Color Erased

A few days ago I had an artist featured from a not-so-well-known country, Belsarus. Well, there must be something about polymer and that country right now because I came across Elena Fadeeva also of Minsk, Belarus this week  as well and her beautiful erased polymer tubes. What is it about this Eastern European country and polymer?

Well…. while I ponder that, you can take in these lovely beads. The translation would seem to indicate that she used alcohol inks originally across the whole bead but then ‘erased’ the color. I suspect this was done by sanding as I have tried get a drop or two off a sheet of clay that, laid carelessly on the work table nearby got splashed by my enthusiastic dribblings. Here, as part of the design rather than the erasure of a mistake, the thin delicate colors fill in the stampings with an almost antique or worn tribal look. There are more beatutiful examples on her Flickr page.

I have been working to perfect another method of erasing — but with mica powders. I have been able to completely erase mica from the flat or raised surface of raw clay both in order to remove errant powder and to use as a negative stencil or a kind of enameling technique.

I’ll unveil my finds in this mica-erasure approach in the next issue of The Polymer Arts magazine. Be sure you have your subscription up-to-date. You won’t want to miss this next amazing and all–too-fun issue.