work, creating from your heart and the essence of your being.

My essence will continue to rest up and recover and dream of more time in the mountains. It was so great to be out just hiking, taking photos, chatting it up with a friendly marmot or campsite cow (yes, my campsite had a herd of black cows and calves handing around), and falling asleep to a view of a zillion of stars out the back window of my yet-to-be-fully-converted camper van. Refueling the soul is much needed for us all right now, isn’t it?

Do get out among the trees or put your toes in the sand, or just drive and get a fresh view of the world if you can. You’ll gather color and design inspiration wherever you go. Times may be hard but the world is still an amazingly beautiful place.

 

Support This Blog!

If you appreciate the articles and the work put into presenting these for you, and you are in a good financial position, you can help support my work by purchasing publications on the website or you can contribute in a one-time or monthly capacity. Anything to help me keep the lights on and get me a bit of dark chocolate here and there is much appreciated!

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Doodling Days

April 5, 2020
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I’m sorry I didn’t get this out Saturday night as usual. I could have sworn yesterday was Friday. Both myself and my husband were here working away at home like it was a regular workday. Yep, life is a little out of whack for us all right now. But assuming you still have time to be inspired if you’re getting this Monday morning, here’s some ideas about a stress relieving and fun way to pass the time as well as increase your creativity.

We’ve all doodled at some point. There’s something addictive about putting pen or pencil to paper and drawing random lines, allowing them to meander until we see something in our doodles and from it create an actual image or design. I’m sure you’ve done that same kind of thing in clay, whether you equated it to doodling or not. The random, seemingly aimless lines we draw or carve or lay out with a snake of clay are suggestions of things that already exist out there in the world. Like looking for shapes in the clouds, our minds will see an object or creature or other symbol in the clay, if you give your imagination free reign to do so.

In actuality, you can find similar lines in nature for almost any line you randomly come up with. However, nature’s lines are rarely aimless. The winding path of a stream or river, the marks left by waves in the sand, or the undulating profile of a mountain range on the horizon are all lines that don’t have consistency or focal points, but are still very purposeful—they are the result of change and action and define some feature of nature. Because of this, I think we want to find purpose in lines that look random and decide what they might define.

That would be why you would look at pieces like these earrings by Lina Brusnika and see, in the layer of undulating lines a landscape, maybe hills or an ocean. Lina looks to live in Kamchatka, a peninsula in the far east of Russia. Her posted photos on LiveJournal of beaches and landscapes make me think she had these views on her mind when she created these.

If you haven’t doodled with clay, you really must give it a try. Like drawing doodles, this kind of clay play can relieve stress and help you break though design problems and uninspired studio days. The pendants that open this post are clay doodles by Jael Thorp. See just how beautiful a bit of clay doodling can be? Jael has actually done a lot of clay doodling. Even those pieces she doesn’t list as doodles, such as cane-covered ornaments and extrusion decorated hearts, have a definite doodling feel to them. They are great examples of how limitless this doodling with clay idea is. There aren’t any restrictions as to how you doodle with clay. Use extrusions, bits of clay, cane slices, hand tools on sheeted clay, or go crazy with embellishments. It’s about letting the mind and hands go and seeing where they take you.


Doodling, although often thought of as mindless work, is not, at least, pointless. It is really a translation of what is going on in your subconscious or it’s an expression of your mind’s reaction to what you see and hear around you. If you are doodling without a preconceived idea of what you are drawing, especially while otherwise occupied (such as being on hold during a phone call or listening to a lecture), the doodling can create a very telling design and set of patterns pulled from subconscious thoughts.

The doodling-related development of Zentangling which uses repeated patterns and lines to lend your doodling direction, actually includes a series of rules, such as drawing only in 3.5-inch squares, only drawing in pen so you can’t erase and only drawing abstract designs. This takes the idea of doodling up a notch, but it can still result in quite personal designs. A lot of people have expanded on the Zentangle idea, throwing many rules out the window and developing cool abstract art like the Zentangle you see here, by Shreya Srinivasan who is using quarantine time to get colorfully creative.

 

Doodling also allows you to let go of the planning that is so often necessary in crafting so you can get into a relaxing flow which tends to expand the imagination and creativity and, in speaking specifically of doodling, can result in patterns that you may end up using in your more planned craft work. You can use doodles or Zentangles to create patterns for hand carved rubber stamps, DIY silk screens, image transfers, and hand-tooled marks and lines as well as using traditional drawing and coloring mediums on cured clay. Here you see Fabiola Perez took her Zentagle type drawing and created pendants directly from it.

 

Doodling is also thought to help you problem-solve so, if you hit a creative block, stop, and listen to some music, a book on tape or podcast, and then just doodle away! The solution to your creative work may then have room and a conduit to bubble to the surface, or you may find a whole new idea there in front of you.

The other thing about doodling that has been discovered through clinical studies is that it reduces stress and can make you more aware and mindful. And right now, anything that helps reduce the stress and calms the mind is a useful if not absolutely necessary thing to have in your daily life. So, doodle for your well-being as well as for your art!

 

A Creative’s Virtual Salon

So, I have been brewing up an idea to allow us to gather online, not for a class as there are plenty of those out there, but more of an intellectual salon. It’s something I was actually thinking about when I started the Virtual Art Box and has been discussed in a wishful way amongst many of my artistic friends. However, trying to figure out how to get everyone on a virtual gather when there is a technological curve to overcome left me a bit befuddled and, it seems, there was always some other priority I was having to chase.

