The Party is in Full Swing. Come join us!

 

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

 

What’s This Podcast All About?

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

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

 

It IS…

… a way to consistently feed your muse

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

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

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

 

It is NOT…

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

Come Join the Conversation

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

And join me on social media!

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

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

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

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

 

“Just what I needed!” 

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

“There is so much validity in your presentation…” 

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

 

 

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

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

Or start with this episode:

A Bit Abstracted

Have you ever thought about how often polymer work is abstract? Many polymer artists who work in jewelry, wall art, and functional art do not work with recognizable imagery. Quite often polymer artists express themselves with little more than color, lines, forms, and textures. Technically, much of polymer art is decorative art due to so much of polymer craft being created in functional forms (decorative art being defined as functional as well as beautiful), but is there that great a difference between the intuitive arrangement of elements to create mood, impressions, and symbolic meaning in a piece of jewelry and that used in a painting on canvas? Well, no, there’s not, except in how we categorize it.

Unfortunately, that separate categorization, in my view, performs two disservices—it allows for a perceived difference in value (where art that is not functional, created just for art’s sake, is deemed more valuable) and creates a mystique around non-functional abstract art that makes us think we need to “understand” it, while nearly the same thing on a pendant can simply be admired. I find that sad. Why can’t just any piece of art be simply admired without looking for deeper meaning? Let’s look at just a few pieces that you can recognize as similar to familiar polymer work but is not, and use it as a back door to appreciating the inspiration that non-functional art can be for us “decorative” artists.

Abstracted Double-Takes

Take a look at the beautiful mixed media painting by Carol Nelson that opens this post. Can’t you see it as a lovely polymer pendant? Carol’s painting is cracked and textured and layered with metal foil. Is that not a familiar combination in polymer too? I think of the wonderfully crackled and painterly effects of Debbie Crothers’ work like this pendant below when rummaging through Carol’s portfolio.

If you are familiar with the polymer and metal jewelry of Susan Dyer, then this next painting might immediately bring to mind some of Susan’s well-known designs, of which there is one example below. The painting is Squares with Concentric Circles by Vassily Kandinsky.

These two pieces are so similar, you might think the jewelry was a direct translation of the painting but I would guess the designs came either quite independently or wholly unconsciously from the painting.

Much of polymer surface design is about abstract expression. We just immerse ourselves in the color, texture, marks, and mix of materials until we’ve manipulated it into a place that speaks to us. I know that is how I worked on abstract paintings when I had my short stint with those. I imagine that is not too different from what Christine Krainock was about when she created her painting Drifting Away, that you see below.

Now, doesn’t that remind you a bit of some lovely mokume created with translucent polymer and metal leaf, such as in this bracelet by Tatiana Parshikova? It’s a different material but has a similar feel, doesn’t it?  That painting would make a lovely bracelet if the painter was so inclined to make her work decorative art.

So, why isn’t our jewelry highly revered abstract works of art? In some arenas it is in its own way but being functional or wearable will likely always be separate from what is often referred to as “fine art”. It really doesn’t matter though. What does matter is that what we often do in polymer can be derived from much larger work hung on walls in museums and galleries. Also, if you’ve been stumped by abstract art but can appreciate the wide breadth of polymer art, you can apply your appreciation of the decorative to an appreciation of abstract paintings–the colors, textures, lines, etc. are used in a similar manner and often with similar goals.

So if you have time this week, maybe you can go to a museum or traipse through some galleries and try to imagine the pieces you see translated into polymer. You might find some amazing inspiration and ideas in work you just hadn’t considered in that way before.

VAB-ulous March

The next Virtual Art Box will be released at the end of the coming week and here’s a peek at the digital cover. Not only will we be exploring our passions, finding one’s unique artistic voice and, the wide world of mark making, I have a couple amazing discount offers for members as well. March is going to be a great month! Come join us if you haven’t already.

Shimmer and Shine

Also, if you haven’t seen the newsletter, I am presently taking submission ideas for tutorials for the next book, Shimmer & Shine Polymer Art Projects. You can get more details by going to this online version of the newsletter if you are interested in pitching an idea.

My apologies for any distracting typos this post. I’ve been a bit exhausted and my dyslexia, usually quite mild, is playing havoc with my proofreading skills. So, I’m off to just relax for a bit before I take up the reins on a busy first week of the month.

Have a beautiful first week of March!

Taking You Sideways

February 23, 2020

How often do you sit down at the studio table to create something and think, what am I going to do with the edges of my design? It’s unlikely to be the first thing you think of but does it come into play at all? This is something we have been exploring in the Virtual Art Box this month. We started with work on texturing edges for variation but this week, I thought we talk about the sides of edges!

As you know, we work in a 3-dimensional material and, therefore, even a flat pendant has not just a front and back, but sides and a top and bottom. Do you consider and treat those with anything like the consideration given to the front? Well, if you haven’t done that often to date, let’s make it a thing from now on!

Whether it’s a flat pendant, a bangle bracelet, the lip of a vase, or the base of a sculpture, those edges on your three-dimensional objects should be planned out just like every other surface. If it’s going to be seen, it should be well considered.

Side Effects

So, here’s an artist who obviously considers the side view (and the back and the top and the bottom) in every piece she creates. Sarah Shriver, known for her canes, doesn’t hesitate to add pattern and additional embellishments to all surfaces of her beads. The thick cut of the patterned layers on the back and snakes that work like frames in the front, bring the patterns into the side view, making the sides an integral part of her beads rather than an afterthought.

Sarah even treats rounded edges, such as lentil beads, with additional embellishment. See the twisted snake that encompasses her lentil beads in this post’s opening image? It not only adds pattern and energy to the piece, making them key components of the design, but they seal off the two halves of the lentil with no finishing of a seam to contend with.

Donna Kato is doing something similar to layering in these bangles below. There are several layers and patterns just on the side edge, but with the dome of the bangle surface curving into the side, it all becomes a unified design. Even if you don’t make bangles this thick and domed, you can certainly treat the edge with layers and patterns of this kind.

And what about thick slabs of mokume or canes? These would create a pattern for the back as well as the sides and can be used either as a base upon which to build the front view or it could be covered by a thin, solid sheet of clay and just be the pattern for the back and sides. I couldn’t find any photos of someone doing this in polymer although I’ve seen it. However, looking at examples in other materials can show you how good such an option can look.

This is mokume in metal, the original material for mokume gane, designed by an Australian company, Soklich & Co. Just look at how beautifully the layered pattern decorates the side. It would not be hard to imagine getting a similarly patterned side from thick slices of mokume off a stack whose layers were not rolled overly thin.

Of course, solid, straight cut, rounded, wrapped, or otherwise well finished edges may do just fine. It all depends on what the piece is about, what your intention is for it. Just consider that you have so very many options beyond solid colors for your edge’s sides.

If you want to dive in deeper with my wonderful group of Art Boxers, there is still time to get this month’s bundle and get a subscription for next month. Get it all right here!

