Silver Inspired
December 17, 2018
Inspirational Art
So here we are, a week before Christmas and I thought it best if I can share some things to put us in that holiday spirit. As for me, I think I’ve had enough of Santa Clauses, Christmas wreaths, snowmen and candy canes. Not that there’s anything wrong with those motifs but you’re seeing those everywhere right now. So I get to thinking about the season in a more noncommercial way and, perusing through my collection of art to share at a future time I found myself drawn to the silver pieces. There’s something about the stately near whiteness of silver that feel so appropriate for this time of year. Its quiet and yet bright manner are also seen everywhere in silver bells, silver ribbon, silver tinsel, and even outside our windows for those of us who get to admire a snowy night landscape. I don’t know if that wholly explains what I’m doing with silver this week but that’s going to be our theme.
This is a piece that started me thinking on it. It’s a recent necklace by Celine Charuau. I had been thinking stars like on the top of Christmas trees or the radiating ones often found in nativity scenes but this is what I ended up finding. It’s not a star but is a beautiful radiating piece full of texture and still presenting that quiet, stately feel. The lines in the urchin are followed by the lines of the silver pieces radiating from the center and, combining with the silver color, gives us a sense that it is heralding some moment or celebrating an occasion. It may seem like a stretch but it feels a little like Christmas to me.
Of course, Celine’s work is often quiet and stately, using pale or subdued colors and lots of silver. You can see more of her work on her Flickr photostream.
Sonya Rings in the New Year
January 12, 2018
Inspirational Art
Here are a couple more interesting pieces posted in the first week of the year from the prolific Sonya Girodan. Randee Ketzel sent me this before it popped up on my Flickr stream. These rings do really grab your attention. They might also grab your knitted sweater but that is beside the point.
These are an intriguing and different use of familiar techniques. The beads were inspired by classes she had with Celine Charuau, who we looked at on Wednesday, and Christine Dumont. In both cases, her instructors generally use these techniques on elements created as pendants or brooches rather than rings. Laying the beads down in a horizontal plane makes them feel a bit more placid than they would be in the about-face position of pendants and brooches.
Sonya brings back any energy lost by the change in orientation, however, by adding thin and reaching elements beneath the beads to draw the eye out and back from the body of the rings’ designs. It may make for delicate looking pieces and not everyday rings but you have to admit, they would grab your attention.
I do wonder if this announces a new direction for Sonya as I’ve not seen anything quite like this from her. Not that Sonya taking a left turn in her work is surprising. She seems to constantly be reinventing her style. Just take a look at her body of work. Her progression can be very explosive at times and her need to explore and push design is evident everywhere. It’s an inspiring journey and you can catch it all pretty quickly by taking a visual stroll through her Flickr photostream.
Celine Crushes It
January 10, 2018
Inspirational Art
Another artist with a bunch of new images posted recently on Flickr is Celine Charuau. Her alien-like plant forms an interesting combination of materials and forms have taken on a sparkly and crumbled texture, maybe from crushed shells. I’ve seen a similar product used in acrylic nail art although she doesn’t list that.
Here she balances the texture polymer forms with steel leaves. Although the beads are more dimensional, I like the echo of the leaf shapes with the pod shapes. They are basically the same shapes but contrast in dimensionality and texture. It is also the quieter of the pieces she created with this intriguing new texture.
You can see the rest of this collection to date on her Flickr photostream.
Expanding on the New Fall Issue
August 31, 2015
Inspirational Art
Okay … the Fall 2015 – Elements issue of The Polymer Arts had a successful release this weekend (well, with a couple tiny bumps along the way). Thank you for all the great comments already coming in. It is a pretty awesome issue … so many great contributors and ideas!
So, if you are expecting a copy, DIGITAL issues should be in your emailbox. Check junk mail folders or other email addresses if you’re sure you should have one and don’t see it. If it can’t be found, write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com and we will look it up, see what is going on and get it to you as needed. PRINT copies went to the post office at the end of the week, so they are all on the way now as well. If you need to buy a copy or get a subscription, you can do so here: http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html
Now onto the pretty stuff …
As always, we had more material than we could fit into the issue. And then there are simply the articles I wish we could have expanded on more. One such was Laurie MacIsaac’s interview of Celine Charuau titled “Strange Beauty”. I am personally so enamored by Celine’s work and, I do admit, the article was a request of mine that I hope you all will agree, is an enthralling look into an artist’s process and view of the world. Celine’s work is just so wholly unusual, and although it’s obvious that she pulls from nature, I didn’t realize how connected she was to plants, but after reading the article, you can really see just how much her passion for them comes out in her work. You’ll see what I mean if you read the interview. I wish we could have had room for a few more of her direct garden interpretations such as this succulent inspired necklace.