Well, much has changed of late! We are now in a time when we need to reinvent the way we connect so it looks like most people have now learned to use videoconferencing or other video gathering technology as are one of the only ways we can connect somewhat face-to-face with the people that we love and care about. Suddenly the technical hurdles have been largely knocked down! So, I figured there was no time like now to take advantage of our technology and have some intriguing chats with fascinating minds. Part presentation, part interview, part coffee klatch, I am envisioning an intellectual gathering that will feed mind and imagination as well as our need to connect.

I’m still trying to work out the details. Life in this world is a bit distracting and I have more on my plate then I should (not like that’s new but it is starting to change) but if you’re interested in either attending an intellectual salon, or would like to be one of the participants presenting ideas and discussion, click here and fill out this extremely brief form to let me know.

I am still debating as to whether this will be primarily a Virtual Art Box feature in terms of being able to participate live or whether I will be able to afford to make this publicly available. Like many of you, the pandemic has thrown my previous plans as well as my financial situation into disarray. I’m having a very hard time promoting and asking for money when I know so many people are in such uncertain circumstances. But let’s see if we can make this happen first and then I will figure out how to support it!

So, for now, fill out my little 4 question questionnaire if you would like to encourage me to make this happen!

 

Okay, now I have to get back to polishing up the packet for all you Virtual Art Boxers. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home as much as possible. The sooner we kick this virus to the curb, the sooner we can all get back out and about!

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Love Not Failure

February 2, 2020
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Scarlette, a small but fierce fighter, shows off her Beads of Courage. This image fronts the short article on the Beads of Courage Project on the new site. Polymer Clay Love.

What do you do when you have failed at a project, deadline, or goal? I think your actions at such times say everything about who you are and what you are capable of. I keep that thought in mind whenever I crash and burn or miss the boat or come up short–basically, whenever I disappoint myself or others. Because, the most important thing at that moment, when I realize I’ve failed, is my next step, not the failure itself.

Whatever you didn’t do or whatever you didn’t accomplish has immediately become a thing of the past. Sure, we stop to kick ourselves and second-guess what we could of done better, but if that goes on for longer than a couple emotional venting minutes, it’s a waste of time, isn’t it?

So, today, I failed … temporarily. Today should have been the first release of the Virtual Art Box. I was so excited about it. I haven’t produced anything in six months and here I was making something that I feel very passionate about and its coming together great! However, a few things went haywire along the way, particularly this past week and, with my business turned into an unintentional solo project of late, I have discovered that I am not a superwoman enough to do it all under short deadlines and cannot get out the Virtual Art Box today as promised. I need a few more days. *sigh* I hate not living up to promises.

It also got in the way of getting a blog done for today. Double *sigh*!

So what am I gonna do now that I double failed today? I’m going to stop sighing, forgive myself, plan for a decompression meeting with me, myself and I once the Box is out so I can figure out how to keep this from happening again, and I’m going to get back to work. Let’s call this a bump in the road. Just like when the piece you’re working on just doesn’t come together or you burn a batch of long worked pieces. It’s just a bit of set back. You didn’t fail as an artist, not unless you give up.

So, I sat down at midnight and wrote this blog. There. I’ve managed to recover one thing. Now I have a post for you and I’m feeling a bit more accomplished already! Also, I’m going to change this conversation from one about failure to one about love. Polymer Clay Love that is.

See, while I work on fixing things over here, I can direct you all to visit a new site and project by huge polymer community supporter, Ginger Davis Allman. As of yesterday, she opened up a new website and a very different project called Polymer Clay Love.

Ginger Davis Allman, produces the content on The Blue Bottle Tree which is a polymer clay information website.  She writes, “I started Polymer Clay Love because I felt the world needed a centralized resource to bring together people all around the world to share and celebrate the love of polymer clay. I want to share about and bring recognition to makers and creators who are working diligently (and often alone) to make beautiful art, develop their craft, and create connections around this amazing medium … I’m joined by leaders and creators who share their thoughts, their stories, and their art with you here on the pages of this website. It’s my vision for Polymer Clay Love that we can bring positivity, cooperativity, and growth to all who work with this intriguing medium.”

Intriguing is the word, for our medium, of course, and for this new project of Ginger’s. Head over to the website to see what it’s all about and sign up for the site’s summary emails.

For those waiting on the Virtual Art Box, it really will only be a matter of a few days before I get the content out. I truly appreciate your patience and understanding!

If you haven’t signed up for the Virtual Art Box, I’ve kept the early Loyalty Forever discount going so you still have time to get in on those deals.

And if you want to share some love and get yourself some new goodies, check out my partner advertisers, those businesses that help me pay the blog’s bills. For instance, Helen is presently offering her latest video class, “In the Loop Pendants“, for only $13.50, just for you, my dear readers. Advertiser links are at the top and ads are at the bottom if you get this by email, or off to the right if you’re reading this online.

Okay, I’m going to go get some sleep and greet tomorrow with a smile and determination. I do hope you all have a beautiful and love filled week!

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Taking Back Time

December 8, 2019
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Sunflower Wall Clock, Joy Gregory Studio 

Do you ever get to the end to your day and wonder where the heck it all went? Do you often feel like you slaved away for hours and yet got nothing accomplished? I think that’s a pretty common feeling for many of us, especially those of us who are self-employed and thus self-accountable, often working from home where distractions abound. Even when you create as a hobby or a fun part-time side gig, it can be really frustrating trying to carve out the time to get your artwork done. Finding the hours to create can be one of the biggest barriers to completing creative projects and living a life as an active and fulfilled artist.