 

Taking Off

I’m taking the weekend off to spend it with one of my amazing and beautiful children who is out visiting me. Our intention this weekend – to just relax and live in the moment. A coastal drive, tidepools, rock shops, gluten free bakeries, and yoga with baby goats in pajamas (the baby goats are PJs, not us … oh the cuteness!) are on the list to fill our few short days. So, if you reach out this weekend and I don’t answer, I’ll get you on Monday! I hope you have a beautiful week!

Giving Voice to Vision

Alev Gozonar, Herd Psychology I, 2019

Do you consider yourself one of those people who like to talk about their art, or do you want never to talk about it, like it might lose some of it’s magic if you try to explain it?

I think a lot of artists feel a little of both. We love what we do so much that we want to share it with anyone who has the slightest interest, but at the same time, we don’t want to over analyze it for fear of diminishing the personal and often mysterious process that is the creation of art work.

You don’t have to be over analytical about your art in order to verbalize what you do but you should consider how putting your thoughts about your process and what drives you to create into writing can help both yourself and those who view your work.

Let’s look at a few artists and their words to see how authentic and intelligent discussions of one’s work can illuminate and grow our appreciation for the art and its creator.

 

From the Mouth of Artists

For some artists, their intention is wound up intensely in the stories they would like to tell. Christine Damm is an artist who believes so strongly in the power of storytelling, that she named her business “Stories They Tell”. In her own words:

Stories They Tell is the name I call my company, because I am a storyteller. For me, life is a process, a journey, a transformation, an unfolding. And as our lives tell a story, so does our art. We – and it– are shaped by what we’ve done, who we’ve met, what we’ve learned, what we’ve struggled with or succeeded at. Life is an intersection with other souls, other lives, other ways of seeing, other ways of living. Art expresses that in a wonderful and ever-changing, topsy-turvy marvel of creation and discovery.

This paragraph from her website is an honest expression of how she sees the world and how that viewpoint lives with her and her day to day creative work. You can tell that it is a heartfelt view and description of herself, right? She’s not saying anything that hasn’t been said before, but she is saying it in her own words, and it gives us an understanding of what is important to her and what drives her creative process.

 

Alev Gozonar is a very conceptual artist. She clings to, and explores, words, stories, and specific ideologies as she creates. In the piece below I found on Instagram, she tags her images with just a handful of descriptors, primarily #concrete and #brutalism, referring to an architectural style in the mid-20th century that was characterized by monolithic, blocky, concrete elements. She contrasts the concrete shapes with delicate floral petals in this piece, but in other pieces in this line, the polymer petals are spattered or covered in concrete rather than just existing alongside the harsh building material, so there’s both an interesting juxtaposition and an immersion of the delicate in the hard and harsh. (You can find those other pieces on her Instagram page.) Now read how she sees her work. Her statements about reveal even more layers to her approach. In her words:

The dominant theme in my works is the composition of a whole via the repetition of parts.  This can be seen as an extension of my textiles education and has become a cornerstone of my identity as an artist. If I make an attempt to describe the general framework of my artwork, I would say that the most important starting points for me are the emotional losses and gains I have experienced in various phases of my life, my observations about life, my personal experiences and the way all of these things reflect on daily life, behavior and emotional states. 

Now what do you think when you look at this piece, or at the piece that opens this blog? Does it change how you see them?

 

Debra Adelson is a jewelry artist working in a “centuries old Bohemian cold work glass technique. Cold working does not use heat but, rather, water to keep the glass cool while manipulating it using abrasives such as sandblasting, grinding, drilling, and cutting.”

Look at her pieces below. If you did not know what her process was, you might take but a very quick glance at her work but you would not have had a lot to ponder. However, you now know something of her process and so probably have an increased appreciation and so, you’ll linger longer to identify how her process forms the work.


She has a very specific design process as well and often photographs her work to show the original inspiration which further informs us about the piece. For instance, it will be hard to look at the amber colored brooch and not see the water worn slot canyon walls, now that we have seen the photograph – the image is forever connected in our minds to that brooch, even if we see it without the image.

So, yes, images can help but, still, Debra gives us further insight into her process and thoughts with this selection of words from her online bio:

I am inspired by the natural world and our relationship to it. My pieces pay homage to changing forces that shape our landscape—both natural and manmade. I seek to create harmony in my work and find balance between our need to shape our environment while preserving and respecting the natural world. Each series begins with a distinct inspiration or concept. I base the initial piece on an image, a moment in nature and experiment to come up with my ‘visual language’ that tells a story for the series.

Her work is really amazing so do stop and click through to look at the colorful and very interestingly carved glass “gems” on her Instagram page or website.

 

Obviously, this is just a small taste of what people post to talk about their art. I might suggest that, as you zip around online and run into various artists that you admire or work that inspires you, go to their websites and read the ‘About’ page or their artist statements. The more of these you read and the more aware you become of how statements inform the artwork, the easier it will be for you to form a statement, a bio, or other text about you and your work that is authentic and truly brings across what it is you would like people to see in what you do.

 

Me and My Projects

I can’t tell you how energized and excited I am these days! For one, the Virtual Art Box which was released a bit over a week ago, has been so enthusiastically received (for which I am so relieved as I wondered how people would like it) and, secondly, because I’m getting to write tons about the things I am most passionate about! I get up in the morning and write like a mad woman. It just comes pouring out. I have to actually stop myself so I can make room for some guest artists and writers. When was the last time you were so excited about something that you could hardly think of anything else? It’s a great feeling!

It truly helps my enthusiasm to have such glowing comments sent to me (“This changed my life, already!”, “This was just what I needed. I thought I was burned out on creating but that wasn’t it …”, “I feel like I’m taking a college course!”) but I was a bit overwhelmed and emotional at moments. I am trying, in everything I do with my publications and projects, to affect other people’s lives in a positive and nurturing way but, unlike when teaching in person, in this business, you don’t get a clear idea of what people are doing with what they learn. But with the Creative Pursuits (a challenge and form in the Virtual Art Box that lets readers connect with me on their focus and goals) and the social media pages, not to mention the kind emails and messages I’ve been getting, I’m hearing exactly what your fellow polymer enthusiasts are up to and what they want. It’s fascinating and creates such energy for me and, I think, it will do so for the active VAB members. It’s so exciting!

If you aren’t getting the VAB, you can join in today by buying the one month February box, no subscription required, and then you can  check out what we are doing. You can get a subscription right now too although that won’t start you until March. Whatever you do, I just hope you have a chance to get in on this energy.

 

 

Lindly Needs a Little Love

If you have not already heard, one of our very dear community leaders and pioneers, Lindly Haunani, had a horrific accident a bit over a week ago. She has multiple broken bones, including bones in her dominant hand, and although she is sure to recover, it is going to be a very long and difficult road. Of course, this community jumped in to help her out in a huge way, but she will need your continued love and support for quite a while.

Take a look at her Go Fund Me page and send Lindly a little love this Valentine’s weekend if you can.

Additional fundraising avenues are being worked on as well. I will keep you updated on those and her well-being as I get news.

 

Shimmer and Shine … and Get Published.
Deadline for submission of ideas is March 15th

Scheduling this for Fall 2020, the Polymer Arts Projects – Shimmer and Shine book will, like the PAP – Organic’s book, feature numerous in-depth tutorials by some of our community’s most accomplished artists.

