Hot or Not
August 16, 2020
Uncategorized
Does this colorful necklace by Camille Young have a predominantly warm or cool color palette? Or neither? Read on and then determine it for yourself. I’ll confirm the answer shortly.
How goes your color mixing adventures? My adventures have been less about color and more about traversing the landscape of grief my sister is dealing with as well as the landscape of Colorado and I tried to return home this past week. Plans to leave the Denver area through the usual I-70 corridor went up in smoke as fires shut down my usual path through the Rockies. This forced me to take a southerly and slightly longer route which turned out to be, strangely enough, just what I needed. I went through some gorgeous country I’d not visited in a while and it was an absolute boon to the soul. I stopped and savored and took it all in.
I’m hoping your color mixing adventures have been similar in that you may have ended up going in directions you didn’t plan but found some wonderful new colors to work with. Since we oftentimes return to the same preferred palettes, favorite pre-mixed colors, or comfortable combinations over and over again, the discovery of new colors and new combinations often has to be purposefully sought after. However, color mixing explorations can often result in the discovery of enticing new colors which can also push you to try new combinations. But the question then becomes, how do you determine what colors go with your new found color finds?
You may think I’m leading into a discussion about color palettes and, originally, that’s what I was going to do but as I wrote this article, I realized that, in the chaos of this last month, I neglected to write the article about one last set of terms you’ll need before we can jump full on into creating intentional color palettes. It’s a simple concept that can really inform contrast and the relationships in your color palettes and can be a great place to start when choosing color combinations. It’s the concept of color temperatures.
Warm or Cool
So, just what is color temperature? Well, colors actually appear either cool or warm to us, so much so that being in a room painted in a cool color will literally feel much cooler than one painted in a warm color even if they are the exact same temperature.
Warm colors are those that represent fire, heat, sunshine, and other hot and warm things. So, of course, red, orange, and yellow are warm but so are magenta and yellow-green. They just happen to be on the edge of the warm range. The warm colors are also all on one half of the color wheel, right? So that’s the one half of the color wheel that feels warm to us.
Cool colors are those that we associate with ice, water, shade, and other cool and refreshing things. These would include violet, blue, cyan, and green. And, as you will note, those are all on the other side of the color wheel, the cool half.
Now, why is temperature in color important? Well, warm colors and cool colors not only have us react to the associated temperature but they also act different visually. Warm colors advance while cool hues recede. Warm colors also have a lot more energy visually than cool colors which is one of the reasons they pop out at us so readily.
Take a look at this pendant by Dan Cormier. What pops out at you first? Red, right? It doesn’t take much since red is so high energy and it visually advances. (Dan will be releasing a self-study online course for the techniques used in this pendant next month. Sign up on his website to get in on it here.)
You might have noticed that red in particular is often used in the form of a dot, slash, or other very small accent of color to draw the eye and create contrast. The warm temperature, the color’s high energy, and the way that color comes visually forward allows for it to be used in a very small amount while still drawing a tremendous amount of attention. In addition, you might also note that these red accents are usually a dark red and rarely a pale red because darker colors also advance so being red as well as a deep rich version makes for quite the attention getter.
On the other hand, blues are quite commonly used in large swaths and as backgrounds due to how much they recede, our association with the vastness of the blue sky, and blue’s relatively low and calming energy can then be contrasted with higher energy in the foreground or in images or marks an artist would like to advance visually.
Warm and cool color categories also have an emotive and psychological tendency in the same way individual colors do. Predominantly warm color palettes will be associated with heightened emotions and energy while cool color palettes will feel relatively relaxed, calm, or refreshing.
Although cool colors have a calmer energy, they are not without vitality. Violet and green combinations, such as the one seen here in this piece by Cecilia Button (Mabcrea), are well-loved and don’t lack energy due to the contrast between them—they are on the far ends of the cool color half of the color wheel. So instead of cool and calm, this color combination is more cool and refreshing with added energy from the lines and texture. It’s also a split complimentary combination if you recall what that is from the Color relationship post.
Although cool colors have a calmer energy, they are not without vitality. Violet and green combinations, such as the one seen here in this piece by Cecilia Button (Mabcrea), are well-loved and don’t lack energy due to the contrast between them—they are on the far ends of the cool color half of the color wheel. So instead of cool and calm, this color combination is more cool and refreshing with added energy from the lines and texture. It’s also a split complimentary combination if you recall what that is from the Color relationship post.
Look around you at the color schemes in various decorated objects, photos, artwork, etc. Try to identify the dominant temperature of the color schemes, if there is one. There are times that the color scheme is neither predominantly cool nor warm. There are other times where they are simply hard to identify due to the range of color, like in the opening piece. That is predominantly warm, by the way. The cool colors are not as abundant and work more as calming accents in a piece that is busy and bright and could use a few visual “brakes”.
Another area that can be hard to read the color temperature of is with metallics. If something is predominately gold or copper, is that warm or cool? If you think in terms of their key hue, you’d recognize that those are warm colored metals since the underlying hues are yellow and orange. How about silver? Most people would say that silver has a cool color temperature but, in reality, silver is a gray and, gray can go either way.
Temperature Bias?
Which brings us to the brief discussion of color temperature in terms of color bias. I think I mentioned, in the July 12th post on color bias, that some people have learned color bias using the terms of cool and warm. In other words, a red could be a cool red or a warm red but that simply means that that the red leans towards magenta (moving closer to the cool side of the color wheel) or towards orange (leaning and staying within the warm side of the color wheel.) I think the use of the cool/warm terms for color bias causes too much useless mental gymnastics (telling yourself things like “the red leans towards orange, orange is a warm color, therefore the red is a warm red”) when we can simply identify which color it leans towards, giving us the precise information we need to both color mix and color match.
However, the terms are useful when talking about grays. Since gray represents an absence of saturation and the complete absence of saturation theoretically means the complete absence of hue, you wouldn’t think that a gray would have a color bias. But in the real world, most grays do have a color bias (as do most whites actually) but it’s much harder to identify a specific hue with so much color information missing. So, it’s a lot simpler, and just as informative, to say a gray is warm or cool. Put a gray next to your color wheel and see if the undertone of that gray matches more of the warm colors or more of the cool colors. If the gray has a blue, violet, or even green undertone, it’s a cool gray. If it seems to have a bit of red or orange, anything leaning towards brown, then it is a warm gray.
And yes, it is important to know if it gray is warm or cool, just as it is with any other color, because that can help you match up a color palette by intentionally picking similarities or contrasting differences between colors and grays based on their color characteristics. I don’t suggest you bother with temperature for whites because, to be honest, most whites in artist’s materials are a pretty good pure white or become warm (yellowing) plus they are heavily influenced by reflected color coming from surrounding surfaces so they can appear warm in one setting and cool in another. If you are picking wall paint, however, warm versus cool whites can really change the feel of a room. But that’s a whole other can of worms (or paint!)