I generally feel I’m pretty good with time management, but I have really needed a refresher and kick in the pants as of late. Being off my schedule with these restricted hours, my organization and process has had to change but I didn’t do it in a conscious and planned manner. I’ve just been kind of winging it.

Well, this past week, my laissez-faire attitude back fired and I didn’t get nearly enough done. I thought I had been prepared for all the changes we are getting into with closing down one magazine and starting a new project, but then old Murphy decided to test my methods. Several rather sticky technical issue arose on the back end of the website requiring 3 straight days of work on my end to straighten it out as my tech guy was sick and I couldn’t move forward with this week’s plans until it was fixed.

That’s left me only 3 days more to complete the subscriber credits calculations, draft those promised subscriber emails, as well as a newsletter and this blog. But, instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion with the time I had, I kind of ended up all over the place – trying to get all the work stuff done, get my workouts and physical therapy in, take care of the everyday household stuff, and still get some decent sleep was a challenge that I went at all willy-nilly and got next to none of it done or done well. So, today I decided to review my time management process and get back on track. With that in my mind, I started writing this blog, so guess what we are going to talk about today?

I know… time management is probably the least interesting, stimulating, or creative sounding stuff I could possibly bring up, but it is immensely important! And, wanting to save you poor souls from a fate similar to mine this week, I gave myself a challenge–could I talk about time management and make it fun and interesting and maybe even attractive? Let’s see!

Wrestling Hours to Your Will

Even if you are great at time management there’s always something new to learn. So, I’m going to share a handful of tips along with some literal and metaphorical examples, primarily through the art of polymer. Art is great for metaphors, isn’t it?

  • Here is my #1 little tip that really gets my day going in the right direction – Prioritize what you need to do, starting with the most dreaded things first! Why would you want to start with the things you most want to avoid? Well, so they won’t be hanging over your head all day for one. You are also less likely to waste time procrastinating on things that don’t need to get done while trying to put off those dreaded tasks. And it feels so, so good to get those out of the way! Then you can focus (and accomplish) the fun stuff. I’m telling you… you won’t believe how helpful just getting those tasks off your list can be.

 

  • You probably know this one, but do you do it? If at all possible, put away or turn off your phone. Also turn off any kind of mail or other notification on computers and tablets. You don’t need to answer people right away just because we have the technology to do so. Every time you stop to read a text, answer a call, look through your email, or check the latest update to your Facebook or Instagram page, your mind switches gears and you lose your flow. Most of the time, it really can wait.

Working on detailed techniques like these mandala cane earrings by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre, can go so much faster if you can stay focused on the project. Being interrupted would make this kind of work take so much longer than if you just sit down and work on it without distractions.

 

  • You don’t need to work business hours – try instead to identify quiet hours. You’ll get a lot more done when there is nothing to distract you, which, for a lot of people, is primarily at the start or the end of the day. If you can break up your day, try working in the first few hours and the last few hours of your day. You see, if it’s too early or too late, you can’t make phone calls, run errands, or do anything else that is normally accomplished during standard business hours. Also, in the morning, many of us take a while to wake up fully, making it great creative time because our internal critic tends to be a bit sleepy too and, studies have suggested that your brain is more creative first thing, still cycling off REM sleep and hypnagogia (that state between dreaming and being awake). Then, at the end of the day, you’re more likely to let go of the to-do list of everyday life and can just focus on creative tasks.

 

  • Don’t multitask. Simply put, you’ll do less with less quality when you multitask. It may feel like you’re doing more but multitasking requires you repeat and review things over and over again as you switch your focus between tasks. Not only is this inefficient, chances are you will make mistakes, forget some necessary thing, and won’t be able to identify things that need changes, all requiring fixing or redoing later which means more time. Focus on one thing at a time, do it right, and do it well. It’s also a much less stressful way of working.

Can you imagine trying to work on multiple sections of this little piece by Leah Radlett, at the same time? You can see that she works one color at a time and progressively from top to bottom across her little 4” x 4” canvas. Consider it a bit of a metaphor for how you need to work on anything. Work focused and progressively so that you do it well and ensure it gets completed.

 

  • If you want to speed up, especially if you’re at all competitive, use a timer and challenge yourself to get tasks done within a set time. Your oven timer will work although there are apps of all kinds for this as well. Simply set yourself a goal, like 30 minutes to get through your emails and social media notices, or limit time on your breaks, especially those breaks where you sit down and start watching a Netflix show and next thing you know you’ve binge watched for 3 hours. Put the timer out of reach, too. Then you have to get up to turn it off and that should break the spell of any Facebook rabbit hole you went down or Game of Thrones episode you were re-watching.

 

  • Group similar tasks, ones that require the same type of mindset, into the same work session. For instance, I do all my accounting on Mondays (because I dread it, so I try to get out of the way first thing!) and do most of my writing the second half of the week. My most visually creative days are midweek and weekends. I tried doing a couple hours of each kind of task every day but constantly switching gears meant I was having to take time to get into a new mindset several times each day. Staying in one mindset for a good length of time is much more efficient, less stressful, and you’re also more likely to finish something and feel accomplished at the end of the day.

Below, Barbara Fajardo shows her studio table where she is focusing not only on the same techniques but the same shapes. Working this way (or with the same type of back end business tasks, or online work, etc.) allows you to complete a lot in a short period of time due to uninterrupted, focused sessions. This is not just for creating a lot of the same pieces either.You can make a many unique pieces quickly by switching it up within a similar approach, like Barbara has done with her lovely mokume gane earrings on the right.