If you feel you are one of these folks that have something fantastic to offer readers for this theme, I am now open for submission ideas. Here are the basic guidelines:

  • As the theme is Shimmer and Shine, the project should be shiny, glitzy, sparkly, or blingy but also artistic, well-designed, and skillfully conceived.
  • The tutorial should work for readers in the experienced novice to moderately advanced range. This will not be for absolute beginners.
  • The tools and materials, or workable alternatives, should be obtainable by the majority of our worldwide readership.
  • The project should have a specific technique or look that can be reproduced in different forms and styles with examples of possible variations shown.
  • Artists submitting should be experienced at photographing their process and writing detailed tutorials.

This special publication offers payment and profit sharing for our contributing artists. Keep an eye on these newsletters for your submission opportunity next month. Check out the Polymer Arts Projects – Organics  book for further examples of the kind of tutorials we will be looking for.

At this time submit just the summary of your idea–just a few sentences–and links or small attachments to images of the technique and/or pieces of the kind your proposed tutorial would include. Send them to sage(a)tenthmusearts.com. My response will be sent after the March 15th deadline.

I look forward to your ideas!

Well, my dear readers, I do hope you’ve had a loving weekend. I’m off to spend the rest of it with my sun and stars. I hope you have an exciting and creative week!

The Purpose of Intention

February 9, 2020

How often, when you sit down to create something, do you think about why you’re doing it, the story behind what you are creating, or even just the theme or look? Apparently, it’s not overly common, at least not amongst the readers writing me this weekend.

Friday evening, I finally got the Virtual Art Box out after some technical difficulties that required a change of plans on the backend. I was a bit frazzled over reworking the technical stuff and, even though I was happy with the content I’d created, I was getting a bit nervous about how this new project would be received. But, as I wrote in the immersive design article for the Virtual Art Box project, things generally work out well when you have a particular idea in mind and you make all your decisions based on that overriding intention.

Well, my intention for the Virtual Art Box was to immerse the readers in a particular design idea that can be explored throughout the month. I was hoping that the primary design article, supported by the additional content the readers would journey through, would encourage them to really delve into the idea I presented in a purposeful and substantial way. But the question was, would they?

I thought it might be a bit of a challenge this first month since my chosen theme is conceptual rather than being a more concrete design element. But it’s just such an important concept in art. The immersive design theme this month is “Intention”. It’s simply the idea that when you sit down to create something, you can be more successful and have a more fulfilling creative experience if you have an overriding idea of what you are creating in terms of its purpose and its concept, concept being the theme, story, style or whatnot.

Well, I think my own intention to keep my focus on making the Virtual Art Box an immersive learning experience is working. Already. (Yay!) I have to say that I am a bit startled and overwhelmed by the reception of the project so far. In a community where publications, both in print and online, are dominated by project tutorials and things that are “easy and fun” (not that there’s anything wrong with fun at all!), my approach feels rather serious even though, as many of you may have seen, I do try to stay conversational and lighthearted and occasionally I just get silly. Art should be fun, and enjoyable, and fulfilling. But making good art in a truly fulfilling creative life does take work. I don’t know why I was worried that people wouldn’t want to put the work in. You, my readers, have always been pretty gung ho!

I already have a few Creative Pursuit challenge forms in (this is the part of the Box in which you create a self-challenge, and the form shares it with me and with you, and I help track it and keep you motivated.) It turns out, people look to be quick intrigued by the idea of working with intention. I love that I’m not the only art nerd who gets into things like that!

The thing is, I think  intention is the core of all design. Without it, no matter how well you understand the various aspects of design, construction, workmanship, etc., it is difficult to create a successful design. Every piece of art needs a base, a core, a grounding concept from which the artist can build, otherwise the work risks being chaotic. It’s true that a chaotic design could work but only if it is the artist’s intention to create chaos. Then it has purpose. But chaos without intent is not art; it is just messy.

Intention not only gets you where you want to go but it helps guide your design choices along the way. When you make design choices based on what works for your overriding intention, the result will be a cohesive, purposeful, and, most likely, well-designed piece.

Now, I know, some of you are already thinking that you don’t want to think so deliberately about what you’re creating or that you just like to explore. Exploration, creating for the joy of it, and stream of consciousness creating are still processes with a particular intention. Because isn’t the success of a piece really measured against how well it fulfills your intention?

Let’s look at a few of the examples.

Debbie Crothers prefers to explore and make lots of pieces as she exhausts a technique or material’s possibilities. She doesn’t usually work with a finished piece in mind but, with extensive exploration as her intention, she finds success in much of what she does and ends up with undeniably stunning beads.

 

Joseph Barbaccia specializes in inspired polymer illustrations of people and things he admires and enjoys so his intention is to visually represent objects, places, and beings from his view point such as this great portrait of David Lynch.

 

In Melanie Muir’s Summer Seas in White cuff, you can see that from the colors to the patterns, even to how the patterns are tilted on the tilted square of the beads, this piece speaks of bright light on rippling ocean waters. Her intention is clear and all her design choices align with the intended look.

 

Are you starting to get the picture? If so, think about what your intention means to you and what you intention is next time you sit down to the studio table. And if this concept really intrigues you, even if you don’t want to subscribe, you can buy the Virtual Art Box for just the one month, get all the details and ideas I am offering on how to make intention a new and exciting tool for your creative work, and see how you like the Box.

Now, if you signed up for the Virtual Art Box and didn’t see your access email, check your spam folders. It went out Friday evening (PST). If you purchased it online (rather than had your prior magazine subscription balance transferred to the Virtual Art Box), you should find the PDF package download in your account on the website. If you expected it and can’t find it in either place, write me and we’ll get you fixed up.

 

And with that, I am off to relax a bit. Its been a bit of a marathon getting the new project off the ground but now that is has taken wing, it’s time to attend to me a bit and I am going to make that include some further intention … the intention to make studio time a priority at least a couple days a week. How do you ensure you get the creative time in that you need? Maybe we’ll look at that subject a bit this week as well.

In the meantime, have an intentionally, purposefully, and mindfully creative week!

Love Not Failure

February 2, 2020

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!

Changing Forms

Table by Alice Stroppel – www.polymerclayetc.com

So, have my suggestions thus far this month triggered any new ideas for fresh and exploratory directions in the studio? Well, if it hasn’t yet maybe it will this week. Even if this month’s ideas did have you looking into some previously uncharted territories, my theme today can work in conjunction with new materials, big new projects, and collaborations as well.

But first, at quick note … have you signed up for the new Virtual Art Box coming out next weekend? I do hope you plan to join us if you haven’t already. Not only will you get great material to keep you inspired and keep that creative wheel in your head turning all month long, I have a couple specials just for my art boxers including a freebie and deep discounts. 

I’ll be drumming up such specials from polymer and mixed media craft resources every month, most will be worth much more than you are paying for the art box itself. Plus, for just another week, you can get in on a forever lifetime discount, just because you jumped in both feet first with me on this new adventure!

Ok, back to pushing ourselves, or at least thinking about it, this month.

I was thinking that a really stimulating challenge would be to work in a form that you have not worked in before. You know, like if you normally do jewelry, try decorative arts or sculpture. If you do wall art try your hand at jewelry. But knowing most of you, you’ve probably dabbled in a quite a few different forms. So, I think we need to look at some unusual territories within various art forms you’ve already tried.