So, now, I hope you will start looking at color combinations in terms of the warm/cool relationship. This is a really easy way to start thinking about color relationships which is the basis of creating color palettes and you are just looking at one aspect for now. The whole process of developing color palettes will rely on all the information that you read up to this point so I’m going easy on you this week!
If you’re feeling a little out of the loop because you haven’t caught up in all the posts, or if you feel like you are starting to forget some of the terminology we talked about early on, take this next week to catch up or refresh your understanding of color terminology because when we get into palettes next week, it’s going to be all about identifying characteristics by the terminology I’ve been giving you. I know it doesn’t sound particularly sexy or exciting, using terminology to determine color, but once you get the hang of it, you will be amazed at how easy it will be for you to successfully combine colors in beautiful ways that also support your intentions.
Here’s a quick review of terminology you will want to be sure to know as we move forward into developing color palettes:
- Hue–the name of the pure, key color under which we categorize all colors like it. This breaks up the full spectrum of color into a manageable set of names we can use to describe colors. If you think of colors in terms of 3 primaries, 3 secondaries, and their 6 tertiary hues, you will have 12 hues to categorize under.
- Value—how light or dark a color is.
- Saturation—how pure and bright a color is.
- Shade—the addition of black that darkens a color.
- Tint—the addition of white that lightens a color.
- Tone—the addition of a complementary color or gray that neutralizes or tones down a color.
- Color bias—the primary or secondary color on the color wheel that a pigment color leans towards if not an absolute hue.
- Temperature—the sense of warmth or coolness in a color or color combination.
- Complementary — colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.
- Analogous — colors that are next to or near each other on the color wheel.
- Split Complementary — colors that are one step over on the color wheel from a color’s direct complement.
Does that all sound familiar? If not, re-read the posts for June, July, and August as a refresher if you have the time. Otherwise, I would suggest spending this week playing with color mixing some more and identifying colors that are warm versus cool as well as warm and cool color palettes, especially in decorative objects, patterned fabrics, intentionally designed rooms, etc. And, of course, create! Color is only one part of designing and creating, albeit a really wonderful part! But more important than learning the stuff is actually doing the work, creating from your heart and the essence of your being.
My essence will continue to rest up and recover and dream of more time in the mountains. It was so great to be out just hiking, taking photos, chatting it up with a friendly marmot or campsite cow (yes, my campsite had a herd of black cows and calves handing around), and falling asleep to a view of a zillion of stars out the back window of my yet-to-be-fully-converted camper van. Refueling the soul is much needed for us all right now, isn’t it?
Do get out among the trees or put your toes in the sand, or just drive and get a fresh view of the world if you can. You’ll gather color and design inspiration wherever you go. Times may be hard but the world is still an amazingly beautiful place.
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Flow into Line
May 3, 2020
Inspirational Art
Okay, first a quick check-in… How is your mojo doing? I’m still hearing lots of people discussing how hard it has been to find motivation and energy to create during these unusual times. However, doing something creative and getting yourself into a flow state is extremely helpful for reducing the effect of stress on your body and mental well-being.
If you’re not familiar with flow state, it is a mental state of being where, while you are doing something that allows you to become completely immersed in your activity, the rest of the world around you disappears from your awareness. The trick to getting into a flow state is having something that is challenging enough to keep you wholly engaged but easy enough to not frustrate you. Doodling, which I’ve talked about a number of times already this month, is one way to get into a flow state. If you are playing with line after the last couple weeks reading about it, that’s great but there’s no need to do anything particularly complicated, especially if your motivation is low. You really can go quite simple when it comes to lines.
Lines are such a strong element that just one or two lines can imbue a design with all the energy, movement, emotion and directing of the viewers eye that you need. So maybe the answer for you could be to work on something very simple. Just play with your favorite technique, cut out simple shapes, and add just a handful of lines, or maybe even just one. Challenging yourself is, of course, an excellent way to learn and progress in your skill level and understanding of design, but maybe now, more than ever, we also need to be doing things that we simply enjoy and that does get us into a flow state to help combat the stressful times we are living through.
So, let’s look at simple uses of line and maybe the simplicity will give you a steppingstone to more creative time work and a resurgence of your mojo.
This uncomplicated but lovely pendant by Kateřina Věrná shows the use of several types of line while looking to be an unassuming design. The lines that end with a dot become a focal point due to the rhythm and repetition as well as being central in the pendant. But you also have a dividing line where the black and white meets, and the line that works as a frame around the outside edge. Also, being in black and white, this piece really shows you how well line works and how it can create all the energy you need.
Now, Katerina’s lines are all parallel or at right angles to each other creating a calm and orderly energy. But look at this piece by Dan Cormier. He also is using lines with dots as a counterpoint element, but because the lines swoop and cross each other it adds a sense of movement and increases the level of energy. They’re both good designs but they obviously arise from different intentions. Katerina’s design embodies minimalism, control, and strength while Dan’s, quite orderly, as well, largely emerges as joyful and elegant due to the choice of line.
Have you been inspired by Ginger Davis Allman’s 100 Day Project with vessels or have been part of her pinch pot challenge? If so, perhaps this elegantly simple piece by Kerry Hastings that opens this post might be the kind of line and vessel inclusive inspiration you’re looking for. The uneven line, imperfectly echoing the lip of the vessel, is a fantastic example of how a single line can really make a piece. Just imagine this piece without that rough gold swish of a line. It would still be beautiful, but the juddering metallic addition pointedly reminds us that there is a human hand in the work while breaking up the evenness of the speckled surface and directing our eye down and across the body of the vessel.
Maybe this week, you can play with whatever is on your table and just consider how a simple line or two might change the design. Does the addition help or hinder or do little for it? Just try a few ideas out and see what you come up with. Maybe some simple play with lines will get you into a nice, creative, and relaxing flow state.
I’m hoping to do a bit of that creative flow thing myself this weekend, with the caveat that part of it will be putting together material for the Virtual Art Box coming out on the 8th. I’ve got a very Zen like technique for Art Boxers as well as some discussion about what to do with your missing mojo and a concise but powerful immersive about shape and form. I’m going for intriguing but pressure free learning for May.
And if you can’t get to the studio table, consider doing something creative but simple. I think writing is always a great outlet. Just stream of consciousness journaling, story writing, or writing actual letters on paper that you mail to people you can’t visit. I’ve been doing that for my mother who is in a nursing care facility would no visits right now. She seems to enjoy having something she can hold in her hands. And I’ve also been trying to write more poetry again. Like everyone else, there is so much going through my head and my heart and I need to work through it, even though I am still quite busy. If you want to take a peek at my poetry, just follow my personal page on Instagram.
Have a wonderful, relatively stress-free, and beautiful week.