 

  • If you only do one thing every day to help manage your time, have that be making a list at the end of the day for the next working day. Make the list with the most important and/or most dreaded items at the top. This way you know what you’re going to do when you get up and you’re less likely to fritter away the morning in a fog of aimlessness. When you get one item done on the list, cross it out and go to the next. This will keep you focused and far less likely to be sidetracked by the laundry (when that’s not on the list at least) or an online shopping excursion. It is also easier to stop thinking about work at the end of the day once it’s written down, all safe and sound in black-and-white. You can mentally set it aside and truly relax with the family or friends, and, hopefully, fall sleep easier because you don’t need to think about your next work day until you get up.

 

So now, what tips might you have that you find to be of paramount importance in guaranteeing you have the hours in the day that you need to do what you want to get done? Help out all us poor souls and insert a comment at the end of the post. Remember, if you get this by email, click the title of the post to go directly to the website, then scroll down and insert a comment. This is an area where our shared wisdom can really boost us all!

 

Do as I Say and, Now, as I Do

So, I am writing this at the end of my Saturday with a working Sunday ahead of me and I’ve got to make my list, so off with me! I promise I will take some time off to relax (I love how many of you write to tell me to ease up and take care of myself. I promise I do try!) But I’ve got to get those active subscriber emails out.

I’ll also get a newsletter out early in this week to give you all an update. I’m hoping I will have more details on the Virtual Art Box as well as some new (to our shop, not new publications) stock of books by Christi Friesen in the shop. These are the first of the books I’m adding to the shop so you have more options to spend store credits on or buy for Christmas gifts as well as being the start what I hope to be a fantastic one-stop shop for all the great polymer related books you might want.

If you’re not on the newsletter list but find you are interested in the timely news there, you can sign up on the homepage at https://tenthmusearts.com/

 

In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful, easy-going, productive, and creative week!

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The Allure of the Box & Important News

December 1, 2019
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Do you, like many people, find boxes really intriguing? Why do we like boxes? I mean, sure, they are convenient for storing things, hiding things, shipping stuff, and wrapping up gifts. But some of us (myself very much included) can become rather infatuated with them. I know I have a hard time passing a box and not opening it up. Boxes have this mysterious unknown interior that could be holding just about anything that will fit. The possibilities poke at our curiosity.

The things with in a box become automatically precious or necessary. Why put something in a box if it is not valuable or you do not think it will become useful in the future? So, boxes hold valuables of a sort, normally. So why wouldn’t you want to peek in and see what kind of fabulous things are inside?

I bring up boxes because I have a bit of news that has to do with boxes. Say uncle scrolling down to the end of the post to see what my news is, here it is. Then we’ll look at a few polymer boxes to further contemplate

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Exciting

Note: If you are an existing subscriber to The Polymer Studio, you should already have received an email with this information. (If you believe you are an existing subscriber and did not get a subscription status email, check your junk mail folder. You can also check your subscription status on your account page here.)

So, after 4 months of working on my health and arm injury, I have gotten to the point where I have been able to determine, more or less, what I can and can’t do going forward, and since it is apparent that I will continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future, I have made plans accordingly:

The Good:
As of January, I will be resuming work on publications for 2020 and am working on new projects now.

The Bad:
I am shutting down The Polymer Studio magazine for good. I have, however, set-up exciting options for fulfilling subscriptions for existing subscribers, primarily the new Box project you’ll read about below. (More details for subscribers are in the email sent out earlier today.)

The Exciting:
I have 3 exciting projects that Tenth Muse Arts will be offering this coming year–

  • I will be scheduling 2 book publications for 2020, including the second Polymer Arts Projects book (the theme will be Shimmer and Shine) and a book on expanding your creativity yet to be titled.
  • I will be expanding our shop to include hard to get and self-published polymer and mixed media related books to connect the community with more great artists and authors.
  • And… instead of a regularly published magazine we will be offering a monthly Virtual Art Box for polymer and mixed media creatives.

I know, I know … there are a lot of questions those announcements bring up like what is a Virtual Art Box and why am I not publishing the magazine any longer? And I have answers so, read on!

 

What is the Virtual Tenth Muse Art Box?

The Virtual Art Box is a digital package of invaluable articles, lessons, specials, and printable tools all geared to advance your creative self and give you more “a-ha” moments. Like a magazine, we will be providing serendipitous educational and inspirational content but with additional tools and perks that just couldn’t be produced in the pages of a publication.

Each Virtual Art Box will include:

  • Design immersion lessons (weekly)
  • Creativity Cultivation seminars & worksheets (every month)
  • Customizable challenges (every month)
  • Art Nudges (weekly)

… as well a variety of these possible items:

  • Project and technique tutorials
  • Demonstrations
  • Interviews
  • Printable gadgets and aids
  • Retail partner discounts and specials
  • Sneak peaks and Box subscriber only discounts for Tenth Muse Arts publications
  • And whatever other great goodies we think up or you suggest along the way.

The Virtual Art Box will be multimedia to include video and downloadable PDFs and will be sent out monthly. They will be available as a automatically billed monthly and quarterly subscriptions that can be canceled at any time. The first box will be sent off February of 2020. Subscriptions aren’t available quite yet, but we’ll let you know when we have all that technical stuff done so you can! (Existing subscribers will be automatically signed up for the Virtual Art Box or they will have the option to request store credit – details for subscribers will be sent out this coming week.)

