Graphical Pattern Play

103316258Well, has this week’s cool patterns got you hankering to try a some new dramatic patterns yourself? Here, I found a great online tutorial that uses the drama of graphical black patterns edged by white to pump up the color and pattern of scrap canes. It’s a beautifully simple technique brought to us by Pinklily of France. I decided to show you just the resultant sheets here and hope you’ll go see what can be made from them on her blog post. Because the options are too fun to miss I thought you might just get curious and click through.

The instructions on here are in French and can’t be copied into Google translate, but I think the images are pretty self-explanatory. Although she uses canes for the background, you could really use any kind of pattern from marbling to leftover mokume to Stroppel canes. You could even keep it simple with a solid or Skinner blend background. The general effect will be the same.

Pinklily is pretty generous with her tutorials on her blog, so if you like this, take some time to wander about and see what other fund stuff she might have for you.

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Spirited Patterns

April 16, 2015

spiritwearelephantA week of dramatic patterns would not be complete without a little Jon Anderson. You have likely seen at least a few of his larger, cane covered animals or maybe his bowls or even his guitars. But, have you seen his jewelry?

Jon’s fascination with canes is all about the pattern. The forms he covers are more of a canvas than the source of inspiration. Of course, animals and the spirit of them is where his finds a home for his patterns, but his canes come from what he has seen on his travels in other decorative artwork, as well as architecture and the decorative elements of buildings.

Jon has such an amazing eye for how to lay out the canes in a way that enhances the form. Also, his canes are so carefully created and reduced that he can bring them down to a size that can be applied onto forms as small as the pendants you see here. This means that many of us can afford to collect a few, even when our budgets are small.

Although Jon is American, he lives and creates in Bali with his wife who takes care of his promotions and PR. He also has an agent in the US who takes care of the sales and distribution of his work, so Jon gets to just focus on his art. Lucky, lucky guy.

You can read one of his only personal interviews in the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts and see more of his work on his website.

 

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A Non-Caner’s Cane

October 16, 2014

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Is it just me or are the patterns in these beads particularly mesmerizing? I am not much of a caner, as I have professed before, but there are times when I wish I was more accomplished at it. When I saw these beads on Pinterest not long ago I thought the cane was a pretty cool one that had a lot of potential for visual textures, back sides, borders, etc. Then I clicked through to the link and saw how easy it was. Even I could do that!

Petra Nemravka, the force behind the Czech Republic’s shop and website Nemravka.cz created a very nicely photographed and easy to follow tutorial for this cane including rainbow variations.  If you can make a jelly roll cane, you can create this little beauty which could be great for caners and non-caners alike.

 

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Layers and Layers of Slices and Slices

September 1, 2014

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So, this is that very special week after the latest issue of The Polymer Arts comes out where I share some of the things that we couldn’t squeeze into the packed issue we just sent out. We’ll chat a bit more about some of the contributors and their art work, as well as add some depth to the stories and concepts you’ll be reading about if you bought the issue (and if you don’t have it or don’t have it coming, you can get your copy on our website.)

For this fall 2014 issue, Deb Hart wrote what is probably the most ambitious article we’ve published to date. “Caning by Numbers: Complex Cane Design”  has to do with canes and math. It’s rather intense, but we are already receiving some rave reports from readers who are just so excited to have a controllable way to measure and create precise complex canes.

The one thing we couldn’t do in this particular article was include more of Deb’s work so you could see her range beyond the owl cane that was used as the example for the concepts she teaches.

Here is one amazing bracelet Deb created with a variety of brilliant complex cane images embedded in layers of translucent clay. I am not a very accomplished caning clayer, so I won’t pretend I know all that went into this, but what I do know is that the layering gives it an ethereal quality that is rather mesmerizing, not to mention how lost one might get just trying to take in all the detail.

You can check out even more of Deb’s canes and other art work on her Flickr pages, her blog, her Etsy shop and her website. (Does she stay busy, or what?)

