Gift Label Keepsakes
December 8, 2012 Inspirational Art
I am a bit of a tree hugger. I have a strong aversion to things, especially those that have personal significance, that are disposable … those things purchased or made to show someone you care but, having no purpose beyond that, are often thrown away. Gift tags are like that. I have a box of holiday gift tags that I designate the to’s and from’s of gifts with. It’s not a lot of paper stock, but my little personal messages on them aren’t usually kept. Similarly, I always feel so guilty about throwing away the ones I get. I wish I made them more than just a gift marker.
Of course, working in polymer, there is a way. I was searching for ideas online when I found Marjorie Dalgarn’s Flickr page of cute little ornaments. I love the details. Check out the tiny dump trucks and the babies’ adorable little feet and toes! And how nice to honor a couple with an ornament for the both of them.
In an appropriate size for the gift being given, little decorative pieces like these would work as both gift tags and ornaments that can be hung on the tree year after year with the memory of the giver and the personal touch being remembered each time. No additional trash, either!
Air-filled beads
December 5, 2012 Tips and Tricks
I’ve made a few donut beads in my day. I have molds and use up scrap clay to fill the form. But I really like this air-filled technique as posted by Page McNall of Palo Alto, California. A little patience and a light touch seem to be the main ingredients needed to create the nice pillowy curves using this technique.
Page actually shows several approaches to making these on her Flickr page. Here is her technique summary, though:
Leave the large air-filled bead inside the metal cutter and select the location you want to cut the small circle. Slowly depress the cutter until you have sliced through all the layers of clay and remove the small cutter. Clean up the edges using an X-acto knife and a rounded smooth tool like a large knitting needle to smooth any rough edges. Carefully remove the air-filled bead and doctor up and outside edges. Now you are ready to bake your masterpiece. Again, thanks to Cate van Alphen for your ideas to improve on this technique.
An Optical Education
November 26, 2012 Inspirational Art
ST Art Clay’s photostream on Flickr is a rather amazing educational journey. This artist (whose name I have not been able to discover but would love to have on here, should anyone know it) looks to have taken classes with all the big names and obviously paid attention in class! She credits all her pieces to the original artist she learned the techniques from.For instance, this pendant’s mokume gane approach is credited to Melanie Muir. Melanie’s influence is obvious if you are a fan of her work but what our avid new polymer artist here does is translate what she learns into some really incredible optically active textures.
The ordered application of the impressed circles is almost hynotic. Browse through St Art Clay’s Flickr stream for her externally well-finished versions of Cormier Cutting Edge necklaces, Picarillo pendants, Dumont hollow beads, and McCaw canes.
Although the influence of the master artist’s are obvious, I like the direction that one can see is starting to be pushed in the collection of work. I am a big proponent of finding one’s own voice as an artist but I also see nothing wrong with learning technique and skills through copying the approach of another’s work. As long as you take it and start to apply your own interests and visions. This needs to be done not only out of respect for the artist you learn from but also for your own growth. The fact that ST Art Clay consistently pushes the work towards an optically enticing and visually active surface treatment shows this is one artist that is already well on her way to digging her own voice out of the many voices she’s been assimilating.
Mini Pillow Boxes
November 14, 2012 Inspirational Art
Containers have an intrigue for many people. They enclose spaces that could have any number of things inside … a little unexpected gift, a misplaced precious trinket or thoughtful note. The containers themselves can be such wonderful little treasures. These mini boxes with rich colors, shimmer and a fanciful pillow shape are just that.
These mini pillow like boxes are the creation of Madrid’s Fabi (fperezajates on Flickr). Fabi is a polymer teacher as well and has a fabulous (sorry, couldn’t help using that word!) blog showing not only her work but the work of her students. She may only post a few times a month but the posts are something definitely worth tracking.
Subtlety
November 7, 2012 Inspirational Art
I am really enjoying Lorraine Vogel’s understated botanic imagery I found on Flickr. The tendency for literal and clear translations of flora can be beautiful but also lessens the chance that the owner or viewer will connect to it on a more personal level. Leaving out clearly defined lines and color that is barely there allows us to fill in the rest with our own experiences and memories.