You’ve Got to Move It, Move It
September 8, 2019
Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
What are some of the first choices you make when creating a piece? Do you ask yourself, what colors are you going to use? What forms to make? What textures, what themes, what techniques? Do you ever ask yourself, what kind of movement will this piece have?
Movement is not one of the primary options that come to mind for most people when designing. If movement or kinetic components are not essential to what you are doing, it may not come to mind until much later on, if at all. And yet, in three-dimensional work and especially in jewelry, this is an integral part of the design. Sometimes the idea of movement doesn’t come along simply because it is created through another avenue – visual movement is created by lines while physical movement is created by the chosen construction. But where and how you placed those lines or the choices about the construction are actually choices about movement.
Movement is one of my favorite things about creating in three dimensions. It took me a long time to be brave enough to work in pieces that move. Why does that take courage? Because a piece that moves changes and has not one look but a multitude of looks. We are used to seeing artwork, when on display or in photographs, facing us in one neutral position where it hangs or sits still. But just as sculpture in the round will look different as you walk around it, any object that is worn or used functionally will look different as the wearer moves or the user works with it, especially when it moves and that means you aren’t always going to be able to have complete control over what the viewer of the work will see because movement means a piece will change.
Movement is actually such a big part of design and I have so much to show you on this subject, that I’m going to split this up into two or three posts. Today let’s focus on work that has physical, kinetic movement and in jewelry in particular, but keep in mind that movement isn’t just for jewelry!
Moving Right Along
One way to add really dynamic movement that also forces you to just rip the Band-Aid off and give in to the constant change in composition that the movement will create is to dangle a lot of individual elements in a cluster. As you see in the necklace by Natalya Aleksandrova below, the gathering of elements is going to sway and rearrange itself as the wearer moves.
However, unlike the designs of this type that utilize wire, each bead element is on a leather cord looped around a thick collection of cords, a combination that limits the amount of movement since leather on leather does not move smoothly. If this was a single cord necklace, or better yet, a thick metal wire wrapping around the neck, and the elements were attached using metal wire loops, the beads would swing far more freely. Here the beads still move but, for what is normally a very kinetic type of design, that energy will be restrained. I think that actually works in this highly organic design as you rarely see organic elements in nature swinging as freely as these would if on metal loops.
The above is really a subtle example of what I think this next piece does really well. You see, you can use your choice of movement to add a touch of realism or connection to the real thing it represents or was inspired by. The feather set below is also Natalya’s work. You can see how well polymer can emulate the texture of a feather, but you know it could never move like one. Breaking these feathers up into multiple sections allows the pieces to flutter and at least harken back to the movement of a feather when on a bird.
Necklaces and earrings are not the only pieces that this kind of energetic movement can be added to. The pin you see opening this post is by Celie Fago and was originally created for Dan Cormier’s fantastic Broken Telephone Project. It is not the still little creation one might normally associate with brooches. The leaves of the pin flutter, not unlike leaves on a tree. The light and almost whimsical movement of the leaves plays well with the very open design and its flowing lines which themselves create visual movement (more on visual movement in a week or two).
Celie’s work also tends to include a lot of movement, so we’ll look at one more of hers as well, but this time her bracelets. Bracelets move up and down an arm, making movement almost inherent in the idea of a bracelet. Dangles and charms are also not uncommon for bracelets, especially chain types, but they are fairly uncommon for bangle versions. The way Celie adds movement to her bangles is genius – the rings and charms on these bangles move the way the bangle itself would move up and down an arm, like tiny bangles on the bangle. This type of movement creates some of the most dynamic movement you can get in a bracelet.
We’ve been looking at a lot of horizontal or circular compositions for movement but another way to have movement in a design is with a stack of elements that you hinge so they can swing somewhat independently. I love this design because the long vertical automatically gives the piece a sense of strength and boldness—characteristics intrinsic in vertical designs–especially when it’s really long. The movement as a kind of sophisticated energy because instead of pieces swinging in multiple directions, the whole line tends of beads or elements tend to move together.
Below is a piece by Carla Benedetti, with each component being attached to the one above it by jump ring hinges. The whole vertical line of elements will swing side to side and forward and back, fluidly, and all together. Using relatively large elements gives this vertical stack some weight which pulls the whole piece against the body when the wearer is upright and helps to keep the pieces lined up as it swings. In other words, the composition of this piece really doesn’t change even though it will move and sway. This allows for all the elements to be easily seen and gives you more control over the composition that the viewer will see while still harvesting the energy that movement imparts.
Let’s make this a two-pieces-per artists-post with a second piece by Carla! Another way to add movement while holding onto the composition somewhat, is to create layers of chains or beads that can move individually or altogether, to varying degrees. Multi-strand necklaces like the one below gives you the opportunity to change up and create contrast between the strands with both the forms, elements, type of strand, and even how much each one can move. For instance, the chained strands on here will move much more than the densely beaded ones. As a result, this piece has more dynamic energy than Carla’s vertical composition above, but the construction keeps it from being just a jumble.
I’m telling you there is so much to this whole movement in design thing. There are tons of examples of movements in pieces that are not jewelry, but I don’t seem to have time for that this post. Let me get a bunch of those together for you for next week and then maybe we’ll get to visual movement after that if we are all still having just a ton of fun with this.
If You’re Feeling Moved
I strongly believe that all choices in a piece of art should be intentional in order to bring out all the potential that your design has and, of course, that includes deciding how much, if any, movement your piece will have.
You can start thinking about movement now by looking at pieces that you’ve previously created or designs you have in progress on your table or in your sketchbook. Ask yourself, “Does this have movement or stillness and how well does that fulfill the need of the design?” Or, “Would this benefit from more movement, less movement, or no movement?” If you can get yourself to regularly think about movement in your work, you’ll be thrilled with the many options you have to add energy, atmosphere, and interest in your pieces. All you need to do is think about how movement should or could play into your designs to have a myriad of new possibilities suddenly open up before your eyes.
All Quiet on the Home Front
Strangely enough, I very little to report on the house and health situation. This is not to say that I’ve not been extremely busy, because I have. Getting this house back together is quite the huge task and there are dozens upon dozens of little things that need to be taken care of, things that might be barely noticed by others except if they were not done or finished properly.
I have started to feel some work withdrawal, however, and I think it’s keeping me up at night because some nights I just can’t fall asleep even though I don’t have anything overly stressful on my mind. I think I just feel a little out of touch. Thank goodness I have this blog to look forward to so I can connect with all of you!
Last Days of the DAMAGE SALE
The last few days I actually did do a fair amount of work although it wasn’t in production or writing. We had our Damage Sale and, holy moly, was that crazy! We sold out of half the stock in the first two hours. I think that may be a record!
Feeling bad for anybody who didn’t get to read the newsletter right after it was sent out, I went through the unopened boxes in my storage space, opening and pulling out many of the so often damaged first and last copies in the boxes, and found some publications that took some damage during shipping that was unnoticeable until boxes were opened.
