Busy with Beadstyle
November 13, 2012 Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
I had an email from BeadStyle magazine this morning about their latest issue with a rather pretty little bracelet in the header. Geez, I thought … that could be or should be polymer. Turns out, yep, it’s mostly polymer. And it’s from a favorite and all too busy polymer artist, Christi Friesen. Here is a close up of the bracelet’s beads below.
Christi has certainly been busy! She wrote an article on creating the look of ice and snow in polymer which you’ll find in our next issue of The Polymer Arts as well as continuously adding new products to her retail line, a couple of which are in our Shimmer and Shiny product review in this upcoming issue. And she’s still been flitting about the world, teaching classes and spreading the love of polymer. You can see more of Christi’s work at www.CForiginals.com
If you haven’t checked out Beadstyle magazine, they do often have beautiful designs that could be translated for polymer so could be a source of inspiration for you polymer beaders. And of course, if you don’t have a subscription yet and want to get the latest Polymer Arts issue when it comes out this coming week, go to our site at www.thepolymerarts.com and choose Buy/Subscribe to get your subscription or pre-order your Winter 2012 Shimmer and Shine issue.
Outside Inspiration: Trying Not to Be a Polymer Snob
October 26, 2012 Inspirational Art
Below is an intriguing, elegant necklace by Danielle Gori-Montanelli. Fairly simple with a calm yet random pattern and subdued colors. Nice, right? It’s felt.
Have you ever worked with felt? Dense, rich, durable and a really earthy medium. Great fun for the very tactile artist. It’s also pretty forgiving if you mess up and have to take your piece apart, rebuild, extract or expand. And still … my first thought when I saw this piece was “How cool. But it would have been so much easier to make in polymer.”
Now why did I say that to myself? It wouldn’t necessarily be easier or quicker — considering the conditioning and handling of the clay that would be needed before constructing it. But it did make me realize that I’m a tad bit biased. Okay, more than a tad. And that’s with fiber being one of my first loves.
I think it really comes down to an overriding admiration for the versatility of the medium as well as the very sharing and generous nature of the polymer community. It’s really hard to beat. It’s rather insane how many other art materials have been sitting in boxes — untouched — since I became a full-blown polymer addict some 7 years ago. I think I need some intervention.
All materials are valid. There are a very few that cannot work with polymer. So to temper my snobbery, I have been mixing fiber with polymer. It has been seriously all too fun. Has it been helping my prejudice though? Well …
Do you have a medium that you worked in before polymer? Have you tried combining the two? You should really try it if you haven’t. You will probably come up with some incredible works of art!
Of course that would further support a prejudice for polymer … what can’t polymer do? Oh, well. I guess those of us so inclined need more therapy … yep, we will have to spend more time in the studio exploring. Oh, how terrible.
Hope for Translucents
October 20, 2012 Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
I’ve been keeping an eye on the experiments people have making with the Pardo translucent clay. At this point, I think it’s pretty obvious that it is the clearest translucent on the market. It also seems to be the most elusive which is probably because it’s becoming quite popular. Just look at what can be done with it.
Here we have a Lindly Haunani inspired pinch petal necklace by Nora Pero of San Diego, California. The petals look to be made from sheets that, judging by the other photos she has on her Flickr site, are probably 2 cards thicks and yet the dark background comes through with no visible yellowing. How cool is that?
When I was in Atlanta last month, I got to see and handle some pieces made by Ellen Prophater with this clay. So clear with no yellowing, I was amazed. They sold it there but since I was traveling by car in the south, there was no point in packing some up as it’d likely be baked in my Subaru-style oven. What the heck, I’d seen it at a local hobby store. I’ll get it when I get back home.
But alas, there has been no translucent, and very little Pardo to be found all along the Colorado front range. Some intensive research on the internet brought up only two sources — Amazon, where someone who has realized the value of the rare material was selling it at twice its retail price and our friends at Poly Clay Play.
I have, however, written my contact at Viva Decor to get the scoop on the translucent clay supply. I will update you as I get information!
Sculptured Floral
September 6, 2012 Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Floral motifs are so popular in polymer but not quite so much as a realistic sculptural subject. I think that is why this grabbed me.
These flowers are by Catherine Zverzhanskaya of Moscow. They are all polymer delicately formed with great little details. I don’t think these are even her most impressive flowers. She works these into jewelry as well as decor. Take a look at her website. Really incredible variety of flowers, all very realistic. If you want to learn how she does more of this, she has a nice FAQ section as well that covers her use of cold porcelain as well.
The Flowery Depths
August 28, 2012 Inspirational Art
Zuda Gay Pease is a grandmother who lives in Illinois and creates these incredible flowers that seem to have so much depth and complexity to them. But if you look closely, they aren’t so much complex as unexpected.
