A Painterly Cane
June 1, 2018 Inspirational Art
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.
Biting Floral
May 16, 2018 Inspirational Art
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.
A Pocket Full
May 14, 2018 Inspirational Art
I 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.
Ephemeral Flowers
May 11, 2018 Inspirational Art
Today 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.
A Plethora of Petals
May 9, 2018 Inspirational Art
Have 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.
A Moment for the Flowers
May 7, 2018 Inspirational Art
Spring 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.
When Simple Is Complex
April 27, 2018 Inspirational Art
After 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.
Nature has such a wide variety of flower forms, and not just the nested petals we are so familiar with such as roses, peonies, daisies and the like. The forms, not to mention the colors of course, are incredible. Search “Unusual Flowers” on Pinterest or Google images and you will see some of the craziest shapes and textures in what are considered flowers. Some are stunning while others are kind of scary, and others still are just plain weird. But see if you find any that get your fingers itching to recreate them in polymer or have you scrambling through your clay to see if you can recreate the color combinations.
In the meantime, how about practicing some unusual flower shapes by creating wisteria flowers? These are a little oddly shaped for flowers, but their purple and pink colors are just so lovely, especially in the way they drip off the trees in delicate falls. Catherine Starkov shares her method for creating a fall of wisteria for a set of earrings in this easy tutorial (click here for the English translation). Have fun with this or whatever you find yourself creating or enjoying this weekend!
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I have to say up front that I am not a particularly floral kind of girl. I am far more likely to be found in the plumbing department than the gardening department at the local hardware store, but I still have a sincere appreciation for nature’s creative show during this time of year. Those of us in the northern hemisphere who are lucky enough to be in a climate that has benefited from some of the beautiful weather these past couple weeks are seeing the first of the spring flowers covering the hillsides and sprouting up alongside the country lanes. It makes one just ache to jump about and sing a few lines from “The Sound of Music” … doesn’t it? Okay, maybe that’s just me, but truly, the signs of spring are showing, and we can get excited about the prospects of warmer weather and colorful scenery or be bidding the summer’s bounty a fond farewell if we are south of the equator, so it seems about time that we honor nature’s most lovely creations.
If you will be participating in any upcoming spring shows, a good selection of floral motifs would certainly be welcome displays. I’ve picked out a lovely bunch to share this week. This first set is a bow to the rose and to floral abundance. Not only does Vera Veselova have lovely bunches of blossoms here to share with us, she has a tutorial for it as well! Click the image to get to it.
Now, what could you do with these rosy flowers? Well, I was thinking you could envelope the upper or half dome of a lentil shape, run blooms down the outside edge of a rectangular pendant or, for the truly ambitious, ring the center line of a vase or bowl. Abundance is itself a legitimate element of design. The key is to tone down or control the variety of other elements so the viewer is not overwhelmed. I mean go look at a freshly sprung field of wildflowers … we must admit that Mother Nature knows a thing or two about design!
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.
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Elegance is pretty, but not loud. It may shimmer, shine and glitter, but in a calm and quiet way. That is what I found so attractive about this piece by Susan Whitehouse-Evenson of Tres Jolie Designs by Sue. There are a lot of mica powders, glass beads and ribbons in her collections. And translucent clay that allows all that shimmer to bounce about without opaque materials or dense color.
The familiar pinched petal form shows off additional texture on its surface and an edging of gold to match the complexity of beads and ribbon; none of it is overdone. The soft colors also work with the restrained elegance of the design.
If you like this piece, you’ll find many more beautiful pieces of jewelry, as well as scarves and purses on Sue’s website and in her Etsy shop.
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.
Read MoreIn all of the comments and emails that I received regarding yesterday’s post, it seems as if we find nature’s masses of similar items most alluring.
Flowers are, of course, an obvious example. Nature packs them in bunches on bushes, in small explosions of colors in meadows and amassed across the canopy of trees in the spring.
So, I went looking for a polymer example, and there are plenty of them, but I particularly like this bracelet due to the likeness of the flowers in shape and size, with just a little change in color. I think this is more nature’s type of design versus the lovely, but very varied designs of the more ornate floral pieces we have seen so much of the last few years.
This was created by a Russian artist who lists her name as Valeria-Maslova in her Livemaster shop. She has a lot of lovely items in her shop, which include more masses of flowers, circles and colonies of shapes that will intrigue you. I am off to keep working on polishing up the next issue, and as you all suggest, I will head off in search of more of these designs to share with you.
