Cross-Disciplined Fantasy on Overload
October 2, 2015
Inspirational Art
So, since we’ve been heading down a whimsical path combined with cross discipline work, and I have been holding onto this image sent to me by Jenny McKitrick for a few months already (thanks Jenny!), it seemed it was time to pull this little ray of sunshine out. Or, maybe we should say, nuclear level of sunshine!
The piece was an entry by Arianna Raffa in the Battle of the Beadsmith 2015 competition. When Jenny first sent it to me, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Busy work is not my thing, but it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it, and the one thing this piece does that we all hope to have happen when something we made is viewed, is force you to keep looking at it in order to take in all the detail. Aside from that, I just am blown away by how much work had to go into this! Soutache, a variety of beading techniques and those huge polymer cane butterfly wings make it not only full of beads and color, but full of construction style jewelry disciplines. You can’t say Arianna isn’t talented, and you can’t say she doesn’t have some patience!
Most of this Italian designer’s work is a bit more subdued, but still glitzy and colorful. If this burst of color on your screen brightened your day, you can continue down that path with a bit of time on her website. It is in Italian and does not translate in Google, but just go to ‘Creaciones‘ and click on any of the items under the drop down menu there for a page full of color and shine.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
A Collection Kit
March 25, 2015
Inspirational Art
This fun little set of beads is actually an example of the beads you can make from a kit that Barbara Briggs ingenuously put together. Not that kits are anything new, but this one for beginning polymer beads is pretty clever. She offers wooden bead centers as a jumping off point for shapes and adds mica powders and pre-mixed clays in particular color palettes as designated by the buyer. Along with other basic necessities, she offers plenty of instruction.
I thought this sampler of what her buyers could make was quite lovely on its own. The colors are slightly muted, and the textures are organic and rounded, so they could easily be paired up on a single necklace string. I’d wear that! And, how exciting for beginners to see the versatility and the ease with which polymer can create lovely components. The hard part is getting away from a kit and making your own color, form, texture and other design choices. But, that is when your own voice comes into play.
If you are unfamiliar with Barbara’s work, she is an insane beader who works in all kinds of beading material. If you are on here because you find polymer fascinating but maybe haven’t tried doing much with it yet, here is a great opportunity. Or if you’re one of our experienced readers, take a look at Barbara’s other beading kits and add some complex beading to your repertoire. These kits and patterns can all be found in her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
;
Looking Back At Folded Beads
April 5, 2014
Inspirational Art
As we finish up our week on folded polymer, we’re taking a look at these folded beads by Jamey Allen, one of the early pioneers in the development of polymer clay bead making. He is best known for his millefiori work and reinventing the folded bead. The folded clay adds a richness of detail and the color choices give a comfortable warmth to these beads.
If you would like to learn more about Jamey, there is a great interview with him online and take a look at his book,”5 Artists – 5 Directions in Polymer Clay.”
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Wiwat and His Hidden Beauties
March 25, 2014
Inspirational Art
Wiwat Kamolpornwijit’s work has fascinated me since I first laid eyes on one of his trapped rose necklaces, as I like to call them. A couple new variations on these are in the new 1000 Beads book. I, too, have a fascination with things that are wholly exposed, with caves and crevice, and what is hiding behind the screen, in the box and under the veil. Wiwat’s work presents a lot of these intriguing, partially exposed and trapped elements.
This piece is actually older. I am thinking from around 2007 but you can see that this partly hidden and trapped theme has been an ongoing vein of interest to him.
As he describes his work, “I hand-form every piece of polymer clay jewelry with no use of commercial molds. I use several techniques including caning, engraving, weaving, layering, and many others for which I don’t have names.”
Wiwat, who originally is from Thailand and currently lives in Virginia, is a Niche Awards winner for 2011 and 2013, and Saul Bell Design Award Finalist for 2011. You can be inspired by more of his work on his website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
A Bowl of Spring Beads
January 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
I kept thinking that the Pantone Spring palette seemed somewhat familiar. Then it occurred to me that Rebecca Watkins often works in similar color combinations and I went back and found this lovely bowl of beads on one of our Pinterest boards. The colors are subdued with low saturation but plenty of contrast to make them festive without being loud or garish.