For instance, if you work in jewelry or other adornment, consider what types you haven’t tried creating. Hair adornments, perhaps? Ankle bracelets? Gauge earrings instead of pierced? Tiaras perhaps? How about lapel pins, cufflinks, tie bars, or bolo ties? Or just men adornment in general?

If you create or cover a lot of home decor, move beyond the vases and switch plates and look around for other hapless home victims like ceiling fixture pulls, trashcan lids, lampstands, or the finials on the ends of drapery rods. Really, nothing should be safe from your decorative touches.

I could probably make an insanely long list of oddball things that could either be made with their covered with polymer, but let’s just look at what a few people have done with some less than common forms and see if these pieces can’t push your ideas about what you can do with polymer clay.

Strange Polymer in a Strange Land

when sitting down to write this, I wandered around the house looking for things I thought could be made with polymer, but I hadn’t seen much of. It is actually kind of hard. I see a lot. But how about this– incense burners? Maybe people don’t burn incense quite as much as they used to and perhaps that’s why we don’t see people making them in polymer clay but, on the other hand, they’re so easy to make and you have a really wide range of possible shapes they could take. You would think a few people would be regularly popping some out. But they are hard to find.

For an incense burner, all you need is a stable form with a snug hole big enough for the incense sick to stand in and, preferably, a platform to catch the ashes. You can have incense stick standing straight up or have a long tray the stick would hang over or you can ignore the tray component completely. That should be easy, right? I do wonder if people hesitate to make incense burners with polymer because they believe the hot embers will singe the clay. I very much doubt that would happen, especially if you create a straight up stand type, where the ashes have a long way to fall. Here is one example of an incense burner created with cane petals by Israel’s Marcia of Mars Design. It’s a straightforward construction and a pretty, as well as functional, little piece

You should check out her dreidels as well. I’m not sure Marcia is working in polymer anymore, or at least she’s not posting, but she did have a lot of fun ideas you can find on her Flickr photo stream.

 

This next suggestion seems to be such a minimally explored area of adornment for a category with such a wide range of options. I’m talking about hair adornments. There are so many of them – barrettes, hair sticks, hairclips, hair combs, hair beads, bun caps and cages, hair slides, tiaras, head wreathes, hairbands, headbands, hair charms, hair rings, and hair twisters (a.k.a hair spirals or ponytail wraps). I am partial to hair slides myself because they can double as scarf and shawl pins so you can pull them out for all kinds of occasions. You can see how I make mine with the in-depth tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book. Here’s another example of a hair slide from Emily May. Like the incense burners, as long as you planned for the basic form, one that allows a stick to pass through from one side to the other, you can create pretty much whatever you want.

 

And I did mention the nothing should be safe from polymer in the house? I can’t tell you how often I look up at window molding or the insets in a door panel or the trim on a cabinet and think “A bit of polymer could go right there!” Okay, maybe I’m pushing it for someone with limited studio time who wants to add sculptural elements, not canes or other veneers, to large immovable parts of my house. So, does may be a cane covered table sound more reasonable? That can be pretty ambitious as well but at least it can go with you if you move or can be sold. Just look at the table by Alice Stroppel that opens this post, or this amazing work by Bridget Derc.

Bridget’s canes are intense, as is her process, really. You have to skim through her Flickr photostream a bit (check out the bottom half of pages 3 and 4) but she posts a lot of photos of her process. It’s pretty amazing. And check out Alice’s website for more of her polymer table adventures.

 

Now, what if you’re into sculpture? How do you push the form there? I suppose if you normally sculpt “in the round” you can do bas-relief sculptures or vice versa. You could, of course, also venture into any of the other myriad areas of polymer and craft and apply your sculptural skills there, but this next piece might give you a whole other set of ideas. Why not, literally, take your sculpture somewhere you haven’t taken it before. Like outside maybe?

Tatjana Raum photographs her tree spirit sculptures as if they are in trees, although I think these are all in detached parts of trees like large swaths of bark and pieces of drift or dead wood. Even if they are not attached to a living tree, the tree material gives these other-worldly faces an unusual context that enriches the sculpture and how a viewer will perceive it. And what if you did put a bit of polymer art into a living tree? What a great surprise for a passerby!

 

Okay, that is all for today. I’ve got to start making these posts a bit shorter as I will have a lot to do for the Virtual Art Box each month. I am so super excited about what I have for our adventurous art boxers though. I don’t think it’s going to be what anyone is really expecting but I think it’s going to be a fantastic surprise, especially for readers who really loved The Polymer Arts magazine. I think we’re going to get to know each other a lot better and are in for a really creative year!

 

For now, have a wonderful and really creative week and I’ll see you next weekend!

 

New Materials for a New Year (and VAB subscriptions are open!)

Would you say that you are primarily a polymer artist or do you work with another type of material either separate from or with polymer clay? This is a question I asked in a survey I sent out late last year. I found it interesting, although not overly surprising, that 75% of the survey respondents said they worked with another material. That would seem to indicate that the majority of us are technically mixed-media artists even if we identify as polymer artists. Not that the labeling should matter but sometimes it does. I’ve had chats with a number of artists who have felt guilty when they wander off to work with another material, as if they’re cheating on polymer clay. Of course, that’s quite silly. We are creative’s first and should be open to whatever material works for us in the moment., Besides, polymer plays so well with others that you’re unlikely to abandon your stockpile of clay. Working in another material just grows your creative circle.

Trying out a new material is also a fantastic and energizing challenge you can pose for yourself this new year. I know it can be hard to step away from something you know so well and become a newbie once again but the excitement and the humbling aspects of having to learn something new can provide a fresh injection of ideas and creative motivation that is hard to achieve any other way. When first working with a new material, it’s best to let yourself fall into a childlike state full of curiosity and a hunger to explore. And, generally, it is not that hard to do because, acknowledging you have no experience in the material, you shouldn’t have particularly high expectations of yourself. It can be wonderfully freeing.

If you are tentative to step outside the polymer focused arena but are curious about what adding another material can do for your polymer creations, look to materials that quite readily combine with polymer clay. Yeah, I know, that’s pretty much everything but let’s look at a few that plenty of mixed-media artists who work with polymer already play with.

Making New Material Friends

Some of the easiest materials to explore for a polymer focused creative are other sculpting materials. Epoxy clay, paper pulp, and air-dry clays are obvious materials to pick up. You already have most of the tools and a good base of skills to work with them. But if you want to challenge yourself a bit more, precious metal clay is tremendously exciting and can increase the actual and perceived value of your work if you sell your art. (Yes, it’s sad that people don’t always value polymer because is not a “precious” material, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

These days, precious metal clay comes in every common metal type – silver, gold, copper, brass, bronze, steel, and even iron. This means it’s doesn’t have to be nearly as expensive an investment as it used to be. Yes, ideally, you’d have a jewelry kiln (or a friend that does!)  but there are also some metal clays (primarily silver, low fire varieties) that can be cured with a small, inexpensive blowtorch. And who doesn’t like to play with fire?