 

Why No Magazine?

As many of you know, I halted magazine production in August because of health issues. Although I am not through the full six months recommended for recovery time, it has already become apparent that there is some permanent damage in my arm and there is still a long road ahead for the other health issues I am dealing with. So, something had to be changed.

Being the primary editor and layout designer for the magazine, and facing the reality that I can no longer carry my usual workload, my only option for keeping the magazine going would be to hire more third-party contractors which would result in one or, most likely, all of three things – significantly raising the price of the magazine, jeopardizing the quality of the production and content, and/or not paying the contributing writers and artists. I am not happy with the idea of any of these outcomes and instead I have chosen to discontinue the magazine and work in formats that put less repetitive strain on my arm and should be better able to financially support additional contracted staff as needed.

I am more than a little sad about closing down the magazine. I’ve been publishing periodicals for the polymer community for over eight years and have worked in magazines since high school. However, I’m hoping, with these new ventures, I can continue to inspire, educate, and increase your joy and fulfillment in your creative endeavors through these other exciting avenues.

How Does This Affect This Blog?

So, as you might have noticed, one of the items in the Virtual Art Box is a weekly design lesson. Well, that’s basically what I’ve been doing on the blog this year but, without a magazine to promote on a regular basis, it’s been hard to justify the time that goes into these article length posts beyond the fact that I love doing them. But the mantra for this next year is to work smart.

So, what will happen is that the full-length posts plus other notes and nudges based on the content of the virtual box will be sent to the Virtual Art Box subscribers each weekend. Here, on this publicly accessible blog, I will do an abbreviated version of the subscriber’s weekly design immersion content so I can keep nudging folks to look closer at the design of their creations.

Starting this month, I will be creating those abbreviated posts so I can focus on wrapping up the details of this new project, hire a new assistant, and get a production schedule up for next year for the books. All that with the holidays in the midst of it. Sounds like I’m getting crazy again but I promise to do as the doctor orders. I am really looking forward to being productive again!

 

Now What about Those Boxes?

With polymer, you can make boxes in two ways – you can cover an existing box form or you can create your own box. Let’s put it at a few examples of both.

Covering a RD existing box is, obviously, the easiest way to create a polymer box. It may seem like a shortcut but if you spend a lot of time creating beautiful veneers or sculptural elements for the outside the box, there’s no need to spend a lot of time creating the box from polymer. Remember, it’s better to use the material that makes the most sense for what you are creating rather than limit yourself to one material.

Aniko Kolesnikova, famous for her journal covers, also covers boxes. Using her bas-relief style sculptural approach, she created this commissioned box based on the card game, Magic: The Gathering. The box top worked as a canvas but the dimensional aspect allowed her to flow each of the elements over its edge, taking up the dynamic energy and knowledge. Click on the image to get her blog post about how she made this including sketches and close-ups.

 

Fiona Abel-Smith looks to have created her actual box forms out of polymer and then covers it with a technique she learned, and eventually perfected, from Sue Heaser. The process is based on the classic mosaic-like technique of pietra dura. Laying a clay colored base for the shapes in the images, Fiona then adds bits, cut from extruded snakes of clay, to the image for texture. The intense technique creates beautiful, lively illustrations. Fiona’s also created a post about her boxes, showing her variations and their many sides along with photos of her process. Click the image to see the post.

If you are making your own polymer boxes, you have the option of leaving the square behind in making her boxes in any shape whatsoever. The opening image and the image below are boxes by Helen Wyland-Malchow. The opening image, Box 22, was her winning entry into Polymer Journeys 2019. This one, Landscape Box, below has always been one of my personal favorites though. That is really pushing the idea of a box in such a wonderful and dynamic way. Squares are bit static, which allows the imagery on the box to stand out but curves are fabulously high-energy and fun.

So, how about you? Have you created covered boxes or constructed your own from polymer? That could be a fun challenge this month if you haven’t worked with boxes yet. They make fantastic gifts for pretty much anyone. Who couldn’t use a box? If you’d like to create your own polymer boxes, there is a great tutorial (if I do say so myself) by me on constructing a 100% polymer box in the Winter 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts (also available in digital for immediate download here.)

 

Putting the Lid on It

Well, that’s enough blathering at you for this weekend. I haven’t had time to take pictures of the kitchen backsplash I was working on, which is basically done except for the grout, but I’ll share that with you next weekend, hopefully in its final form.

And last but not least, I want to thank each and every one of you who have been cheering me on the last 8 years, for sending your appreciative and supportive messages, particularly in these the last 4 months. I look forward to you coming along with me on these new and continued artistic ventures as we explore this fantastic medium, growing our creative selves and our community.

 

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Let’s Make a Scene

November 24, 2019
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How do you determine the composition of the pieces that you make? Is it purely intuitive in that you just start putting things down until you find something you like or do you look to the designs of other artists to get ideas about how to arrange the layers, patterns, and shapes that make up your creations? Perhaps it is mother nature that you get your inspiration from or maybe your work is highly conceptual and designs arise from planning in your sketchbook.

I remember a couple years into being a full-time polymer artist that it struck me that I had no idea why I composed my work the way I did. I definitely leaned toward symmetry and horizontal arrangements but was that because it was something I’d succeeded at previously and therefore it was comfortable or was that really what I needed for what I wanted to express?