So, the sale items were restocked some and even today there are still a decent number of magazines and books, in slightly imperfect condition, that are available for up to 60% off. You can get to the sale page here.
The sale will go on through Wednesday September 11th, or until all items are sold out, whichever comes first. I only sell the imperfect copies for one week each year because it’s a bear to track them separately from the other items on an ongoing basis, so you’ll want to grab these deals now while they are still available.
Well I am off to work on the Mosaic backsplash I am creating for the kitchen. I promise to share that when there’s any real visual progress but right now it’s just a lot of cutting little tiles. Do enjoy the rest of your weekends and have a beautifully inspired and moving week!
A Passion Story
June 9, 2019
Inspirational Art
My apologies for the lateness of this post. Nothing has quite worked out the way I had planned this week. From yet a new plumbing problem and further demolition being planned to the sad yet exciting news that my assistant and keeper of lists, Sydney, is moving on to work with a business helping people with eating disorders to the graduation of our teen, setting up for the next issue and our vacation preparations, it has been beyond busy here. I wrote this on a plane to Australia and still am not sure when I’ll get to post it.
The craziness of this week, has, however, had its moments of clarity and calm, at least enough to have a couple of conversations on a subject that is very dear to me … passion. So I thought I’d share my thoughts and, perhaps, get you thinking about your passions and your voice. But, alas, I can’t do the usual research in my present situation, so I am going to tell you some stories about me instead, just a little view of a life driven by my passions and need to be creative and expressive. My apologies for the lack of photos. I’ll make up for it in the coming weeks.
This text is actually from a talk I gave with Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes at Eurosynergy in Malta in 2014 titled Finding your Artistic Voice. My story isn’t purely about polymer art though as writing has been the larger part of my creative journey.
My journey as a writer started when I was very young. I was writing stories in my head from the time I had language enough to do so. I wrote my first book at age 9 and, encouraged by an insightful teacher who saw something in this fearful, quiet, and intensely shy child, I became determined to be a writer. I was lucky to find a passion as a child as my voice developed at an age when I did not think about having to please anyone besides myself or follow what others did. I still try to return to a childlike state in my mind as much as I can—the child mind is so unencumbered with little or no critic, less of a need to ‘fix’ what they are doing, and seeing the world as still new and intensely interesting.
Because of that, my journey as a writer has been very organic and relatively unencumbered. But it did have its challenges. My undergraduate college work was in art but I went back for my Master’s in Writing in San Francisco, the birthplace of beatnik poetry and a lot of great but very edgy & alternative writing. I concentrated on poetry but I wrote for the average person. I wrote about normal things—nature, everyday struggles, and just things I saw out my window or on a walk.
I was heavily criticized by the other students for not doing something “different”. Sure, most all my subjects have been written about thousands of times but they were not written by me and they were not filtered through my eyes. Back then, it never occurred to me to give in to criticism because my writing was so ingrained in me and I grew up just writing what I wanted and didn’t question my subject choices. As a result, I think my work had a recognized honesty and my writing was well received by my professors and department heads. I was nominated for a number of awards and I continuously published for nearly 5 years. Half the other students in my master’s program couldn’t say that.
Eventually, and somewhat ironically, I stopped publishing because I ended up spending more time at readings and shows than writing and I wanted to focus on the writing more. Although the creative writing efforts didn’t go where I had hoped, that focus allowed me to build a career in writing as a freelancer, although it was non-fiction magazine articles and training materials. But in these, I found my passion for teaching and sharing knowledge with others.
Visual art, although an intense passion now, was a long time developing. I actually didn’t see myself as a visual artist at all until I was in my late teens when I accidentally ended up in an advanced Life Drawing class and couldn’t get out of it right away. However, being forced to do the initial assignments, I found that visual arts came quite naturally to me. But with writing being my “thing”, I just thought of art as something fun to do. I was eventually convinced by two different professors to change my major from writing to art, my eventual reason being that I felt I had a lot more to learn about art than writing.
In art school, I was still able to draw on my childlike wonder and sense of exploration, probably because I had kept it alive in my writing all through my younger years. After art school, I worked in charcoal and fiber as well as mixed-media but wasn’t driven to make a career of art until polymer found me nearly 18 years after art school. My polymer journey was quite different than my previous creative treks. I found that I had lost a lot of my childlike tendencies and was out of practice having taken years off my creative endeavors to work and take care of family. But, like many of you, when I found polymer, I became obsessed. I quit my writing career so I could be a full-time artist and so, obviously, I geared what I did to make a living but that gave me a very different focus to start with than I had when I started writing or when I started art school.
My dual drive—to make a living as well as explore this fascinating medium—pushed me to learn as much as I could in 4 months and then I started doing shows, so from the start, my polymer art was about selling it. Although I was initially making art that made me happy, it was not long before I was making art according to what I thought would sell. That resulted in some gimmicky things that were more for and about the market than me. I sold well enough for a while but I slowly began to dislike my work and when that happened, coincidence or not, my sales started to slow.
Eventually, I went back to freelance writing part-time in order to allow myself to start making what I wanted. Not having to count on my art alone to pay my bills was very freeing. Strange thing though … I sold a lot more for better prices when I just did what I wanted.
What happened? For one, I think I was happier with my work, finding so much more joy in what I was doing, and I think it showed it came through in the work, making the art more desirable. I returned to combining other mediums in my work which allowed me really explore the medium in ways I had not done before. I was back to selling out at nearly every show, was invited to teach classes and spoke at shows in rooms so packed that I was often moved me to bigger rooms to accommodate. I believe my success at that time was due largely to my passion showing rather than external pressures driving what I did.
Eventually, though, my passions changed (they will do that!) as I was missing the broad sharing of knowledge that writing allowed, so I started a magazine, thinking it would give me time to develop my art in new directions. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time for my art since then but only because the magazine was such a success. I am still pondering my passions though and what I’ll do next. That’s part of what I want to do on this trip. Consider where my passions truly lie these days and decide if the changes I’ve made recently are feeding them or might there be more changes in the near future?
I’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks and I’ll get photos up then too. Thanks for being patient with me while I travel and think about your passions and what you are doing in the meantime identify what you love most about what you do and whether or not you are feeding your true passions.
(Apologies for typos and odd grammar. I’m not going to have time to proof this very well and my dyslexia is out and causing havoc with this jetlag! I hope you enjoy my story nonetheless.)
A Dramatic Shift
April 28, 2019
Inspirational Art
Pier Voulkos boxes
Of all the fabulous polymer clay techniques, which would you say is the most dramatic? There are certainly a lot of them that can be bright and colorful, shiny and sparkling, dramatic and graphic, but could you pick out just one that you think has the most impact when first seen?
I have to say, the one technique that really pops for me is mica shift. It can be colorful, shimmery, and quite dramatic, and has the added effect of looking three-dimensional when it is not. And who doesn’t love a visual illusion?