Dawn Stubitsch is one of the first people I think of when it comes to combining polymer and precious metal clays. She has worked with a range of metal clays although she seems to prefer copper. She creates stunning pendants that that look like the 70s got design lessons from the Art Deco era, blending some of the best attributes of both eras.

Dawn also wrote a tutorial on creating with precious metal clay and combining it with polymer in The Polymer Arts Spring 2016 issue – Convergence. Her article is one of the best overviews of the process that I’ve seen. It will give you a great idea if this is something you want to do dive into.

Working with metal is popular for many polymer art artists, although many of them go for more traditional metalsmithing processes. This is also an area where you probably have many of the tools you would already need if you’re already working in jewelry. Adding a jeweler’s hand saw and a small blowtorch (still get play with fire!) will allow you to investigate quite a range of metalsmithing techniques.

Consider the construction possibilities of metal by looking around at artists such as Celine Charuau. She combines metal and polymer so that neither material stands out, so entranced are we with the forms and her unusual juxtaposition of them.

 

Celine is actually working on a new workshop focusing on “metal and polymer clay and how to connect these different elements together. No need to know how to solder, no need for specific or expensive tools and materials.” That would be the perfect opportunity to try something new. Not sure when and where that workshop will be held yet. I expect she will give notice about her workshop on Instagram and Facebook.

 

For very inexpensive and quick to learn alternative materials, how about beads or macramé? Or maybe both beads and macramé? Here’s an example where polymer may be the focal element but most of the energy comes from the bead and macramé design. Yulia of Multi-craft Studio on Livemaster is, a Russian currently living in India. She works in a variety of materials with a definite penchant for fiber but is well skilled in polymer as well.

Micro macramé is another technique tutorial, written by Iris Mishly, that you can find in that same Convergence issue of The Polymer Arts, if you want to try that technique out right away. Honestly, if you’re looking to try a new material to combine with polymer, pull the Spring 2016 issue out of your collection or purchase it on the website. That same issue also explores cast paper, found objects, epoxy clay and a few other intriguing mixed media ideas.

 

Here’s another material and art form you may not have considered mixing with polymer – embroidery! I love how easy it is to get into a flow doing embroidery, but I had never considered adding polymer to it. However, as you can see by the piece this post opened up with and the work-in-progress below, it’s a wonderful combination. Justyna Wołodkiewicz is a Polish artist who likes to say that she “stitches with clay,” which is a great summation for what she does as both materials are equally important in her compositions.

 

I know I only really touched on metal and fiber options here but my objective is not to give you full sampling of what is possible – because that would be impossible with polymer being as mixed-media friendly as it is – but to get you to start thinking about other materials you may not be working with at this point but have been curious about. It doesn’t even have to be about combining with polymer. Just trying a new material can inject new life into your polymer work even if the two don’t go together for you.

Take a look at these gorgeous eggs that our Chris Kapono has been hand painting while still well entrenched in working with polymer. She’s not combining her eggs with polymer, but they do both influence each other. If you’re familiar with her polymer art, you can see how her polymer designs are reflected in her egg painting. Then take a look at her Etsy shop and see how often egg shapes pops up in her polymer work. These two different materials look to be informing each other quite a bit.

 

Whether you go out and explore a new material or not, I do highly encourage you to just try something new. Novel experiences not only help your creativity but it keeps your brain young. Being creative in general will do that but if you do the same thing over and over again it definitely diminishes its benefits. Yes, it can take courage and a lot of hard work to develop your own distinctive voice but I don’t think there is a better high than getting those ideas and feelings you have inside of you out into the world in the form of your own unique art.

 

Explore Your Voice with the Virtual Art Box

Exploring and developing a unique personal voice is a big part of what I will be trying to help you with through the new Virtual Art Box project which, by the way, is now available for sign-ups on the website. If you sign up for an auto renewing subscription, you can get yourself a forever loyalty discount that will get you the Art box at the lowest possible price for as long as you’re subscribed.

Note that the forever Loyalty discount will only be available through January 31st.

Go to the website to sign up now. With the auto renewing payment, you won’t be charged until the 1st of February and you can cancel at any time so if you are at all interested, jump over and get yourself set to receive the first virtual box. I’ll send it out on Sunday, February 2nd.

And remember, as of next month, this blog will be an abbreviated version because only members of the Virtual Art Box will be getting the full article. I’m not deserting you completely if you can’t afford to join my clan of VAB people. I’m still dedicated to sharing and exploring mixed-media design with as many people as possible but, you know, one has to make a living while, preferably, not working oneself into an early grave by trying to do too much. So, if you like these posts, for less than $10 a month you can get the full article every weekend plus other articles, downloadable tools, videos and much more by joining the Virtual Art Box project.

 

It’s All in The Genes

For those who have been so kindly keeping track and nudging me to take care of my health, I’ve got a little bit of news in that area.

I’m back working a fairly full schedule although my right arm is not super happy about the situation because I keep forgetting I shouldn’t be typing with it. (I’m working, right now, with a loose rubber band around my right-hand fingers which makes it just awkward enough to remind me not to type with it. But then, I have to remember to put the rubber band on in the first place!)

The really great news is that I think we finally figured out what’s going on with my metabolism. It looks like the root cause is a genetic condition whereby I don’t process fats efficiently and end up with too much fat in my bloodstream. Not breaking down fats is, strangely enough, related to high blood sugar as fat can block the mechanism that allows insulin to move glucose into cells, causing a vicious cycle of high blood glucose, high blood insulin, and a stressed pancreas, eventually resulting in type II diabetes. This can happen if you eat a lot of fat and processed foods or because you have a stupid, annoying gene like I seem to have.

So contrary to conventional wisdom, I am on a high carbohydrate diet but, mind you it’s all whole foods, mostly plants, and I still avoid all refined sugar. And, guess what? This week I’ve had 4 days in a row of normal blood glucose testing! I know, super exciting, right?! Okay, yeah, more exciting for me, I’m sure but my blood sugar readings were in the diabetic range when this month started and I was getting really scared, so this is an amazing turnaround. Thank the powers that be for my nutritionist! I get more usable information and better results from her than anything my MD has told me or prescribed. And not just for the metabolic issue. It’s true that we are what we eat so it makes sense that what we put in our body will have such a tremendous effect on our health and medical conditions. If you’ve never seen a nutritionist, and you have anything medical you’re dealing with, go find one. It could literally change your life.

Okay, off my soapbox now. I know this is not a health blog but, hey, as many of you well know, it’s really hard to make art when you aren’t feeling well so I just wanted to share what I’ve found in case it helps any of you. Let’s take care of ourselves as best we can so we can continue to add to the beauty and wonder of our world!

Okay, enough yammering from me today. Have a wonderful, healthy, and creative week!

The Collaborative Effect

[If you are getting this email mid-week, my apologies. Emails sending was turned of the last few days for the blog due to late night human error. But now you have a mid-week pick-me-up!]

Have you ever used accountability to help you get something done? You know, when you tell someone else that you are going to do something and then you feel obligated to do it because somebody knows and you don’t want to tell them that you couldn’t or simply didn’t do what you said you were going to do? Most of us are pretty easily pressured by what other people think of us which can be used to our advantage when we’re trying to complete something that is difficult, scary, or just no fun. Like finding motivational goals for the new year!