The caned petals aren’t simply sliced but also cut and sculpted. This gives them a depth and tactile surface I don’t think you’d find anywhere in nature but they seem to be perfectly natural regardless.
Beauty Bust
August 25, 2012 Inspirational Art
It’s about time we revisit the Art Doll world. There are so many incredibly talented people in art dolls and Virginie Ropar is among the most amazing of them.
This piece is actually a bust rather than a doll. The detailed components as well as the exploration of texture, color and the injection of a touch of fantasy into a realistic sculpture is just candy for the eyes.
Attending to Your Back Sides
June 4, 2012 Inspirational Art
Let’s start this week with some thoughts about our back sides. (Ok … where did your mind go?!) The back of our art, especially in jewelry, can be too easily ignored or at least is treated with less consideration and attention to detail than the side we consider the front. But if you think about it, the person who owns that piece sees the back all the time. Wouldn’t you want your customers to be just as pleased or awed by what they see on the back as they are by the side that every one else sees? I think it’s such a missed opportunity to leave the back plain. How fun is it to know that the work of art around your neck or on your wrist is hiding a beautiful surprise on the back side.
This is why I so adore the work of Daniela D’Uva. She lives in Italy and works under the name Alkhymeia. All of her pieces have a carefully considered back side, some so detailed as to be more stunning than the front, making them readily reversible. (click on the photo to see the detail here.)
What do you do with your back sides?
Working on the Edge
May 29, 2012 Inspirational Art
Centering or working inside the edge or frame of a piece is a common approach for applying imagery and pattern. This will help to convey a feeling of calm and/or restraint. But what if you want something more dynamic?
Try working on or off the edge. It adds excitement and movement by bringing into question the boundary of the piece. In these lockets by the Philippines’ Jennifer Cruz, the artist situates her antique looking flower canes so they sit just at the edge or break off the surface’s boundaries. It gives you the feeling of something that continues on beyond the confines of the form, that the images you see are only part of a larger picture. This translate into a feeling that there is much more to the piece than what you are seeing. Touching or running off the edge creates tension (the good, exciting kind) and draws you to examine the teetering or incomplete imagery further.
You don’t actually have to stop at the edge though. Playing with the boundary of a form by continuing into the outside space can also make the work more dynamic. This Layered Fragment brooch by Kathleen Dustin is a wonderful example. The internal imagery itself doesn’t run off the edge but the line does as it is visually continued with the use of wire.
How often do you work with or beyond the boundary of your pieces?
Jennifer Cruz was also featured on the lead page of the “Polymer to the Rescue” article in the present Summer 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine. Go here to get your copy: www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html
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Here’s one last example for this week of these incredible illustrative image canes we are seeing these days. This one uses the more familiar and common imagery of flowers which so many cane makers are inspired by. However, the way Jayne Dwyer creates her flower here makes it look like a painting, with color variation and details that are not very common in polymer clay flower canes.
Jayne employees outlining, which we saw at work in Claire’s piece on Monday, but here it is quite a bit more dramatic with its black and white outlines. The soft gradation of color plays a contrast to the hard black-and-white delineation around the flower. It makes it really pop. She also created a painterly background for the flower within the cane itself. The streaks of color are varied but create radiating lines that give an energized, dimensional feel to the petals.
And then she has these spots of color that pop up within those gradations. It’s very detailed and interesting to look at closely and imagine all the decisions she made to come up with this image. I don’t suppose the decisions are much different than one would make when painting, but in polymer, each decision takes some serious confidence and dedication to the image since how it will look is not going to be wholly apparent until after reduction.
Take a close-up look for yourself at the image in this cane or go to a bigger image on Facebook. You can also see more of the work Jayne does on her website.
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I told you we will be doing a bit more floral but I bet you didn’t expect to have teeth. However, this floral piece does and yet it’s quite feminine and beautiful.
We can thank Ali of Warm Rain Art on Etsy for giving us this enchanting but slightly uncomfortable view of a floral necklace. The success of this piece is in large part because of the contrast between the light and calm pinks and lavender, and the very sharp teeth set dead center in them. It would still be a pretty piece if there was something else as the focal point, but I don’t think anything else would get quite the looks, comments, and double takes that those teeth will bring. You could take it as a reminder that nature has teeth, or that even the sweetest young lady can hold her own when needed. Or, probably more to the point, that beauty and danger are not mutually exclusive.
Floral work is not actually what Ali primarily creates. Animals, both realistic and fantastic, dominate her shop. Peek in on her very detailed and realistic looking work on Etsy and find her latest art on Instagram.
Read MoreI know I usually only do one week of a theme but we’re going to kind of continue with flowers and transition into other organic beauty this week. I’m just letting serendipity choose for us. And serendipity chose that we look at a few more unique floral items.