Mica shift has waned in popularity of late. I’m not sure why because it is just such a gorgeous technique. But when I started researching the idea of making mica shift the theme this week, I found myself on really old posts and pages, looking at work that was created 10, 20 or 30 years ago. That made me all the more determined to bring this technique’s wonderful effects back into the limelight here.
For those unfamiliar with the technique or how it works, here is a little history and explanation for you.
The effect itself is a result of manipulating the mica in metallic clays into orderly layers that you can then manipulate in a controlled manner. This can be done because mica, a shiny, silvery, layered mineral, forms tiny flakes when ground up. The flat side of these flakes are reflective, but the sides are not (like a mirror.) So, if mica is flat side up, it reflects light, but a stack of mica seen from the side is just dark.
You control the mica in your clay by conditioning it in a pasta machine, folding the sheeted clay in half and running it through over and over. The pasta machine rollers, squeezing the clay down, also nudges the flakes to lay flat. Eventually, all the flat faces of all those tiny flakes are facing up in the sheet, causing it to be reflective and shiny.
So then imagine what happens to all those perfectly flat flakes if you press something into them? The flakes get tilted, showing their dark sides (gosh, sounds like some people I’ve known!) That’s where the control comes in. You decide where to distort that perfectly flat sea of face up flakes with a texture sheet, a blade, or hand tools, and where there is distortion, there will be dark outlines of tilted mica. Those outlines are there under the surface too, as the flakes, like tiny dominoes, knock each other over under the invading lines of a texture sheet or a hand tool.
You can also just play with the difference between the shiny surface and the dark sides by stacking mica sheets and cutting it up, rolling sheets into a cane, or twisting or folding a narrow stack, just to name a few approaches. In these cases, the sides of the original layers stay dark and the surface stays shiny, so you have dramatic contrast.
Mica shift in polymer has been called by other names over the years. One of the original innovators of this technique, Pier Voulkos, (those are her boxes opening this post) called it her “invisible caning”. Later, Karen Lewis referred to Pier’s technique as chatoyant, a French term meaning to shine like a cat’s eye, which is used in gemology to describe the bright reflected bands of light caused by aligned inclusions in a stone. That’s certainly fitting for polymer mica shift too.
Let’s take a look at some truly dramatic and lovely examples of this technique.
Shifty Ideas
Around the same time period that Pier was experimenting with her invisible canes, Mike Buesseler was playing with mica clay sheets and “ingots”, stacking then cutting, twisting, texturing and curling up sections of these sheets and ingots to create beads and surface design.
Here is a beautiful necklace using a very simple technique of twisting a square strand of stacked mica sheets.
I would explain more about Mike but, instead, I’m going to let him explain for himself in what is, to this day, the best video class that I have ever viewed. No joke. I’d rather you stop reading this post and watch that video, if it’s all you have time for today. The video is well over an hour-long and it is twenty years old but, no matter how long you’ve been working with polymer or how much you think you know about mica shift, it is well worth your while. It also has an interesting little story about how it came to be a free master class for all. Check it out on YouTube here.
Grant Diffendaffer has long been my polymer clay hero. His mica shift and designs are breathtaking. Although he worked with techniques derived from all the early developed mica shift techniques, his most impressive are his impression pieces. This type of mica shift, sometimes called “ghost shift”, is created by impressing a texture into a sheet of well-conditioned mica clay and then the raised layer of clay is shaved off with a very sharp tissue blade making a smooth surface but leaving the illusion of dimension. Grant created his own texture sheets and then applied them to mica clay Skinner blends. His choice of blended colors surrounded by textured black makes for some very dramatic pieces.
Some of the most dramatic and graphic mica shift you’ll see to this day comes from the studio of Dan Cormier. A lot of his effects come from cutting and puncturing straight down through the clay. When using a blade, the clay shifts only in the cuts where the blade separates the clay causing just a hairline distortion and thus, very thin dark lines. Puncturing shifts more clay as the tool pushes clay aside to get through. The advantage of these distortions, however, is that the design is present and consistent all the way through the stack.
Here’s another take on mica shift from my own table. These gauge earrings might seem a bit more shimmery than a lot of mica shift as I add plain mica powder (bought from handmade cosmetic suppliers) and translucent clay to my metallic polymer clay to bring up the shimmer a notch. These are created from Skinner blend sheets that were stacked, twisted, and rolled smooth before curling them up. They also receive a lot of denim buffing. My mica shift effect is actually the same basic technique that Mike used for the necklace you see above but I twisted it tighter and rolled it smooth with an acrylic plate.
Just so you know, 3 of the artist’s mentioned here no longer work in polymer clay which is why you aren’t getting the abundance of information and links I can usually offer. Pier, Mike and Grant are all multi-disciplinary creatives who moved on to another creative form—Pier returned to dancing, Mike to music and Grant has stayed in crafts but has been exploring a variety of materials and forms. Regardless, we can sure be grateful for their time with us!
Curious Shift
If this little discussion of mica shift has you anxious to get to the studio table and try it out, I heartily encourage you to do so. In fact, I would like to challenge you all to create a little (or a lot) of mica shift this week. I’m going to do the same, creating some new designs with ideas I came up with after researching this post. I’ll share what I’ve done next week and post them to my personal Instagram page.
Do you think you can you get in one mica shift project before the end of the week? Try it and then please send me a photo or link you would be willing to share online, and I’ll see what I can share at the end of next week’s post. You could also just post to Instagram and tag with #polymerartschallenge or message me on Facebook at The Polymer Studio page or write back if you’re getting this by email.
If you have some great mica shift pieces to add to the discussion, leave a comment at the end of the post for us to check out.
And with that, I have to run. Its been a crazy week. There were some problems with production and getting Issue #2 of The Polymer Studio wrapped up (the release for the new issue will be in a couple of days, April 30th, so keep an eye out for it in your inbox, if you have a digital edition coming, and your mailbox in the weeks to come. Or subscribe or order the issue on our website!) and then we’ve been having problems with the city getting our plans through so we can move forward with the renovations here at the house (many people are still rebuilding from the huge fires we had in November, so they are busy beavers at the planning offices) but, finally, the demolition begins tomorrow and there is still a last few things to prepare. Good news though … we put the refrigerator on the porch instead of in my studio! Yay! We moved the liquor cabinet in here instead. MUCH better idea. I think. Or will it be weird that I can pour a glass of port without leaving my chair here? Well, we shall see.
Until next Sunday my dear readers … have a wonderful week!
Almost Late to Class
September 12, 2018
Inspirational Art
You know those times when you’re so busy that, although you sense something exciting is going on around you, you don’t stop to check it out until it’s too late? That was me these last few weeks. I knew that Dan Cormier’s and Tracy Holmes’ Bioforming class was coming up, but not that registration was nearing its end. Then, in my weekly search for cool polymer goodies to share with you this past weekend, I found this refreshing brooch by Dan and realized I didn’t know what was going on with their class. And guess what? It looked like registration for the class may have come and gone. Could this be true?