Having someone else know of your plans can help you prioritize goals and just daily life. It’s why people do challenges in a group and post on social media. Your online circle of fellow challengers and followers will be expecting to see something from you and so you’re less likely to set that challenge project aside for something else.

Sometimes, though, even telling others isn’t enough to keep you on task. But what if you are working with someone else? Collaborations put a lot more pressure on us than just having someone else know you have a particular goal. We aren’t likely to step away from a project when we know someone else is expecting something from us. So, if you need something to kickstart your new year or want to take on a big project but are feeling a little overwhelmed, maybe the answer is collaboration.

The Who, Why, and What of Collaboration

As an artist, you can collaborate with anyone else who is creating. That means you could collaborate with another polymer artist, someone in another craft medium, someone who works in a traditional two-dimensional art medium, or even someone who works outside the visual arts like a writer, dancer, actor or musician. You do your thing and they do their thing under the umbrella of a particular concept or with a particular final project or event in mind. Not only are you more likely to complete your part of the project when working with another artist, the excitement and interaction with that person can give you so much energy as you’ll both generate excitement through the communication and exchange of ideas.

Have you ever collaborated with someone before? If you have are not, this is something to consider for this new year. Why is that? Let’s look at a few reasons:

  • Collaboration helps you grow. Having to work within the constraints and compromises of another person’s artistic vision pushes you to go in directions that you would never have gone on your own. There’s a lot of self-discovery in collaboration.
  • Collaboration can help you reach a new audience, especially if you collaborate with someone who is not working in the same medium or selling to the same market as you.
  • Collaboration cuts the workload in half on big or time intensive projects which makes them more manageable, probably more enjoyable, and more likely to be completed.
  • Collaboration adds a social aspect to your creative process for the duration of the collaboration. It can be hard working alone in the studio for hours or days on end, especially if you’re a full-time artist. The occasional collaboration becomes especially appreciated when you work alone a lot.
  • And, as mentioned, working with someone else is extremely motivating and inspiring.

Let’s look at a few examples of polymer artist collaborating with others.

 

The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Although there are many ways to put together a collaborative project, quite commonly one person does one portion and then hands their portion off to the other person to do their share. Helen Breil and Annie Pennington did just that to create this gorgeous brooch. It started with the blue polymer framework from Helen and was finished off by Annie with her metal and felt work.

 

If you work in canes, trading canes with someone or sending canes to someone to work with is an easy type of collaboration. That’s what happens with the extra canes and scraps that are sent to Ron Lehocky who makes them into his wonderful hearts. The canes for these hearts were created by Jane Dwyer.

 

Finding someone with a similar aesthetic or style as you can really help bring a collaboration together, not to mention a friendship. Polymer’s master caner John Stuart Anderson worked with painter and sometimes sculptor Luke Brown on this Tryptamine Palace. Although it sounds like they have been friends for some time, you can only imagine what working on an intense project like this did for their friendship.

Get an even better look at this amazing piece through this video.

 

Here’s an interesting roundabout collaboration. Stephanie Kilgast took on the challenge of painting and adding to a sculpture produced by Moon Crane Press from a graphite drawing by Miles Johnston, a two dimensional artist working heavily in pencil as well as ink and paint. In this case, the drawing was done independently of a collaboration idea but then Moon Crane Press, who Miles already worked with, decided to create a three-dimensional image of the drawing from which sculptures could be cast. Stephanie was invited to paint and further embellish the work. I’m not sure that one could purposely re-create such a situation but it is a great example of a collaborative option to take something that has already been completed by one artist and have it further developed by another.

 

Stephanie’s example brings up the point that collaboration doesn’t have to be just between two people. The Into the Forest project, the Russian Quilt project, and the Fimo 50th year Globe had dozens, if not hundreds, of people working on the same project. Most of us aren’t up for organizing things that big but if it’s manageable for a local group like your guild, you could have the whole guild work on a single project. Or three or four of you best artist friends could get together and make something any one or two of you would never have conceived of. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

Just Gotta Ask

if you are going to embark on a collaboration, be ready to ask a few tough questions and be ready to answer a few of your own. These are the kind of questions you and your collaborator(s) should both ask and answer.

  • What are you hoping to get out of collaboration project? You want to keep focused on each participants purpose in taking part in the collaboration as the work progresses.
  • How much time do we each have to dedicate to this project? Be realistic about how much you can do and scale back the project if necessary.
  • Will the final project be sold or, if not, who will it live with or how will you share it? Not everything you make has to be sold, but if you do want to sell it, collaborative projects as charity donations will get you publicity and networking opportunities.
  • What concept, theme, or vision is important to both of us? This question tends to get the ball rolling on what you want to make and allows you to get to know your artistic partner.
  • Will one or both of you oversee the organizational aspect of the project? Commonly, especially if there’s more than just two people, one person will organize the timeline and process, and keep track of progress. Overseeing the project doesn’t mean that person makes all the decisions, it just means that they will keep the project on track. It’s nice to have this figured out from the start so collaborators don’t step on each other’s toes.

Keep in mind collaboration doesn’t mean the work is 50-50. If one of you wants to do a lot more than the other or the primary concept is one person’s (such as Miles Johnston’s sculpture) but is embellished or finished by another (which is what Stephanie Kilgast did with Mile’s work) it’s still a collaborative piece but you’re just working to each other’s strengths.

Also remember that collaboration is supposed to be an enjoyable and inspirational learning experience. Be patient with your partner(s) if they’re not doing what you’d expect, talk if you have concerns, and be ready to compromise. It’s kind of like a marriage – you know something great’s going to come of it but it’s a give-and-take to get there.

 

The State of Things

I had hoped to have sign-ups for new subscribers to the Virtual Art Box this week but unfortunately, I was not doing so well this week and had to take it easy early on. I’m back to full steam ahead now but I have some catching up to do. It will be very soon though.

 

Nudge Sale is Still On… For 3 more days!

Our year end Nudge Sale is almost over. All the reduced prices go back to full price after the 15th. Right now, almost everything is on sale so if you need more inspiration at your fingertips as you set yourself up for a great creative year, hop over to the website and snatch up a great deal on beautiful print and digital publications!

 

Okay, I have to stop working now as I’ve got a birthday to celebrate. The tradition in my house is that the birthday person doesn’t have to do any work which, of course, makes it a struggle for this workaholic. But I’ll be good and let my dear man make me breakfast and take me to dinner and I don’t know what else. Maybe just curl up in a corner with a book. I don’t think I’ve done that for ages and ages.

If you want to help me celebrate my birthday, my preference is actually to have friends and family do something charitable. You can donate to my charity listed on Facebook – the International Rescue Committee fund which assist refugees and other displaced persons. Any bit of help that can be given to our poor Australian friends would also be wonderful. Being a big picture person, I give to the Global Recovery Fund who set up assistance for the long haul. If funds are in short supply, as they often are after the holiday season, just be kind to the world that we live in by maybe giving up one less disposable item (get a filtering water bottle and never buy bottled water again for instance) or just doing something thoughtful and kind and make someone’s day.