To answer that question, I just started asking myself what I was thinking about before and during the design process and I found that when I was working on jewelry, necklaces in particular, I thought about the body and its symmetry but for wall art, or secondarily for adornment, most of my designs seemed to be rooted in scenery. Desert scenes, mountain scenes, scenes of babbling brooks, scenes with roads and streets running off into the distance, and even the scene of a long studio table scattered with work in progress were fodder for my compositional ideas. I just really like the whole picture, especially anything that could be seen as landscape, which helped to explain my penchant for horizontal compositions. From then on, I thought a lot about design in terms of whole scenes and landscape in particular.

I have found the observation of scenery a great way to educate oneself about composition. It doesn’t matter whether you prefer to create one big beautiful leaf or an abstract design with not a single recognizable shape. There are lessons to be learned by observing the scenes around us.

Most of us react emotionally to wide open scenes, especially those that are not part of our day to day because their novelty allows us to look at them with fresh eyes. If are stopped by a scene because it visually strikes you, chances are, there are compositional elements you can draw inspiration from. For instance, looking across a field to the front of a dense forest, you might admire the line of tall trees reaching up to the sky in unison, recognizing how very strong and invincible they appear. Creating a design with a lot of closely arranged vertical lines can impart that same sense of strength. Looking down a long meandering road running through a desert of rusts, hazy purples, and cream colors may feel calm and relaxing to you. You can re-create this atmosphere in a mokume stack of similar colors with long undulating lines as the impressed texture.

Scenes as compositional inspiration is a huge subject since there are so many different types of scenes to draw from but I thought, this week, we could look at work that literally recreates scenes as the template for the designs and from that, you can consider the composition, how it might translate into more abstract elements, if you work in an abstract or purely decorative mode, or how your own imagery can be used to create a scene and convey emotion or atmosphere. But, really, this is about just getting you to consider scenery itself as inspiration, if you don’t already do so. So, let’s go consider.

 

Set the Scene

When it comes to literal scenes using cane, Wendy Jorre de St Jorre is an absolute master. Inspired by the landscape in and around where she resides in Western Australia, she creates scenes using multiple but visually connected canes for variation. The care she takes in developing these perfectly lined up canes creates scenes that looks seamlessly continuous and varied. Just look at this three-tier box opening this post. It was created with the canes you see below. Wendy made them so that the canes can be re-arranged in multiple ways to make several slightly different scenes. She even inserts a single small scene on the inside of each polymer box as well. She really likes scenery!

 

Here is a piece from way back by Carol Simmons. These days we associate Carol primarily with her bright colored canes but I have always had a fondness for this piece. The canes are laid out in lines to show the different strata in scenes she saw while at a polymer clay retreat in 2010. The application of canes onto a piece can be so nicely informed by the variations in natural landscape scenes, city scenes, and even scenes you see any room, and it doesn’t have to all be from the same scene. You can take bits from the various scenes you come across and put them together if they are related or you recognize similarities in mood, form, or compositional elements. Carol’s horizontal bands are a mix of things seen in the landscape outside a window and organisms found on seaside rocks. The commonalities she looks to have drawn from seems to be the textures and patterns, made cohesive by repeating the horizontal bands (also likely an element she was seeing in the scenery) but contrasted with a tall vertical form in which it is all framed.

 

Of course, imagery using canes is not the only way to re-create compositions from scenes. You can also go textural and sculptural. Jo Anne St. James uses cabochon focal bead forms for her scenery inspired, textured and sculpted compositions. They include everything from literal interpretations of beach side scenes to silhouettes of birds and plant life on cool colored backgrounds. You can see here how the Grand Canyon inspired texture and color in a pretty direct interpretation. However, without the reference photo, some of these might come across as abstract textured pieces but are just as interesting when not associated with the actual canyon scene.

 

Here’s a great example of mixing literal scenery and decorative inspiration in a scenic composition. Karen Harry is very much inspired by the decorative details and symbology of medieval times as well as the Victorian Gothic era but also seems fond of mixing the sources to create her own fantastical scenes. The sky portion of this mixed media mosaic draws from decorative details of these past times while the building on the sloping land next to a stylized sea looks to be a rendition of an actual place Karen is familiar with. The result is an impression of the joy and beauty she draws from the present-day reminders of the past.

 

Drawing directly from a scene that you see does not have to be about the forms, lines, colors, and patterns only. Often times, we are inspired by the energy of a scene, the literal movement. Think of a waterfall, the ocean crashing against rocks, the rush of clouds ahead of a thunderstorm, the flutter of fabric in the wind, or the coordinated flow and flight of a cloud of starlings. The dynamic energy of a scene may be the entire reason that it captured your attention. Such movement can also be fantastic inspiration for your compositions.

The most impressive piece of visual movement I’ve seen in recent months has to be this mosaic below by Mia Tavonatti. Mia paints in both oils and in mosaic stained-glass. And, yes, saying she “paints” with glass is appropriate, don’t you think? It’s a term commonly associated with her mosaic work in particular. This immense 7’ x 13’ (215cm x 400cm) glass mosaic won second place in the largest and probably most prestigious (and, I think, most lucrative at a $200,000 for 1st place) art competition in the world, Art Prize, in 2010.

Although the woman in the scene is a natural focal point since we are compellingly drawn to faces, her head is slightly cut off, showing a diminished importance. It’s really the energy and color of the scene, particularly the energy in the flow of the fabric and the color variation and contrast between the fabric, the water, and the rocks beneath it, that dominates the subject. (Be sure to click the image and scroll down the page it takes you to see the detailed photos of the glass mosaic work in this piece. It’s just amazing.)