Not that I would have time to take it, much less sleep much, this year. If you read Monday’s news, you know about the new Polymer Art Projects – Organics book for which pre-sales started at a discount price on Monday, and you probably know about our new magazine, The Polymer Studio, coming in January, and you may also have heard that the next Polymer Journeys book will be on its way in November, so you know I’m beyond busy! But I wished I’d managed to make the time to tell you about this great new class before it was too late.
But then I thought, maybe it’s not! And a couple emails later and I have for you … drumroll please … a secret back door into a few extra spots Dan and Tracy have kindly opened just for you, my readers!
So, if you’re interested, jump over to this link to sign up for their in-depth Bioforming class. This secret back door will only be ope through this Friday so don’t wait as it is probably your last chance to get in on this.
Even if you can’t make the class, be sure to sign up for their newsletter so you’re one of the first to know when their next fantastic class is available.
In the meantime, here’s a bit of Dan’s latest work. The sophistication and mastery that underlies his approach to form, finishes, and design is all here but the little bouncing balls of color and the fun cactus form gives a humorous edge that is not as common in Dan’s work although, if you know him, is a big part of his personality.
For more on Dan’s work and on the classes Dan and Tracy have been teaching, go to their primary website here.
Colour Breakthrough – Throwing Out the Wheel
June 10, 2015
Inspirational Art
One of our most unusual articles in the summer issue, the one we definitely spent the most time on getting just right for you all, is Tracy Holmes’ “Color Connections”. This is a color lesson and color mixing tutorial that throws out the color wheel and works with mixing and matching in three dimensions. The exercises are easy and fun, and you end up with a reusable and expandable color mixing cube. It will teach you the basics that will allow you to eventually move onto using Tracy’s soon-to-be-available color cards that will expand your potential palette to hundreds of easily mixed and matched colors.
The thing we didn’t have a lot of room for in the article was expanding on how to use it to choose colors, not just mix them. So here is a quick visual tutorial on how using this system works for creating color palettes.
Tracy’s partner, Dan Cormier, had made a ‘blurred lines’ blended veneer. He wanted to find an accent color, so he looked through Tracy’s cards, first to find colors that were in the blend, and then to find a complement color for one of those colors. He used the codes to find the yellow that was the exact opposite of the purple. Then he mixed clay to match that color and made a sheet to dieform through the hole in the baked blend veneer. The purple become another accent within the accent at the center of the bead.
Sounds easy, right? Well, it sounds like it could be easy if you understand the system. That’s what the article helps you understand—how colors are connected, not just by mapping them on a two-dimensional wheel, but through other colors as well, which is why understanding how color are truly related takes a three-dimensional model. Go ahead and go through the steps in the article for an easy first look at this idea, as well as getting a primer on a new way to look at color that can encompass our digital, printing and artistic color mixing worlds.
Tracy is not the only one out there promoting these new base color ideas, and you are likely to see this kind of color approach coming to you from a number of arenas. Right now Tracy’s Colour Cards are the only method I know of that will allow an artist to work with this newer approach to color mixing and matching in an easy and accessible way. To be one of the first to get the new cards when they arrive, sign up for Tracy’s newsletter, so you can get on the Kickstarter program, which will be your first and best chance to pre-order your own BreakThroughColour Colour Cards and Cubes. It’s not just exclusive to Kickstarter, but there are special ‘Project Backer’ prices for supporters.
Full details about limited edition packages and early bird deals will go out first to the new BreakThroughColour mailing list, so hop on over and take a second to sign up for the BreakThroughColour mailing list. And to get your Summer 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts, go to our website at www.thepolymerarts.com.
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.
A Mix of Fabulous Influence
February 20, 2015
Inspirational Art
Okay … I love this piece, but I hesitated posting it at first. And I bet you can guess why. The beads are beautifully crafted and the combination of contrasts lets each bead stand apart while still feeling like a part of the grand party that this necklace is by using regular jumps to red and and the limited palette. However, there are a couple very obvious bits of ‘borrowing’. I figured that word hits the middle ground on what some people might think about what Olga Ledneva does with work created in the styles and techniques of Dan Cormier and Helen Breil. Through books and classes, these two masterful artists make these techniques available to learn and create from. You can’t just learn these techniques and then not use them, right? However, you do still need to make them your own.
Upon seeing this, I knew neither Dan nor Helen created this piece. The beads echo theirs, but are not theirs for one or two reasons in each case. I think Olga really has applied her own style to the creation of the beads and, more specifically, to the combination and design of the necklace. The question, however, is whether or not you agree. I am definitely for taking something you learn and putting your own spin on it to the point that its original influence is not readily recognized rather than just add your own flair. But at what point does that happen? How far afield do you go before you can feel it really is your own work?
These are the first of this kind of work from Olga. We featured her own very unique constructed elements style about six months ago, and I can’t say I would have thought this was by the same person. Except for the meticulous finishes. That is really what is so fabulous about this. It is just so beautifully crafted. I am very interested in seeing where she goes with this kind of work. She obviously has her own particular voice and is trying to applying what’s she’s learned to her style of work. The outcome down the road could be tremendously exciting!
So what do you think? Do you think she should have taken the look and forms a touch further, or do you like how well she has learned what was taught and how she changed it?
You can see see more of Olga’s insanely meticulous work on her Flickr page.
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.
Refined Depths
November 6, 2014
Inspirational Art
It would be hard to do a week on the illusion of depth without taking a look at one of our foremost masters in the category of mica shift. Dan Cormier and his uncompromising approach has given us some of the most beautiful examples of illusionary depth in polymer.
And here’s a treat, even for those of you quite familiar with his work. This black necklace hasn’t really made the rounds primarily because it was not in Dan’s possession very long, being sold off to a worthy student and artist shortly after its creation. The other half of this treat is that I got Dan’s thoughts on this piece and a little of its story in a recent email to add depth to our admiration of the work:
When working in a medium of infinite colour like polymer clay, sometimes it’s fun to turn the volume down a few notches. This monotone necklace is another example of my “Texture Without Texture” techniques. Like my Discovery Necklace, the impressions were made with custom-made polymer clay punches, bent wire, ball stylus tools, and also bits of patterned sheet metal. With the exception of actual holes in some of the bead veneers, the surfaces of these beads are all smooth.
The woman who owns this necklace is a very cool brain surgeon and potter from Victoria, BC . We met her when she signed up for one of our week-long retreats on Gabriola Island, BC … she confessed on Day 1 that, while she was comfortable as a crafts person in clay, she’d never even opened a package of polymer. Nevertheless, knowing her ‘day job,’ I was confident that my medium was in capable hands.