You all just stopping to read my yammering makes my day! Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Go Big or Go Personal

January 5, 2020

So, here we are. The new year has begun, and we have 12 months and nearly 52 weeks of possibilities before us. Will you be changing the way you work or challenging yourself this coming year?

If you read last week’s post, you know I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in always having goals. Goals give you something to bounce out of bed for in the morning. Even small goals can get you up and going and keep you focused. However, this weekend I want to talk about making big goals, or particularly big projects.

This will mean different things to different people but whether or not the idea of doing something challenging in size or scope appeals to you, I think it’s just one of those things you should periodically ask yourself. Do I want to do something big, monumental, dramatic, or just drastically different? There is nothing wrong with saying no and just focusing on small, easily manageable projects. But I think you ought to ask the question just to be sure.

Nearly a decade ago, I interviewed Gwen Piña who, at the time, was the most prolific polymer artist I knew of in our community, with over 600 accounts she regularly fulfilled orders for. (She has since retired from polymer.) With all that work, I was really surprised when she took me to a side room to show me her personal projects. These were rather tall dolls and other pieces made from found objects and polymer. These were her personal projects which she didn’t always try to sell. Although they took time away from her primary wholesale work, she acknowledged that she needed that creative outlet to make her happy.

I think that is an important consideration. Not everything you make has to sell. Actually, unless your livelihood depends upon it, nothing you make needs to be sold. Go ahead – create for the sake of creating! How freeing is that idea? I bring this up because, many times, our big personal projects are not something that is either easy to sell or easy for us to part with.

So, setting aside the idea that everything you make has to support a business, let’s talk about big personal projects you might consider taking on to feed your soul.

A Big Way

Large, showy art pieces are often referred to as “statement” pieces. Big necklaces, towering vases, and wildly colorful wall sculptures can all be considered statement pieces when they outshine the wearer or dominate the room they occupy.

There is more latitude given for the functionality of craft art that is created as a statement piece. Awkward and uncomfortable collar necklaces, dangerously spiky brooches, and vases that are too monumental to hold any kind of flower arrangement are forgiven their lack of functionality in exchange for being a conversation piece or attention grabber. These can be great fun to create because you have fewer restrictions with that concern for functional construction set aside. If you’re looking for a bit more freedom in your designs this year, this might be something to explore.

But what if we change that definition of a statement piece and attach it to work that is primarily personal—making that kind of work a personal statement piece, as in you have something to say. You may just want to share your aesthetic views, or you may have opinions about the state of the world, or you might aim to share the emotion of a personal experience. These are all expressions of the artist being taken from inside themselves and put out into the world. That’s really at the core of what, arguably, defines something as a piece of art.

So how about YOU get noticed for some “big” piece of yours this year that is focused on expressing what you want to put out into the world? Being that this kind of project is more for you, you also get to define what a big project means to you. It could be literally large. It could also be small but so minutely thought out or detailed that it is big in terms of its process and scope. A big project could be based on a really delicate or difficult personal subject that you have previously found hard to share. It could also be a large collection of work instead of a single piece. Or a piece made up of a lot of smaller pieces. Do any of these ideas spark a fire in you?

Let’s look at just a few “big projects” other artists have taken in polymer.

 

Thinking Big

Heather Campbell goes big quite often. The piece of hers that opens this blog, Trippin’ in Spain, is 6 feet long! A handful of years ago, you might have seen the challenge she took on of making this insanely detailed polymer quilt called Keep Circling. Much of the texture and pattern is created with the attachment of many small, but easily replicated accents and objects as can be seen in the detail shot.

This piece is both a great approach to creating big, beautiful artwork in polymer and a metaphor for how to take on a big project or any daunting goal. Just do one small thing at a time and, if you just keep at it, next thing you know, you have something huge and amazing and that goal is reached.

 

A similar approach can be used in jewelry. A gloriously monumental bit of adornment does not have to be complicated. You can simply make a lot of something that you love to create and bring it together into a single magnificent piece. Gloria Danvers does a lot of this type of thing with polymer butterflies, leaves, and other caned shapes.

 

You know how I mentioned you could set your big goal to not just be one thing but that you might consider just creating a big collection? Well, what if you did both? That’s essentially what Jeffrey Lloyd Dever did with his Edensong Revisited installation piece from 2011. Taking dozens of individual pieces, he created a fascinating wall piece that you have to just keep looking at to take it all in.

Edensong Revisited | 2011 | Approx. 50”H x 42” W x 3.5” D | Polymer clay, steel wire, plastic coated wire, repurposed mixed media, latex paint | Photo credit: Jon Bolton/Racine Art Museum

 

The idea of something big for you though, might just be a project that’s really different and daring. If so, I would strongly suggest looking at artwork in other mediums for inspiration, not just polymer. I don’t know if anyone’s doing any really wild with ear cuffs like the ones below in polymer, but this is just one possible inspiration for what could be done with polymer and unique forms of jewelry. Check out this site for some wild pieces. No artists are listed although they do say these are handmade.

 

Sometimes your big idea can simply be sticking with a particular theme and really pushing yourself to see what you can do with it. I got a wonderful email from blog reader Suzanne Andrews, noting how the last post on having a goal really resonated with her. She’d already started on her goal to get focused this year by cleaning up her studio (and that’s a pretty big project for many of us, I know!) And then, she said she, “placed one photograph for reference on the wall in the studio. It is of a painting that speaks to me and my goal is to create pieces that belong with this painting.” I don’t know if she’ll make anything literally big or complex, but I love that idea of committing to that painting. It will give her a focus on something that she feels personally connected to, which can take some bravery. And that is a statement!

 

The Big Idea

So, whether or not you’re ready to take on something big, in whatever way you define it, or just want to play around this year, I’m hoping to make setting goals, or at least working on a focus, to be a bigger part of what we talk about throughout this year. It’s something I’m going to focus on with the Virtual Art Box, hoping for those of you who are up for it, to make what I share with you a more active kind of information exchange. Most of us aren’t reading this to simply pass the time, are we? This material and our creativity drive us to make art, right? So, let’s do that and make art that we are personally passionate about! I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to take risks and push yourself. You won’t always succeed but, man, when you do, there’s nothing like it!

We’ll go over a few other ideas for possible goals and focuses you might want to take on over the coming year if you’re not sure what you want to do yet, if anything. There really is no rush so just let ideas wash over you until something grabs you.

Myself, I need to put a rush on some things. I think we finally have the technical end ironed out for the new Virtual Art Box so I’m getting ready to get sign ups set up on the website. Just need a few more tests. Then back to whipping the content into shape. That’s my focus this week so keep an eye out for newsletters for more info and I’ll update you on the blog this next week and as well. Get on this list here to be notified first for special discounts.

 

Nudge Sale is Still On!

Don’t forget we have that nudge sale going for another week or so. Almost everything is on sale so if you need more inspiration at your fingertips as you set yourself up for a great creative year, hop over to the website and snatch up a great deal on beautiful print and digital publications!

 

 

Happy first full work week of 2020! Hope its a beautiful and creative one!