So, really, everything in a scene that catches your eye, from line to texture to color to energy, can be drawn on for inspiration. And re-created scenes, even in the abstract, are something people can readily connect to in your work since landscape and other scenery is familiar to us all.

 

Leaving the Scene

I feel like I could talk about the inspiration of scenery for quite a bit longer but I’m going to stop here. There is still a lot to do to implement changes for getting the production end of the Tenth Muse Arts business going again and being shorthanded is not helping. I’m also having to learn how to schedule things within limited work hours and not just work every waking hour to get something done when I get behind. It’s not easy! Who would’ve known?

I will be sending something out this week to existing subscribers for the magazine and hopefully a newsletter as well to give you all a bit of an update. It doesn’t look like everything will be in place as of this week, especially with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, but I have at least two bits of news I’ll be able to share once we get some changes made on the website in the next couple days.

So, I plead once again for your patience and understanding. I just need to arrange everything into an organized and sustainable situation before I start blathering about our new projects and what you can look forward to seeing from Tenth Muse Arts in 2020. Because I know there will be questions and I want to be sure I can answer them without a lot of ifs, ands and buts.

With my focus on Tenth Muse Arts business this week, I haven’t quite finished the mosaic backsplash in the kitchen but being Thanksgiving is at our house this year, all of my breaks between work and other things is on that backsplash. I can’t wait to share that with you too!

 

In the meantime, look around you wherever you go and see the beauty in the scenes before you. What details are you drawn to? What are the feelings and emotions they bring to the surface for you? Grab inspiration from these observations and see what you can transfer into your studio time. I’m sure a good number of you in the US will be out and about, road tripping to be with family for Thanksgiving or getting out to enjoy time with visiting family. Take advantage of the less common scenes you’ll see out the car window or that you’ll stroll by while out and about. And we will chat again next week if not before! Very happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

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Lessons of the Monochromatic

November 17, 2019
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What does the word “monochrome” bring to mind? Do you think boring? Monotonous? Unexciting? I know that you know that monochrome color palettes don’t have to be humdrum and spiritless but does the idea of working in monochrome leave you less than thrilled?

Of course, a lot of people come to polymer because of the color possibilities, so I think, as a whole, we may have a bias to using lots of color or at least a lot of contrasting color. If you’ve never worked in a monochrome palette, however, you may be surprised at just how much you can learn by doing so. Not only that, you can create some wonderfully stunning work with little to no color.

Monochrome refers to the use of one hue but also includes its variations in tone, tint, and shade. For a quick reminder if you don’t recall the meaning of those terms, tone means to add gray in order to “tone” down a hue, tint refers to adding white to lighten it, and shade means adding black to darken it. A piece that includes red but also pink and brick red is still monochromatic because these are all versions of the hue of red. Monochrome can also mean shades of gray, including everything from black to white. That is also one of the most important monochrome palettes and I’ll explain why in just a few.

Okay, now that were all on the same page with what we mean by monochrome, how can working with a limited palette of this kind help you improve your work including your design sense? Well, it comes down to two very important things. One, when you aren’t working with a variety of color you stop thinking about your work in terms of color and start focusing on the other design element. And secondly, it really makes you aware of color value. Let me explain and show you an example.

There’s plenty of work out there that is completely dependent upon its color palette for its impact. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can mean that there are missed opportunities in the design. When you’re not thinking about the color, you will have to lean on form, line, texture, and pretty much every other design characteristic to create work that expresses your intent and garners interest, including color value which refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.

I think it’s quite a worthwhile exercise to take your work and photograph it in black and white both to emphasize the role color plays in the piece and to recognize the differences in color value. Go ahead… grab a piece that you have on hand and take a black-and-white photograph of it (look for a “grayscale”, “noir”, or “mono” setting on your camera or phone), or take a photo you already have and change it to grayscale in photo editing software or print it out on a black and white printer.

How does the black and white version of the work change the impact and your impression of the piece? If it really loses its impact or loses all its energy without the color, maybe there are some area of its design that could be improved.

Let’s look at a design by Kathleen Dustin. I’ve always loved this pair of earrings but is it because of its color or are there other elements that really make this work well?

Wouldn’t you say that the impact of this pair of earrings is rather dependent on the color? I think it is, so the question becomes, can the design stand up to being switched to black and white? Well, what you think of this –

It’s just not the same, is it? This is not to say that the earrings were poorly designed because they were not. But the design was heavily dependent on color to give it the interest and appeal I believe she intended. However, even in grayscale, there are still quite lovely. The folding of the lines around the elongated pod creates a graceful flowing movement and the pointed, arrow like ends add strong directional movement, giving energy to the piece regardless of the color. There is also a fair amount of contrast in the color value within those flowing lines and even a touch of textural contrast with both a matte and a shimmer in the clay finish, further supporting the energy of this piece.

So, that was an example where the color carried the design but other design elements were shown to support it. However, those other design elements became much more evident when seen in black and white. Taking black-and-white photographs also helps you recognize color values which will help you determine whether to increase or decrease contrast as you prefer.

Which brings us to the reason I said that I think a black-and-white/grayscale palette is the most important of the monochromatic pallets. Just like looking at photos of your work in black and white, working in grayscale forces you to look for opportunities for contrast, especially in color value. Now, there is no right or wrong in terms of high contrast versus low contrast. They’re both relevant and useful approaches to designing your work — it all depends on your intention.