For me, these subtle images remind me of those very sunny days when I’ve been outside on a walk or hike and the sun is so bright I can hardly see anything clearly, getting more of an impression of the world around me than clear and certain memories. These are pleasant, warm memories that are now associated with the images of Lorraine’s pieces. Of course, my having a hard time adjusting my eyes to daylight might just be a sign that I need to get out of the house more often!
Grant’s Curiosity
June 20, 2012 Inspirational Art, Supplies & other fun stuff
A heavily influential artist in my studio, Grant Diffendaffer’s book Polymer Clay Beads: Techniques, Projects Inspiration is full of beautiful visual texture and large bold pieces. He approaches the creations of his pieces from a curiosity about the effects of mica shift and the possibilities that different forms offer to show it off.
On his Flickr page Grant says this necklace is one of his favorite pieces featuring his early work with his ghost image technique. The colors are just delicious (how else can this be described?) It’s also a great example of imagery repetition (the bubbles) without symmetry or consistency. The visual design is held together by the color and texture alone.
His book was re-released last year so you can find more of Grant’s work not only on his Flickr page and in his book but in Lark’s 400 Polymer Clay Designs, where his beautiful containers and more jewelry are featured.
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As artists, we think of our imagination as a major muscle, if not the primary one used when we’re creating. But how much do you stretch that muscle?
In craft art, because we also have to create steps, a process, and consider function and durability, our minds spend a lot of time in the purely logical, problems solving sections of our brain. Not that the imagination and problem solving are not connected; they absolutely are. But pure imagination is something we don’t always practice. So, here is a little something to push you to do so.
These fun bracelets are the work of the ever creative Anke Humpert. Using translucent clay in a unique design and decorating it with sea creatures she made up is just the start here.
As she explained to me, “The bracelets have a design that glows in black light! That is why they are called deep-sea creature bracelets. You would not normally notice the night side of them, only if you go to a night club or something similar. They also have a special hinge. Most of it is made with polymer only very little metal involved.”
These bracelets, as it turns out, are the centerpiece for one of the three classes she will be teaching at the Cabin Fever Clay Arts Fest next month. In describing the class for prospective students, she says, “Since we do not know much about the deep seas, we will have fun and let our imagination run wild creating plants (or even animals?) as we imagine them.” And that freedom and use of the imagination is what inspired me to share this today and create a bit of a different challenge for those following along.
By the way, I do have a Flickr page for sharing the results of the challenges I’ve been posting, only I haven’t had time to snap pics of what I’ve done, so there’s nothing on it yet really. But if any of you want to get on while I catch up over here, I would love to see what you’ve been up to. Go here to join in!
Does Anke’s class intrigue you? She is also teaching her Big Beads and fun hand tool texturing techniques. She’s joined by a slew of amazing talent including Lisa Pavelka, Maureen Carlson, Dayle Doroshow, Lindly Haunani, Doreen Kassel, Jana Lehmann, Ann and Karen Mitchell, Nan Roche, Lynne Anne Schwarzenberg, and more. There is still room in almost every class, so, if you are interested, jump in while you have your pick of classes still. You can find the classes on this PDF and registration on their webpage.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Let your imagination run wild and recreate an image, motif, shape, or a faux effect you might otherwise recreate as it is seen in nature or as we expect it to be, making your own version. A rose with black petals, a plaid cat, turquoise in pink, purple leather, a square pendant with a chunk missing in the corner, or a peace symbol with Mickey Mouse ears. Just change it up and make it your own.
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Read MoreIs it just me, or do the dark colors of autumn seem so much more dramatic than any other season? I’m not knocking the spark of those first Spring flowers or the brilliance of a sunny mid-summer meadow, but the brightness and purity of those colors are beautiful and cheerful while Autumn’s palette speaks of deep emotion and, well, drama. At least to me. Life is not all bright and cheery and I think that is something we actually need. The tempered days of troubled thoughts and the rough patches we experience are what truly make us appreciate the good times. Life is for living and it’s one bumpy ride. But even the bumpy times can be beautiful.