Like so much of her work, there is quiet and harmony in the sparseness of this piece. She creates a lot of these bunching kind of compositions which echo the way plants often grow. She also chooses just very particular parts of the plant, so that you aren’t sure what you might be looking at to start with. I also very much admire that she does not restrict her use of space, and has her creations come out quite dramatically from the surface of the pieces, sometimes dangerously so. But that dimensionality gives her work a boldness that might otherwise be nearly impossible with the unassuming minimalism she tends towards.
Celine is definitely one of those artists whose work is best seen in a collection in order to really appreciate the genius of her design choices. I would suggest reading the article if you have the issue in hand already, then go over to her Flickr photostream or her DaWanda shop and spend a little time looking over her varied pieces. Having a little background on an artist can really open up how you see their work and can bring such a rich understanding and enjoyment of it.
Like this blog? Help support us … with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Frightening Elegance
October 28, 2014
Inspirational Art
I love spiders. Not very girly of me, I know, but I just find them to be some of the most fascinating creatures on earth. They are beautiful and graceful fellow crafters who just happen to be so absolutely terrifying at times. Poor, misunderstood things.
Regardless of the terrifying moments, spiders really can be fantastic inspiration, not just from the patterns they weave, but their own inherent elegance–the long, slim legs, the way they delicately hang and negotiate their webs, the graceful way they reach out and weave their silk. Well, that last may remind you too much of dinner time in the web, but nonetheless, the spider’s structure and movements are beautiful.
I imagine this is what drew Céline Charuau to create work like the piece you see here. She calls this Fleur Araignée or Flower Spider in English. And with that title, she has drawn a simple equation between what is considered one of nature’s most beautiful creations with one of its most frightening. If you think about it, there are also deadly flowers and harmless, but gorgeously colored, arachnids. For being such completely different types of organisms, they actually have a lot in common.
The drawing of equations between seemingly unrelated things is nothing new in Céline’s work. Man-made with organic, mineral with animal, hard with soft, and lots of other unexpected combinations in her images and titles like Embroidered Eggs and Canned Chromosomes. I honestly am not sure if I enjoy the titles of her work or her craftsmanship more. See what I mean by taking a leisurely jaunt through her Flickr photostream with more insight to be found on her blog, Gris Bleu.
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.
Orderly Fun
September 5, 2013
Inspirational Art
To say that Céline Charuau’s work is unique seems like an understatement. Her work can look rather threatening in form while other times is has a light ethereal beauty. So this piece I thought was quite different, not just for polymer art but for Céline as well; this reminds me of a child’s toy in color and shape, orderly but a little less serious than I usually associate with her work.
It’s not that Celine doesn’t do fun pieces, but the ‘fun’ pieces are either more contemporary or off-kilter . However, the stylized floral shape and the additions reaching out from the base form are pure Celine.
If you are not familiar with her work, it’s about time you were. I’d say. I think you will be surprised by what you’ll find–here is her website and Flickr page to investigate. And yes, the work you’ll see is all polymer with metal and wire–nothing more that I am aware of. She has a bit of crazy artistic genius if you ask me and I think it’s just wonderful.
Frosted Polymer
September 5, 2012
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Being from Denver where there is, literally, no humidity much of the time, I’m having my all-too-warm moments down here in the humid south of the States. So this frosted piece just looked so very cool and soothing to me!
Through the use of nothing more than a thin layer of translucent clay, Celine Charuau mutes the saturation of the color for a rather ‘hushed’ feeling while giving the surface a subtle depth. The holes drilled in for texture and the variation of color add that touch of interest to a simple design to pull the necklace all together. This page here has a full tutorial for making these beads.
There are actually embedded English directions in this tutorial so you don’t even need translate.google.com for this French language site.
Letting it All Stand Out
July 4, 2012
Inspirational Art
Céline Charuau’s work absolutely fascinates me. Her forms are obviously inspired by the shapes and patterns in nature but she chooses to exaggerate or focus on one aspect and push it until it no longer resembles anything we are familiar with but does emphasis the beauty of that one characteristic.
Céline’s work has been in the magazine as an example of how to creatively copy from nature (you may have seen her beautiful feather inspired necklace in Christi Friesen’s “Filling Your Well of Creativity” article in the Winter 2011 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine).