If, for instance, you want to create a calm, subdued piece, the first choice you might make is to lean heavily on the most psychologically calm color, blue. But then you may come to depend too heavily on color to express your intention and may not make intentional design choices in other aspects of the design that could really help support the look you are trying to create. Low contrast in the values, texture, line, etc. could also support a calm, subdued look. If you work in black, white, and grays, you’ll end up working with those other elements a lot more, and the more familiar you are with them, the more likely you are to use them intentionally in future designs.

If you’re thinking that working in monochrome just wouldn’t be any fun, that you are too in love with color to work with just one color or none at all, maybe sampling the world of monochrome art might change your mind. Let’s go see.

The World in One Hue

Hopefully, if even thinking of monochrome means black and white, the previous bit of conversation will disabuse you of that notion. You can still work with color and play with monochrome and make just stunning pieces. These decade old caned pieces by Judy Belcher that opened this post are still quite stunning. I know I have an image of three different colors in it but each set is a monochrome necklace or beads that will become a single necklace with just one color in different shades and tints, such as the necklace below.

The high-energy of these beads come from the wide range of value of each color as well as the contrast of shapes. Notice the circular beads have a lot of straight lines and the rectangular beads have a lot of circular accents. There’s also a lot of variety in the shapes of the layers, direction of line, and the presence, or lack of, pattern. These are anything but boring!

 

The work doesn’t need to be all high contrast to add energy to a monochromatic set. I blogged about this set by Russian artist Natalia Lemeshchenko before because it’s such a great example. The background color that might appear to be a cream does have a tinge of green, just enough to keep it in the green color set. There is a touch of color besides green in the gems, but they just add a bit of glimmer to an otherwise matte finish and is not really about the color they add. The fine flowing lines and details create energy but the symmetry along with the muted green support a quiet and sophisticated feel for the set.

 

Now if you want to really see what value contrast can do for a piece, work in grays. Bénédicte Bruttin’s pendant, channeling Betsy Baker’s crackle and domed shapes and Jana Lehmann’s form and style but without the saturated color, allows form, texture and value contrast to create energy and interest.

 

Also, consider that silversmiths, or other metal smiths who choose to work primarily in one metal, have to create primarily in monochrome. Not that they can’t use stones or patina, but you have to admit there is plenty of stunning metal jewelry that needs no color. On Facebook recently, Melanie West posted work by Teresa Kiplinger. Teresa calls herself a “silver poet”, including poetry in parts or on the back of her work but I think its visual poetry as well. She contrasts extremely delicate lines with swathes of open space and contrasts the natural metallic sheen with the matte of patina finishes. The effects are gorgeous and haunting. And there’s no color.

 

Now, what about work that is all one color with no variation in shade or tint? Can the work be impactful, beautiful, and exciting? Of course. But you REALLY need to focus on things like form and texture. And shadows. Since we work in a three-dimensional material, we have the option to create shadow and make that part of our value contrast in our work.

Angela Schwer masterfully uses shadow into her well-known dimensional tiles, done completely in white polymer, with only the dark spaces for contrast.

 

You can do this in black as well, even though shadows themselves are black. You just need the right finish. Give the surface a little bit of sheen or gloss and the shadows, which don’t reflect any light, will always be darker. I found this amazing black vessel on Colossal, an article sources for contemporary art you should check out if you have not already. Hitomi Hosono, using nothing but form and texture, creates dramatic and dense vessels, with shadow defining the contrast in texture.

 

So, what do you think? Curious about trying something in monochrome, if you haven’t already gotten on that train? Give yourself a play session with it. Pick one color and/or some black and white and just sit down and play. If you are used to starting with colors, look to other elements you like to work with:

–Big on texture? Use your favorite texture applications and let the textured play the staring role.

–All about surface design like mokume, caning, or alcohol inks? Just plan these in monochrome and remember to choose color values with high contrast so patterns show well.

–Do you like to play with creative shapes? Work out some interesting shapes in one color and then add layers, canes, or accents in different shades and tints of your one hue, going for high contrast to increase the energy and minimal contrast for something soft and subdued.

Really, just let yourself play and see what comes of it when lots of color isn’t your primary focus.

 

A Long and Winding Road

I had hoped, by now, to be ready with news about changes I am making with the magazine and production going forward for publications as well as having ready new stock in the shop. Unfortunately, I live in California and I had to jump through some unanticipated hoops just to get some services I need. But… This whole next week is dedicated to resolving everything that needs to be resolved and getting things set up so we can move forward.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get the mosaic kitchen backsplash done. I am absolutely loving the process but it’s easy to get lost in it and I can be just ridiculous about getting things just right. So, it’s taking a while but it’s looking pretty good. Here are some work-in-progress shots. It’s really awesome to be doing something creative and big and just for fun!

Mid-week, all the stone was finally up and the glass mosaic was started. Yeah.

Four days later, the glass mosaic is coming along. Slooooowly.

 

Nothing much to report on the health front. No real progress but no backsliding either this week so holding steady. I did get back to the gym, although I’m feeling like a wimp because I can’t do all I used to do and I can’t use a lot of weight on many of the machines. But it’s better than being a lump! I aim to get back to some light trail running this week as well. I hope you all are taking care of yourself as well. It’s hard to on your creativity, and pretty much anything else, if you’re feeling poorly.

So, off with me for now to do a bit more work on the backsplash. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a beautifully energized, while possibly monochromatic, week!

 

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