Similarly, days like those in Autumn, with the foliage falling away, plants returning to the ground, and the days getting shorter, have their own wonderful beauty. The idea of beauty even in the process of decay has always interested me, so it’s no wonder Klavdija Kurent‘s liquid crystal stone caught my eye as I scoured for more Autumn palettes. The technique itself is gorgeous with the translucency of the shuffled layers, but also the colors in those reds, rusts, oranges and creams are so vibrant when juxtaposed. The play of this almost monochromatic palette is where the drama comes from. The many textures of this piece add to its drama and impact as well.
This image is from a promotion for a class Klavdija had last month in which she taught this liquid stone and a liquid rust technique. Hopefully she’ll teach this again in some fashion that might allow us in on her secrets. In the meantime, you can look at more drama and fun pieces on her Flickr and her blog.
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Although shibori is a fantastic source of inspiration in polymer, adding the liveliness of rippling lines and textures can be achieved in a myriad of ways. Just consider what rippling is and how it works in a design.
Ripples are lines and like any lines, they create movement. However, unlike the forcefulness of straight lines or the gentle leading of curved lines, ripples usually portray a calm but steady energy making them an eye catching element in any design.
Here are multiple examples of this all in one necklace as created by Vickie Sixsmith. We can see the energy in the rippled edges of clay discs, not unlike those on Kim’s bracelet we talked about yesterday, along with the subtle movement in the snakes of wound clay as well as in the soft visual sway of the feather canes covering the focal and side beads. The energy is slightly different in each approach, showing the varying levels of energy and d movement that can be achieved with rippling lines.
Besides explorations in ripples, Vickie and her mother Jean Twigg, who together are Fusion Jewellery Designs, explore a variety of form and texture but movement and energy is a primary focus. You can see more of their collective work on their Facebook page and Vickie’s postings on her Flickr photostream.
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.
Read MoreWe have another scene picked by Ginger Davis Allman today, this one by miniature sculptor Angee Chase. This is actually an older piece but it was kind of hard to pass by for someone with a love of painting and light like myself.
If you’ve ever taken a painting class you probably heard a lot about capturing the quality of light? Light is what visually defines everything we see but it has variable qualities, especially sunlight throughout the day. I found dawn and dusk to be two of the hardest but most interesting types of light to capture as you are working with growing or diminishing light coming from a low angle. The deepening shadows and richness of a darkening scene at sunset are well captured in Angee’s Sunset Farm Painting. This includes determining the right shades of color, choosing the right value for the background behind the foreground objects and varying the value of the layers of scenery. I’m not sure if the orb in the sky was intended as a sun or a moon but the lighting on the mountains are perfectly portrayed as a full moon rising on the tail end of sunset. And that is quite an inspiring scene if you’ve ever been able to see that over wide open country. This piece is only 3 .75″ x 4.25″ (95mm x 107mm) by the way. Great detail for something so small.
Angee is still doing scenes these days but the ones I found on her Etsy shop are 1″ (25mm) square. Now we’re talking tiny! Her newer shop is called WonderWorks and has a presence on Facebook as well. Her Flickr photostream displays her older pieces if you want ideas that are more like what you see here.
Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by getting yourself a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
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.
Read MoreGinger’s pick for today is a bit of lovely wall art by New York’s Joan Israel. Like yesterday’s post, this polymer clay landscape scene consists of individual elements that are arranged to tell a story although I think this one is more about the artist than the town.
Although scenes and stories in polymer are most often literal imagery, the dimensionality and playfulness of the material lends itself more readily to symbolism and metaphor rather than realistic illustration. In this piece, the size of the various components relay a hierarchical importance between the images. The river, the sun, and the bird are the largest, most active and contrasting of the elements here. Light, freedom and a gentle meandering from these along with the bright and rich colors gives the viewer a sense that this is a very happy place, one the artist must be very fond of. The position of the menorah top and center helps in identifying the place if you didn’t see the title of the piece to start with. The title is “Israel” by the way, one of Joan’s favorite places, she confesses in her Flicker comments. Her love of the place does shine right through.
Bright colors and stylized imagery is Joan’s trademark from her jewelry to her covered decor to wall pieces like this. For a bright and sunny break in your day, take a look at Joan’s work on her Flickr photostream.
Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by getting yourself a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
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