The Problem with Resolutions

December 29, 2019

Think creatively about artistic challenges if you want to do one this year. Create your own. This collage is from an article by Anke Humpert in The Polymer Arts Winter 2014 – Boundaries issue. 15 artists created a piece based on a voted on set of limitations – an organically inspired pendant with a 3 color palette. The real challenge came when, after finishing their pieces, she asked them to make the same piece again to see what they would change. Could limitations or repeating your creations be the kind of thing to gain the skill and growth you are after this year?

Here we are, looking out towards a new year, and the most common question people probably have is some version of, “What do I do different this year?” This may manifest as a list of resolutions or a new art business plans or just a verbal pronouncement of productive intentions that only the cat will hear (and will actively work to thwart too, so maybe don’t tell the cat. The dogs, though, they got your back!) There is just something about a new year that begs for a new start, or new restart, but there is a question you should ask yourself first—are you ready to set goals and challenges for yourself right now?

There is definitely something motivating about joining so many others in committing to New Year’s resolutions, but they need to be the right resolutions for the right reasons and either this needs to be the right time or you need to be realistic about when you can start.

Where Your Motivation Comes from

One of the biggest problems with New Year’s resolutions, and the reason so many of them fail, is that most people set goals that are motivated by something external, such as the opinion or expectation of spouses, parents, or friends, or they are ideas that come from the culture or society we are entrenched in. Doing something that is simply expected of you versus it being something that you are personally driven to do makes a huge difference in being able to accomplish the goal and to have it be the fulfilling and helpful change in your life that you hope it to be. So, if your goals are not something internally motivated, something that comes from a core source of desire or inquisitiveness, it’s going to be very hard to make them a priority and to get through every step required.

Determining if something is internally or externally motivated, however, can be very difficult. External expectations and our desires are often so intertwined or so bred into us that it is hard to tell the difference. But there are a couple questions you can ask yourself about any goal you want to set that can be helpful in this regard:

Would I still want to go after this goal if no one else knew or had the opportunity to approve the results?

Do I feel excited, physically, and emotionally, at the idea of working on and achieving this goal?

If you can say yes to both these questions, then you can be more certain that this is a goal important to you personally which means you’re more likely to be successful at it. I know the first question won’t always make a lot of sense for some goals such as “I want to make more time for my spouse,” or “I want to get my art into 4 galleries this year.” Reaching either of those goals would be noticed and commented on but just imagine that no one gave you supportive commentary in connection to those goals. Would you still do them?

Artistic challenges are popular New Year’s resolution that helps get people focused and productive in the studio. If you’re thinking of doing a challenge but maybe on the fence about it, ask those two questions. For instance, if you make a goal to create one pair of earrings each week this year, ones that you never post and no one will ever see, would you still do it? If the only thing that motivates you is the thought of the comments and hearts you will receive when you post them on social media, you may not be going after that goal for sustainable reasons and it could even inhibit your artistic growth if, for instance you change your focus from jewelry to wall art midyear – you may feel inclined to complete the challenge even if your heart isn’t in it.

The Question of Timing?

Also remember that you don’t have to jump on your goals on January 1st. Maybe take a week or a month to recover from the holidays and get yourself into a good position to take on your goals and resolutions. You can write down those goals, give yourself a realistic start date, and put that on your calendar, as an alarm on your phone, and tell at least 3 people about it. You’re sure to start it as planned that way but you won’t have to get crazy with it on day one of 2020.

You also need to be realistic. Can you really do one pair of earrings a week along with everything else that you plan to do and that life demands of you in the coming months, not to mentionthe entire year? Maybe it would be better to create a pair every other week or once a monthor maybe after you catch your breath from the holidays a bit at least. Or you might simply set aside one hour each week to work on a challenge but don’t scold yourself if you don’t create a pair of earrings in an hour or if you want to change the challenge to something else. You can simply put in the work for that hour and see where it takes you.

Embracing the Best of Teachers: Failure

I also think resolutions are hard because of the way people look at failure. If you gave yourself a weekly challenge and then didn’t hit it one week, the fact that you didn’t meet the challenge perfectly can make you feel that the rest of the challenge is pointless. However, not meeting a single small step toward your goal does not cancel out the value of what you’re trying to do as a whole. You aren’t doing it just to be successful every single step of the way, are you? Its a journey not a test. You don’t lose points if you mess up here and there. In fact, the more you trip up, the more you’ll learn so, really, failure is like getting extra credit.

Keep focused on why you decided to go after this goal to keep “failures” from getting you down. If you are doing it to learn, explore, or stretch yourself, then the occasional failure should be expected and welcome as opportunities (yeah, I cringe at that over-used corporate term too but it’s also true) to assess why it happened and find better and easier ways to do it well. Failure is where most of our change and growth happens.

Determine the Why

The one piece of week, or month or day challenges give you easy guidelines but keep in mind they may not be the thing that you need to be spending your time and energy on. I would suggest that you start with an end goal and then determine what kind of challenge or process you should go through to accomplish that. End goals are not “I want to make 52 earrings this year.” That’s the work you do to reach your goal, but your end goal is what you get out of going through that process.

Let’s be honest – you are not going to make 52 earrings unless all that work is going to do something beyond having a growing stack of earrings. Yes, possibly, it’s going to give you a huge portfolio of earrings that you can take to specific gallery or show to get in there and sell them. If that’s the case, your end goal looks to be about increasing your sales through a specific venue, or to have the stock necessary to get you in so you can gain the recognition that being in that gallery or show would bring, thus helping you grow your art business. Do you see how the process and your end goal are different?

Decide what you want and work back from there. Create a challenge as unique and specific as you need it to be for what you are trying to accomplish. That might sound like a tall order, but stick with me this coming month on the blog and with the new Virtual Art Box  project and I’ll help you figure that out. A major part of the Box project is to help you create challenges that makes sense for where you want to go creatively and why you create as well as providing you with a community of artists all in the same boat, with myself and other contributing artists to help guide you and coach you along the way.

For the month of January, the blog will be filled with art and ideas around challenging yourself as a kind of nudge to get you thinking about what you want to accomplish, improve, or explore this coming year. You can make your first goal to determine what it is that you yourself truly want to accomplish. That’s an important first step that will ease you into the new year and give you time to find the right challenge, if any, that you need.

I’m in This With You!

Okay … I know I said I would keep these short over the holiday weekends, but I have a lot to say on this subject and I am contemplating this all myself. What do I want to accomplish for myself in the year and months coming up, in my art, my business, and my writing? Also, what about my work-life balance and my health? I can’t work on those all at once so part of figuring out what I might want to set a goal for will be prioritizing. My inherent challenge, no matter what goals I might come up with, will be checking my workload to stay well while doing the “smart” things needed to keep a business growing. I do really want to create more and write more fiction but recognizing and working within my limitations are huge. I know that’s probably a goal for quite a few of us enthusiastic creatives. We just have too many ideas. We can make that a kind of umbrella goal though, to keep checking in our commitments and be open to changing them as needed.

So, how about this to start us out: Just be kind to yourself, be your number one priority so you have the energy to help others, say no to doing things that don’t feed your heart and soul, and give yourself permission to relax and enjoy the moment.

I, myself, am starting there.

And with that, I want to wish every single one of you a very joyous, inspiring, and wonderous new year!

 

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