Here is another example in this pointy petaled flower where the extensions of the flow stand so far out from the base that they almost seem menacing. Building a piece into the available space rather than letting it just sit calmly back makes the form a forceful and undeniably attention grabbing piece. If the coloring and shapes were softer, this might not feel appropriate but with the slim, pointed petals and fiery tips, the dynamic use of space works wonderfully.
So here we are, a week before Christmas and I thought it best if I can share some things to put us in that holiday spirit. As for me, I think I’ve had enough of Santa Clauses, Christmas wreaths, snowmen and candy canes. Not that there’s anything wrong with those motifs but you’re seeing those everywhere right now. So I get to thinking about the season in a more noncommercial way and, perusing through my collection of art to share at a future time I found myself drawn to the silver pieces. There’s something about the stately near whiteness of silver that feel so appropriate for this time of year. Its quiet and yet bright manner are also seen everywhere in silver bells, silver ribbon, silver tinsel, and even outside our windows for those of us who get to admire a snowy night landscape. I don’t know if that wholly explains what I’m doing with silver this week but that’s going to be our theme.
This is a piece that started me thinking on it. It’s a recent necklace by Celine Charuau. I had been thinking stars like on the top of Christmas trees or the radiating ones often found in nativity scenes but this is what I ended up finding. It’s not a star but is a beautiful radiating piece full of texture and still presenting that quiet, stately feel. The lines in the urchin are followed by the lines of the silver pieces radiating from the center and, combining with the silver color, gives us a sense that it is heralding some moment or celebrating an occasion. It may seem like a stretch but it feels a little like Christmas to me.
Of course, Celine’s work is often quiet and stately, using pale or subdued colors and lots of silver. You can see more of her work on her Flickr photostream.
Read More
Here are a couple more interesting pieces posted in the first week of the year from the prolific Sonya Girodan. Randee Ketzel sent me this before it popped up on my Flickr stream. These rings do really grab your attention. They might also grab your knitted sweater but that is beside the point.
These are an intriguing and different use of familiar techniques. The beads were inspired by classes she had with Celine Charuau, who we looked at on Wednesday, and Christine Dumont. In both cases, her instructors generally use these techniques on elements created as pendants or brooches rather than rings. Laying the beads down in a horizontal plane makes them feel a bit more placid than they would be in the about-face position of pendants and brooches.
Sonya brings back any energy lost by the change in orientation, however, by adding thin and reaching elements beneath the beads to draw the eye out and back from the body of the rings’ designs. It may make for delicate looking pieces and not everyday rings but you have to admit, they would grab your attention.
I do wonder if this announces a new direction for Sonya as I’ve not seen anything quite like this from her. Not that Sonya taking a left turn in her work is surprising. She seems to constantly be reinventing her style. Just take a look at her body of work. Her progression can be very explosive at times and her need to explore and push design is evident everywhere. It’s an inspiring journey and you can catch it all pretty quickly by taking a visual stroll through her Flickr photostream.
Read More
Another artist with a bunch of new images posted recently on Flickr is Celine Charuau. Her alien-like plant forms an interesting combination of materials and forms have taken on a sparkly and crumbled texture, maybe from crushed shells. I’ve seen a similar product used in acrylic nail art although she doesn’t list that.
Here she balances the texture polymer forms with steel leaves. Although the beads are more dimensional, I like the echo of the leaf shapes with the pod shapes. They are basically the same shapes but contrast in dimensionality and texture. It is also the quieter of the pieces she created with this intriguing new texture.
You can see the rest of this collection to date on her Flickr photostream.
Read MoreOkay … the Fall 2015 – Elements issue of The Polymer Arts had a successful release this weekend (well, with a couple tiny bumps along the way). Thank you for all the great comments already coming in. It is a pretty awesome issue … so many great contributors and ideas!
So, if you are expecting a copy, DIGITAL issues should be in your emailbox. Check junk mail folders or other email addresses if you’re sure you should have one and don’t see it. If it can’t be found, write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com and we will look it up, see what is going on and get it to you as needed. PRINT copies went to the post office at the end of the week, so they are all on the way now as well. If you need to buy a copy or get a subscription, you can do so here: http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html
Now onto the pretty stuff …
As always, we had more material than we could fit into the issue. And then there are simply the articles I wish we could have expanded on more. One such was Laurie MacIsaac’s interview of Celine Charuau titled “Strange Beauty”. I am personally so enamored by Celine’s work and, I do admit, the article was a request of mine that I hope you all will agree, is an enthralling look into an artist’s process and view of the world. Celine’s work is just so wholly unusual, and although it’s obvious that she pulls from nature, I didn’t realize how connected she was to plants, but after reading the article, you can really see just how much her passion for them comes out in her work. You’ll see what I mean if you read the interview. I wish we could have had room for a few more of her direct garden interpretations such as this succulent inspired necklace.