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 featured some of Zuzana Liptáková‘s earrings constructed from folded polymer shapes last year. She keeps improving her designs with little extra touches. The little leaves, dot accents and color combination here, add to the overall design and give a dancing effect to her creations. She makes flowers with flat shapes by stacking them in detail patterns.
Take a look at her website and her Flickr pages for more views of her work.
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 MoreAsymmetrical composition is common in every artistic area so choosing just one for today’s outside inspiration was tough. This necklace has been on one of my Pinterest boards for a while though so this seemed like a great chance to share it.
Felted jewelry is becoming more common and the felters are getting quite creative. I like this example by Nadine of Dans Mon Corbillon, not because it’s the most creative but because of it’s intricacy and use of other materials including beads and what I think are feathers. It’s just so full of varied textures. The variation and asymmetrical arrangement could have looked a bit too chaotic but I think it comes across as rather celebratory instead, the way nature can get at the peak of the season when all the foilage and flowers are taking over. (and those of us in the Northern hemisphere are sure looking forward to that!)
You can look at more of Nadine’s gorgeous work on her Flickr site and her blog.
By the way, the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts came out today. If you are due a digital issue but it’s not in your inbox, look in your spam/junkmail folder as they can be sometimes be routed there. If you are waiting on a print issue, they were sent to the post office in Idaho on Wednesday to be processed so most people will be getting those next week or the week after if you are in the east or far south of the States or overseas. Due to cuts in postal services a few issues took over three weeks in the US and some places in Europe last time but be patient. They are on their way!
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 MoreFor most of us, there are patterns, colors, and textures enough throughout nature to keep us inspired for several lifetimes. But, within the forms we see in the natural world is a whole other realm of possible inspiration hidden within it.
Take flowers, for instance. They are beautiful and obviously quite inspirational as we find them presented out in nature. But there is more hidden within a flower. This image by microphotographer Ray Nelson is actually the base, or ovary, of a flower. Yes, its been enhanced using stain and special lighting, but the pattern and texture is all Mother Nature.
Mother Nature’s work can be stunning even when unenhanced. Here is the cross section of a bell flower ovary with beautiful soft colors and kaleidoscope patterning.
Isn’t it just fantastic that we can step outside our door and find hidden beauty in so many things? When you’re feeling uninspired, a walk outside is highly recommended for clearing the mind and recharging your batteries. And while you’re out there, you can look at cross sections of various plants, rocks or other natural work for new colors, patterns, and textures to help you fire up your creativity.
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Visual movement usually consists of some kind of directional lines. These lines don’t have to be straight. They don’t have to all be the same. They don’t even have to be repeated. But what they do need is to be emphasized in some manner that makes the viewer focus in on them.
Swirls as well as lines that meet at a point are very strong components for creating visual movement because they highlight a single point of focus where the swirl ends or the lines meet. In other words, the line draws your view, making your gaze ‘move’ across the piece to those single points. And your eyes will keep wanting to do that. This is where the sense of movement comes from. You can see both these in Keila Hernandez‘s beautiful Plum Blossom necklace.
In Keila’s flowers, the points of focus are in the middle where the lines of the caning bring us. These centered focal points give us reassuring positions of stability, but the swirls on the outside keep pulling the eye back out and actually create repeated points of tension where the paired swirls meet. It makes the flowers feel very lively.
Repetition is another way to increase the visual effect of lines suggesting movement. One flower would still give a sense of movement because of the lines used, but seeing this effect repeated across the necklace compounds it. Do you get a sense the flowers are almost swirling themselves?
If you are interested in the effect of line on the sense of movement, be sure to read last year’s Fall issue articles on Rhythm and Repetition.
Read MoreThe only thing we really didn’t hit this week while talking about sculpture is how it can be such a wonderful type of work for mixing media. Sure, adding props, embellishments, and clothing is pretty common with polymer figure sculpture, but it doesn’t have to end there. How about mixing two-dimensional art with three-dimensional objects?
Renata Jansen creates these ethereal figures that come across as both alive and yet painterly. In fact, she calls her work “3D paintings in clay”. In her piece “Ava” you see here, it is rather hard to tell where the sculpture ends and the painting (which is both on her body and on the background piece) begins.
The way the two mediums meld together is just beautiful. There’s not much more to say about it other than this just being another example of how well polymer can work with other mediums.
You can see multiple views of this piece and others on Renata’s website.
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