 

 

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Outside Inspiration: Stitching Color

February 14, 2014

I first saw this piece you see here on a tiny Pinterest pin and thought “Wow. That’s some serious polymer clay work.” Only it’s not polymer. It’s a quilt! But wow … wouldn’t that make a gorgeous polymer wall piece?

The quilt is by the very gifted Carol Taylor. She balances a full spectrum of saturated color with consistent, yet rambling patterns in many of her quilts. I just keep trying to imagine just how stunning they must be in person!

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Her patterns, layout and colors would all be quite inspiring for any polymer artist by I think they would make caners in particular just gush. Treat yourself to a stroll through her online gallery today.

And a very happy Valentine’s Day from myself and Cleo (she’s the cat in my lap making typing more of a challenge than it should be today.) Big furry hugs to all our readers!

 

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.

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Outside Inspiration: Glass–The Original Translucent

April 26, 2013

Of course polymer work in translucents has been heavily inspired by glass art. Glass was the original crafted translucent art material. Glass making can be traced back as far as 3500 BC but it wasn’t recognized as an important decorative art until the 19th century. So although glass art is not nearly as young as polymer, it is actually one of the younger crafts and a kindred spirit of sorts. There are many art glass applications that we have translated in polymer and other applications that were organically developed in polymer but look similar in approach to some types of glass work.

Take a look at this stunning vase by glass artist David Patchen …

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What came to mind? Don’t tell me you didn’t wonder for half a second if this artist was influenced by polymer caning.  If it weren’t for that unmistakable deep, pronounced shine of glass, which polymer still can’t quite replicate, one can imagine this being made with translucent cane slices. So, okay, we can’t quite get that shine that permeates all the way through glass but on the other hand we could do similar work with much more intricate patterns.  That’s the advantage of polymer.

I’m going to have to leave it at that for today–so much to do getting ready to send the Summer 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine off to the printer. But if you want to immerse yourself in some gorgeous translucent colors and get some ideas for creating patterning with canes from a master artist, take some time to look through David Patchen’s portfolio especially his vases. They’re just gorgeous.

 

 

Cane Scenes

Earrings. You make two identical little pretty pieces, right? Not necessarily. Why do they need to match exactly?

The unmatched but obvious pairing of this earring set made by Serbia’s Biljana Teodorović was just one of the things that caught my eye. The imagery looks very illustrative but it is all done with canes laid out in a floral composition that is then cut up. The earrings then become two parts of the same scene.

When you look at the process here on her blog, it is pretty straight-forward. Yet it is rather fascinating to see how the process starts and what she ends up with. She also smartly makes them reversible. Or, as I like to think of it, she has the ‘backs’ well-considered.

 

All Puffed Up

January 9, 2019
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Looking over Elise Winter’s work on Monday got me thinking about pillow shapes. It’s amazing what a little dimension put into a jewelry element can do for a piece.

This pendant and earring set by Laure Steele of France is a simple but multidimensional example of a puffed-up trillion shape that has also been depressed in the center for a bit of ride along the beautifully created canes. If I understand the translations correctly, Laure learned or made these canes in a Carol Simmons master class. It’s amazing what a class can do for your skills and how it can reshape (pun intended!) the direction of your work.

See more by Laure—much which is not polymer as she also seems to enjoy working in metal and glass quite a bit—on her website and on Instagram.

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A Few Touches

May 28, 2018
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Have you seen what crazy, amazing illustrative cane work people have been doing lately? This work has been absolutely amazing the way the canes take on a painterly look beneath the skillful hands of these particular artists.

The Kingfisher bird in this brooch is a cane by Claire Wallis. Mind-blowing isn’t it? She applied it to a painted background but she didn’t just leave it as a cane blended into a background layer. She was very thoughtful about how it would appear and applied a thin layer of translucent clay to give the edges a soft focus.

She also scratched in a pale border along the edges of the beak and some of the feathers to further blend the cane’s edge. This has the added effect of making the bird image sit on a more definite foreground plane as well as separating the abundance of cool colors in the background and bird feathers which would otherwise visually meld, making the edge of the bird’s head a bit nebulous. These little touches have really made the difference between it just being an amazing cane and creating an overall amazing image and brooch.