Like so much of her work, there is quiet and harmony in the sparseness of this piece. She creates a lot of these bunching kind of compositions which echo the way plants often grow. She also chooses just very particular parts of the plant, so that you aren’t sure what you might be looking at to start with. I also very much admire that she does not restrict her use of space, and has her creations come out quite dramatically from the surface of the pieces, sometimes dangerously so. But that dimensionality gives her work a boldness that might otherwise be nearly impossible with the unassuming minimalism she tends towards.
Celine is definitely one of those artists whose work is best seen in a collection in order to really appreciate the genius of her design choices. I would suggest reading the article if you have the issue in hand already, then go over to her Flickr photostream or her DaWanda shop and spend a little time looking over her varied pieces. Having a little background on an artist can really open up how you see their work and can bring such a rich understanding and enjoyment of it.
Like this blog? Help support us … with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
I love spiders. Not very girly of me, I know, but I just find them to be some of the most fascinating creatures on earth. They are beautiful and graceful fellow crafters who just happen to be so absolutely terrifying at times. Poor, misunderstood things.
Regardless of the terrifying moments, spiders really can be fantastic inspiration, not just from the patterns they weave, but their own inherent elegance–the long, slim legs, the way they delicately hang and negotiate their webs, the graceful way they reach out and weave their silk. Well, that last may remind you too much of dinner time in the web, but nonetheless, the spider’s structure and movements are beautiful.
I imagine this is what drew Céline Charuau to create work like the piece you see here. She calls this Fleur Araignée or Flower Spider in English. And with that title, she has drawn a simple equation between what is considered one of nature’s most beautiful creations with one of its most frightening. If you think about it, there are also deadly flowers and harmless, but gorgeously colored, arachnids. For being such completely different types of organisms, they actually have a lot in common.
The drawing of equations between seemingly unrelated things is nothing new in Céline’s work. Man-made with organic, mineral with animal, hard with soft, and lots of other unexpected combinations in her images and titles like Embroidered Eggs and Canned Chromosomes. I honestly am not sure if I enjoy the titles of her work or her craftsmanship more. See what I mean by taking a leisurely jaunt through her Flickr photostream with more insight to be found on her blog, Gris Bleu.
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.
To say that Céline Charuau’s work is unique seems like an understatement. Her work can look rather threatening in form while other times is has a light ethereal beauty. So this piece I thought was quite different, not just for polymer art but for Céline as well; this reminds me of a child’s toy in color and shape, orderly but a little less serious than I usually associate with her work.
It’s not that Celine doesn’t do fun pieces, but the ‘fun’ pieces are either more contemporary or off-kilter . However, the stylized floral shape and the additions reaching out from the base form are pure Celine.
If you are not familiar with her work, it’s about time you were. I’d say. I think you will be surprised by what you’ll find–here is her website and Flickr page to investigate. And yes, the work you’ll see is all polymer with metal and wire–nothing more that I am aware of. She has a bit of crazy artistic genius if you ask me and I think it’s just wonderful.
Read MoreBeing from Denver where there is, literally, no humidity much of the time, I’m having my all-too-warm moments down here in the humid south of the States. So this frosted piece just looked so very cool and soothing to me!
Through the use of nothing more than a thin layer of translucent clay, Celine Charuau mutes the saturation of the color for a rather ‘hushed’ feeling while giving the surface a subtle depth. The holes drilled in for texture and the variation of color add that touch of interest to a simple design to pull the necklace all together. This page here has a full tutorial for making these beads.
There are actually embedded English directions in this tutorial so you don’t even need translate.google.com for this French language site.
Read MoreCéline Charuau’s work absolutely fascinates me. Her forms are obviously inspired by the shapes and patterns in nature but she chooses to exaggerate or focus on one aspect and push it until it no longer resembles anything we are familiar with but does emphasis the beauty of that one characteristic.
Céline’s work has been in the magazine as an example of how to creatively copy from nature (you may have seen her beautiful feather inspired necklace in Christi Friesen’s “Filling Your Well of Creativity” article in the Winter 2011 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine).
Here is another example in this pointy petaled flower where the extensions of the flow stand so far out from the base that they almost seem menacing. Building a piece into the available space rather than letting it just sit calmly back makes the form a forceful and undeniably attention grabbing piece. If the coloring and shapes were softer, this might not feel appropriate but with the slim, pointed petals and fiery tips, the dynamic use of space works wonderfully.
Read More