This wall sconce was created by Judith Ligon. This is one of her signature forms and, in my opinion, what she does best. She calls this heart-shaped wall vase a Posey pocket. The decoration on these works like a continuation of the vase’s content. The floral elements come down the front from the vase’s upper edge with lines and vine impressions creating an echoing backdrop to the stems and leaves that might be here. The placement of these decorative elements causes them to blend with the flowers and other natural contributions set in it. This way the vase and the flowers become one cohesive decorative object.
Judith sells her work through her website and shows off her latest pieces on Instagram.
Read MoreToday we’re going to look at some actual flowers. Well, petals at least. This design is by Janine Bjornson, a Canadian life coach who, apparently, is drawn to color and pattern much like many of us polymer artists. She decided to make ephemeral art the subject of her 100 Day Project on Instagram and this is just one of her many beautiful, natural, and temporary designs.
If you’re not familiar with ephemeral art, it is art created with the intention of it being transitory. Its temporary nature is usually due to either the materials being something that quickly breaks down or the construction being set up in a place where nature or man will quickly and inevitably bring it down. The art is created for the momentary enjoyment, contemplation, or appreciation of it, and, often, also for the experience the artist has in the process of creating it.
In my 100 Day Project, which has completely changed parameters (I do manage to create a texture every day but the writing and posting have been more challenging!), I knew I would be traveling and considered ephemeral art as an option for those days when working with clay was not going to be possible. Some days we are not in a place where we get to be creative with our chosen material but that doesn’t mean we can’t stop and create something beautiful with what we have on hand.
Janine uses natural materials including flower petals, branches, leaves, berries, feathers, and even water droplets. Pretty much anything she can find outdoors, it looks like. So her work allows her to connect with nature and bring us these beautiful images as well. But this begs the question, that if it is photographed, is it still ephemeral art since we’ve made it lasting in recording it? That is a purely philosophical question, and irrelevant to our enjoyment of these beautiful colors designs.
Although this is an obvious mandala, she doesn’t commonly create symmetrically but changes it up pretty dramatically every day. You can take a look at her beautiful temporal creations on her Instagram account.
Read MoreHave you seen what Jana Roberts Benzon has been up to lately? She has been creating these entrancing, super textural and rich pieces with layered petals and other highly dense collections of elements. They’re absolutely amazing.
This is the first piece I saw, jumping out at me from my Facebook one day last month, but there have been so many more posted since. It is a bit hard to describe why these are so alluring. I think, for one, you just really want to reach out and touch them and it’s a touch frustrating that you can’t, right? Secondly, for us artists, we look at this and can only imagine how much work must go into them. Or you might wonder what kind of trick she has up her sleeve to complete so many of these in what seems like a short period of time. The colors are deep and rich, matching the richness of the density of elements she puts together in these pieces.
I’m going to stop attempting to tell you about these and just have you jump over to her Facebook page to see what she’s been up to. It’s not like any of her work you’ve seen before and I, for one, am really excited to see where this is taking her.
Read MoreSpring is finally here in full force in Southern California. My daffodils have already bloomed and gone for some reason but suddenly everything else is jumping out and it is really hard to stay in the office when just outside my window so much is going on. So I will bring some of the flowers indoors this week by checking out some flower pieces here!
I came by this lovely set of nested trumpet-like flowers by Anna Nel on Instagram the other day and just had to stop and admire. I think it’s really the colors that make this image. I first thought this was a complete necklace and then realized it is two separate ones. My vote, however, is it that these be worn together. Green and purple are always a lovely combination and yellow and purple are opposites on the color wheel so collectively the three bright colors make a very vibrant and eye-catching color palette.
I couldn’t find much about Anna but you can go over to her Instagram account to see what she’s been up to. She looks to be in a rather exploratory phase of her polymer journey but definitely heading in an interesting direction.
Read MoreAfter all that blathering to you on Wednesday, I thought I’d keep it simple today. Let’s just enjoy some relatively minimal but beautiful canes to spark some ideas for your creative time this weekend.
Spain’s Pilar Rodríguez Domínguez creates lovely, dynamic flower petal canes. The soft but dense sets of radiating lines that dominate her designs help to create a sense of complexity with relatively few elements. I chose this one because you can see how much energy is created with the just these brushed-looking lines, three oval marks, and a vibrant burgundy red. You don’t need a lot of different stuff to create complexity and energy.
She works similarly in almost all her canes although more commonly with highly contrasting colors to create finely controlled finished flower canes. Enjoy a good eyeful of color and pattern in her Etsy shop, and on her Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr accounts.
Also, since you all couldn’t click-through to see the work of Cécile Bos last week, as she went on vacation and shuttered her shop right after I drafted the blog on her work, take this opportunity to click-through to her website now to see her delicately detailed pieces.
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