Claire’s cane work keeps getting better and better, even when you don’t think it could. You can check out her polymer journey on her Facebook page and Flickr site, and see her finished items in her Etsy shop.

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Veneers are Tops

April 20, 2018
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I had not planned on going off on a cane-focused week but here we are with more canes. I couldn’t resist sharing this fabulous tabletop created by the very exploratory Bridget Derc.

Primarily I wanted to share the process photo. Don’t you love peeking in on people’s studio tables? In the Creative Spaces themed Spring 2012 issue, we peeked into a handful of people’s studios. That was the quickest selling issue we’ve ever had which makes me think we need to do some more of that in the future. For now, we’ll peek in on Bridget,  who shows us here how she lays out her beautifully constructed canes to cover tabletops. She also tends to the size of the tables as shown in the last photo that I couldn’t resist adding because it’s just such a beautiful pattern and color palette.

She takes process shots of that white table nearly step-by-step, and not having room enough to show that here, I posted this to entice you to jump over to her Flickr photostream where you can see it all. That table and all the process photos are on her second page of Flickr photos. The one you see the process for here is on her first page. But take some time to peruse it all. Not only are her pieces lovingly finished, but you get to see how she puts it all together. Does it give you any ideas?

If you want to peek in on a few other artists, open up your spring 2012 issue of the Polymer Arts and go to the website to download a digital version at www.ThePolymerArts.com It is only available digitally but if you’re curious, go to our website and you can get an immediate download.

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Tiny, Tiny Patterns

April 18, 2018
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The most common polymer veneer in the community has got to be canes. Although caning seems to exist in a category of its own, it is surface design and cane slices are veneers, albeit tiny, often of a singular image and usually repeated over and over on a piece.

Cécile Bos probably doesn’t identify as a polymer clay artist in a strict sense but she does some of the most amazing detailed canes for her small, delicate jewelry. Originally a biology researcher, she left the field to be a jewelry designer. Her focus is pattern and her primary inspiration is plants. As stated in her online biography, she creates intricate canes which are “then worked in the manner of a textile or thin layers of paper to shape [beads] or other original elements. After curing, these elements are mounted on silver 925 or bronze to form the final piece.” She also adds glass beads, ceramics, wood, metal, and cotton.

You will have to go to her website to see these small jewelry elements she creates from these tiny patterned canes. You can also follow her on Instagram.

 

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A Green Phase

April 11, 2018
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The 100 Day Project challenge is in full swing and it is already trying the resolve of many of us. Maybe, as Cynthia Tinapple said, calling me out on my proposed challenge in her Studio Mojo newsletter this past weekend, I might be a bit ambitious, creating something in polymer and a poem every day to create a composite image for Instagram. But it’s a darn good excuse to make me create every day. Mind you, I’m usually doing it at midnight but that’s the only way I don’t find myself lost for hours at the studio table not getting magazine work done. A lot of people have been coming up with creative ways to make this challenge work for them and keep it manageable at the same time.

Planet Isis, a.k.a. Dayl Goulsbra-Jones, decided to break her challenge up by color. This first week her color was green. The bars of this Day Three collection of textured gradient green and canes are my favorite. The inner glow that this kind of gradient appears to have adds a nice bit of energy to the simple forms, while the calming effects of the green color give contrast to the busy black-and-white canes.

Dayl didn’t pick the green arbitrarily, either. She started this whole challenge by posting her “color generator” which is a bag of cute little colored beads that she dips into to pull out the color for the week. Follow her Instagram account to see her green week and her upcoming projects. You can also find more of her work on her website.

And remember, if you are doing #the100DayProject or any challenge or you just regularly post your creations, let me know. You can chime with a comment on any of our posts @thepolymerarts or on my personal page @the_sage_arts. I’d love to follow your creative journey.

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Fuzzy Feelings

February 14, 2018
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Happy Valentine’s day to you all! Here is a little Valentines from me to all of you out there who follow and read my babbling posts and keep me going with your kind words and stories.