If you enjoy these types of color palettes’ and the fun approach Rebecca takes with her work, be sure to jump on over to her Blogspot site and her Flickr pages for more wonderful inspiration for Spring and beyond.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Extravagant Leafy Florals
October 2, 2013
Inspirational Art
You know, it seems like I post a lot of floral, especially considering I’m not a floral kind of gal. Still, it’s hard not to appreciate the intricacy and cleverness of our community’s floral fanatics, so I do find myself pinning quite a few florals, although I also tend towards the leafy, spiky, and (surprise!) tendril infused versions.
This set by Yuliya Galuschak is a great example of what I really admire in the floral vein. However, if you look closely, there aren’t really any flowers here, at least none that I am familiar with. The floral like forms are actually leaves layered in a floral manner. They come to delicate curled points and are surrounded by wire tendrils. The pieces have all this in addition to a ton of beautiful beading and bead accents (and an obvious ton of patience).
These pieces are probably pushing the boundary of garish, but they are so tastefully composed and limited in palette (just purples, reds, and gold) while still feeling quite colorful. The dense beading is relegated to the strand from which everything on the necklace is hung, and the bead accents look purposeful and well-chosen.
If you like this, you will really enjoy perusing Yuliya’s other tastefully extravagant pieces on her Flickr site, many of which are true florals but with a smattering of other themes, including berries, aquatics, and even abstract imagery.
Outside Inspiration: Doubling up the Talent
February 8, 2013
Inspirational Art
So … have you ever given a set of beads or random pieces of your work to someone else and let them create from it? I’ve only done this once with artwork but wish I did it more often. It can be truly eye-opening to see what others envision with your work.
Here is one example using ceramics beads from bead artist “BeadFreaky” on Etsy and the bead artistry of Keirsten Giles
There is something about having the vision and aesthetics of another person applied to your own work. They way they treat it, contrast or highlights it’s aspect and the forms they include it in can be quite exciting.
Do you know any artists who work in a different medium (or work in polymer but in a very different way) that might be up for mixing their work with yours?
So, since we’ve been heading down a whimsical path combined with cross discipline work, and I have been holding onto this image sent to me by Jenny McKitrick for a few months already (thanks Jenny!), it seemed it was time to pull this little ray of sunshine out. Or, maybe we should say, nuclear level of sunshine!
The piece was an entry by Arianna Raffa in the Battle of the Beadsmith 2015 competition. When Jenny first sent it to me, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Busy work is not my thing, but it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it, and the one thing this piece does that we all hope to have happen when something we made is viewed, is force you to keep looking at it in order to take in all the detail. Aside from that, I just am blown away by how much work had to go into this! Soutache, a variety of beading techniques and those huge polymer cane butterfly wings make it not only full of beads and color, but full of construction style jewelry disciplines. You can’t say Arianna isn’t talented, and you can’t say she doesn’t have some patience!
Most of this Italian designer’s work is a bit more subdued, but still glitzy and colorful. If this burst of color on your screen brightened your day, you can continue down that path with a bit of time on her website. It is in Italian and does not translate in Google, but just go to ‘Creaciones‘ and click on any of the items under the drop down menu there for a page full of color and shine.
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
This fun little set of beads is actually an example of the beads you can make from a kit that Barbara Briggs ingenuously put together. Not that kits are anything new, but this one for beginning polymer beads is pretty clever. She offers wooden bead centers as a jumping off point for shapes and adds mica powders and pre-mixed clays in particular color palettes as designated by the buyer. Along with other basic necessities, she offers plenty of instruction.
I thought this sampler of what her buyers could make was quite lovely on its own. The colors are slightly muted, and the textures are organic and rounded, so they could easily be paired up on a single necklace string. I’d wear that! And, how exciting for beginners to see the versatility and the ease with which polymer can create lovely components. The hard part is getting away from a kit and making your own color, form, texture and other design choices. But, that is when your own voice comes into play.