Dan and his partner Tracy also continue to innovate and develop new tools and techniques. They recently vastly expanded their die sets collection with a beautiful line of elongated shapes that came out this summer, and a new set based on the beauty of the insect world is about ready for shipping. Check out their new offerings and their classics on The Cutting Edge 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.
We’ve looked at a few rather free-form versions of rippling, but ripples can also be well controlled and stylized while maintaining that similarly energized feel of movement.
The pins that emerged in The Broken Internet Project had a lot of controlled, but high-energy lines in the designs, most likely due to their inspiration being a pin by the meticulous Dan Cormier, a pin that had a zigzag line (a cousin to the ripple, you could say) through the center of it. I loved Cornelia Brockstedt’s interpretation with both a controlled rippling Skinner blend and a silhouette of a ripple inserted next to it. Calm, but energized. It’s almost the definition of that.
If you never had the chance to see the whole Broken Internet Project results, be sure to jump over to The Cutting Edge’s Facebook page to see them all together. And, for more by the fabulous Cornelia Brockstedt, take a look at her website or her Flickr pages for her latest pieces.
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.
This week, I just want to put up some examples of perfectly executed and finished work, to focus on skill and craftsmanship and look at how that attention to detail and care in handling can be, and often is, at the center of what makes a piece work.
Daniela Klein is not a master artist, not yet, but her efforts point to really excellent potential. Looking through her Flickr photostream, you can see that a good looking finish is important to Daniela but execution has had its challenges at times. But then, in her timeline you see two pendants and the couple of pieces that come after, that show an increased attention to the fine tuning of the pieces final look. The two pendants were created in a class with Dan Cormier’s, one of our community’s absolutely perfection obsessed craftsman. This pendant, although made in Dan’s class, doesn’t look like a Dan Cormier piece but the techniques are recognizable. The color choices and lines follow trends in Daniela’s past pieces making me think she followed her own creative muse in the class but made a great effort to emulate the fine finishing details that are a large part of Dan’s signature look.
As far as I can tell, Daniela’s work is only present on her Flickr pages right now. But take a look at her journey there and then keep an eye out for her in the future!
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.
No, this post is not a rant about the vagaries of the world-wide web, problematic wifi connections, or website issues but rather, of all things, polymer art! If you recall from Synergy last year or from the blog posts or article about it, there was a rather groundbreaking experiment known as The Broken Telephone Project conceived and directed by Dan Cormier. He sent a pin he created to an artist who created a pin inspired by his who then sent their inspired pin onto another artist who then did the same thing until 8 pins were created based on another artist’s work.
It was such a successful and insightful experience, that Dan decided to expand on the project for this year’s EuroSynergy. He made it a primarily European project, enlisting artists from the UK to Russia but instead of the artist sending pins onto the next person, he sent them all a pin he had made and each of them created a wonderfully different piece from that same inspiration. These artists didn’t know that they were all working off just Dan’s pin so it was a bit of a surprise as he presented the final pins in today’s presentation in Malta. Here is the pin that started what Dan is calling a radial project.
Are you curious to see what the other pins look like? Well, I am trying to get Dan’s okay to publish more than just his pin but I haven’t gotten my permission list yet. I’ll be running down to the final gala dinner and see what else we can share in the coming days. Perhaps next week we’ll have a lot of very, very new art in the form of pins to share with you. Let’s see what I can sweet talk him into, just for you, my dear 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.
Folded polymer seems to be a bit of trend lately. From the popularity of Helen Breil’s folded beads and tutorial to Sonya Girodon’s faux folded paper to the folded look pin sent out as a tease for Dan Cormier’s upcoming book, we’re seeing a lot of polymer getting folded these days so this week, we’ll look at what some other artists are doing with the folded approach.
These earrings are by Hanc of the Fler.cz marketplace. First of all, this is some fantastically done gradient color–the smooth and consistent transitions through so many hues take some patience to create. And that white line down the center is a rather genius addition, giving the ruffled folds added complexity and dimension. Overall, it’s a fairly simple centered design but it’s wonderful how the folded polymer gives the piece tactile texture and movement as well as adding to the vibrant feel of the color by the repetition of the folds.
This Czech artist, who goes by the name Hanc, loves gardening and flowers, creating magical worlds full of colorful folder polymer clay. There is a lot more like this to be found in this artist’s fler.cz shop so do pop over and take in more variations on this folded approach as well as other inspired and skillfully completed designs.
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.
So, if you didn’t read yesterday’s post since earlier this morning, you might want to jump over there and read it. I used a quote to highlight the reasons for not copying and for crediting others. Then ironically the quote image turned out to be a misappropriated quote, reworded and posted without credit. Which brings up the one thing I didn’t summarize in yesterday’s post from the “rules” we suggest in the upcoming article “Stealing Talent” (see the Spring 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts being released on Friday.) That suggested rule is … never post anything derived from another artist’s work, not even from a class or tutorial, unless you’ve really made it your own.
Publicly posting anything that is not uniquely yours, even if you give credit to the original artist that inspired or taught you, is a dangerous and potentially harmful practice, for both you and the original artist. Your credits in the comments section of Flickr, Facebook or even a caption on a website will not necessarily follow that image as it is reposted unless the person pinning/posting consciously chooses to include your words. With the credits missing, people may think you are ripping the original artist off. Besides making you look bad, the original artist is no longer getting credit for his/her hard work.
So I have a proposal … let’s commit to NOT posting images publicly that are not our own original pieces. Let’s only post art which truly represents our unique creativity and ideas. And if we post something that was created as a result of a class or tutorial have it marked with the original artist’s name/credits IN the image itself. You can add text to your images using your photo editing software or watermark them using free online software like www.picmarkr.com or www.umarkonline.com. This way, credit will not be lost when images are reposted.
You may also put your name on images of your own work so they also will always have proper credit no matter where they wander off to, but please, do so as unobtrusively as possible. Watermarking takes away from the presentation of the art and if it weren’t helpful online, I would say never watermark your images at all. But if you do, remember to save an unmarked version as well so it can be used for other things like, oh, getting published in a high quality magazine.
Since I was going to post samples of asymmetry this week (a counter to last week’s symmetry theme) but would also like to give you an example of a watermarked image, here is a bead I created using Dan Cormier’s die-forming technique. And no, in this case, the credit to Dan isn’t necessary–this would never be mistaken for one of his pieces–but it was part of an exercise for an article reviewing his book, Relief Beyond Belief.
Asymmetry (getting back on track here) would seem to be about composition set off balance. But actually, it is completely the opposite. Asymmetry is all about balance. A well composed asymmetrical piece will have the various sides and position of elements balanced against each other–unless you are trying to create a sense of unbalance or tension. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow. I have chatted enough for the last day or two.
I do want to thank all of you who sent me emails about yesterday’s post. I would highly encourage you to actually use the comment section of the blog here to share your thoughts with everyone. It is pretty telling that dozens of people emailed me but no one left a comment. It is a heated subject. But if you email me instead (and I really don’t mind at all!) please do let me know if we can repost your comments and we’ll do so anonymously. This is an important subject and we’d like to hear your thoughts as well!