I don’t know if you realize this, but I only get to do this because of you all, especially those who help me keep the lights on by subscribing or buying The Polymer Arts magazine. I know that not everything in the magazine is for everyone but it is THE reason I am able to spend the time scouring the web and researching the artwork I post here. The blog is wholly a labor of love so if you appreciate this, please consider supporting the magazine and/or our advertising partners you see here as their contributions cover the maintenance and service costs, without which I could not justify doing this.

So, here is a visual image of my love and dedication to all of you. I have always adored Christine Pecaut‘s cats. They always look so happy and adoring, accented with whimsically placed canes and Dustin-inspired translucent slices. But this simple faux ceramic looking pair, momma and baby kitty, just tugs at the heartstrings even if you’re not much of a cat person.  

She actually has a whole gallery of her cats that you can see here. Cats are not, by far, the only thing she creates. Find more of her work in her Etsy shop, on Instagram, and on her blog.

 

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Can’t Miss Ron

February 9, 2018
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No technique, no cane, no scrap is safe from the creative machinations of Ron Lehocky. And apparently neither is the admiration of so many, many people inside and outside the polymer community. Ron may have a big focus on hearts and creates them in just a few shapes but he never stops exploring what he can do on his little canvases. Dropping in to see what he has created recently is always a treat and an inspiring reminder of how many little things can make a huge difference in so many people’s lives.

If for some reason you are not familiar with Ron’s crusade to help ailing children, he raises funds through the sale of his hearts for a center that aids in the ongoing education of these children’s caregivers and physicians. Here is a video where he explains how this came about as well as how to make these beautiful hearts.

Ron uses canes and mokume blocks kindly donated from artists from all over to quickly create these little masterpieces, occasionally creating his own surface treatments. In the image here, starting with the iris hearts and going clockwise, he used canes from Jayne Dwyer, Jon Stuart Anderson, and Ivy Niles. The last set shows his own surface designs using metallic powders.

If you have some special people you want gifts for this Valentine’s day, Ron’s hearts are ideal. He doesn’t create special orders as much of his work depends on what he’s been sent but any one of them would be lovely to give or own. You can find a list of the places they are sold as well as how to order them by email by going to this link.

If you want to admire his many pieces, the best places to go are his Instagram or Facebook accounts.

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Memories for a Lifetime

August 25, 2017
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I know I showed you a bit of the sample “Into the Forest” installation last week, but I didn’t get in this mosaic created by Julie Eakes for the exhibition that will be installed in November. I think Julie gets the prize for the most intense and biggest piece to go into the installation. I uploaded a fairly large image of this so if you click on the photo, it should open up in a browser window and you can zoom in to see all the individual canes that make up the idyllic scene.

I wish you could zoom in on the screens you see here in the main assembly room as Ellen Prophater presented her talk on mokume gane. Oh, the secrets and the great tips and tricks she gave away during this talk! This kind of thing was happening all over and made the price of this event well worth it on that basis alone. The friendships and conversations, however, they make it priceless.

If you didn’t get to make Synergy and haven’t been to any major events lately or ever, keep them in mind. Save up your pennies and plan to get that time off from work for the next big event you can possibly work into your schedule. They are each an experience you’ll keep with you all life long.

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A Choir of Angels

June 22, 2017
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Exploring technique and design doesn’t ever end, or at least I don’t think it should. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working with a material, there is always more to learn. Barbara McGuire is a true and long standing polymer pioneer who may often return to signature techniques but she keeps expanding on what she has done, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in big leaps.

This collection of beads is one of her subtler explorations. Barbara has been making face canes for ages but she keeps changing up what she does with them. The angelic looking collection here gets its ethereal feel from the use of translucent wings and background cane slices. Past variations were commonly surrounded by opaque slices and balanced or radial backgrounds. The more freeform application here adds to the otherworldly feel of these little angels.

Barbara posts most of her recent work on her Facebook page while her products and news can usually be found on her website.

 

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