Fabulousness on the Wrist
February 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
So, I didn’t do well at thinking up a succinct theme for this week. I just grabbed a handful of great pieces that all make me think ‘fabulous’! So, we are just going to have a week of fabulousness. Is that okay? My tired brain, worn down by working on the last bits for the next issue, which is also fabulous, would love that.
So, how about this piece first. Honestly, there is little that Barbara Fajardo does that doesn’t make me think ‘fabulous’ when I see it. She freely experiments with all kinds of techniques and forms, but they all come together under great color palettes, nice balance and fine finishing. I was originally going to share a necklace of hers with you, but when searching out the source for it I landed on her Flickr page and saw these Barnacle Bracelets, and I had to change it up!
A bowl she created using the same forms was on Polymer Clay Daily last, but I hadn’t seen these. Fabulous right? Fantastic colors, did I not say? The textures are tantalizing, and the complex organic treatment of the barnacles is inspired. I think I would be playing with this all day if I had it on my wrist! And staring. Definitely, staring at them a lot.
See the rest of her barnacled collection and tons and tons of other eye candy on her Flickr page or her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Folded Pods
October 16, 2013
Inspirational Art
Barbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.
It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.
Crackly Goodness
December 29, 2012
Inspirational Art
I couldn’t let the last days of the year go by without stopping to admire a little crackle. These sumptuous discs here are the work of Barbara Fajardo. She developed a technique that layers alcohol inks to get a multi-dimensional texture with, of course, lots of fine crackle.
In this case, the polymer is a carrier rather than visual element, but even without knowing the particulars of Barbara’s technique, it’s unlikely that there is another material that could be paired with the inks and manipulated so as to develop the light crackling effect. These are some of the most magical aspects of our medium–the plasticity and ability of polymer to take on a wide variety of other mediums.
Even though color is what often draws us to polymer, it’s the physical characteristics of the material that make it so versatile. One of these days I’m going to count how many ways we can use it just for crackling.
In the meantime, we hope Barbara has the opportunity to develop a class for CraftArtEdu on this beautiful technique. She has four other classes available there right now. If you want to see more applications of Barbara’s crackly goodness, take some time to look through her Flickr page.
So, I didn’t do well at thinking up a succinct theme for this week. I just grabbed a handful of great pieces that all make me think ‘fabulous’! So, we are just going to have a week of fabulousness. Is that okay? My tired brain, worn down by working on the last bits for the next issue, which is also fabulous, would love that.
So, how about this piece first. Honestly, there is little that Barbara Fajardo does that doesn’t make me think ‘fabulous’ when I see it. She freely experiments with all kinds of techniques and forms, but they all come together under great color palettes, nice balance and fine finishing. I was originally going to share a necklace of hers with you, but when searching out the source for it I landed on her Flickr page and saw these Barnacle Bracelets, and I had to change it up!
A bowl she created using the same forms was on Polymer Clay Daily last, but I hadn’t seen these. Fabulous right? Fantastic colors, did I not say? The textures are tantalizing, and the complex organic treatment of the barnacles is inspired. I think I would be playing with this all day if I had it on my wrist! And staring. Definitely, staring at them a lot.
See the rest of her barnacled collection and tons and tons of other eye candy on her Flickr page or her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Barbara Fajardo spent some time back in 2008 playing with the pod shape. She placed canes or mokume slices over scrap clay and hand formed these lovely beads. She played with how they hung, both dangling downwards and being strung lengthwise, and with how the canes were laid. I thought these gave a nice sampling of her color work inspired by the New Mexico desert, a place of many odd pods, let me tell you.
It was hard picking an image from her collection of work on Flickr, so please do pop over to the page and get a glimpse of the necklaces she also makes, playing off the mirror effect of the folded layer look along with some other lovely cane covered pods.
I couldn’t let the last days of the year go by without stopping to admire a little crackle. These sumptuous discs here are the work of Barbara Fajardo. She developed a technique that layers alcohol inks to get a multi-dimensional texture with, of course, lots of fine crackle.
In this case, the polymer is a carrier rather than visual element, but even without knowing the particulars of Barbara’s technique, it’s unlikely that there is another material that could be paired with the inks and manipulated so as to develop the light crackling effect. These are some of the most magical aspects of our medium–the plasticity and ability of polymer to take on a wide variety of other mediums.
Even though color is what often draws us to polymer, it’s the physical characteristics of the material that make it so versatile. One of these days I’m going to count how many ways we can use it just for crackling.
In the meantime, we hope Barbara has the opportunity to develop a class for CraftArtEdu on this beautiful technique. She has four other classes available there right now. If you want to see more applications of Barbara’s crackly goodness, take some time to look through her Flickr page.
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