If you are unfamiliar with Barbara’s work, she is an insane beader who works in all kinds of beading material. If you are on here because you find polymer fascinating but maybe haven’t tried doing much with it yet, here is a great opportunity. Or if you’re one of our experienced readers, take a look at Barbara’s other beading kits and add some complex beading to your repertoire. These kits and patterns can all be found in her Etsy shop.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
;
As we finish up our week on folded polymer, we’re taking a look at these folded beads by Jamey Allen, one of the early pioneers in the development of polymer clay bead making. He is best known for his millefiori work and reinventing the folded bead. The folded clay adds a richness of detail and the color choices give a comfortable warmth to these beads.
If you would like to learn more about Jamey, there is a great interview with him online and take a look at his book,”5 Artists – 5 Directions in Polymer Clay.”
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Wiwat Kamolpornwijit’s work has fascinated me since I first laid eyes on one of his trapped rose necklaces, as I like to call them. A couple new variations on these are in the new 1000 Beads book. I, too, have a fascination with things that are wholly exposed, with caves and crevice, and what is hiding behind the screen, in the box and under the veil. Wiwat’s work presents a lot of these intriguing, partially exposed and trapped elements.
This piece is actually older. I am thinking from around 2007 but you can see that this partly hidden and trapped theme has been an ongoing vein of interest to him.
As he describes his work, “I hand-form every piece of polymer clay jewelry with no use of commercial molds. I use several techniques including caning, engraving, weaving, layering, and many others for which I don’t have names.”
Wiwat, who originally is from Thailand and currently lives in Virginia, is a Niche Awards winner for 2011 and 2013, and Saul Bell Design Award Finalist for 2011. You can be inspired by more of his work on his website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
I kept thinking that the Pantone Spring palette seemed somewhat familiar. Then it occurred to me that Rebecca Watkins often works in similar color combinations and I went back and found this lovely bowl of beads on one of our Pinterest boards. The colors are subdued with low saturation but plenty of contrast to make them festive without being loud or garish.
If you enjoy these types of color palettes’ and the fun approach Rebecca takes with her work, be sure to jump on over to her Blogspot site and her Flickr pages for more wonderful inspiration for Spring and beyond.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
You know, it seems like I post a lot of floral, especially considering I’m not a floral kind of gal. Still, it’s hard not to appreciate the intricacy and cleverness of our community’s floral fanatics, so I do find myself pinning quite a few florals, although I also tend towards the leafy, spiky, and (surprise!) tendril infused versions.
This set by Yuliya Galuschak is a great example of what I really admire in the floral vein. However, if you look closely, there aren’t really any flowers here, at least none that I am familiar with. The floral like forms are actually leaves layered in a floral manner. They come to delicate curled points and are surrounded by wire tendrils. The pieces have all this in addition to a ton of beautiful beading and bead accents (and an obvious ton of patience).
These pieces are probably pushing the boundary of garish, but they are so tastefully composed and limited in palette (just purples, reds, and gold) while still feeling quite colorful. The dense beading is relegated to the strand from which everything on the necklace is hung, and the bead accents look purposeful and well-chosen.
If you like this, you will really enjoy perusing Yuliya’s other tastefully extravagant pieces on her Flickr site, many of which are true florals but with a smattering of other themes, including berries, aquatics, and even abstract imagery.
So … have you ever given a set of beads or random pieces of your work to someone else and let them create from it? I’ve only done this once with artwork but wish I did it more often. It can be truly eye-opening to see what others envision with your work.
Here is one example using ceramics beads from bead artist “BeadFreaky” on Etsy and the bead artistry of Keirsten Giles
There is something about having the vision and aesthetics of another person applied to your own work. They way they treat it, contrast or highlights it’s aspect and the forms they include it in can be quite exciting.
Do you know any artists who work in a different medium (or work in polymer but in a very different way) that might be up for mixing their work with yours?
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