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.
Torolf Sauermann is an artist and a mathematician. It would be very difficult to say if he was more one than the other, but either way I do think he may be quite obsessed with what he does. Torolof creates math art–artwork that is formed by playing with mathematics. He is not the only person out there creating math art, but from the sampling I saw, no one does anything quite as intricate or nearly so much of it.
So what is math art? It is art created in mathematically based software programs using things I won’t pretend to understand like topological mesh modeling, parametric equations, and isosurfaces. In essence, these programs (to the best of my understanding) are used to manipulate mathematical models in visual forms. Torolf then has them printed using a 3D printer which, using extremely thin layers of plastic resin, builds the models from the ground up so they can then exist out in the world. One might imagine a piece developed through math might be rigid, but that is not always the case. Just look at this intriguing piece–it appears extremely organic.
I brought Torlof up today not only because he’s an artist and a guy to go with our theme this week, but because he was introduced to our community for the first time through one of our polymer guys, Dan Cormier, at Synergy 2 a few years back. And his work, which you can check out here on his website, also sometimes looks like Daniel Torres‘ hollow polymer forms. I’m sure it’s wholly coincidental, but it is kind of cool to see two very analytical guys coming up with similar forms.
Speaking of Dan Cormier and the things he brings our attention to … over at The Cutting Edge, Dan and Tracy are giving away signed copies of the issues of Ornament and The Polymer Arts that featured articles on The Broken Telephone Project. If you want to get in on that drawing, send them an EMAIL, FORWARD this news to a friend, COMMENT on our Facebook page, or SHARE their Facebook post with others.
I’ve had several conversations recently about the ratio of men to women working in polymer. I’m not sure I’m really the authority on the subject, but we do know it’s small. I seem to recall that Cynthia Tinnapple and Judy Belcher pulled up a statistic at Synergy 3 but I can’t recall the exact number, only that we are an overwhelmingly female-dominated art form. That poor handful of guys!
So this week, I thought I’d highlight a handful of our guys, trying to stick with the ones that don’t get seen around quite so much.
First, for your pattern- and color-viewing pleasure, we have Adam Thomas Rees. His work is similar to that of Jon Anderson, who we have featured on here and in the magazine; but for the most part he works on a larger scale and the focus is more on color rather than controlled patterns.
I can’t say if Adam was influenced by Jon or if they individually came to work in cane-covered animal forms separately, but I think I see some influence by other men in polymer here. At the very least, there are some canes that look quite a bit like the the mica-shift canes of Dan Cormier. Maybe its just that these guys are all sticking together!
If you know of any guys in polymer (or are one of them!) that aren’t getting the attention you think they deserve, write me at sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com with a link to their work, and let’s see about getting them highlighted this week!
My dear and darling friends Tracy Holmes and Dan Cormier are helping out a tired and worn out publisher this week by guest posting for me today. I wanted to write up something about their color projects for our color theme this week but Tracy graciously took the writing upon herself and Dan put together the fun image of the cubed color project they conducted for Synergy 3 (they are such incredible idea people!) So go ahead and ‘radiate’ with them …
When I invited artists to participate in a project that combined the diversity of polymer clay with the almost uncountable possible configurations of a Rubik’s Cube, I gave them a few guidelines. While each artist was welcome and encouraged to showcase their own skillset and sing in their own creative voice, this was, primarily, a project about colour. “Please,” I suggested, “Keep each of your six sides within a clearly identifiable Pentaradial Palette.”
A what?
Through this project, and through my workshop and seminars at the recent Synergy3 Conference in Atlanta in March, I introduced a new approach to colour that I’ve being playing around with; a new way to explore and understand it, in theory and practice. In my world, a ‘Pentaradial Palette’ is a group of colours that radiate from a single, central place to create a cohesive collection of related hues. Basically, it’s taking a standard ‘Colour Wheel’ colour and, rather than chasing it around in circles as one of six, moving it into the middle to become a single ‘Hub’ for the other five. Whether you start with RYB or CMY (that’s another discussion), for this discussion, can we all agree that Green is a Secondary colour? Good. So, here’s what my PC3 artists got as their ‘Pentaradial Palette’ grid guide for the Green side:
With the right recipe (concept + clay + courage), mixing custom colours is easier than you think. But having said that, if you’re not quite ready to go DIY with the CMY, there are plenty of prêt à porter spokes already on the pre-packaged polymer clay colour wheel. Starting as recommended, with the purest and simplest of Hubs, here’s what nine of my PC3 artists did with their Greens:
As a polymer clay artist and teacher, I think it’s best to work towards work that features a personal palette, rather than one that relies on colors that are right out of the package. And, as my color-courageous Cubists discovered, it’s amazing how quickly adding just a little of ‘this’ to a package of ‘that’ will shift the starting hue away from something everyone recognizes, to something that is so much more ‘palettably personal.’
So, whether you’re going Green, mellowing Yellow, seeing Red, feeling Blue, shifting Cyan or mixin’ it up with Magenta, stop spinning your wheels. Grab a color, start there … and radiate!
Follow Tracy & Dan’s color adventure on their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/TheCuttingEdgePolymerClay
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Have you ever thought about how often polymer work is abstract? Many jewelry, wall art and object artists that work in polymer do not work with recognizable imagery. We commonly work with just color, lines, forms … motifs perhaps. Technically, much of this would be called decorative design but tell me … is there really any difference between the intuitive arrangement of elements to create mood, impressions and symbolic meaning in a piece of jewelry and that can’t be done on a canvas?
Take a look at this beautiful painting by Carol Nelson. Can’t you see it as a lovely polymer pendant? She even finishes it off with a layer of clear resin to increase the depth of color just as many polymer artists do.
My mind has already gone off and figured out how to make something like this. Gold, copper and pearl mica clay blended backgrounds textured with a comb and colored with splashes of alcohol ink. That would probably do the trick, don’t you think? I wouldn’t copy it exactly–we all need to make our work our own, even if it is in a different medium. Translating the work means filtering it through your own aesthetic and personal statements. But the cross imagery, the straight lines contrasted against the rough edge of the space, along with the splashes of rich color … that’s what speaks to me, and what I would pull to make my own work.
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 puts craft work into another category. 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 weekend, 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.
It doesn’t matter what medium it is. It’s all art. It’s all visual communication.
If you are interested in examples and ideas about how artists derive inspiration from other art and artists (as opposed to copying) keep an eye on The Cutting Edge page on Facebook. I hear Dan Cormier will soon be revealing the steps and each brooch in his Broken Telephone project on that page (I blogged about the project from the Synergy conference last week). It’s amazing what truly talented artists will do and how connected the pieces are, even when elements seemed to have disappeared along the way. Stay tuned here and at The Cutting Edge.
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